Paradise Part 2

I: We're Proper Farmers Now

The morning fog lay thick over the land, the trees made eerie walls surrounding the farm and the many calls of the local wildlife echoed in the quiet away from human civilisation.
Wolf stretched his weary muscles and yawned, pulling his long hair into a loose bun. Daithi stumbled out of their brick cottage with sleepy eyes.
Their silhouettes were opposites; Wolf being muscular, tall, and broad, and Daithi slender and nimble with short spiky hair.
A year ago they'd both come to this farm seeking stability in their life. Then they'd met the remarkable and kind woman who owned the farm, Aggie, and she would change their life dramatically.
When Aggie passed away in September of 2023, they'd been shocked to find she'd left them her farm, Paradise. And though her blood relatives were quite displeased with her decision, Wolf and Daithi became the owners of this little patch of rural Australia.
Wolf slipped into a pair of tall gumboots and began the morning ritual. He would wander out into the paddocks and feed the goats and sheep, while Daithi fed the geese and chickens. Then they would regroup and pilfer the chicken coop for eggs.
When that was taken care of they would mix up some honey and water with bread and leave it out for the local birds. Rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, cockatoos, honey eaters, and corellas, would come down for a free feed. They'd even throw down some chopped cow heart dabbed in insectivore (ground up insects) for the magpies, kookaburras, and butcher birds, when they had it available.
Then they would sit at their little table outside the cottage and eat their breakfast while they watched the lively scene.
This time of year was slow for them, since the sheep shearing was in spring and the apple orchard had only just started producing fruit. It wouldn't be ready for picking for at least another week or two.
In their time with Aggie they hadn't been to the orchard since she hired pickers and handled all the finances herself. However, now that the farm was theirs they had had to do a lot of learning quick-fast.
“What do you reckon about the predictions of another flood this year?" Daithi asked Wolf, breaking the silence. He had a cigarette between his fingers and his phone in the other hand.
Wolf shrugged, “Seems like the new norm, doesn't it? Bit of drought, bit of flood."
“Mmm." Daithi sighed and put his phone on the table. “What do you reckon about us getting a horse?"
Wolf was leaned back in his seat with his arms behind his head, he raised a brow and looked to Daithi, “Don't we have enough to do already?"
“What's one more animal?" Daithi shrugged. “Besides, wouldn't it be cool to ride around the property instead of walk? Remember last week you had to walk all the way to the back of the sheep paddock to patch that fence, and then you made me do it too, because you forgot the thing that does the thing."
“Ah yes, the thing." Wolf chuckled.
Daithi loved his deep laugh. If he weren't so weirded out by ASMR he'd have a recording of it to send him to sleep at night.
“Come ooon." Daithi got up and twisted around the table, plonking himself in Wolf's lap. “Please Papa."
Wolf rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around Daithi. “Only if you promise never to call me Papa again."
“Yes!" Daithi exclaimed and then reached for his phone. He showed Wolf an advertisement for a young black stallion. “Isn't it adorable?"
“Yeah, wait until it bites and kicks you a few times." Wolf grumbled. “It'll make Gary's headbutts seem like gentle kisses."
Gary was one of their goats. He was a prick.

Much to Wolf's chagrin, that day they found themselves hitching their float to the ute and travelling 40 minutes down the road to pick up this young stallion.
The property they found themselves on was obsessively all about horses. Horse mailbox, horse garden ornaments, horse shaped window on the front door. Wolf half expected the doorbell to neigh when he pressed it.
A woman with wavy brown hair and freckled face answered the door. “Hello darling!” She said with a toothy smile. “You're here for the horses?”
Wolf nodded politely. “Hello, I'm Wolfgang and this is Daithi.” He said, as he motioned to Daithi, who was looking around in awe at the outdoor decor.
“Nice to meet you both, my name is Naomi.” She shook their hands. “Well come in, I'll take you out to the paddocks. Don't worry about your shoes.” She said in a cheery tone and waved them inside.
Her house was exactly as you'd expect, filled with paintings of horses, horse statues, and horse covered cushions. When someone is a horse enthusiast they're never just a casual horse lover.
The paddock was small with a neat stable filled with troughs and fresh hay. There was an older looking mare, and two smaller horses who were brown and jet black respectively.
“The stallion is a bit of a mischief maker and his sister likes to nibble. But they're both lovely. With a bit of training they'll make excellent workhorses.” She explained. Then she clicked her fingers and whistled.
All three horses trotted over to them, sticking their heads over the fence for attention. The stallion butted his sister out of the way to receive a nose rub from Naomi.
“Go on, they won't hurt you.” She said.
Daithi held his hand out and the sister sniffed him before giving his palm a slimey lick. He ran his hand down her long face and gave her a little scritch on the nose. They really were friendly horses.
Wolf was fond of the young stallion. Perhaps he was drawn to sassy creatures, he thought as he glanced at Daithi with a smile.
“Now you can spend as much time with them as you like before deciding. I'll get you some hay so you can feed them.” Naomi said before leaving them.
“Wolf.” Daithi said seriously. “Wolf, they're so adorable.”
Wolf rolled his eyes. “We can only pick one.” He warned, knowing full well it was hopeless.
The next thing he knew, they were leading the stallion and his sister onto their float. He had only brought the cash for one, but fortunately Naomi was fine with giving her bank details out so he could send the rest over on the spot.
“Here's my number as well. Don't be strangers! I'd love to see photos of our babies growing up.” She kissed both the young horses and waved to them. “I'll miss you!”
“You're welcome to come see them any time. We don't live far from here.” Wolf saved her number to his phone and sent her a text with their address.
It is no exaggeration to say she was ecstatic. She waved goodbye the whole way out of the driveway until they lost sight of her.
Back at their property, Wolf backed the float up to the goat paddock and gently led the horses in with some hay.
“We have to think of names.” Daithi said thoughtfully.
Aggro was curiously sniffing the horse float, a little hesitant to approach the horses yet. She gave a warning yip which the horses ignored.
The goats didn't seem to mind their new neighbours either. They quite happily shared their spacious stables with their two new big friends. And after some gentle introductions, soon, even Aggro would accept them.

