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kaesaaurelia · 4 years ago

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fine quality copper ingots

For @whumptober2020 day 29: I Think I Need A Doctor (specifically "reluctant bedrest")

Continues on from day four, wherein Aziraphale met up with a distraught coworker, waited for Crawly at the base of the Tower of Babel, and then it fell on him, day five, wherein Aziraphale did his best to help the citizens of Babylon, and was caught by demons for his trouble, day eight, wherein Aziraphale found brief and unexpected camaraderie among the prisoners of Hell, day eleven, wherein Hell tried to make a deal with Aziraphale, day twelve, wherein Crawly finally stops by, and doesn’t help, day fourteen, wherein Hell subjects Aziraphale to a very unpleasant experience, which is admittedly kind of Hell’s brand, day twenty-four, wherein all the lights go out and Crawly someone springs Aziraphale and guides him through the tunnels of Hell, and day twenty-seven, wherein there’s an earthquake and the tunnels of Hell collapse in on both of them.

This is the end of the Tower of Babel fic! I’ll be posting this to AO3 at some point, probably this weekend.

Aziraphale/f!Crawly, with a little post-canon Aziraphale/Crowley bit at the end as well. Mild respiratory distress and wing wounds discussed, but nothing gory; this installment is mostly hurt/comfort.

It took them a while to reach the top of the stairs, and Crawly had been hurt badly by the cave-in, but the growing window of light and sky above buoyed Aziraphale's spirits enormously, and he thought Crawly felt similarly, although she was having such a difficult time that Aziraphale ended up tsking to himself and carrying her.

Crawly was indignant, at first. "Angel, don't be ridiculouss --" she started, before she had another coughing fit; Aziraphale decided that was permission enough to be ridiculous, and Crawly raised no more objections.

When they emerged into the light, it was into the city of Babylon once more, and things were much calmer than they had been before. All the light gave Aziraphale a bit of a headache, and also, he had to put Crawly down or they were going to get very strange looks.

They made their way to an inn, and got the attention of the proprietor. "Don't think she speaks any of our languages, angel," said Crawly, hoarsely.

"Have you got a room?" Aziraphale asked her, loudly and slowly, and she rolled her eyes at him and said something incomprehensible. She seemed to be asking a question, and she pointed at both Aziraphale and Crawly in turn. She held up two fingers, and looked inquiringly at the two of them, and then mimed sleeping.

"Two, yes. Two beds," said Aziraphale, because he really needed a rest, and she presented them with two keys. "No, no," he said, "only one room. One!" he said, holding up one finger. "But two --" he held up two fingers, and mimed sleeping again. "Two beds."

"Ah!" said the proprietor, and took back one of the keys.

"But has this one got two beds?" Aziraphale asked, gesturing again, and she assured them in gestures, yes, go to the room.

So Aziraphale tried to take the key, but she tugged it back, and demanded payment -- the procedure for this was that Aziraphale laid out coins on the table, hoping at some point she would agree that it was enough coins, and she watched, and then, eventually, Crowley hissed, "She's cheating you, angel," grabbed the key quicker than the innkeeper could take it back, and pulled him off to go to the room. (Then she'd had another coughing fit on the stairs up, poor thing.)

This was how they ended up with one room with one bed. It was not ideal, but in fairness, Aziraphale supposed he should have expected this.

"Was I not clear enough with her, do you think?" he asked, frowning down at the bed.

"It'ss fine, you were fine," said Crawly, still winded. Technically she didn't have to breathe at all, but she did need it to speak, and also, once you were in the habit of breathing, not doing it was very uncomfortable.

"You should lie down," said Aziraphale, "you sound dreadful. Is it all just stuff in your lungs, or did you break something?"

"I don't know, and I don't --" She began coughing again, and reluctantly sat down on the bed. "Ow," she said, miserably, once the coughing fit was over. "Fuck. Could you get... sstuff out of my lungss and I'll -- angel what the fuck," she said.

Aziraphale had got out his wings, so that he could finally heal them, and he'd been ready for the pain, but he'd forgot how bad they would look, especially ignored for however many days he'd been trapped in Hell. "Got caught in the tower collapse," he said. "I suppose... I suppose that didn't have anything to do with you after all."

"No!" she said, and began coughing again. Aziraphale dragged the dust out of her lungs with a miracle, and she was able to breathe more freely, although she still winced whenever she moved. "Thanksss. Let me ssee your wingss, they're awful, I'm sso sorry you had to -- Satan, did the whole tower collapse on you specifically or what?"

"It sort of leaned over and fell, and I didn't get out of the way in time," said Aziraphale, unhappily. He sat, and winced as Crawly ran her long fingers gently over the wounds, treating them with stinging healing miracles.

"So you didn't have anything to do with it either?" Crawly asked.

"Me? Why would I --"

"Heaven did it, ssomehow," said Crawly. "Didn't they?"

"Well, they didn't send me to do it," said Aziraphale. "I'd have told you! And not been standing under the tower waiting for you." He winced and tried to stay still as Crawly set one of the bones in his wing. "How did your meeting with the copper merchant go, anyway?"

"Horribly," said Crawly. "Basstard tried to cheat me. I mean, I knew he was going to do that, I'd sussed him out as a good target for being tempted to greed early on, but that wasn't what I was there for," she said. "Actually, if it'd gone well maybe the tower could've stayed up a little longer."

"Oh?" said Aziraphale. "Crawly! Were you trying to save Babylon from this awful disaster?" He was very touched. "I mean, it was going against God's will, that's properly demonic, I suppose, but --"

"I wasn't trying to ssave anybody," Crawly insisted. "Have you talked to the people who live around the tower? I mean, not now, can't talk to them now, they won't understand you -- but before, I mean. Did you get a chance to talk to any of them about it? There, I think that'ss the last break, try the left one," she said, tapping his left wing.

Aziraphale spread the wing experimentally, flapped it, folded and unfolded it, and it felt sore, but otherwise fine. "Yes, I think you got them all. Thank you, my dear," he said, and he realized as her hands paused in running over his right wing, what he'd called her. "Very kind of you," he said, quickly, to distract her.

"I'm not --"

"And no, I hadn't talked to any of the people who lived nearby. What would they have said?" he asked Crawly. He winced as she fixed another break.

"Well, they didn't like it at all," she said. "Ruined all their views, didn't it? Gave them shade when they didn't always want it. You have a nice little second floor apartment in the middle of the city, and then suddenly this great bloody tower springs up like a -- like a -- well, it’s awkwardly phallic, only instead of just being not what you want to see, it takes up your entire front room window and makes it too dark to do anything indoors. They were so angry about it," said Crawly, sounding very pleased with this. "Try the right wing now?" she suggested.

Aziraphale tested his other wing. "Much better, thank you," he said, and he was a little surprised that she pulled his wing back towards her. "What are you doing?"

"Well, they look awful, don't they? All clotted blood and messy feathers everywhere, I'm embarrassed to be seen with you, frankly," said Crawly. "I'll have to neaten them up."

It felt... good, having someone else run their fingers through his feathers. Aziraphale tried not to think about it; it needed doing, and she had offered. "All right," he said.

"Right!" she said, starting in on his wings. "Anyway, I thought, well that's a good source of misery, that is. And maybe other people will try and build bigger ones, and land will start getting horribly expensive because there's a big tower craze and you can fit more shops and tenants into a tower than you can into a regular building. Only... what if lightning strikes the damn thing? Then it just burns and maybe kills the people at the top, and the tower's not appealing at all and everything goes back to normal."

"Mm," said Aziraphale, who was having a bit of trouble paying attention, because he hadn't quite realized what a terrible state his wings were in until she'd started cleaning them up, and goodness, that did feel good, didn't it? "Sorry, what does the copper have to do with any of this?"

"Well, I had an idea about redirecting the lightning," she said.

"Towards... people you don't like?" Aziraphale asked.

"No, no! Just, to the ground. That'd make towers safe. Or, safer, really. And then more of them would be built and they'd cause everyone misery as everybody tried to build bigger and bigger buildings and eventually they'd all run out of money and stone and wood and they'd be stuck with their big stupid buildings, all hating each other."

"Do you really think so?" Aziraphale asked. "I thought it looked quite nice."

"Well, sure, that one did, but once they start being the thing to build there'll be imitators and some of them will be substandard and everybody knows the sequel's never as good as the first one." Crawly sounded so pleased with herself that Aziraphale felt bad contradicting her by reminding her that there would have been even nicer towers built, once human architects really got used to working with the medium. It didn't matter; it was against the Will of God, so it wasn't going to happen, anyway.

Aziraphale decided, also, that he'd better neaten up his own wings, because that felt -- maybe -- too good? Yes. Best not to make any sort of mistakes. He didn't want to end up in Nisroc's shoes. "Well!" he said, folding his wing in front of him, and standing up to walk away from the bed. "I think I can take care of the rest of this, Crawly, thank you for healing me. I think you ought to rest up, though, you've been through so much."

"But --" She looked very disappointed.

"I'll stay here with you if you like," said Aziraphale. "We haven't even had that lunch yet, have we? Why don't we do that tomorrow?" he suggested.

"We don't have to -- if you don't want --" She looked embarrassed, for some reason.

"Crawly, you did save me from Hell, I do think I owe you lunch, at the very least, and, well, I know you like sleep, and I think you need rest. I had to carry you up those stairs!"

"Didn't have to," she muttered. "But... oh, fine," she said, rolling her eyes. "If it makes you happy." So she lay down and closed her eyes, and if Aziraphale ended up settling in next to her, one newly-preened wing laying over her, that was his own business. And if Crawly ended up deciding she was too comfortable to move and going back to sleep for another few days, well... nobody had to know.

Aziraphale felt that he really ought to stay in town and see that Babylon recovered adequately, and Crawly had decided a city where nobody could understand each other was optimal for her wiles, and so, a few weeks later, they both still happened to be in town, by coincidence, and had met up for lunch, also by coincidence, nearly every day.

"One thing I would like to know, Crawly," said Aziraphale, over a very strong drink that he didn't think was quite what he'd meant to order. It was very good, at least. "What was that awful drawing of Satan you were terrorizing me with?"

"He was remaking a fallen angel," said Crawly, as if this much was obvious.

"Ah. So you were telling me I was going to be 'remade,' said Aziraphale.

