Ardring - Chapter 1
#1 of Ardring
The sun shone brightly over the Astaire farms, signaling that it had been morning for a while. Zerrif yawned, stepping out of the backdoor of his house, avoiding stepping on chickens as they scurried by, heading to the coop. He took a good look around at their backyard, having taken the liberty to cut the grass and weed it yesterday, and smiled at his good work.
He turned, when he heard a familiar squelch come out from under his galoshes. He looked down and smirked at the little brown pile that had been utterly smushed under his feet, and turned back to the house.
"Heeeey! Craig! You forgot to tie up Alexis again! Make sure she hasn't run away!" He shouted, shaking off his boot. His younger brother, the male of the twin set, ran out and looked utterly shocked. "Just clean this up later. You gotta find her." Zerrif said. The younger brother nodded, and dashed off, his tail curled up as usual when he was afraid of things.
Zerrif smiled, and continued on his way, following the chickens towards their coop. They scurried in through a little hole where wood had been ripped away, and bent aside. He grumbled, making a mental note to fix that later, and slid open the doors. Almost instantly, his nose was assaulted by a rank smell; no matter how many times they'd clean the coop, it always smelt like old feathers, birds, and avian feces.
He let it air out a bit, before stepping in and walking straight down the middle aisle. The chickens were set up on sort of shelf-like structures, with their own nests there as well. Angled so that any eggs they laid would slowly roll down into baskets, and free to roam as they please. He saw his sister there, examining some eggs to see if they were edible or not, and putting them in a much larger basket around her arm.
"So I see someone finally decided to wake up." She said, with a smirk. Her hair had been braided back, and Zerrif yawn again, making her laugh. He loved his sister; she was the second oldest of the bunch and never seemed to get angry no matter what they did.
"Yeah, yeah, Stel." He mumbled, as he stretched. She was always her, as per one of her duties, and he always caught her before he headed out to the fields, casually chatting with her, or learning of things that no one else would learn of. Stella, or Stel for short, and the eldest, Daemeon, were sort of like a pseudo-mother and father for the kids. "Mom 'n Dad are out, I guess?" Zerrif asked, and Stella nodded. He took a small hair tie from his overalls, and matted, and brushed his hair back with his hands, tying it back in a small pony-tail.
"Yup. Last batch of stuff to sell." She replied, grumbling as she examined an egg, and brought it to her ear slowly. She smiled. "Wow, today is a good day for the hens. Laying lots of eggs that'll hatch." She said, putting the egg she'd just examined back in the basket. Zerrif smiled. He remembered watching chicks hatch before; they came out all gooey and gross-looking, but within hours they would dry out, and fluff into a big yellow puffball. "Oh, I looked over the corn-field, too, Zer. Good job, it's comin' along well. It should give up a lot of corn this season." She said. Zerrif smiled.
"That's good." He replied back. There were 9 main fields on the Astaire farms, but each child was responsible for two; as such, they shared responsibilities with another sibling. He shared the cornfield with his sister, Stella, and his other field with his brother, Daemeon. "Where's Dae?" He asked. Stella pondered.
"Probably out on the field. Ya put 'im in a bad temper this mornin', Zer." She warned. Zerrif groaned. "Something about only 8 heads for roll-call, this mornin'." She said, with a laugh. She cleared her throat, and started to imitate the eldest ferret. "Where's Zerrif? Does he think he can skimp out on duties and leave it all up to us? Blah blah blah--"
The two looked at each other and laughed heartily. There was no way he'd be able to act like this with Daemeon. He loved his eldest brother, and knew that Daemeon loved every one of them, but he took his position seriously. Stella, although quite serious and loving, had a knack for making people laugh. She smiled, and walked over to him, giving him a light peck on his forehead, and let him move onto the tool shack.
In truth, he could have gone around the coop and headed straight to the little shack, where all the siblings kept all their tools for the farmwork. But he loved talking with his sister in the morning (if he could bring it upon himself to ignore the smell)
"Oh, don't tell anyone, Zer. I know you keep secrets well." She said, catching up to him before he got into the shack. He turned around, curiosity peaked. His sister always knew things that no one else did, being the eldest girl (and second oldest sibling at that), their parents shared things with them. Zerrif had proven to be good at keeping secrets, and he usually wrenched stuff from her if she wouldn't willingly give it up. "Mom 'n Dad are gonna be home late, cause they're buying us clothes. And not like, y'know, new overalls for the farm work, but nice clothes. Jeans and shirts and such, for going into the town." She said.
Zerrif's tail swished happily. He loved his parents. It didn't matter how much money they'd earn, o r how much they'd grow, they always put a little aside for their kids. Though, there always seemed to be enough for food stocks for the farm, enough to sell to keep the farm going, and a little extra for just in case. He loved going down to the town with the whole family, when they would sell all their extra crops. They would shop after, getting what they wanted.
Zerrif, however, never really bought much. He wouldn't let himself go back without buying something, but it was something small, or simple. He saved most of his money, incase his family hit a hard time, or someone needed more; but with 9 children working the farms and very fertile ground for faming, there never seemed to be a need.
He was about to say something, when he noticed the coop went silent. The chickens had all stopped clucking, pulling their heads as far as they could go within their body. Stella had noticed too. Then, he heard something. A really high pitched whistle, he couldn't really place where it came from, but he wondered if that was what was scaring the chickens.
"... Stel, get the twins. I'll go round up people in the fields." He said, not having a good feeling about the sound. She nodded, and left the coop.
The whistling grew louder.