Eventually the sun rose, drawing our night of bliss to an end. It was time for both of us to rise and grind.
Weirdly, after our first night together, Cassandra seemed to be walking unsteadily, as if she had stomach pains or something. I offered to lend her a hand, but she refused. “I’m all right. In fact, I’m very happy.”
O…okay?
Well, whatever. I wrapped up my routine and left the hut to tend the fields before the sun fully rose, as I’d always done before leaving for Bulka.
In the time I was away from home, I thought the fields might have become overgrown, but that wasn’t the case. The bean field and potato field were both stripped of weeds and the soil was decently damp. Even the cornfield looked as if someone had come through and replanted it, and I hadn’t paid much attention to that one.
Weird. I expected to find the fields untended and half-neglected after Cassandra was living on her own in the hut, with only her to work them. Four fields were a lot for one person working by herself…but then, maybe she wasn’t.
Maybe Ossandra had helped. He was a smith, so he was pretty strong, and come on—it was pretty obvious he was into Cassandra. It wouldn’t be so strange for him to come by and help out with our crops before heading to work at the smithy.
Ugh, that shaggy-haired fink was probably trying to score some points.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Ossandra had given me all sorts of information about Cassandra. I knew almost nothing about her before he told me—it was his suggestion that I bring back apple cider vinegar, since she never had enough on hand. Stuff like that. Then I remembered how he asked me to let him take care of Cassandra while I was gone, and felt a little…gross.
“I’m so stupid. He must have done all this field work!” I growled. I tried to channel that anger into something productive, though, and loaded buckets of water onto the yoke. Look at me, dutifully watering the fields, looking like Ossandra’s obedient little fool.
It was fine, it was fine. Cassandra would be happy that the fields were in such good condition, so I should be happy that she was happy.
“Hey there, Shooter. Look at you, comin’ back from the city and getting’ right back at it! Good on ya!”
“Ha! Wak’wakgoro! How’ve you been?”
I could make out the figure of Wak’wakgoro, followed by a few goblins who appeared to be some kind of underlings. I hadn’t seen Wak’wakgoro since getting back. Maybe it was because Wak’wakgoro was now the leader of the hunters, but he looked all polished from his buttons to his boots. The young goblins hanging behind him were carrying yokes with water buckets on their shoulders just like me.
“What are you doing out here, Wak’wakgoro? You’re not a farmer.”
“Oh, you know. You were gone so long, I had to get my idiot brothers to help out with your fields.”
“Hey.”
“’Sup.”
“Howzit.”
Three almost identical goblins dipped their heads toward me in an offhanded greeting.
“You louts! You aren’t gonna show Shooter the proper respect and bow?”
I was afraid I might break out laughing to hear Wak’wakgoro demand that his brothers show me such respect.
“C’mon, it’s no big deal,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. They were supposed to start apprenticing as hunters next year, maybe the year after that. But with all those hunters dying, we’re shorthanded all over the place. So I took the liberty of acceleratin’ their apprenticeship.”
“Ah, I’m sorry to report I only managed to bring one hunter back with me.”
“No helpin’ that. Not even locals want to become hunters, y’know?”
Yeah, I knew. The thought reminded me of Nishka’s obsession with the woods around Apegut Forest. She was a real outlier.
Anyway, with their brother swatting them, the three goblins bowed their heads and grudgingly apologized to me.
“So you all were the ones weeding and watering my fields while I was gone? Glad to hear it. Heh, next time I’ll bring you back a nice girl from town. City chicks love goblins.”
I was just trying to be nice, but Wak’wakgoro’s three younger brothers cried out in unison, “You mean it?!”
Wak’wakgoro gave them another light smack and a sense of relief washed over me. It was good to be home.
“By the way,” said Wak’wakgoro, a little more quietly, “have you run into Ossandra yet?”
“No, I haven’t seen him. I brought something back from the city for him, too. I was hoping we’d run into each other.”
“Ah. Hm. Well, I think you’d do better to avoid him for a little while. I guess Gimul didn’t tell you yet.”
“Tell me what?”
Wak’wakgoro sent his brothers out into the fields to take over for me. He fiddled with his fancy coat, stood up straighter, and edged closer to me. “While you were gone, Ossandra kept coming over to talk to Cassandra, see. I tried warning him off whenever I saw him headed here, but I didn’t think that—well, no one really thought that…” Wak’wakgoro sighed. “All right, here it is: Gimul said that when he came over to deliver your letter, he found Ossandra trying to force himself on Cassandra.”
“He what?!”
“I know. The village chief forbade him from being anywhere near Cassandra for a while, at the very least.”
And I’d bought that bastard a souvenir. The fact that I spent money on him disgusted me. “That happened? He really tried to…?”
Intellectually, I knew that the guy was obsessed with her, but I was shocked to find out he actually acted on it. Sure, if there were a girl I’d been close to my whole life—someone like a little sister to me—and some total stranger showed up and took her away from me, I’d want to get her back too. But this was different. This was fucked up.
Maybe in another world, Ossandra wouldn’t have twisted himself into something like this. Maybe in that world he would’ve been with Cassandra instead of me, would’ve slept with her, even. But we didn’t live in that world, and…and I was glad for it.
Because I was starting to love my wife.