"What? No! I was telling you you had to wait until he was busy with all of that," said Crawly, pouring herself another glass of the mysterious drink. "Because of the blackouts. They had some really powerful, you know, big names in Heaven, I guess, and I knew the lights would be out for a good long time."

"Ah," said Aziraphale. "That's -- that's not how I interpreted it." He felt a bit sheepish now. "You could've been more clear, though."

"I'm not a very good artist, cut me some slack, Aziraphale," she said.

"Did you know the earthquake was coming?" Aziraphale asked.

Crawly shook her head. "Knew there'd be something like that, but I wasn't thinking earthquake. With the stronger ones, anyway, when their powers come back they sort of... echo. It's hard to explain. Usually not earthquakes, though."

"Did you have to go through all of that?" Aziraphale asked.

"Everyone had to go through all of that, angel," said Crawly. He must have looked appalled, because she went on, reassuringly. "And then you get your new name, and then you're done, and it's fine."

Nisroc had mentioned this, but it hadn't really stuck in Aziraphale's mind. "Did -- I'm sorry, did Satan name you Crawly?" he asked.

"I didn’t have much input," Crawly said, and then downed the rest of her cup. "It's fine. I'm used to it by now."

"I don't know why I expected anything better out of Satan," Aziraphale admitted.

"Could be worse. At least I don't have to work for Heaven anymore," said Crawly, and grinned at Aziraphale's sour look. "Definitely worth it."

"Well. I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree," said Aziraphale.

Several millennia later, Aziraphale remembered a question he'd been meaning to ask Crowley for a while. It was a lovely morning -- it had been a very lovely evening -- except that the news on the telly today was all about some people who were very angry about a new, very expensive tall building going up in front of their own, extant, very expensive tall building. It was not the first time he'd heard about something like this, and it would probably not be the last, but when Crowley came up behind him and buried his face in one of Aziraphale's wings while wrapping his hands around Aziraphale's chest, it was the first time he had the opportunity to ask the question just as it occurred to him.

"Dearest," said Aziraphale, waiting for Crowley to be done with this. He did get very silly about Aziraphale's wings sometimes, which was very flattering and quite delightful in the bedroom, but also it was sort of inconvenient the morning after, when Aziraphale wanted to sit down for a while, or go for another cup of tea.

"Mmh?" Crowley asked. He unburied his face and kissed Aziraphale on the cheek. "Yes, angel?"

"Did you --" Aziraphale gestured with his mug of tea towards the television, where the announcer was gravely explaining that the views outside of some very rich people's windows were going to change, and that this upset them greatly. "Was that you?"

"No, they did that on their own, I'm afraid," said Crowley. He tsked to himself. "The Americans got all the credit for skyscrapers. And the lighting rod! World's not fair, angel. I suppose it's what I get for making all those claims about starting wars and whatnot in my reports Downstairs."

"Well, I'll always know you were ahead of your time," said Aziraphale. He turned to give Crowley a quick kiss, but it lingered, and he shivered as Crowley ran his fingers along the edges of his primary feathers, with the lightest, most delicate touch. Eventually, reluctantly, he pulled away, and smiled at Crowley's surprised look. "I thought I wanted another cup of tea," said Aziraphale, putting his nearly-empty mug down on the coffee table, "but I think that can wait." He kissed Crowley again, and this time, pushed him back towards the bedroom.

#whumptober2020 #no.29 #i think i need a doctor #reluctant bedrest #good omens #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #ineffable husbands #fiction #text #kaesa op

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ginnyzero · 4 years ago

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Completely Harmless Ch. 55

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Fifty-Five The Light Ride

Linda told them that for the Light Ride it was traditional to dress in Jorvigian folk outfits. So, they giggled as they pulled out their dresses from the Midsummer Beach Party and put them on. Helping each other put up their hair in the more old fashioned styles they’d learned at Silverglade Style. Then they chose flower wreathes or beaded headbands. No ear headbands for the Light Ride! It was too important.

Linda bullied Alex into traditional dress too.

Lily complimented Alex on the red rose wreath on her long brunette hair.

Alex flushed. “Justin made it for me. He’s sweet, silly, but sweet.”

“Awww,” the girls said.

Linda had taken her bun out and instead had braids wrapped around her head. She had a wreath of lilacs plucked from the trees at the manor that morning. Starshine followed Meteor as they travelled to Cape West. He seemed happy to join them even if he didn’t have a rider.

When they arrived, Cape West stables was full of people, the different riding clubs in their own traditional Jorvegian dresses or their uniforms. The Jorvik Rangers had come too. Plus, there were plenty of tourists on horses and ready to go.

Herman stood on a rock in front of the Cape West Stables. He cleared his throat and raised his hands for silence. “Thank you Carin for hosting the Light Ride here again at Cape West Stables, and thanks again to the Jorvik Rangers for being here to make sure things go smoothly tonight and that everyone may be safe.”

He looked around trying to meet all of their eyes. “Perhaps, you’ve heard the stories of Aideen and how her light brought life to the dark cold rock that was Jorvik. It is said that she first landed near these very shores, light shining from her, her harp at her breast and in her right hand a candle. And as she rode across the rough seas, the waters calmed. Here at Cape West the hooves of her horse first touched the land. When she got to the middle of the island and placed the candle, what was cold and dark bloomed with warmth and light.”

Herman smiled at them all. “Her greatest gift was more than life, it was the bond that riders have with their horses. The love that horse and rider share together unlike any other in the natural world. More than mortal understanding between species, but two souls coming together in perfect harmony. Horses that are said to be the soul of Jorvik. There are those among us and the rest of the world may believe us silly that this bond in all in our head.” He placed a hand on his heart. “But we know that it is real. We have felt it in our hearts.”

“It is said,” his eyes fell on Lily, “that in the darkest times and when all is despair, a girl on a horse will return and bring light and hope when all was thought lost.”

He held up a hand. “Today, we celebrate the girl, Aideen. Whether or not you believe in the legends, the old tales, the myths of Aideen. You may feel the age and sacredness of this path. We ride and reflect upon Aideen’s Gift and what it has meant to us. Her bond gives us strength. Her light gives us hope. That is Aideen’s Legacy. What will you do with it? Leave only hoof prints. Listen for her whispers. She may be calling for you.”

His eyes filled with tears. “I have not seen so many to take the ride in years. My heart beats strong and true and filled with hope. Best of luck, girls.” Herman jumped down from the rock.

The riders started up the path, the Jorvik Rangers in the lead. “Do you think trucks can form bonds with their drivers?” One asked the other idly.

The other ranger deigned not to answer.

Lily overheard Loretta say that she didn’t believe such nonsense but riders who did the light ride were twice as likely to succeed at the Claymore Challenge. Lily rolled her eyes. One of the Bulldogz told another about the UFO above the winery.

Linda gave Lily a long look, but didn’t say anything.

Starshine paused by Herman to nuzzle his belly.

Herman laughed and chided him. “Enough of that.”

Starshine tossed his mane.

They crossed a ford by the stable to the nearby mountains and went up a path called Aideen’s Ascent. The rocks by the side of the path had glowing glyphs and primitive pictures carved into them of horses. They glowed an eerie magenta.

Alex leaned back in her saddle and broke the silence bubble around their group. “What are we supposed to say after Herman’s big speech?”

The girls laughed.

Alex waved her hand. “He usually doesn’t go so far into depth.”

“Well, we could talk about the bonds to our horses,” Linda said.

Alex patted Tin Can’s neck. “You know I love you, you big lug, fussy feet and all.”

Tin Can huffed a little and turned his head to nuzzle her knee.

“Did you choose Meteor,” Lily asked. “Or did Meteor choose you?”

“He definitely chose me,” Linda said.

“It’s almost paranormal. Or well, Linda is, I’m just weird,” Alex confided.

“Normal,” Regina said, “is just a setting in a video game.”

“On the dryer,” said one of the others.

“I haven’t seen normal on a dryer setting in ages,” another girl said.

“Conclusion,” Tyra grinned. “There’s no such thing as normal.”

The trail turned sharply upwards.

Linda glanced at Lily. “You.”

“Hmm,” Lily looked at her.

“Your bond with your horse. Did you choose it? Or did it choose you?”

“I don’t think it was as obvious as James and Fussywithers,” Lily half smiled.

“Justin has a really strong bond with Saga,” Alex said looking up at the trees. She reached up to touch one of the clusters of golden chain flowers.

Lily and Linda shared a smile and a headshake.

Tin Can’s hooves changed tone as he stepped up onto a large stone plaza in the shape of a circle on a ridge overlooking the sea. It too glowed with magenta light.

“Is it safe?” Lily leaned over towards Linda.

Linda laughed. “It is.”

“It’s traditional to stop here and feed the horses some Jorvik Clover. It helps them stay alert for the ride to come.” Alex dismounted and patted Tin Can’s nose.

“This is the clover Brogan wanted,” Lily observed. She swung off and they all gathered a handful of it for their horses. “Though, I’m not sure I want to know why.”

The horses were happy enough to have a treat.

“Meteor! One bite!” Linda scolded him.

“Look a five leaf clover!” Alex held it up.

Tin Can snatched it out of her fingers.

“Hey!”

They laughed, mounted again and headed back up the trail. The trail went up and over the side of the mountain on a pass called Spyglass Saddle. The trail took a sharp turn downwards in what was accurately called the drop. There were more rocks along the path and trees stretched their limbs outwards and upwards. Yellow flowers bloomed everywhere.

It was like a little valley in the side of the mountain, because soon they were headed back up again. Or, they were headed up a different mountain. Lily wasn’t entirely sure of the topography. The path led under the huge bridge that went to Castle Marchenghast on the Old King’s Road.

Ahead of them was a gorge of stone, the path continued, dotted with mushrooms and ferns.

“The next part, we have to do alone. This is Aideen’s Whisper,” Linda said. “It’s tradition for pilgrims on the Light Ride to go through it by themselves in hopes of hearing Aideen’s words.”

“Has anyone ever heard anything?” Tyra asked.

Brittany bit her lip. “That sounds rather private.”

Linda nudged her glasses up. “After the last Light Ride, I had weird dreams.”

“Yeah.” Alex rolled her eyes. “But that is sort of your thing, Linda. Weird dreams.”

“I thought it might be the goddess trying to talk to me that way.” Linda shrugged.

“Ironic if Jorvik’s most well known magic trick is just a joke,” Alex said.

“Maybe it’s simply a ‘not yet,’ Alex,” Lily said.

Alex blinked. “Huh?”

