Two weeks had gone by since the attack and brush with death at the claws of Anaya the Black, and just as the townsfolk said, they all chipped in to provide Basil with all the necessary ingredients and recipes needed to make sweets for the dragon. Although getting the material was easy, the most challenging part was actively trying to make all the food necessary for a freaking dragon!
Not knowing how much he needed in order to satisfy her, he decided to make as much as he could before the end of the month. Thanks to his Magic Pocket, he could make as much as he wanted and put it all away to keep it fresh for the end of the month without having to cook all the day before or risk spoiling. In the span of two weeks, he had learned to make several different kinds of cakes, pies, tarts, doughs, cookies, and other assorted sweets. On top of trying to make enough food for a dragon, he also had his bakery to run, which was always busy whenever he had it open.
During this time, Basil needed a lot of help and got most of it from Teto, Broomy, and Hagson. The ladder of which who was surprisingly good in the kitchen, especially with the advantagion of his own Living Object Spell. Even though they both had promised to teach one another about humanity and magic, these lessons had been put on hold due to the deal with Anaya. Even so, Basil tried his best to explain and answer any questions that Hagson could give him, no matter how busy he got.
Eventually, the workers finally stopped working for a well-deserved break. Basil wiped the sweat from his brow and said to the Hag Spawn, "Thanks again for helping me make all this food for my business and Anaya, Hagson. And sorry we've had to hold off on our magic training."
Hagson casually shrugged at his gratefulness and replied, "Normally, I would just leave you until I decided to come back, but as a Hag Spawn, I do enjoy cooking."
Basil sighs as he looks around his bakery, touching his cheek, and complains, "I just wish I could do more. The people of Ash End providing me with the necessary ingredients and recipes for sweets have been a huge help, but trying to prepare myself for next month on top of running my business and caring for my home and garden is just too much for one person. I may be able to work like a hundred men, but I certainly can't do the work of a hundred men."
"Why not have your pet goblins help you." Hagson vexingly offered as one of his magic ovens spat out the fresh blueberry muffins.
Placing the muffins into his Magic Pocket while glaring at the witch, Basil scolded him, "Firstly, they are not my pets, servants, or whatever else. And second, they are super busy right now building their citadel. I haven't seen them since the vampire scare two weeks ago.", he sighs at all the thoughts running through his head as Teto attempts to comfort him with a leg hug. Picking up the Kenku and sitting on a stool, he says to himself, "Well, not much I can do really. It's not like a workforce will fall into my lap overnight. After all, worrying is a lot like sitting in a rocking chair. It keeps you busy but gets you nowhere."
Hagson wanted to comment on Basil suddenly becoming philosophical but decided against it as something from outside caught his eyes, and he asked, "By the way, what are those weird red things growing in your garden beds?"
Confused by what he meant, he followed the hag spawn gaze until he looked at the closest garden bed holding a new plant he had planted weeks prior. "Oh! These are tomatoes. One of the farmers gave me some seeds when I made that deal with Anaya. I was kind of thinking about drying them out or making soup. They should be ripe by tomorrow.", he explained to him before realizing something and asking, "Wait, have you never seen a tomato?"
"To be fair, I don't know a lot of things.", Hagson tried to admit without sounding embarrassed, but already feeling Basil's smug expression burn the back of his head.
"Then I guess we both can teach one another.", Basil offered in a cocky tone.
Causing the hag spawn to snap his neck to the man and growl, "Don't try and change our present deal."
xXx
Basil went out to water his crops the next morning before starting his day to open his bakery bright and early. Yesterday, he had made twice the amount of sweet treats he had and thought it would be enough to satisfy the dragon when she returned. Taking his water bucket to the first fenced-in crop plot, he was stunned to find that all his tomato plants, which would have been ripened by today, were completely gone! All the plants still stood, but the fruits vanished from the vines.
"Hey Hagson.", he called out to his witch friend who had joined him early in the morning for some cooking and baking. "Do you know what happened to my tomatoes?", he called out to him.
The hag spawn appeared sitting on the fence post and snapped back, "I just learned what they were yesterday. You think I did something?"
Basil sweat dropped at his reply, and he commented, "Do you have to be so confrontational? It's just a question."
Hagson sighed in exasperation before offering, "Well, maybe you have pests."
Examining the plants, he observes aloud, "Unlikely, the whole fruit is gone with nothing left behind. Yet the leaves and plants remain untouched. Something plucked them. But what?"
Just then, he heard a strange noise and saw some rustling amongst the other plants. Pushing them aside, he was stunned to see an unusual creature lying in the dirt with a distended stomach. It looked like some kind of sheep… sort of. But it was far smaller and weirder looking than an ordinary sheep; in fact, it was even smaller than Teto. It was like looking at a plush toy, as its head and body seemed to be fused into one form under its mass of snow-white wool, making it look like a perfect ball. It possessed two small yellow horns that curled around like the horns of a ram, two green eyes, long ears with pink insides, and wore a bell. The hooves on their forelimbs had been modified to become similar in structure to three-fingered hands. Any part of its body outside the wool was colored black, leading its arms, legs, and face to be colored this way. The tiny creature was on its back, snoring happily with a giant snot bubble and strange juice around its mouth.
"Hey Hagson.", Basil called for him, staring at the strange sheep-like creature before asking, "Can you tell me what this…thing is?"
Hagson hopped off the post and walked to his side, where he glanced down and, in a confused tone, told him, "A Small Torah?"
"A small what?", Basil asks back.
"Small Torah or, as you humans dumbly call them, Lambies.", Hagson briefly explains to him.
Basil's eyes shot wide open at this, and he proclaimed with the dumbest smile on his face, "Lambies!? That's the best name ever!"
"Just call them Small Torah.", Hagson groans, shooting him a glare.