As night rolled around Wolf began to notice Daithi's sluggishness. Usually that was a precursor to one of his migraines. He dug out his medication, a heat pack, and an eye mask, in preparation. Sure enough the pain came and Daithi retreated to bed with the heat pack wrapped around his neck, the eye mask pulled over his face. All he could do was curl up in agony and wait for the medication to kick in.
Wolf always felt so helpless watching him like this. Aggro would always curl up on the bed beside him and rest her head on his hips.
When the medication started to work its magic, Daithi was able to run his fingers through Aggro’s fur. She whined and put her paws on his chest, because the more attention he paid her, the better he was feeling.
Wolf made an easy dinner of grilled cheese and Vegemite on toast. It was their go-to lazy meal, and it was easier for Daithi to eat with the migraine induced nausea.
“How are you feeling?” Wolf asked quietly, in case Daithi had drifted to sleep.
Daithi groaned and sat up, “Food?” He pulled off the eye mask and squinted.
“Vegemite cheese sangas tonight.” Wolf grabbed the meal tray used for eating in bed and placed it and the grilled sandwich next to Daithi.
Aggro eyed the sandwich with envy.
Wolf sighed and called her to him, she obliged excitedly. He took some kibble and mixed it with egg, chucked in a handful of pet mince, and placed her bowl down in the kitchen.
With those two taken care of, Wolf made himself a grilled sandwich and joined Daithi in bed.
“You'll make a fine house husband one day.” Daithi said with a smile.
Wolf almost choked on his food.
“I mean, to someone. Maybe me. Maybe not.” Daithi nervously stumbled over his words trying to backtrack.
“Don't worry, I know what you meant.” Wolf laughed.
There was silence. Daithi cleared his throat and said, “Do you ever think about it though? The whole, settle down, get married, have kids thing?”
“I do sometimes.” Wolf admitted. “Though I'm not sure how I'd be having kids of my own.”
“There are ways, these days.” Daithi shrugged. “Not that anyone makes it easy, though.”
“Oh? You've looked into it?” Wolf teased, but he was curious.
Daithi nodded, “Yeah but Australia is pretty strict on adoption. Fostering kids is an option, but not one I think people should take lightly. And there's surrogacy, but nothing is stopping the birth mother from changing her mind, which makes sense I guess.”
“Mm.” Wolf thought for a moment. “I suppose it's probably a good thing it isn't easy to have a child. It's not a decision to make on a whim.”
Daithi sighed and laid down. “Yeah, plus what kind of father would I be? Crippled in pain all the time.”
“Well, it's not all the time–”
“It's getting more frequent.”
Wolf laid down and pulled Daithi toward him. “We should book another appointment with the doctor.”
“Doctors don't know shit.” Daithi grumbled as he buried his head into Wolf’s chest.
“Yeah.” Wolf sighed. “But what other option is there?”
That was one of the truly depressing parts of chronic pain. That modern medicine really had no idea why it happened or how to fix it. The medication helped him manage it, but it was losing its effectiveness.
Wolf shifted out of bed and put the dishes in the sink, found Aggro's favourite blanket and chucked it back in her bed, and then locked the cabin door.
When he returned to bed Daithi was out cold. He gently removed the, now cold, heat pack from under Daithi's head and put it on the bedside table. Then finally, he climbed into bed and flicked the lamp off.