“The answer wasn’t yes or no that she was going to talk to you, it was simply, not yet.”

Alex tilted her head. “There may be some sense in that,” she said. “Come on Tin Can. I’m going in.”

Tin Can rolled his eyes and trotted off into the gorge.

Lily and Linda let the other girls go through ahead of them one by one.

Linda chewed her lip.

“Something you want to tell me?” Lily asked as Stacey went into the gorge.

Linda shook her head. “You go on ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

Lily nodded. She nudged her horse and he trotted into the gorge. It was just a gorge, tall rock walls that blocked the sky except for straight overhead. Ferns and ivy and moss grew in the places where water collected. Mushrooms clung to rotting sticks and debris. Up ahead, she could see the castle on top of its own cliff on the edge of the mountain.

“They either have really amazing cellars, or the deepest, blackest oubliette,” she said to her stallion.

He whinnied in laughter.

The light faded around her and everything went dark.

Lily reined her horse to a halt.

Lights turned on ahead of them, torches, torches of pink fire.

Lily looked down to make sure her horse was okay. She blinked. Instead of his normal pale cremello gold coat, he now had a coat of white metallic gold. His mane ruddy pink gold reflecting the flames of the pink fires instead of being red. He turned his head and a white crystalline horn broke the light turning it into rainbows. A beard curled off his chin.

Rose gold wings brushed against her side.

“Is this how you really look?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.

Lily leaned over to check his feet just in case. Tin Can in the Dale had cloven hooves. So, did her stallion. “You’re a kirin.”

“Am not,” he huffed and tossed his long flowing mane.

Lily straightened. The floor looked black, black, black. She didn’t know if she trusted it or not. “No wonder Tin Can’s hooves are so fussy.” Her gut twisted as she tried to make light of the situation. She looked over her shoulder. “Whatever happened to talking? I will take ghost whispers in my ear over this.”

Black, black, and more black stretched behind her. There was no going back.

Forward had the benefit of light.

He stepped forward without her urging.

“Just keep riding, just keep riding,” Lily murmured. She rummaged in her saddlebag for the sun fragment. Her fingers closed around it and it warmed her hand. Her heart rose in her chest like a helium balloon. Even if the torches went out, she had light to guide her.

A ghost appeared, a pale figment, but colored. Elizabeth Sunbeam radiated light. “How can she be the one? I would know if she was the one. We have to be certain.”

Another lighted pale ghostly figure appeared, smaller this time, a blue squirrel with a white belly with a pink rune in the middle.

“Care bears?” Lily urged her stallion to a stop. “But Care Squirrel.”

“Someone activated all four rune stones in the circle,” the squirrel squeaked. “We must find out who it is, she could be the one.”

The blue squirrel faded away.

“And they talk,” Lily murmured. She urged her stallion on.

He pressed his wings closer to his body and her legs. “I don’t like this, I don’t like it at all.”

Another figure swirled into being, one she’d only seen in pictures, Mr. Sands. His trench coat wrapped tightly around his stick thin frame. “There are stirrings in the pandoric energy,” he said. “Could it be that she wasn’t so useless after all?” He turned and walked away fading from sight.

Lily kept going. Her heart thudded in her chest, aching and heavy. She didn’t like the sound of that.

Evergray, a glowing apparition flared to life and her stallion halted. “She is special. How can they not see it? Why have they blinded themselves to the truth? Or have they grown too fearful given the past?”

There were no more torches. They snuffed out behind her one by one as if a giant hand clamped over them. Huff. Huff. Huff.

A ghost appeared in front of them now, this one definitely a ghost rather than an apparition of a person. Lily’s and her stallion’s breath turned to fog as they breathed out. Coldness swamped them.

Goosebumps formed on her skin. Lily recognized her. A picture in Thomas’ office, a little older, a little sadder, but still her. “Catherine,” she said softly.

“Hello, Lily,” Catherine smiled at her. Her eyes turned to the horse. “Nimbus.”

Nimbus lowered his head.

“Why are you here?” Lily asked gently. “You should be resting.”

“I was one of the Keepers of Aideen. They thought I was Aideen reborn.”

Elizabeth’s words in her ears. ‘They weren’t supposed to die! Then she died! I’m the only one left.’

“But were you?” Lily asked.

Catherine smiled at her.

“Elizabeth fancied herself the leader, the Defender of Jorvik, but what were you, the Star Rider, the Lightning Rider? Her heart or her justice?”

Catherine continued to smile.

“You were her heart,” Lily tilted her head. “Justin must get his black hair from Mr. Sands.” Lily sighed. “This is the part where you talk in riddles isn’t it.”

“You must show them the way,” Catherine reached up towards her. “Two souls as one. Your love is strong. You must not let it be your undoing.”

Lily didn’t say anything. She wasn’t going to give the shade the satisfaction.

“You’re not alone. The power lays within you. Find me, and you shall know the truth.”

Lily couldn’t let that pass. She leaned down until she was eye level with the shade of Catherine. “The truth is I don’t care,” she said each word biting them out. She flicked her fingers.

Catherine disappeared.

It went completely dark. But before Lily could reach for the Sun Fragment, the darkness faded.

She was on the other side of the gorge.

Linda sat on Meteor’s back. She gaped at her. “Lily, how did you end up behind me? That’s impossible!”

“This is Jorvik and you’re saying things are impossible.”

“I didn’t see you at all.”

Lily raised a brow.

Linda lowered her voice. “Did you see her?”

Lily had her own question. “Did you see something before the ride?”

Linda flushed.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because it didn’t make sense,” Linda shoved her glasses up her nose. “Listen for the echo.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t get any meaning out of it.”

“Echo of what, the past?” Lily said. “You have said that this isn’t the first time you’ve gone up against Mr. Sands. And Elizabeth was part of her own Soul Rider circle years ago and they perished.”

“You don’t have to tell me what you saw.”

“When you eavesdrop, you hear things about you, you don’t want to know,” Lily said and shifted in her saddle. “I need to think about it. It was cliché and trite and,” Lily looked away and pursed her lips, “contradictory.” She nudged Nimbus in the side. The horse obligingly headed up the hill.

Linda chewed her cheek and urged Meteor to follow her.

“Welcome, to the Flame of Jor!” Alex said holding out her arms and gesturing at all the girls sitting around a bonfire.

“Glad you didn’t try to talk it up.” Lily grinned.

“It was tempting,” Alex said with a grin. “You two were taking so long we were getting worried that one of you actually saw something.”

Lily raised a brow. “Maybe.”

Alex crossed her arms. “Maybe?”

“Maybe I really like gorges,” Lily said smooth as a cucumber.

Alex groaned.

A horse pounded up the hill, Mrs. Holdsworth, the old woman who lived at Moorland. “Alex, Linda! Justin’s been kidnapped.”

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

#star stable #sso #star stable online #fan fic #jorvik reimagined #star stable salt #completely harmless #the light ride #justin KIDNAPPED #finally?#i didn't forget #maximum impact #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside

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ginnyzero · 4 years ago

Text

Completely Harmless Ch. 27

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

WOW, somehow not in queue properly. Oops.

Chapter Twenty-Seven Planning Rainbow Week Pt. 2

“Okay, Ingrid,” Lily moved on hurriedly. “Plans for Firgrove.”

“Andy is opening up his petting zoo at the sandpit. We have the Red String Ride. So, we’ve decided to use the Friendship Knot as our charm. We have a big field area with a hill. Perhaps, Mr. Wetton could set up his talent scouting show there? We can put out extra balloons and create a backdrop if necessary.”

Lily nodded. “Okay, I think that’s the best. People are going to want to come and see the new talent and I don’t know, we can advertise it as a picnic thing? Maybe have the fireworks and those paper lanterns nearby?”

Everyone agreed that sounded like a good plan.

Violet picked off where Ingrid left off. “We’re also opening the flea market in the village. We’re going to show them how to make big friendship knots. Big enough for wall art out of silky ropes. And Ma Anna’s doing an Italian Rainbow cookie, it looks more like a layered cake with chocolate to me. Andy’s grandmother is doing a rainbow pancake cake. So, that should be delicious. Actually, she’s doing two, one with a heart in the middle and one plain rainbow.” Violet shrugged.

Pia looked panicked. “Are we doing treats? Our cafe relies on Harold for treats.”

“Oh, I’m sure we can have him do something with what he’s got going already,” Kate jumped in to reassure her.

“As long as it’s not cardamom,” Pia shuddered.

“Got it,” Kate said. “I mean, he’s doing these freeze and bake things. There has to be a different way to do it. I’ll get right on him.”

Pia relaxed. “All right. Sorry Lily, moving on.”

Pauline nudged Lily, “better plan something for Moorland too,” she muttered.

Lily glowered at her. Pauline made a note.

They turned to Melissa.

Melissa made a face. “One, our waterfall is still green.”

“It’s your club color, pretend it’s deliberate for now,” Lily said.

Melissa grimaced. “Can you get the Baroness to come out and look?”

“We need to find the Count or Countess,” Riley huffed. “You can’t have a county without them!”

There were some scoffs around the table.

“We can’t make them care,” Lily said.

“If we can get enough attention out here that’s positive, they’ll start paying attention and be horrified that their area isn’t in tip top shape,” Amelia said.

“Or not,” Ingrid grimaced. “If we can get attention without their help, why would they need to do anything?”

“Okay, what do you want to do?” Lily asked.

“We have a lot of roses, so we were going to make rose crowns for our craft. We’ve got yellow.”

“Oh good, because we don’t,” Lily mumbled.

Brooke spoke up. “It’s tied into our treat, our baker is going to do funfetti cupcakes and pipe rainbow roses on them, like individual petals. She’s nuts!” She lifted her hands up in the air.

“We’re using the crossed arrows and a star for a charm,” Melissa said. “And we thought about doing a special orienteering race or trail in the forest. We’re decorating the lake trail and are going to advertise it as a ‘love trail.’ It would be better in a boat, but we’ve got what we’ve got. We have beach picnic areas if that helps at all.”

“We had that thought too about orienteering,” Sonja said. “Granted, Mistfall is very little but riding trails being it’s a designated Jorvik National Park.”

“I think some folk music would go over nicely, if there is any to be found.” Melissa shrugged. “Druids.”

Lily twisted to look at Luciana, “Okay, Dundull, what are your plans?”

“We are so far out of the way,” Sonja murmured.

