Zeke woke up refreshed and ready to seize the day once more.
A month has already passed and the days of Zeke's life in the farm with the boys are so fulfilling, full of adventure, mishaps, and filled with unbridled happiness. He could not help but smile thinking about this fact, and how far they've already wormed inside his heart and he had hoped that he is in theirs as well.
Zeke sighed with a sense of contentment. He looked at the clock sitting on top of the drawer beside his ever familiar bed, and saw that it's almost past nine in the morning. No one bothered to wake him up so he assumed that either everyone is still asleep or they're already preparing for their day jobs. Either way, he stopped speculating and actually got himself ready for yet another day ahead.
As he went down the corridor he heard activity in the kitchen as well as loud snores coming from Dirk's room. God, he still doesn't know how the dog could give off that kind of snore, but in all honesty he should be used to it by now, this is how he is every Saturday morning.
He decided to go down and help whoever is on duty cooking in the kitchen, as he now smell the sweet aroma of food. This caused his stomach to rumble in hunger, Zeke snickered then continued heading towards the kitchen.
Zeke saw the bull preparing and cooking in the kitchen again, he has his back turned to him but then notices his presence. "Hey Boss, good morning, have a seat, food's ready."
Zeke walked towards a chair but kept his gaze towards the big guy, "I remember you doing the kitchen duty yesterday, wasn't it supposed to be someone else today?"
He answered, still turned away from ho,, washing the kitchen utensils he used in the sink, "well it was supposed to be Dirk, and I was going to wake him up, but looking at him sleeping real peacefully, I just didn't bother."
"You call that guttural snoring, peaceful?" Zeke snorted, "well I guess it doesn't matter as long as you're okay with it."
"Uh huh, no problem-o, now eat your food before it gets cold."
"Yes, mom," Zeke replied as he dig in the wonderful food that is in front of him.
Zeke was just about to finish his food when Dirk finally entered the kitchen, he yawned as he stretches his arms then proceeded to take a seat beside Zeke. Feeling both Zeke's and Magnus' stares, he looked up while lifting up the fork, all ready to eat.
"What?" he asked groggily, still isn't fully awake, then yawned again.
"Um, aren't you forgetting something?" Zeke asked the confused canine.
He scrunched up his face then blinked lazily, thinking and racking up his head real hard even folding up both of his arms like how a child would, "should I be remembering anything?"
His innocence, or outright lying is so charmingly adorable that Zeke could not help but give him a endearing chuckle, he looked at Magnus and see that he is being affected by Dirk's effortless charm as well.
"What? What's so funny?" he asked again, clearly confused by the situation.
"It's your duty today to cook dumbass, remember?" Magnus said, chuckling playfully.
Dirk's face lightened up by the realization, and even awakening him from his light stupor. He cringed probably feeling bad at the situation.
"Sorry Mag, I just had a good sleep, promise I'll make it up to ya," he said sounding a little dejected.
"Don't worry about it," Magnus smiles, "and anyways, I love cooking for us, so it doesn't really feel like a chore to me."
Dirk's expression relaxes, relieved at the words of his friend, "thanks man, I owe ya."
And with that Dirk resumed on eating his meal.
With Dirk busy eating, or rather savoring his food, Zeke turned to Magnus to ask where the other two are.
"They already started with their jobs boss," he answered, still washing the dirty dishes.
"Oh, should I go and help them?"
"Oh no, don't worry about it boss," he glanced at him with a small smile, "Wulfric said that our efforts for the past four weeks have satisfied the Mayor and stabilized the resources that we need."
Hearing the conversation, Dirk stopped from eating, "yeah boss, he said that we should give this day to you and let you relax, with how hard we worked over the past few weeks we should be able to take it slow for now."
"Oh, really?" Zeke answered not knowing how to feel about the situation," I guess I should huh."
"Yep, you've been working real hard sustaining and managing the farm and town boss, you deserve this," Magnus added.
