"Interesting."
Noah sat within a field of golden hay, his back against a lonesome tree at the centre of the expansive field. His hand on his chin, gently stroking the faint, scraggly beard forming there.
Looking around his surroundings, Noah searched for any signs of familiarity. Yet never once in his life had he ever been to such a sprawling field. Not even his grandfathers fields were as large as this one. Even the house far in the distance looked much more like a mansion than a farmhouse.
The sun was just about rising it seemed.
"How did I get here?"
He squinted, tilting his head to the side as he began to think.
It had been a normal day, just like any other, wakeup, get breakfast, run off to work, come home, game, eat, sleep and repeat. Except, now he could replace the repeat with wake up in the middle of a random field of hay.
Truly a strange occurrence.
Placing a hand on the ground, Noah used it to help push himself up to his feet. The speed of which sending a slight breeze wafting against his skin, drawing his gaze down to his chest noticing that his clothing looked like that of a beggar, ragged and falling apart at the seams. His own hand caked in dirt and grime as if he hadn't had a good bath in weeks.
"Right, great. I've reincarnated into a homeless bum. Perfect." He groaned, why couldn't his new life just be simple. Get reincarnated as some rich kid with a good family. Instead, he's a hobo in a field of grass.
"Haa…" he sighed, letting his arms slump to his side. Of all the suspected reincarnations he could get, homeless was lowest on his list of wants.
"No point lingering on the thought," he grumbled lifting his eyes to the house in the distance, contemplation in his eyes. "Might as well see if I can get some help."
***
Liora held her arm over her eyes as she lay atop her bed. A single leg pulled up while her other lay flat atop the bed.
The days had been tough on her since her husbands passing and her daughter leaving them years earlier, leaving her to be the only one to take care of their sprawling farm. Most of which was slowly beginning to deteriorate from the lacking care it was getting. At most she was able to keep just under a third of it alive and well. And even that was growing tiresome.
She wasn't a farmer like her husband, she didn't grow up on the farm, she barely knew how to harvest wheat let alone grind it into usable flour. Hell, even sowing seeds was a nightmare to her. All she was supposed to be a housewife taking care of their daughter and cleaning the house. Not a farmer.
From beneath her hand, tears began to trickle out of her eyes like they had every day the past three months. Her lips trembled and her teeth ground together, trying her utmost not to let her weeping burst forth.
It was a hopeless endeavour.
There was no way she wouldn't weep in this empty home. She was alone with nothing left to her name. Her furniture sold, her paintings gone, her mementos thrown to the wind for just a few measly buckles that kept her paying her taxes just long enough to keep the fields and her home hers for another month.
But it was all running out. When harvest came and she couldn't bring in even half of the expected yield for the kingdom, they were going to rend it from her hands and send it to auction. The land was just too expansive for it not to be put to use. Especially considering they had long since trying to pry it from her husbands hands even when he was alive.
It was honestly a little relieving that they hadn't come to take it yet.
But it was only a matter of time before that happened.
Sniffling, Liora pushed herself up, wiping down her reddened cheeks of her tears. The faint scent of wine lingering on her lips wafting into her nose.
Her head slowly tilted to look at the pile of empty bottles besides her bed. Even her husbands collection was rapidly dwindling to her wasting body. She scanned each and every bottle for even the dregs of the ruby sap.
Soon finding that at the top of the pile, a relatively new brew of Algen grapes and Rosethorn nectar wine with just enough in it to give her a slight buzz.
Only problem, it was far away, and she didn't want to get up.
Crawling on her bed, she pushed her upper body over the edge, a single hand kept on it to keep her stable while the other reached out towards the bottle. Her fingers flaring and stretching as she stretched her body out. Her leg even raising to help her stretch a little further.
"Nnn, come on, just a little more," her fingers were just millimetres away by now. Just one more push and she would have it.
Leaning even more, she pushed her balance to the limits. Straining it to just feel the cold glass against the tips of her fingers, "Yes-yes-yes," she nibbled on her tongue, lips quirking up as the bottle shifted at her touch, pulling it into her palm.
"Yes!" she celebrated much too early as not moments after her fingers locked around the neck of the bottle her balance disintegrated. Her hand that rested on the bed slipping from beneath her, sending her crashing into the pile of bottles.
"WAH!" She screamed in surprise, bottles flying around her. Luckily, none shattering from the impact. But some leaking their remnants over her body, layering her glossy red hair a shade darker. Dripping down her face as she sat down.
Collapsed on the ground on her belly, Liora remained unmoving.
She disgusted herself. How had she fallen this far? How could she let this happen to her. She had taken to drink like a fish to water not weeks after her husband died. And now look where it left her.
Hunched on the floor, curling into a ball a weeping mess of a woman who would never again feel the warmth of another man or the touch of her own daughter.
She was too old for any sane man to want her again. Her breast sagged; wrinkles formed on he body by the day. Her hair was losing its shine. All of this only growing more pronounced as her stress mounted day after day.
Wrapping her hands around her head, Liora curled tighter into a ball, a heart wrenching scream forcing its way from her body, scraping against her throat until she started squeaking.
She wanted it to end.
She wanted to go back to be the woman she once was.
She wanted a hero.