“Get a ferry going to Dundull,” Lily murmured and added it to the list. This list was getting strange and very political.

“And New Hillcrest,” Ginny added. “I think that is a big part of our problem, it’s difficult to get to us.”

“Kit has her Cuddle Cottage, where you can come and cuddle the animals. She keeps foxes.”

“Because fox babies are called kits,” Lily murmured.

“You are the weirdest trove of information,” Pauline wrinkled her nose.

“Okay, I like crime procedurals and cozy mystery novels, is that a crime?”

“Nooo,” Pauline leaned away from her.

“I mean,” Luciana said. “We’re lots of pretty forest and a big lake.”

“No fishing. No swimming. No boats,” Sonja said.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Luciana bit her lip. “That’s not what everyone else is doing.”

Helen bounced in her seat. “You’re a National Park right? I mean, what do you do in National Parks?”

They all looked at her.

“You go camping. So, okay, you get one of the musicians that’s folk. You advertise that you’re doing a bonfire cook out. Do things on the hour. Have sausages on a stick and s’mores. You can decorate the forest on the way to and from the bonfire. Maybe do a night time ride around the lake when the lightning bugs are out. No one else is doing a night time thing other than fireworks.”

Lily’s phone buzzed. She picked it up. “Mr. Wetton. Really? I understand.” She reached over to Pauline’s notes and scratched out Raptor and DJ Wetfloor. “How does Firgrove for your talent show sound? They have a hill with a big field in front of it. That’s great. We need two,” she trailed off as Kelsey waved to get her attention and held up 3 fingers. “Three folk musicians.”

Kelsey wrote something down and held it up.

“If one is a Celtic group, that’d be great. The moors on South Hoof are big and can carry the sound beautifully. We also need someone for Valedale, and someone to serenade campers in Dundull at a sausage roast.”

Brooke leaned in. “There’s a broken down house in Valedale that if we clean it up, it’d be a great place for a musician.”

“A ruined house for a stage for Valedale, we can make it atmospheric,” Lily said. “You know just the people. A Harpist, really? You are amazing, Mr. Wetton.”

Riley spoke up. “We’ll take the Flaming Trio, since I’m sure New Hillcrest will want to host Syntax.”

Ginny relaxed. “Thanks, Riley.”

“Cape West will take the Flaming Trio. They’ll scout locations, though, I’m sure the Golden Hills Forest would be perfect. Syntax can appear in New Hillcrest, they’ve got the large market square after all. And then, Jarlaheim wants The Miscreants. There’s a theatre, one moment,” Lily put her hand over the phone. “Amelia, what in hell is Talia doing for Rainbow Week?”

“Hopefully not staging Romeo and Juliet,” Amelia flinched. “Her stage isn’t nearly big enough for the Miscreants. We have that town square and garden area. They can use that.”

“Point,” Lily said. “The Miscreants can perform in the Garden in Jarlaheim and DJ Kai can have the Fort Pinta Disco to herself. Do Lance and Lilith have a name? They can play in Silverglade where they’ll be centrally located. Lilith’s Lance? Really? Well, um, I didn’t know Lilith had a lance. Not relevant Mr. Wetton. That leaves us one short for the Stormgarden.”

Luciana waved her hand again. “Charity concert at the Dew’s Farm,” she said. “All proceeds going to help the Dew family. We’d be squatting.”

“And this is me not caring,” Lily said. “Have you heard about the plight of the Dew Family, Mr. Wetton? The G.E.D., you heard. You’re one of the corporate backers. We thought a charity concert. You think Raptor would get out for that. Well, that is the power of good publicity.”

Mr. Wetton was talking.

“An Asian girl group idol pop band? That sounds perfect for the Stormgarden. Oh, that’s why, well, definitely the best for last then. Thank you.” Lily blinked and hung up. “So, Ami, you have a pop group called Filly, he spelled it f-i-l dash l-e, so I’m assuming it’s not only a pun on filly but a pun on French for girl as well.”

Ami groaned.

“But they can play at the Stormgarden.”

“We have a maple grove, we can set them up in there,” Ami nodded.

“Okay, so, Dundull is having a camp out and doing a night time ride around the lake,” Lily said.

“We have a lot of birds, so we were going to use a dove for our charm,” Luciana said. “I don’t know about treats.”

“No one is doing iced biscuits so far,” Pauline said. “Sorry, cookies.”

“Biscuits, are you British all of a sudden?” One of the girls demanded.

“No.” Pauline rolled her eyes. “It slipped out. Iced cookies.”

“Anyone?” Luciana looked around.

They all shook their heads.

Luciana nodded. “Then we’ll talk to our baker about doing iced sugar cookies.”

Sonja twisted her hair around her finger. “Braided headbands, with feathers? Face painting?”

“Those are great ideas,” Lily encouraged her.

Sonja relaxed.

Lily bit her lip. “Okay, we’re hosting the Silversong String Quartet and having a grand opening of the restaurant, ice cream bar, and the gardens. Aaron has designed a special friendship rainbow sherbet Sunday with a sugar cookie that has a rainbow heart in the middle and a white chocolate rose decoration. We’re doing our rose garden trail ride and at the pavilion in the middle, we’re setting up to make old fashioned bead headbands. We’re using a rose for our charm. Riley!”

Riley laughed. “All right, we’re hosting the Flaming Trio now. The Smugglers are helping us set up a treasure hunt where the reward is a crystal sun catcher. We’re going to have others for sale too. But the one for the treasure hunt is special. We’re also going to have supplies to make earrings out of jewelry crystal versions. Going with the crystal theme, we’re doing a rainbow layer gelatin dessert cut into shapes. Captain Brus is refusing to let us near his ship but he has conceded to decorate it. He hates Rainbow Week so I think his sailors bullied him into it. And we’re saving the Light Ride for Happy Horse Week.”

“Fair,” Lily nodded.

Pauline grimaced. “More than fair.”

“We’ve set up the treasure hunt all in that area though,” Riley smirked. “It goes from the Labyrinth area, all the way up towards the King’s Road using the stables as the middle ground. It goes with our charm of a coin with a heart cut out of it.”

“Oh, wow, sneaky,” one of the girls breathed. No one was sure if she meant the treasure hunt or the charm. No one dared ask either.

“We had to nix using cookie crumbs though. Too easily eaten by birds,” Riley rolled her eyes. “Really, right now we’re in the same boat as Ginny is, I think. We don’t have a lot to draw people to Cape West. There are a bunch of shops but none of them ever seem busy.”

“Maybe it’s time for some consolidation,” Pia nodded.

“I think,” Riley leaned back and glanced at Ginny. “I don’t know if this is your problem, but, Cape West lacks a brand, a definitive identity.”

“So, if it was a jolly sailor town,” one of the girls trailed off.

“Right. I mean, the Stormgarden is doing an Asian themed Spa complete with oil pulling, hot stone massage, and chiming bowls or acupuncture and Chinese Fusion,” Riley waved her hands.

Ami grinned. “We are.”

“New Hillcrest is a ‘planned’ town,” Ginny rubbed her forehead. “Except no one seemed to include the stables in the plans. Again, like Cape West, we’re mostly fishermen. We’ve got the Mirror Marsh, a bunch of windswept islands, and the Cauldron. Both the observatory and Fort Maria are closed. Plus, Mrs. X has set up shop in the Observatory since it’s so close to G.E.D. and Old Hillcrest.”

“No news about Old Hillcrest then.”

“Whatever it is, it’s bad,” Ginny whispered. “We haven’t heard anything from them for weeks, and the G.E.D. keeps turning everyone away. There’s a haze around the area.”

Brooke fiddled with a pen. “The G.E.D. has been drilling, right? I mean, that’s what Dark Core and G.E.D. have in common. They’ve been drilling. What if they drilled too deep?”

“Like, the Mines of Moira,” one of the girls said.

“I got that reference,” Luciana brightened.

“Okay, Mr. Kemball never had the proper permits for anything.” Lily glanced over at Ingrid.

“We’re looking into it, ja. We think he’s squatting.” Ingrid smirked. “He’ll be gone before the festival.”

“Ms. Drake seems the type to cross her ts and dot her eyes,” Amelia said.

“Are you sure? Or does she come off that way so you don’t ask questions,” Lily lowered her voice. “You can’t have Herman dig into it. He’ll go off half-cocked. Syntax and this secret organization of his.”

“CHILL,” Susan said. “It’s called CHILL.” She rolled her eyes.

“Theirs,” Ginny corrected absently. “They’re non-binary.”

“Theirs,” Lily corrected herself. “Thank you, Ginny. They’re a hacker, right? Have them look into it? Or have them do it. Give them a challenge. Or say we’ll find someone else if they can’t be useful.”

“Ricky is still pretty hung up on getting enough money to save the stables from his boxing match.”

“I wouldn’t rely on it.”

Ginny licked her lips. “My family is moving to Beauvista soon. I’m leaving Susan in charge.”

“I’m sorry, Ginny. It must hurt to leave the club.”

Ginny shrugged. “I’ll be here past Happy Horse Week. I can help by befriending Mr. Kemball’s daughter too.”

“I’ll make sure the club stays together,” Susan said fervently.

“I believe you, Su,” Ginny smiled at her.

Susan nodded. “I think Riley’s right though. The stable doesn’t have its own identity. The town is so bland. It’s not like Crescent Moon Village or anything where we could at least take advantage of the imagery.”

“Hold up,” Josefina said, she was Amelia’s vice president. “Friesians are an identity. That’s what your main sell stable has, right? Those are exclusive horses. You have to have a license to even breed them. Like Frederick the Great has been dubbed the world’s handsomest horse. And like, if you have any chestnuts, those are super rare. They’re dressage horses.”

“We don’t have,” Ginny trailed off.

Josefina smirked. “You just thought of something.”

“Mr. Kemball wants to buy his daughter’s way into the club. He could build us an arena,” Ginny smirked back.

“People love seeing Friesians as a group in herds and the babies,” Josefina bit her lip. “Start a J-Tube channel, get on Friend-Fund, and offer early exclusive content for people who sign up.”

Riley sighed. “And we stick with our jolly sailor town?”

“That isn’t a half bad identity, you know,” Amelia raised her brow. “Though your colors are wrong.”

“You took the navy,” Riley retorted. “And do you know how fond they are of being ‘golden.’ There’s no way that we’re getting a cool color when that’s their take on it. And Kate has yellow! As does Pia!”

“Girls,” Lily broke in. They were getting a bit off track.