Zeke knew that's not wholly true, his farmhands' guidance and understanding helped him through his struggles at his first month here at Loneharv. But, now that he thought about it, he actually didn't have any time to just relax and sightsee at the town ever since he came here, so this is a really good opportunity to familiarize himself fully.
"Okay but how about you boys?" Zeke asked, standing up from the chair he's sitting on as he lifted up his empty plate, he then handed them to Magnus, "anyone of you who wanna come with?"
"Nah boss, It's your free time you should use it for a bit of a time to yourself, and honestly, aren't you tired of always being with us?" Dirk snickered, "enjoy, and anyways we got jobs we still need to do for the day."
"I agree, you should head into town boss, talk to people and look for establishments you haven't seen, familiarize yourself you know," Magnus said.
"Alright," Zeke said washing both of his hands on the sink, wiping them thoroughly on the towel that was hanging by the oven, "I'll see you guys later."
Now that he thought about it, this is really a good opportunity to visit some establishments in town he has yet to discover, some that are not related to farm work. Realizing this Zeke excitedly, but calmly walked up the stairs to get a change of clothes for the day.
Rummaging through his wardrobe, he pulled out three sets of clothes that is both comfortable and practical in this hot day in Loneharv.
He put them on top of his bed and decide which one he would go for.
The first one was a set of decent clothes, a cream-colored tunic that looks like a V-neck shirt, and breeches that fits his form perfectly.
The second was plain clothes, a simple white Bastian shirt that hugs his body form and stretches perfectly in every movement, paired with a set of loose pants and boots.
While the third is much more daring, loosely fitting tunic that has very thin cloth and a tight breeches that will accentuate his nether regions rather obscenely.
Thinking hard he finally went with the one that is nearest to him, which was the first set of clothes Zeke decided that this outfit is the best for all the trekking that he's about to do today.
After he's done putting back everything in his wardrobe and picking his attire for the day ahead, he looked at himself on the mirror and with a final smile decide to head out.
Zeke bid his farewells to Magnus and Dirk with the latter still intently focused on stuffing his mouth with more food, Zeke could'nt help but smile. Now finally, off to the town with him.
The road to town should be familiar to him by now, so it didn't take him too long to arrive at his destination. The familiarity of everything is refreshing and invigorating that Zeke couldn't help but take in a deep breath before exploring the streets.
He doesn't remember a thing when he was here last time, and that is almost three weeks ago, work kept him from actually leaving the farm and now is the perfect time to acquaint himself in his own time as he has been given a day off by his hardworking farmhands. He wondered when they actually take theirs, because ever since he arrived they've done nothing but to help and assist him.
In any case, it's supposed to be his day off so it's time to stop thinking about work now and enjoy the time to yourself.
Zeke started walking languidly as he once again took in the lazy streets of Loneharv, and he suddenly remembered the Magic Shop and Aelessa. Maybe after almost a month it is prudent to at least visit them. So, he instantly tried to remember the path that Dirk showed him when he toured him almost a month ago throughout the town.
Thankfully, like his boys said, the town isn't that large so it didn't take him too long to recognize the right way into their magical shop. The townspeople are too busy about their day and work to recognize him, so the trek is quite peaceful.
He finally arrived at the wizard's shop and he stopped in front of the uncanny door anxiously anticipating with what to expect beyond. It feels different this time, probably because now he's on his own, alone and without the help of Dirk's disarming charisma, although when you really think about it, his so called "irresistible charm and charisma" hasn't really affected Aelessa at that time. I guess they're just very eccentric and aloof for Dirk's dangerous allure to work as it usually does.
Zeke knocked only once and the door instantly opened, revealing the person in charge of the shop. Aelessa looked at him, assessing Zeke subtly while giving him the warmest of smiles, "I never thought you'd come back."
Zeke greeted them while giving the smile back, "it's been quite a hectic month as you can imagine, settling in was not as rough as I thought but it still takes quite some time to familiarize myself with our day-to-day responsibilities."
"Yes that would be what would normally happen, with every information and obligation that was thrown at you right off the bat," Aelessa replied while nodding with their eyes closed.
"Well! Come on in, and let's see what you came in here for.