Natural Magic

Chapter 14 - Plotting

The heat of the sun beat down on Amerigo as he and the last of the goblins were herded into the training courtyard. The orcs prodded the stragglers with kicks, each one sending a goblin sprawling into the hot ground. But this was nothing new for the prisoners. Every day they were driven out into the courtyard, and every afternoon they were corralled back into the cells. The day’s work was piled on in the opening announcement.

“Welcome to day… uh… twelve of Farmering, a tutorial by our very own Lord Kairon!” the instructor growled, with only a pause to recall what number came after seventeen. “Today you’re plowin’ fields.” He had stooped to pick up a bundle, wrapped in rough canvas and bound with a leather cord. He tossed the heavy package among the crowd of prisoners, who ducked and shied away. It clattered and clinked as it landed.

Amerigo, his attention drawn away for a moment to avoid blunt force trauma from a roll as big as himself and at least twice as heavy, looked back to the instructor. He now had in his hand a bent implement.

“I’ll only be showin’ you this once! Pay attention!” he called over the crowd. Amerigo thought he heard a slight amount of embarrassment in the words. He looked on with the rest as the orc took a wide stance, turning to the side, and held the bent gadget with both hands.

“On your own plots, you’re gonna swing your plow like this. Like you’ve got an axe and you’re trying to split your opponent’s skull while they’re on the ground.” He swung it down over his head, bending at his waist, and the point was buried up to the bend in the hard soil.

“Then, you’re gonna drag it like you want to completely split the poor bastard down the middle.” The earth rose on both sides of the tool as the instructor drew a ragged line towards him. Leaving the thing in the soil, he turned back to them. “When you’ve split that one completely, you’re gonna start again and do another. And another. And when you get all the way across your plot,” and here he pointed at the crowd and swept his arm across them, “do another one right next to it.”

The instructor had easily dug a small trench about seven feet in front of him, but it didn’t give Amerigo much hope that he could do the same.

“You’ve got ‘till sundown! Get a plow and find your plots! Why aren’t you workin’?!” The crowd was whipped into a boil, none of them waiting for incentive from the instructor or the guards. As one, they tore into the wrapped farmering tools. It was a load of blunted broadswords, shortswords, and the like. They hadn’t even gone through the trouble of bending them. Prisoners, now equipped, began to disperse from the parcel, seeking to cordon off a small plot of their own. Amerigo, finally able to pick out something his size, did likewise.

****

The shadows shortened and lengthened as the prisoners toiled. Several backbreaking hours later, the sun was finally half a hand-width from the top of the courtyard wall.

“Inspection time, maggots!” came a cry from their instructor, who was now standing in the center of the yard. That sent everyone, even the stragglers, to their posts. For each of the dozen of them – amongst whom were lizardfolk, goblins, and even a small natural golem – there was a small plot of furrowed land, and each was standing at attention before it. Once in their places, the instructor began walking along the rows. He stopped at the first.

A goblin stood shivering at the corner of his plot, staring blankly ahead, the jerks and twitches which racked his body notwithstanding. The orc spared a brief scan of the goblin itself before turning his attention to the plot of land. Jagged lines zig-zagged the dusty square, all but crossing over one another in their stretch across the plot.

The orc held its hand out to the goblin, who handed over a small metal tool. It looked a cross between a mattock and a dull, bent blade.

Turning it over in his hands, the inspector felt the edge of the tool with a fingernail, scraping dirt off the tarnished metal. He grunted and returned it to the goblin. Its shaking hands almost failed to grasp it before the orc let go, continuing down the line.