“Actually, a sailor town isn’t a bad idea. We can go with the pirate theme and,” Riley drummed her fingers on the table. “The issue being not appropriating other cultures.”

“Canterella then?” Luciana asked. “It’s old fashioned.”

“But at the same time, perfect?” Riley grinned. “I don’t know what Anastasia has in mind for our new outfits.”

“Well, a Canterella outfit would be a costume and extra, I think,” Lily said. “Is that the stuff at the Purple Pony?”

“Along with the Knights of Unistria and some Mermaid stuff.”

“Ohh, mermaids,” Riley said. “This, oh, idea,” she grinned and scribbled something down. “Okay, but yeah, we think the treasure hunt should take enough time that we don’t need much more than that for our area.”

Sonja muttered. “If we could get to Firfall they have a Medieval Faire with an archery competition.”

“The road’s blocked,” Luciana said.

“I’m thinking some moltov cocktails,” Sonja rubbed her hands.

Everyone glared at her.

“Oh fine,” Sonja slumped.

“Amelia, over to Jorvik Stables,” Lily said.

“Okay, so, um, no one is very worried about Evelyn, outside of Jill and us. Jack is useless. There are a ton of shops empty, but the shops there aren’t that amazing either and should be combined. Though the two hair salons can’t be. There’s two themes. Eventing style elegance, and the rock star stuff.” Amelia shrugged. “It’s a town so it’s big enough for both. For the event, we’re running a special group race. And in the arena we’re having a special show jumping race. Lowe Westburg runs both of them. She gives out prizes. Catherine is doing her special cake. And the Miscreants are playing in the garden.” She pronounced Lowe as Lou-ve.

“Have you talked to Herman about the Riding Arena yet?”

“He refuses to open it. Absolutely refuses,” Amelia rolled her eyes.

Josefina huffed. “We told him we’ll keep the doors open and not go in at night.”

“We’re using a pair of swans that make a heart for our charm,” Amelia shrugged.

“It seemed obvious,” Josefina smirked.

“Is that enough for that area, you think?”

“Two races, on top of everything else you can do during the week?” Lily widened her eyes.

“What about wrist cuffs?” Violet, Ingrid’s Vice President in Firgrove, asked.

“Wrist cuffs?”

“For a craft,” Violet defended. “Look, okay you say you’ve got two looks, elegant and rock. Elegant is pretty covered by the Winery, who should probably also be doing bead bracelets and stud and dangling earrings.”

“Noted,” Pauline said with a grin.

“Then, that leaves you with the rock stuff. Bandanas aren’t really a craft thing. So, that leaves leather wrist cuffs and chokers and headbands. Do a leather Siwa bow. Have some awesome looking heart and rose and the other symbols as metal studs and don’t they come in all colors now with electroplating? Then what you do is take your shops, get them down to four between the tack shops and the clothing shops. Then beg the Miscreants to set up a shop there for their swag, or do a combined band swag shop.”

The girls were all nodding.

“Don’t you have that donut shop too, with Lisbeth,” Ginny said, her eyes glazing over. “I love her donuts. She could do tons of rainbow ones.”

“Okay, I think that’s covered then,” Lily said. “Onward to you, Ami.”

“We’re like you, doing our grand opening.”

“Pretty hanfu inspired dresses and Chinese Fusion,” Lily said remembering Anastasia’s complaints.

There were giggles.

Ami tilted her head. “We’re using a frog for our symbol. It’s a Chinese animal for good fortune, and the kanji for friend. We though to do some origami for our crafts. Origami earrings and stuff you can add to headbands.”

“Right, and you have the pop group.”

“The bottom of the Cauldron can be pretty, so we thought we’d do a ride to the bottom, have something there and lead them back up. We aren’t sure on what yet.”

“Make it surprise.”

“Tea ceremony,” said someone else.

“Is that okay?” Ami looked over at Ginny.

“The best way down into the Cauldron is closer to you than it is to us. We’ve got a ride planned through the Mirror Marsh.”

“Bring lots of bug repellant.”

“And maybe Frida will show up with her frogs,” Ginny added.

“We’re also giving away rainbow themed fortune cookies,” Ami waved her hands. “Because, fortunes!”

The girls all laughed. Even Loretta cracked a smile.

#star stable #sso #star stable online #fan fic #star stable salt #completely harmless #jorvik reimagined #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #SSO keeps changing NPC names #frustrating

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ginnyzero · 4 years ago

Text

Completely Harmless Ch. 27

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

Chapter Twenty-Seven Planning Rainbow Week Pt. 2

“Okay, Ingrid,” Lily moved on hurriedly. “Plans for Firgrove.”

Everyone agreed that sounded like a good plan.

Pia looked panicked. “Are we doing treats? Our cafe relies on Harold for treats.”

“Oh, I’m sure we can have him do something with what he’s got going already,” Kate jumped in to reassure her.

“As long as it’s not cardamom,” Pia shuddered.

“Got it,” Kate said. “I mean, he’s doing these freeze and bake things. There has to be a different way to do it. I’ll get right on him.”

Pia relaxed. “All right. Sorry Lily, moving on.”

Pauline nudged Lily, “better plan something for Moorland too,” she muttered.

Lily glowered at her. Pauline made a note.

They turned to Melissa.

Melissa made a face. “One, our waterfall is still green.”

“It’s your club color, pretend it’s deliberate for now,” Lily said.

Melissa grimaced. “Can you get the Baroness to come out and look?”

“We need to find the Count or Countess,” Riley huffed. “You can’t have a county without them!”

There were some scoffs around the table.

“We can’t make them care,” Lily said.

“If we can get enough attention out here that’s positive, they’ll start paying attention and be horrified that their area isn’t in tip top shape,” Amelia said.

“Or not,” Ingrid grimaced. “If we can get attention without their help, why would they need to do anything?”

“Okay, what do you want to do?” Lily asked.

“We have a lot of roses, so we were going to make rose crowns for our craft. We’ve got yellow.”

“Oh good, because we don’t,” Lily mumbled.

Brooke spoke up. “It’s tied into our treat, our baker is going to do funfetti cupcakes and pipe rainbow roses on them, like individual petals. She’s nuts!” She lifted her hands up in the air.

“We had that thought too about orienteering,” Sonja said. “Granted, Mistfall is very little but riding trails being it’s a designated Jorvik National Park.”

“I think some folk music would go over nicely, if there is any to be found.” Melissa shrugged. “Druids.”

Lily twisted to look at Luciana, “Okay, Dundull, what are your plans?”

“We are so far out of the way,” Sonja murmured.

“Get a ferry going to Dundull,” Lily murmured and added it to the list. This list was getting strange and very political.

“And New Hillcrest,” Ginny added. “I think that is a big part of our problem, it’s difficult to get to us.”

“Kit has her Cuddle Cottage, where you can come and cuddle the animals. She keeps foxes.”

“Because fox babies are called kits,” Lily murmured.

“You are the weirdest trove of information,” Pauline wrinkled her nose.

“Okay, I like crime procedurals and cozy mystery novels, is that a crime?”

“Nooo,” Pauline leaned away from her.

“I mean,” Luciana said. “We’re lots of pretty forest and a big lake.”

“No fishing. No swimming. No boats,” Sonja said.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Luciana bit her lip. “That’s not what everyone else is doing.”

Helen bounced in her seat. “You’re a National Park right? I mean, what do you do in National Parks?”

They all looked at her.

Kelsey wrote something down and held it up.

Brooke leaned in. “There’s a broken down house in Valedale that if we clean it up, it’d be a great place for a musician.”

“A ruined house for a stage for Valedale, we can make it atmospheric,” Lily said. “You know just the people. A Harpist, really? You are amazing, Mr. Wetton.”

Riley spoke up. “We’ll take the Flaming Trio, since I’m sure New Hillcrest will want to host Syntax.”

Ginny relaxed. “Thanks, Riley.”

“Hopefully not staging Romeo and Juliet,” Amelia flinched. “Her stage isn’t nearly big enough for the Miscreants. We have that town square and garden area. They can use that.”

Luciana waved her hand again. “Charity concert at the Dew’s Farm,” she said. “All proceeds going to help the Dew family. We’d be squatting.”

Mr. Wetton was talking.

Ami groaned.

“But they can play at the Stormgarden.”

“We have a maple grove, we can set them up in there,” Ami nodded.

“Okay, so, Dundull is having a camp out and doing a night time ride around the lake,” Lily said.

“We have a lot of birds, so we were going to use a dove for our charm,” Luciana said. “I don’t know about treats.”

“No one is doing iced biscuits so far,” Pauline said. “Sorry, cookies.”

“Biscuits, are you British all of a sudden?” One of the girls demanded.

“No.” Pauline rolled her eyes. “It slipped out. Iced cookies.”

“Anyone?” Luciana looked around.

They all shook their heads.

Luciana nodded. “Then we’ll talk to our baker about doing iced sugar cookies.”

Sonja twisted her hair around her finger. “Braided headbands, with feathers? Face painting?”

“Those are great ideas,” Lily encouraged her.

Sonja relaxed.

“Fair,” Lily nodded.

Pauline grimaced. “More than fair.”

“Oh, wow, sneaky,” one of the girls breathed. No one was sure if she meant the treasure hunt or the charm. No one dared ask either.

“Maybe it’s time for some consolidation,” Pia nodded.

“I think,” Riley leaned back and glanced at Ginny. “I don’t know if this is your problem, but, Cape West lacks a brand, a definitive identity.”

“So, if it was a jolly sailor town,” one of the girls trailed off.

“Right. I mean, the Stormgarden is doing an Asian themed Spa complete with oil pulling, hot stone massage, and chiming bowls or acupuncture and Chinese Fusion,” Riley waved her hands.

Ami grinned. “We are.”

“No news about Old Hillcrest then.”

“Whatever it is, it’s bad,” Ginny whispered. “We haven’t heard anything from them for weeks, and the G.E.D. keeps turning everyone away. There’s a haze around the area.”

Brooke fiddled with a pen. “The G.E.D. has been drilling, right? I mean, that’s what Dark Core and G.E.D. have in common. They’ve been drilling. What if they drilled too deep?”

“Like, the Mines of Moira,” one of the girls said.

“I got that reference,” Luciana brightened.

“Okay, Mr. Kemball never had the proper permits for anything.” Lily glanced over at Ingrid.

