Uriel left his room and walked into the kitchen and living area, sitting in one of the old coaches was Cauthen Marsh, he was a bit on the older side with his thick mustache showing signs of graying and a completely bald and shinning head.
Cassandra was exchanging a greeting with the miller, with the bed sheet covering her dress, when Uriel came in.
"Afternoon, Mr. Marsh," he politely greeted and offered his hand.
Like all the men of Old Meadow, Mr. Marsh was large in size and his older age did nothing to diminish his form.
"Ah Uriel lad, how've ya been?" he got up and grasped Uriel's hand giving it a firm shake.
Uriel didn't shy away, he knew that the men of Old Meadow were always testing his strength, there was no way that they would let him take one of their ladies if he couldn't keep them safe.
He grasped the miller's tight hand and squeezed back in turn, falling just short of meeting the elderly man's iron-like grip.
"Ha, good lad," he chuckled and let go of his hand, "Where does a small thing like you get all that strength from?" he asked, it was hard to tell, but under his thick mustache he seemed to be smiling.
Uriel could only grin and shrug in response when the front door opened and his dad came in.
As Zek stepped into the room everything went silent as he looked at Mr. Marsh.
"What was so urgent Cauthen, surely whatever you have to say can wait till tonight," said Zek as he sat his hat down at the entrance rack.
"Afraid not Zek, let's talk outside," he said giving everyone a hesitant glance.
Cauthen turned to Uriel, "Do try to keep Alec out of trouble tonight," he requested.
Uriel nodded at his request, Alec was Mr. Marsh's son and one of his friends, though Alec had a bit of a tendency to fall into trouble.
He was a bit of a troublemaker with the girls, he was pretty good at flirting with the girls, but more than once did he take things a little too far and wound up getting chased through the village by a mob of angry mothers with brooms, pots, and meat cleavers in hand.
The ladies of Old Meadow might have been small in stature especially next to their men, but they were by no means to be underestimated, and once you put them together in an angry mob there was no telling just what they could do.
As Zek and Cauthen left so did Casey, she followed behind them with a concerned look, leaving Uriel and Cassandra alone, "You two stay here," she said to the two of them as she rushed out.
Cassandra looked at Uriel, "What do you think they are talking about?" she asked with concern in her eyes.
They might have been young, but they were no fools, they could tell with a glance that something wasn't right.
"Only one way to find out," Uriel shot her a grin and ran to the window at the back, the doors made too much noise and he knew that they would get in trouble if they were found out.
He climbed out the window but a moment later he was met with Cass calling for him.
"Uriel, I need your help," Cassandra called in a low shout as she pointed to her dress.
The dress and bedsheet made it hard for her to move around, and if he didn't help then she was definitely going to trip and fall in the garden.
Uriel stepped back and offered her his hand, which she happily took, placing her small fair hands in his, her hands were hardly flawless, no hard-working villagers' hands could ever be.
He could feel the calluses on her hand that had long smoothened over the course of many years, her hand was firm yet still soft and gentle, she used his hand to balance while using her other hand to pull her dress up as she tip-toed over the thorn bushes in the garden beneath the window.
When she got across Uriel kept a hold of her hand and crept along the side of the house pulling her along, their parents weren't anywhere to be seen but he knew exactly where they would go.
Hand in hand the two ran to the barn where they could hear the voices of Zek and Cauthen, but sadly they couldn't hear them very clearly.
"What do we do now?" Cass asked with a nervous smile, it had been so long since she went sneaking around not since she bled her first time, since that day her mother had her working and preparing for adult life every day.
She missed those days of running around with Uriel, but it wasn't proper for her to be alone with a boy after she bled, even if it was Uriel.
Uriel let go of her hand as he walked along the side of the barn, then he stopped at one point and pulled one of the planks up, it was a secret entrance into the barn and it opened to an area where they stacked all the blocks of hay.
Cassandra's eyes sparkled as she crawled through doing her best to keep her dress from getting messed up, once she entered Uriel ducked in and followed after her.
Once they entered they could hear the voices clear echo in the barn.
"… demanding that we double the tribute that we gave them last month," Cauthen was saying.
Uriel's eyes immediately flashed with anger as he heard Cauthen, it was just as he thought.
The soldiers of the new bloody queen were running around extorting them for provisions because of their war.
Just last month they were forced to give triple the usual tribute, and now they were asking that they double that amount.
Old Meadow was just a small village that was a long way away from any major powers, they had a few agreements with the king of Gilshu to supply them with a certain amount of food every month and in exchange, their roads would be patrolled and kept safe.
But since this new queen arrived declaring her rule over the middle lands and waging war against Gilshu they hadn't seen a single patrol, then before long bandits arrived starting to harass the villagers.
When it was getting out of hand the soldiers of the queen came to the people's rescue, at first they demanded only that they pay them the same as what they used to pay the king of Gilshu, but it didn't take long for them to show their true colors and with each subsequent month things only got worse.
There were some months when they came to collect multiple times and they threatened to leave the village unguarded if they refused, at which point many people felt that it would actually be better, the bandits were far better than the soldiers.
If you gave the bandits a little they would take it and leave, sometimes they even helped out in the village for a day or two before leaving.
But the soldiers came in acting like everything belonged to them and started to demand things in excess before leaving.
"Things can't go on like this," Zek said as he paced the barn with a look of worry.
They had just entered the season of the frost, by the end of the month it would be impossible for anything to grow, and their supplies were already running low due to the soldier's incessant demands.
It was crazy how low their supplies were when you considered that they had only just left the season of the earth, when the best growths occurred, one of the major elements of Cair-Andriel was the celebration of the successful harvest.
But if things kept going on like this they would be lucky if they didn't starve when the frost arrived.
Cauthen nodded, "The mayor has sent out the rangers to the neighboring villagers, to arrange a meeting,"
"If the villagers can band together then we might have a chance to resist the soldiers, at the very least it's possible that we'll be able to negotiate a fair deal with them," Cauthen informed Zek.
Zek nodded though the worry in his eyes didn't fade, "When do the soldiers want the tribute?" he asked.
"Tomorrow," Cauthen replied.
"No," Casey cried in anger, "This is just too much, if they take this much our storages will be half empty, it hasn't been a week since we finished the harvest, what's to stop these scoundrels from coming back in a week to demand more?!" she cried with her green eyes trembling.
It wasn't like this food was meant solely for them, they had the farmhands to feed, and a portion of it was still owed to the village itself to keep everyone fed.
Cauthen could only look down with a bitter expression, he didn't like it any more than she did, but these were trained soldiers with iron arrows, steel swords, and armor, resistance would come at the cost of many lives if not all their lives.
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