"So what are they?", Basil inquires.
"Well, humans believe them to be one of the many races that live in the Fae Wilds, but in reality, some Arch Wizard tried to make a cheap workforce from sheep, failed miserably, and booted them off into the Fae Wilds. If memory serves correctly, they have a certain liking towards…red things.", Hagson explained in more detail.
Putting two and two together, Basil made the connection and squealed, "So that's the reason my whole crop is gone!?", he then proceeded to roughly pull the Small Torah from the dirt and hold it up while shaking it around and yelling, "Why you little…you little…you…"
Unfortunately, Basil was so taken in by the small sheep creature's cute appearance, relaxed nature, and small hiccup that his anger quickly faded, and he hugged the small creature while cooing, "Awwww! I can't stay mad at something so cute!"
Hagson sweat dropped at this sight, and he gripped to him, "You're such a pushover."
"No, I'm not!", Basil argued back before Hagson quickly and suddenly pushed him over, causing him to fall in the dirt and try to save the Small Torah in the process. After making sure the wind didn't get knocked out of him or the Small Torah got hurt, he shouted at the male witch, "Hey!"
"And now you are.", Hagson vexed him as Basil angrily glared and bared his teeth at him.
By this point, the Small Torah had awakened from its food coma and proclaimed, "Tomato!"
Surprised and scared by the discovery of the creature's ability to speak, Basil jumped from the dirt, released the sheep, and clung onto the hag spawn before exclaiming, "They can talk!?"
"If they couldn't, they all probably would've been eaten.", Hagson commented as Basil glared at him, causing the hag spawn to argue, "What? It's true."
"Tomato!", the small Torah proclaimed again while standing on its feet, showing to be bipedal.
After calming down, Basil approached the tiny creature and stated, "I can't believe one small creature managed to eat my entire supply."
"That's because it didn't.", Hagson said out of the blue, causing Basil to look at him for clarification. "Small Torah live in large communal herds.", he explained.
As if on cue, every part of the path leading up to the cottage that was covered by shrubbery or tall grass, and even the crop plots all began to rustle and shake until they parted, where a whole herd of Small Torah excitedly began to swarm from every corner until the young man and male witch were surrounded on all sides by the small sheep creatures bleating in joy. They all had happy expressions, distended tummies, and remnants of tomato juice on their faces. Once they surrounded them, they began to bounce around and speak in sheep sounds as if trying to communicate with the two men.
"That's a lot of Lambies!", Basil said in amazement, looking over the sea of white cotton balls.
As he looked over the large herd of sheep, they all began to bleat in excitement, louder and louder until the air around them was filled with the sounds of sheep! It was so loud and overpowering that it was hard just trying to think. Basil had tried many times to get them to quiet down peacefully but quickly found that it wouldn't work over the sounds of the sheep acting like hyperactive kindergarteners.
So he just went for it and progressively yelled, "Hold on. Hold on! HOLD ON! QUIET!!!"
This seemed to do the trick, and the Small Torah all went dead silent with every pair of sideways green eyes locked firmly on him. After clearing his throat from yelling, Basil stated, "Now then. I understand you're all very excited and happy about…tomatoes."
"Tomato!", the Small Torah all cheered in unison.
Basil had to quickly plug up his ears from the sudden change in volume and half yelled to get them to stop, "BUT! I can't just give it to you guys for free.", this caused a sigh of disappointment from the tiny creatures, making Basil scold them, "And besides that, you guys not only ate everything, you stole them from me! Which is very very bad!", this causing the Small Torah to take on sad looks and stare at the ground in disappointment. Unfortunately, this once again played at the young man's heartstrings, and he quickly forgave their transgressions, telling them, "Oh, I can't get mad at such a large group of cuties."
This caused the sheep to lose their sad faces and cheer happily at the man's forgiveness. This also caused Hagson to look on with disbelief and say under his breath, "Gods, you're soft."
"But like I said, I can't just give you tomatoes for free. Especially since they're all gone.", Basil explained to the creatures.
Then one of the Small Torah turned to the rest of their herd and began to communicate in their own language that sounded much like sheep sounds. After they were finished with their speech, the rest of the herd nodded and fanned out to every crop plot, swarming it like flies on a piece of rotten meat. Before either of them could process what was happening, the Small Torah all converged around the two men where they deposited every ripened crop in neat piles. Any crop plots with no crops in them had any remnants of roots or shoots removed, the dirt tilled, new seeds planted in their place, and any remaining crops watered.
Seeing this happen before his eyes in seconds, the only thing Basil could utter was, "Holy-."
"Crap.", Hagson finished off for him with a whistle before summarizing, "I guess that Arch Wizard was wrong about these guys. They really are the perfect cheap labor force."
"I, um, can see that-.", Basil stammered dumbly as all the Small Torah looked to him like expectant children. So he shook the dumb out of his head, cleared his throat, and addressed the creatures, offering, "AHEM! Ok, I think we can come to a deal. I'll grow as many tomatoes as your little stomachs can eat if you guys help me with stuff around here; like the gardens, property maintenance, and cooking…if you guys know how to do that. Sounds good?"
"Tomato!", all the Small Torah once again cried in unison.
"I think that means yes.", Hagson inferred.
"So you guys got names?", Basil questions the sheep creatures, to which they all look down in disappointment. Basil feels a chill run down his spine at the reaction and asks his witch friend, "Hey Hagson, you wouldn't be able to count how many of the Small Torah there are…could you?"
"About forty, but that's just a guess. There could be more.", Hagson quickly answers, also getting the same feeling as him.
Looking over the crowd of excitedly expecting faces, Basil lets out a stressed raspberry as he says, "Ho boy, I'm gonna be here for a while.", with that, he sets off to name each and every last Small Torah. A task that took nearly half the day to do.