“We’re looking into it, ja. We think he’s squatting.” Ingrid smirked. “He’ll be gone before the festival.”

“Ms. Drake seems the type to cross her ts and dot her eyes,” Amelia said.

“CHILL,” Susan said. “It’s called CHILL.” She rolled her eyes.

“Theirs,” Ginny corrected absently. “They’re non-binary.”

“Ricky is still pretty hung up on getting enough money to save the stables from his boxing match.”

“I wouldn’t rely on it.”

Ginny licked her lips. “My family is moving to Beauvista soon. I’m leaving Susan in charge.”

“I’m sorry, Ginny. It must hurt to leave the club.”

Ginny shrugged. “I’ll be here past Happy Horse Week. I can help by befriending Mr. Kemball’s daughter too.”

“I’ll make sure the club stays together,” Susan said fervently.

“I believe you, Su,” Ginny smiled at her.

“We don’t have,” Ginny trailed off.

Josefina smirked. “You just thought of something.”

“Mr. Kemball wants to buy his daughter’s way into the club. He could build us an arena,” Ginny smirked back.

Riley sighed. “And we stick with our jolly sailor town?”

“That isn’t a half bad identity, you know,” Amelia raised her brow. “Though your colors are wrong.”

“Girls,” Lily broke in. They were getting a bit off track.

“Actually, a sailor town isn’t a bad idea. We can go with the pirate theme and,” Riley drummed her fingers on the table. “The issue being not appropriating other cultures.”

“Canterella then?” Luciana asked. “It’s old fashioned.”

“But at the same time, perfect?” Riley grinned. “I don’t know what Anastasia has in mind for our new outfits.”

“Well, a Canterella outfit would be a costume and extra, I think,” Lily said. “Is that the stuff at the Purple Pony?”

“Along with the Knights of Unistria and some Mermaid stuff.”

Sonja muttered. “If we could get to Firfall they have a Medieval Faire with an archery competition.”

“The road’s blocked,” Luciana said.

“I’m thinking some moltov cocktails,” Sonja rubbed her hands.

Everyone glared at her.

“Oh fine,” Sonja slumped.

“Amelia, over to Jorvik Stables,” Lily said.

“Okay, so, um, no one is very worried about Elaine, outside of Jill and us. Jack is useless. There are a ton of shops empty, but the shops there aren’t that amazing either and should be combined. Though the two hair salons can’t be. There’s two themes. Eventing style elegance, and the rock star stuff.” Amelia shrugged. “It’s a town so it’s big enough for both. For the event, we’re running a special group race. And in the arena we’re having a special show jumping race. Lowe Westburg runs both of them. She gives out prizes. Catherine is doing her special cake. And the Miscreants are playing in the garden.” She pronounced Lowe as Lou-ve.

“Have you talked to Herman about the Riding Arena yet?”

“He refuses to open it. Absolutely refuses,” Amelia rolled her eyes.

Josefina huffed. “We told him we’ll keep the doors open and not go in at night.”

“We’re using a pair of swans that make a heart for our charm,” Amelia shrugged.

“It seemed obvious,” Josefina smirked.

“Is that enough for that area, you think?”

“Two races, on top of everything else you can do during the week?” Lily widened her eyes.

“What about wrist cuffs?” Violet, Ingrid’s Vice President in Firgrove, asked.

“Wrist cuffs?”

“Noted,” Pauline said with a grin.

The girls were all nodding.

“Don’t you have that donut shop too, with Lisbeth,” Ginny said, her eyes glazing over. “I love her donuts. She could do tons of rainbow ones.”

“Okay, I think that’s covered then,” Lily said. “Onward to you, Ami.”

“We’re like you, doing our grand opening.”

“Pretty hanfu inspired dresses and Chinese Fusion,” Lily said remembering Anastasia’s complaints.

There were giggles.

“Right, and you have the pop group.”

“The bottom of the Cauldron can be pretty, so we thought we’d do a ride to the bottom, have something there and lead them back up. We aren’t sure on what yet.”

“Make it surprise.”

“Tea ceremony,” said someone else.

“Is that okay?” Ami looked over at Ginny.

“The best way down into the Cauldron is closer to you than it is to us. We’ve got a ride planned through the Mirror Marsh.”

“Bring lots of bug repellant.”

“And maybe Frida will show up with her frogs,” Ginny added.

“We’re also giving away rainbow themed fortune cookies,” Ami waved her hands. “Because, fortunes!”

The girls all laughed. Even Loretta cracked a smile.

#star stable #sso #star stable online #fan fic #jorvik reimagined #star stable salt #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #meetings meetings #planning things with words

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ginnyzero · 4 years ago

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Completely Harmless Ch. 19

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

Chapter Nineteen Down with the Oil Rigs!

A large group of Rangers and men and women in construction gear descended upon the Manor as the girls were finishing up morning chores. (This list was growing longer and they were splitting into more teams to get it done promptly.) They had papers for the Baroness about the oil rigs. (Though they almost lost them and the girls had to run about grabbing them before they blew away. What was it about the winery that turned people into butter fingers? Linda mumbled about the wind was why she had her clipboard.)

It was time to take the oil rigs down. There were helicopters on the way to take them to the docks in Jorvik City to be returned to their rightful owners.

The girls cheered.

Linda offered the Baroness her clipboard and her pen. The Baroness smiled smugly as she signed the papers with a flourish. She returned the papers to the Head Ranger. “These young ladies will be more than happy to help you.”

The Ranger tugged on her hat, smiling. “I’m sure they will.”

First, they gathered all the horses out of the North Paddock and herded them to the stable, much to the rangers’ approval. No one wanted the horses to get scared of the helicopters and possibly get hurt.

Lily ceremoniously took down the temporary fence between the two sets of oil rigs and bowed to the construction crews. The girls scattered with towels in hand to grab up any last minute ducks in the oil spills. They waved at the rangers as they headed back with dirty ducks wrapped up safely in the towels to the stable to wash them.

The Ranger grinned knocking her hat back.

The construction crews handed them hats and set to work calling for equipment that the girls were able to hand them. They helped pull on levers to close off the access pipes. This involved specific size wrenches with huge handles and much leverage. They rolled the plastic pipes that were now no longer spitting out oil into a pile and “liberated” concrete from the race track in order to cap off the wells.

The construction crews swarmed over the rigs otherwise, taking them apart and putting them into the metal construction containers. Tyra handed out wire clippers and ratchets.

Some of the crews watched baffled as the girls went after the chain link fences with gusto, throwing them into a huge pile on the back of Bjorn’s truck to be hauled off for recycling. Bjorn followed them slowly in the truck.

Out of Bjorn’s truck, they pulled out shovels and weed clippers. Agnetha revved up her chainsaw. She used it to clear out the dead bushes as the girls shoveled out the contaminated dirt into wheelbarrows. They also dug out the dead bushes’ root systems. Then it was off to a special spot in the Everwind Fields that used to host Midsummer Festivals and was safe bare ground. There they piled up the dead bushes and the dirt. Agnetha set it alight to more cheers and fist bumps and high fives.

A thick column of black smoke coming off the dead bushes and dirt was better than fireworks.

They helped the construction crews shut the metal container doors and lock them securely with padlocks and chains. They all shook hands and there was more cheering and jumping up and down as the Helicopters hovered above them letting down high tension ropes with hooks to attach to the containers.

They all ran around to help while the construction crew foreman double checked everything giving each helicopter a big thumbs up. The containers lifted slowly into the air and the helicopters flew off slowly towards Jorvik City.

Bjorn called out from his talk that he’d be back that afternoon with new posts to fix the fence and dirt and turf for the field. He drove off slowly.

“Well, you ladies certainly made that go much faster,” the Construction Foreman said as he accepted hats back. “Thank you kindly.”

“No, thank you!” they said.

“Those things were ugly.”

“And hurting the Baroness’ land.”

“They had to go,” they all agreed.

The Ranger smiled. “It’s good to see that you take preserving Jorvik’s beauty seriously.”

Lily put the temporary fence back up, but no one was willing to bring the horses back until the new dirt and turf was in place. They escorted the crew and the rangers back to the Manor and let the Baroness thank them gravely.

One of the rangers commented about how lovely the Silver Fields looked with the wild carnations in them.

The Baroness gave the girls a long look.

They all tried to look innocent and probably failed.

Agnetha stepped in and took the blame. Though her eyes sparkled and Lily knew they might be hearing about it later. But, all she did was snap at them about didn’t they have weeding to do?

They scattered to go fill up the composter for the day. By the time they finished that and the other chores around the manor, Bjorn was back with dirt and turf and replacements for the broken fence. So, they tromped back out to the field and filled up the holes with new dirt and rolled out turf across the dead surfaces. Bjorn had even bought a couple new bushes to replace the dead ones.

They fixed the fence, digging new holes with a post holer to get past the freeze line. (This was very important, they didn’t want the fence post to be shoved upwards by the water freezing around it.)

The new fence looked really shiny compared to the old fence.

Bjorn wiped off his hands and shook his head. “Makes the old look downright homely and tired.”

They bit their lips and looked around. He was right.

“But, there’s no way to fix it without paint,” Lily pointed out. “The old wood is all weathered and the new wood doesn’t have that age.”

“Paint isn’t precisely ecofriendly,” Brittany said.

“There’s an approved paint,” Agnetha said. “I’ll order some.”

The girls looked at each other leery. But if Agnetha said it was okay.

“You better inspect the rest of the fence for places they’ve been chewing on it, loose nails, and splinters, or termites, carpenter ants,” she said. “Take pictures and we’ll get that fixed up before painting.”

The girls nodded.

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

They split up the huge North paddock into sections and went to examine the fence. Brittany wanted to know if they were painting the fence, if they couldn’t make it pretty.

Grace found carpenter ants. (They were too far north for termites, they hoped.)

They reported back to Agethna. There were a few loose nails obviously where the horses had been leaning against the fence. Some of the wood was splintered and it had definitely been chewed on.

Agnetha nodded. “Whelp, I don’t think the baroness is going to approve us replacing the whole thing with PVC covered wood.”

Brittany sighed. “But, can we make it pretty.”

Agnetha gave her a long look. She didn’t give a yes or no answer. Instead, she found them a hammer and told them to go knock the nails back into place for the time being.

They did and every time they passed where the oil rigs had been, there was this little leap of joy. They hammered the nails back into place and returned the hammer to Agnetha. Then they went and used the rest of the day to pamper the horses that usually were in the North Paddock by brushing them out and checking their hooves over.