Just then, hollow knocking resounded through the house. Ricocheting through the hallways, up the stairwell, towards her mess of a room.
*sniff*
Liora, wiped weakly sat up, her eyes blankly staring at her doorway, the thick odour of wine attacking her nostrils. "Who?…" she mumbled as more, louder knockings came from downstairs.
She didn't want to bother, whoever it was could just go away She wasn't in the mood to see anyone right now. She was too much of a mess.
But they just would not stop. The knocks grew to thunderous bangs that turned to the shouting voice of a woman.
"LIORA! I KNOW YOU ARE HOME. GET DOWN HERE OR I WILL PLASTER THIS NOTICE TO YOUR DOOR!"
Liora shivered, her eyes trembling at the familiar voice of Rhule. The one person she wished to never see again. Liora felt her soul leave he body in that moment, but her body still reacted, pushing itself to its feet, hobbling over the mess of bottles, dripping behind a trail of wine droplets.
Her feet creaking against the floorboards of the stairs leading to the entrance hall where she could see the hourglass shaped silhouette of a woman standing.
Liora's hand hesitated just above the handle. She knew what was coming. It was inevitable.
May as well just take it now.
Pressing the handle down, Liora pulled the wooden door open towards herself, feeling the rush of fresh air filling her lungs soon followed by a strong floral odour coming from the elven beauty.
Her hair thick and lustrous, dyed a faint pastel purple atop a layer of glistening olive skin. Her bosom practically bounding loose from her half-buttoned tunic, much the same as her hips in her pencil skirt.
"Liora my dear. How good of you to finally show yourself. I see you have been hitting the bottle again," Rhule's head tilted up along with her lips into an arrogant sadistic grin, taking pleasure in Liora's dishevelled appearance of wine logged hair and nightgown plastered onto her skin from the ruby liquids.
"Rhule… I take it you're here to-"
"Give you the notice of eviction? Yes, I am. And I am so glad to finally see you leave." Rhule smiled evilly as she handed an envelope to Liora. "I'm not going to waste time. You have six months to collect enough buckles or this little farm goes bye, bye."
Liora's hand froze mid-air, just about to take the envelope from Rhule's hands, "w-what do you mean by that? This farm is going to auction isn't it?"
Rhule's grin sent worry coursing through Liora, it maliciousness, it's utter sadism.
"Of course not," Rhule pushed the envelope into Liora's hands. "The king wishes for this land to be turned into a military stronghold. As have the many kings prior. Now with the last of the Rostrea dead and gone and the only child with blood ties to the name a runaway. This land falls back under the kingdom's control."
Liora's skin paled more and more, "n-no! You can't do this! This farm has been in Harv's family for generations! You can't just tear it down!" She shouted.
"Of course, we can," Rhule cruelly smiled, "there's no one left for the deed to fall to. You hold no blood with the Rostrea, and your daughter is off screwing some no name adventurer forsaking her father's name and will. Unfortunately," Rhule scowled, "we still cannot just throw you to the pigs and take this land. While you may not be of blood. You are of name. And that gives you time. Six months to be precise before we take this dirt stack off your hands and into the kingdoms."
Liora's hand raced to tear open the envelope, pulling out the letter within. Her eyes growing red while her legs wobbled and buckled beneath her. Her fingers clenching tight on the paper causing it to wrinkle.
"Si-six months?... This, this can't be right?" Her body shook at the sight of the preposterous writing. Continuing to read through the list, only growing paler by the second, "I-I there has to be another way!" she shouted, desperation to her voice, "this-this is too much! I can't harvest this much alone!"
"And that is my problem how?" Rhule scowled, "either you scrounge up the hay. Or this little shithole kicks the bucket." Rhule bent over, bringing her head just above Liora's letting her breathe in the thick floral perfume she wore, "have fun. I will be seeing you soon Liora. And when I do. It will be the last time I ever, have to look at you."
Rhule turned on heel, her hips swaggering side to side as she walked down the pathway, through the crumbling picket fence, the gate hanging off the hinges. Stopping just besides a dirty boy with a scraggly beard who was approaching the building.
Rhule's eyes wandered over the boy from tip to toe, his dirty brown hair. The grime that layered his skin and rag clothes. His beard that made him look like the ballsack of a werewolf. Snorting in disgust before storming off down the road towards a horse drawn carriage where her driver was waiting for her.
"Fuck you too," Liora could just barely hear the boy say as Rhule entered the carriage. Hopelessly staring into the distance, barely taking in the very boy making his way towards her.
"Ma'am, are you all right?"
Who knew that such a soft, worried tone would be all it took for Liora to break down and throw her head back, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screamed to the heavens.
'WHY!? JUST WHAT DID I DO TO ANGER YOU!?' her mind roared to the malicious gods above, the ones who took everything precious to her and would continue to.
Such was her pain that she didn't feel the boy wrap his arms around her, one hand pressing into the back of her head, pushing her face into his shoulder. Her own hands rocketing up to grip handfuls of his hole ridden shirt.
Continuously weeping, uncaring for the powerful stench of sweat the boy exuded.
"Shh, shh…" she found comfort in the gentle caresses of his hand stroking her back and massaging the back of her head. Letting her bawl her heart out to him.