章節 20: Chapter 20 Old Folks

"Goddess?" cried out Timmy, in panic, not seeing her above him.

"I am here," she answered, looking around at her predicament.

"Oh! She's ascended!!" cried Mike, crawling to his knees, tears in his eyes.

Finally untangling herself, she floated down to them.

"She's returned to us!" cried Lee, with a huge grin of relief. They all cheered in relief and happiness, and she couldn't help but laugh. These were her humans all right.

It was morning, and for some reason, none of them remembered a man from the night before. They didn't mention stopping at all, instead, asking what to expect for the day.

"We must continue to the East, where the Demon King is. I expect we'll start running into people fleeing the fighting when we get close. Maybe we'll even see fighters heading towards the war front."

"Why must we go somewhere that's so dangerous?" asked Lee fearfully.

"She can't fulfill the prophecy if she's hiding from him," explained Mike, as if that were obvious.

"Do you have a plan, on what to do, to defeat him, when we get there?" asked James.

"I am a great Goddess. It will come to me when the time is right."

They all nodded as if that made perfect sense. A nagging concern was bothering her. How would she care for her humans, if she was busy fighting this Demon King? She kept her thoughts to herself as they began traveling again.

It was almost midday, but the sky was so overcast, that it was hard to tell. Kiterina knew that it was going to storm. She could feel it in the wind as it ruffled her fur. Ahead of them, there was another road, so she decided they would try traveling on it again. There might be a place they could take refuge from the wet.

No one questioned her, when she turned onto the road. They traveled for another twenty minutes before a house appeared ahead.

"We will see if the owners of that house would be willing to let us stay before this storm decides to break."

"It's going to storm?" asked Lee looking up at the overcast sky.

"If the Goddess says it's going to storm, it's going to storm," said Timmy with conviction.

As they drew closer, they could see an old woman bent over, pulling weeds from a large garden, next to the road. On a laundry line, beside the house, clothes flapped in the breeze. Behind the house, almost out of sight, an old man was chopping firewood, obviously harvested from a dead tree that had fallen in the back yard.

"Excuse me, ma'am," said Kiterina as they drew closer. As the woman looked up, Kiterina suddenly knew that the woman's children had all left the home many years ago, and that she missed them dearly. There was far too much work for an old woman, such as herself, to handle alone. Her name was Rose, and she had a lovely disposition. She loved visitors and would probably work far too hard to provide for them.

"Oh! My goodness! I've never seen anything quite as pretty as yourself!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth in surprise at that sight of her.

"That is because she is a Goddess!" declared Timmy pridefully.

"Oh, my! Please, do come in. I would love to hear more!" she placed her basket on a stool and hobbled towards the door.

"One moment," Kiterina called, and the woman paused, halfway to the house. "It will storm shortly, and you have far too much to do. My people would greatly appreciate an opportunity to show their gratefulness to your hospitality by helping with some of your chores."

The three young men looked at her for a moment, like they were suddenly not sure about this, but slowly nodded as the woman perked up with delight.

"If it's about to rain, I need my wash in, and the garden needs to be finished weeding. Henry out back could probably use a hand with the chopping, and then there's all the chores still to do with all the animals."

Kiterina nodded and turned to the four beside her. "James, you're the strongest. Go help Henry chop the wood until it starts raining, or he says he's done. Mike, you have the longest arms. Gather up the wash and put it inside before the wind blows it away or the rain starts. Once you're done, help James with the wood. Timmy, you're the closest to the ground. She will show you what weeds to pull, while Lee will come with me to see to the animals."

"You know how to tend to animals?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course, I once knew a wonderful man who had many animals."

"She is a Goddess. There isn't much she can't do," whispered Timmy.

"Oh! Then I should thank you for the blessings you and your boys have brought us."

Kiterina nodded at her, then headed towards a barn that was partially obscured by trees, with Lee following at her heels. She knew that even if they didn't like the hard work, they would all try their best because she had asked them to do the jobs.

There was a chicken house, which was very familiar to her. Having Lee check in the nests she knew would have eggs, they gathered almost two dozen. After placing them in a basket that had been hidden in the tall weeds beside the house, they moved on to the barn itself. Inside there were two old horses, chewing on some hay in a dilapidated hay manger.

With a few pointers, Lee was able to fix up the manger so it didn't hurt the horses' necks to eat from, and filled it with hay from the loft. After topping off their water, and giving them a quick brush down, they were heading back towards the house with the eggs.

Just as they were about to round the corner, Kiterina had Lee stop. She had a strange feeling, and turned to look towards the road, through the thick brush. There were three men on horseback, riding towards the old woman and Timmy.

"Old woman, have you seen a strange creature over the past couple of days? There is a bounty out for its capture, and tracks along the road that we saw further up the road, may have belonged to it."

"What kind of creature? Is it dangerous?" She clutched her shawl in fear.

Kiterina could tell these men were hunters. They made their money by collecting bounties on various creatures. She was impressed they were willing to travel this far to try and find her. Apparently telling the mage that she was supposed to take out the Demon King, had given him the idea to send people this way looking for her.

"It is a winged demon cat. It escaped from a mage's tower. We sat what looked like large cat prints further up the road from here, and thought you might have seen it."

The woman, who knew that they were looking for her, frowned. "I'm sorry, young men, but I haven't seen any demons. I hear the king's men are fighting an army of them to the east. Maybe this demon you are looking for is there?"

"Be careful, old woman." The man glared at her, knowing that she was sending him on his way, but because of so many witnesses, he wasn't willing to harm her.

Once they left, Kiterina returned. There was a distant sound of thunder, just as everyone appeared from around the house.

"I believe that is a good sign that we are done here!" exclaimed the woman cheerfully, herding everyone inside. No sooner had they shut the door behind the last person, then the rain began to pour.

As everyone settled around a table, Henry turned to her.

"So, you are a goddess?"

"Yes."

"Can't say that I've ever had cause to meet one of those before. Every cleric or godly person I've ever talked to before, wanted something from me, usually in the form of coins. This is the first time I've ever had someone willing to help me with my chores just to get out of the rain."

"No one?" asked James, in surprise.

"Oh, well, travelers will demand we let them stay the night, as if by building our home along the road is an invitation for them to stay. And then they don't even have the decency most of the time to pay us for the food they eat and the mess they leave."

Everyone shook their heads in disbelief at his words.

"I don't imagine you built your home beside the road."

"No, the king's men came along and decided they were going to build a road here. I had to beg them not to tear down our house in the process. I probably should have moved at that time, but I thought I was too old to build a new home. That was almost twenty years ago."

"No mortal knows how many days he has. Nor does he know the future."

"Ain't that the truth," said Rose, placing dishes of foods on the table.