Linda was going to have the vet and the farrier drop by the next day to make sure they were healthy while they were all stabled up.

This sounded good to the girls, so they went to bed satisfied.

Agnetha informed them the next morning while they were weeding that Bjorn was off at Jorvik City picking up the necessary supplies to fix the fence. Antonia texted Lily for help.

The glassware for the restaurant was in Silverglade and she needed them to pick it up and then set the tables.

They rode down to Silverglade, paid their dues to Derek in terms of flirting and rode carefully back with the boxes to the Manor. Antonia helped them open them using the pry end of a hammer and a crowbar.

They all gasped at the pretty dishes, glasses, and vases. Of course, before they were set out, they had to be washed. They didn’t have to roll up their sleeves due to their t-shirts, but they set to washing, rinsing and drying the dishes with a will. They set the tables, folding the linens just so and lining up the silver, setting out the purple glassware for color and then stacked the rest of the dishes in the kitchen to be ready to serve off of when the place officially opened.

But, the place needed finishing touches.

The decorator arrived with mirror squares to put on the walls across from the windows to reflect the light. And then, it was out to the gardens where under Agnetha’s shrewd eye they picked white hybrid tea roses (and only white hybrid tea roses) for the restaurant vases. They trimmed stems and filled the vases.

The roses would have to be replaced of course, every so often, but that was no matter.

They took photos for the website and Jorvikgram, forwarding them to Linda. Antonia told them she’d need their help later to set up for the first day and to get some servers for hire. People Linda’s age. (They were too young to be working as servers themselves really.) They left Linda and Antonia talking about setting up a job ad on JarlList.

Bjorn was back with the supplies to fix up the fence. First, they pried out the old fence boards that were chewed, or splintered, and replaced them with new boards and using new nails. They had to change a couple of the posts too. Bjorn showed them how to treat all around the posts for the ants (and his spray would also get the termites.)

Then he got out the paint. “All right, Agnetha said you wanted it to be pretty.” He knocked his hat off to the side in order to scratch his head. “Don’t know if I rightly understand, but see, I got you these stencils and err, these colored paints and big pallets. If any of you is any types of artistic, I guess, you can paint some flowers on the boards.”

“Thank you, Bjorn!” They squealed and he found himself being hugged.

“Oh, look, this one is a greek intaglio key stencil!” Brittany held it up.

“And here is one that looks like leaves,” Grace waved it.

“I know how to paint traditional Swedish flowers, I can make them roses!” Linn said. “Like the flowers on Dala horses.”

“Oh, those are so pretty!”

“But if I give them more petals, they’ll be roses,” Linn grinned.

They passed her the paints and the palettes.

The spray paint turned out to be white.

“All right, time to paint,” Regina pumped a fist.

Grace, Brittany, and Linn put their heads together over what the flowers should look like and settled on that they’d do the key on the posts and the vines and flowers on the planks. That seemed like a reasonable compromise. Especially when Grace found a good stencil to finish her Greek Key on. (Making the top a square that Linn could paint more roses above inside of a circle.)

So, they split into teams again. One team spray painted the fence white. It was a big fence. They were going to go through a lot of spray paint. The next team used the stencils and laid down the key pattern and the leaf pattern, both in the nice lavender color. Then Linn swooped in and painted the roses in lilac and heather with bits of orchid for contrast.

When they finished, they all declared that it was indeed quite pretty.

Hopefully the baroness would like it. Or else, they might be out here spray painting it all over.

Agnetha was muttering to herself when they returned about flowers that were safe for horses to browse upon. This was going to be more important in the flower beds around the race tracks than it was in the flower gardens around the manor. Roses were apparently quite safe for horses to eat.

Agnetha just wanted to keep them out of the way of curious horse nibbles so they didn’t have to keep replacing them!

Apparently, she was thinking that they could plant some flowers around the outside of the fence for color. Though, once again, they’d have to be safe for horses to eat. She was still deciding and it was quite late so they went to dinner instead. Antonia was feeding them big batches of her menu in preparation for opening.

Plus, she just liked feeding people. She said they earned it because they worked so hard.

So, they were all together when Lily got a text from Anastasia inviting them to Jorvik City the next day.

“I wonder what she could want?”

“I have no idea,” Lily said.

“You can never tell with her,” Linda shrugged and dug into her spanakopita.

Speculating among themselves, they got ready for bed and fell asleep quickly. Painting, even spray paint, was hard work!

#sso #star stable #star stable online #fanfic #star stable salt #jorvik reimagined #completely harmless #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #I was sick #Migraines ugh #And why is the schedule feature buried #to scheduling!

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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Completely Harmless Ch. 18

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

Chapter Eighteen The Silverglade Farmer’s Market

The next morning, they were up early and eating toast on the run as they ran around the Manor doing maintenance chores and getting ready. Even Linda was excited. She was going to cover it all on her social media. Antonia had ingredients that needed to be taken down to her outdoor kitchen at the pavilion where she’d be making a smaller version of the menu, mostly the lunch and dessert items with the chicken soup.

They loaded all the boxes up on their horses with the items for their display, choosing the most loyal of ducks to go with them and made quite the parade to Silverglade with Antonia riding ahead of them on her scooter like a pacer. (Linda got several pictures.)

Sally met them with a clipboard. “The Silver Glade Fine Dining is in the food pavilion. We have had to put up three pavilions!” Her eyes got big. “This has been amazing. There’s a card with your name on it for your spot, Chef Antonia.”

Antonia nodded and the girls with the boxes of food went with her.

“And we’ve set up an entire section for the Clubs in Pavilion two with the crafters,” Sally said and checked her clipboard.

“Got it!” Lily saluted.

“Pavilion one is the farmers,” Sally said. “And Andy has put in a petting zoo.”

“Good of him,” Regina grinned. “We’ll go get set up.”

“Oh, and while Loretta and Tan didn’t have anything to do with the planning, they’re more than willing to take advantage of the publicity,” Sally curled her lip. “So, they’re here too. Just a warning. But so is Justin with a display about Camp.”

They made faces and nodded at her before heading inside tent two. They set up their display, a big board about the Silverglade Equestrian Center with pictures of everything underway and everything they hoped to accomplish.

The ducks settled into a barrel full of straw they’d brought with them. They had big bows around their necks similar to the one that the Baroness had on the back of her dress.

Lily went around and shook all the President’s hands, including Loretta’s, and thanked them for coming. The others gushed. Except Loretta, she sniffed.

Across the way, Lily could see Ferdinand’s Horse Market, though there was a farmer’s wall and a couple fields between them. You didn’t need binoculars to see their horses. “I’m going to go over, say hi, and see if they want to send someone over to direct tourists to check them out.” She got on her horse, waved, rode over.

“Morning!” She called out to the older couple who were getting some horses settled.

“Morning,” the older and somewhat portly man smiled at her.

“I’m Lily of the Silver Drakes Riding Club,” she slid off her horse. “And um, I’m sure Pia has been by to tell you that today we’re having a Farmer’s Market by the Golden Fields. And, you’re more than welcome to send someone to direct them down here to check out your beautiful horses.”

Ferdinand beamed at her. “Pia did tell us that was going on. We’ve been watching those pavilions going up with quite a bit of interest.”

Eddie nodded. “Thank you for riding over to tell us what’s going on. Oye! Goofy Lars!” She raised her voice only slightly. She didn’t want to scare the horses. “You go with this young lady and tell folks about our horse market, you hear?”

“Sure thing, Eddie,” Goofy grinned. He chose one of the horses and tacked it up.

Lily smiled. “Pia might be by later to tell you again, or Kate, the leader of the Summer Chipmunks.”

“We’ll be just as appreciative of them as of you. Might want to go take a gander myself later,” Eddie said. “But can’t leave the horses by themselves.”

“I’ll mention it to the other clubs. We can spell you for a bit so you can check it out. Course, they might want to buy your horses after,” Lily said with a sly smile and twinkling eyes.

Ferdinand laughed.

Eddie smirked.

Lily tugged on her hat. She mounted her horse and joined Goofy Lars. “So, is there a reason they call you Goofy?”

He shrugged and pretended to fall off his horse.

“Right,” Lily giggled and they rode off together.

People other than the vendors were beginning to arrive when they returned. The chefs were meeting each other and shaking hands talking about their menus for the day and where they were situated.

There was a blonde man with a mustache named Mario who claimed he was from the observatory. He was dreadfully French. He wanted to put in an eatery and a store up there. But the only way anyone could get up there was if there was a reliable lift to get there. Melissa reassured him that they were working on it. Lily said she might have the perfect chef for him. Did he like bouillabaisse?

He adored bouillabaisse.

Lily gave him the French chef’s number. She hadn’t gotten five feet before Mario was on the phone and grilling them about their different French dishes and if they wanted a job.

Melissa tapped her shoulder. “Thank you. We had no idea who to ask.”

Lily smiled. “Not a problem. That chef’s nose is probably out of joint since the Baroness hired Antonia. He’ll probably leap at the chance to have a restaurant in the sky so to speak. Maybe you can get Franz’ restaurant plans he had before taking up with Courtney out of him.”

“Which one is Franz?” Melissa asked. “And Courtney?”

“Courtney Summers, big girl in the farmer’s cap,” Lily tugged her over to the restaurant tent and pointed Courtney out. “She probably has a bunch of sandwiches and is doing fried chicken wings.”

“Oh, her,” Melissa said.

“Real snooty attitude, better deal with him.”

Melissa nodded and trotted off to chat up Franz.

Lily went to check out the farmer’s tent. Each of the farmer’s had made up a display or the different clubs had help them make up displays. Lily wasn’t sure. There were pictures and they all had produce and finished products on their tables.

The first farmer was Steve’s Farm and Stable. Steve was a grain farmer. He grew wheat, oats, and corn. His fallow fields were full of alfalfa and hay that he used to help feed the Tinker Horses he kept at the stable. The other farmers paid him to rent the horses to plow their fields. They were cheaper, sort of, than tractors. Though, they did have some smaller tractors they could use if the horses got stubborn.

And horses could get stubborn.

Steve was the reason why there was the grist mill on top of the hill. Most of the places around got flour to make bread and such from Will’s Mill that was supplied with grain from Steve!

Steve also, along with the Baroness, and the Camp, supplied a lot of the fertilizer that the farmers put out on their fields to keep them nitrogen rich. Horse manure was richer than cattle manure.

He was the leader of the little farming cooperative around Silverglade.

Landon was a sheep farmer. And his sheep provided milk, meat, and wool. He tended them out on the Everwind Fields. It could be lonely. The sheep helped the grass stay short though. But sheep could be delicate and they got bugs and things. They were constantly wandering off too. That’s why he was grateful to have the Summer Chipmunks around. They were farm girls and knew the signs. They also had a good knack for finding strays.

Barney and Marley Summers were brothers. (They were related to Carney and Courtney. Lily sensed a theme.) They both had produce farms. They grew things like potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, turnips, peas, beans, onions, garlic, spinach, and the like. They sold a lot of their produce to Jorvik City high end restaurants and were thrilled that more restaurants like that would be coming to the area.

While the Vineyard wasn’t really a farm, there was a small display about it with grapes and flats of duck eggs that had been brought down by Godfrey in his car. (No one really wanted to trust eggs to horses.) The Silver Drakes had help him unload it.

In Valedale, there was a dairy farmer. However, every day they shipped their milk off to the Sunfield Creamery over by Jarlaheim. Their cattle were free range cattle that wandered about the oaks of the Hollow Woods. They supplemented their feed with alfalfa and the cows were heavy creamers. They made a decent living off of this.

Andy, he who had set up the petting zoo, had a sheep farm in Firgrove. Or, he had sheep and no farm. He wasn’t really old enough to own a farm yet. He had some chickens but not enough to do more than supply the local cafes and his grandmother’s pancake cakes. He mentioned that there was an abandoned farm out by the mountains he had his eye on for when he was older. But, he had to beware of wolves and the bear who saw his sheep as easy meals.

There was also a large apple orchard in Firgrove run by a rather boisterous family. They’d tried other trees, but apples had liked the area best. They too sold a lot of their apples to Jorvik City. Though the stables did buy their fair share as treats for the horses.

And that was the main Silverglade area farms.

Lily hugged Maya. “I’m so glad you came.”

“So am I,” Maya said and she brandished a sheaf of papers. “Look at all these orders,” she looked ready to cry. “When we said we were an animal farm for eggs, milk, and meat, they almost overwhelmed me with things they needed.”

“That’s wonderful, Maya.”

“And, your Chef Antonia gave me shillings to cover the olives she’s been taking from the farm. I can’t believe it. It’s working. You were right.”

Lily beamed at her. “That’s great. Antonia is really mad about what G.E.D. is doing to your family. We all are. In fact, where is Luciana?”

Luciana was deep in talks with Anastasia Silverglade.

“Anastasia,” Lily said and tugged Maya forward. “This is Maya Dew of the Epona Dew family.”

“Yes, my darling, Luciana and I were just talking about your family’s little predicament.” Anastasia gushed. “With the right publicity, we will be able to wrap this up before summer is over and get your family back where they belong.” She kissed Maya’s cheeks. “You leave it to us.”

Maya blinked. “I don’t understand.”

“We are doing a charity event to help your get your farm back,” Luciana explained. “Organized trail rides that riders will get sponsors for, the more trails they do, the more their sponsors will pay them! Anastasia has friends in the city that will match the amount of the private donations. We’re all very excited.”

Maya’s face slackened. “You, you’d do that for us, but, we’re nobodies.”

“You are an integral part of this county,” Anastasia said. “And we aren’t going to let the G.E.D. bully our people into hiding.” She stamped her foot. “My mother is going to hear about this, I swear it.”

“Hear about what, Anastasia dear,” Annabella Silverglade said in her bland but frosty tone.

Anastasia put her arm around Maya’s shoulder. “Mother, please meet Maya Dew of the Dew family. They had a lovely olive farm in Eastern Epona, but that wretched Ms. Drake and Mr. Kemball of the G.E.D. have run them out. They’re now hiding somewhere in shame.” Anastasia glared at her mother. “We can’t let them control our lands.”

“Of course not,” Annabella said. “They should have come to me immediately.”

“Well, they own the land now, but we have plans mother,” Anastasia raised her chin.

“I’m more than willing to hear them.”

“Ms. Luciana, these are your ideas, please explain,” Anastasia said, her tone imperious.

Luciana explained the idea to the Baroness as best she could.

Annabella nodded along. “Put down our Winery for one of the corporate backers.” She said to Anastasia. “We’ll get your farm back, young lady and run that horrible corporation out of my county for good.”

Maya nodded pale and her eyes wide.

“Silverglades know how to get things done,” Annabella declared and then moved off.

Thomas Moorland moved over. “And put down the Moorland Summer Camp as well. We support you, young missy.”

Maya burst into tears.

Thomas reached out, grabbed her into a big hug. “Oh, don’t be like that. I knew things were bad. I didn’t know they were that bad. You should have said something.”

“I wanted to. I didn’t know how,” Maya wailed.

Thomas rubbed her back. “That’s a good girl. We’ll get this all settled. You heard the Baroness. Not in her territory.”

Maya nodded. She returned to her table sniffling and wiping her eyes. The other farmers came around and gave her supporting hugs and shoulder squeezes. “Scary thing.” “Could be any of us, really.” “We’re here for you.”

Lily continued to learn about the farms. In the Harvest District, the Goldspurs had a large grist mill. They were also grain farmers like Steve. And they’d raided the Greendale forest for strawberry and blueberry plants, turning a couple fields of their farm into berry fields.

The Sunfield Farm was a dairy farm. They had a creamery. They kept chickens but only for themselves and a few local businesses. They grew grain and alfalfa to feed their cows and any extra they sent to the Goldspurs to make into flour.

The Jarlsson’s Farm was another produce farm.

Jasper in the Golden Hills may have called his farm a pumpkin farm, but he was another produce farmer. He grew mostly pumpkins and other squashes. His farm was really popular in the autumn months as he set up displays of carved and joined together pumpkins to be toured for a small fee and he had so many pumpkins that ranged from the size of his hand to bigger than your average toddler in height, it was great fun to look at them all. But an old man such as himself couldn’t live off the profits of pumpkins alone.

The Storm Garden display was as full of plans as the Silver Drake’s and Silverglade Winery display. They were another vineyard and they also had a maple orchard. Though, all of Western Epona was a big maple forest and they had permission to tap those trees as well. So, they made maple syrup and wine. Their wine cave was an actual cave that had an exit in the New Storm Garden’s house cellar.

This amused Lily and Ami. Both were making syrups and wine. It was silly. The other farm in the Epona area was the Rockwell Farm. They were quite a large farm as they were the primary tenant farmers for the Winterwell family. They did everything from having sheep wandering about Sunset Islands, to growing produce and growing grains. They didn’t keep chickens or have cows however.

The Buttergoods grew cotton and flax.

Ginny pulled Lily aside and whispered to her that the Buttergoods were in league with G.E.D. That didn’t sound good at all. They had an inside man in the family, Robert Buttergood who was sabotaging the G.E.D. equipment. And the middle brother seemed like a good enough fellow, it was the eldest brother who was in charge that was the problem.

Pamela Moonriver had beehives and her honey was really quite delicious. She was looking to expand her operation if at all possible.

Lily put her into contact with Agnetha (who was wandering around looking at the displays herself.) And with the family who ran the Firgrove Apple Orchard, apple trees needed pollinating too! Mrs. Holdsworth wandered by and got into a conversation with Pamela about checking up on Mrs. Holdsworth hives. She was an old lady and wasn’t as spry as she used to be and bees made honey, lots of honey. (Hers was Dandelion honey or so she claimed.)

Birk’s Grange was a new farm, or well, an old farm under new management. Most the farming in Dundull was small family operations. Luciana though had encouraged the woman to come out and see what she could grow if she wanted to sell things like eggs and milk or extra produce out of her farm.

The South Hoof Farm was another family farm run by the Hightowers. They worked a rescue ranch for sick horses and so a lot of their produce went to feeding and taking care of their rescues. They didn’t always have a lot left over.

“Why not import some Highland cattle for the moors?” Lily asked.

“Highland Cattle?” Erik Hightower sounded dubious.

Lily showed him a picture on her phone. “They’re from Scotland. They’d do well on your land.”

He hemmed and hawed.

Lily took the idea to Kelsey.

“Oh it’s useless to ask him to do anything,” she rolled her eyes. “I know who to take that information to, it’s not like the younger two really know anything about farming or, care about it that much.”

Lily winced.

“I swear, the place runs on hopes, dreams, and Madison’s sugar high.”

Lily winced more.

Kelsey bit her lip. “I was also going to encourage sheep.”

“We might be over inundated with sheep.”

“Too true,” Kelsey nodded.

Deciding she’d seen everything, and that she was hungry, Lily jogged over to the restaurant tent to get some food. Out of loyalty to Antonia, she got a Gyro and some baklava. “Going well?” She asked after she swallowed.

“Amazingly. You wouldn’t believe all the corporate people Anastasia brought in who are raving about the countryside, the food, the hospitality. We’ve got an entire two busses of brides. It’s a madhouse.”

Lily grinned. “But that’s good for us.”

“You bet it is,” Antonia said as she rapidly sliced up the meat. “By this time next year, we’ll have weddings two to three times a week.”

Lily nodded and kept eating. She removed her gloves so the tzatziki sauce wouldn’t mess them up and she could lick her fingers. “You need anything, text me, and we’ll go get it for you.”

“Oh, Tracy came by half an hour ago, checked the stocks and ran off to the Manor before I could say boo.”

Lily grinned. “Good.”

“And that butler of the Baroness brought me more eggs without asking, Tracy helped him unload.” Antonia wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “You go be president of the club and make connections.”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” Lily said as she finished her gyro, wiped her mouth and went to do just that. She was flagged down by Anastasia as soon as she got into the woman’s sight range and was introduced to Herman’s brother in the music business and soon all the names swam together.

She saw Conrad in the crafter tent. And a couple vendors from Silverglade she thought, a tailor and a baker. There was someone selling stuffed animals and riding vests at least. (nothing she would ever wear, far too many colors.) But Ingrid was talking to each of them and it sounded from what little Lily could hear (before Anastasia whisked her away) she was trying to set up a flea market in Firgrove.

That could be something.

It seemed to be a rousing success.

#star stable #sso #star stable online #jorvik reimagined #fanfic #star stable salt #completely harmless #silverglade reimagined #many nods to ruth westside #the plot picks up soon #two more chapters to fashion #next time:oil rigs

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