Being her mother, Ana was the one who understood her daughter best. Seeing Alice's radiant smile made her feel renewed and blessed. The word "pride" didn't fully capture what she felt for her, besides love, of course. She could guess exactly what her daughter would do with the money she earned from her work and the payment agreements made between the mayor and Alice.
It seemed that the young girl not only had a knack for farming but also for business. She still remembered how surprised she was when Alice came to tell her about it, and with the contributions she had made from her observations of the plants and their characteristics, it made sense for her to get involved in their cultivation.
Ana knew that her dear daughter seemed to have a natural gift for agriculture and that Alice was smart enough to understand the importance of hard work. Also, she was sensible regarding her limits, so it wasn't until this year that she asked to be in charge of the special herb fields. Now, with Alice participating in the fields, the harvests had only improved, especially those of the special herbs.
Normally, a mother would be worried to see her daughter soon have so much money in her hands, but this wasn't the case. Alice was different from other kids her age who only knew how to get into trouble and question their parents' teachings. The always cheerful and calm girl loved learning new things; she never found her elders' words boring.
With maternal love filling her being, Ana called her daughter, who clearly needed a bath. "Come take a break, Alice. It's time for you to eat something. You can continue when the sun is less intense." The notion of even rejecting her mother's suggestion never crossed Alice's mind; she simply nodded with quiet joy, a little curious about what her mother had made for lunch that day.
As Alice left the field, other farmers wished her a good and well-deserved rest, not without reminding her of the importance of the following day and to be in the best of conditions and spirits for the festivities.
Ana recalled with a reluctant smile the moment when all the townspeople agreed to slightly move the festivities to have a decent excuse to throw a big party for Alice's birthday without giving her a way to refuse it. Although Alice didn't think it was necessary to do much for her birthday, she eventually gave in to the townspeople's insistence.
Birthdays weren't a big reason for celebration in the empire's culture. They were commemorated in some way but rarely were they cause for a big party. The only exceptions were the fifteenth and seventeenth birthdays, the latter being quite significant for young people as it marked their entry into adulthood.
Moving away from her work area, Alice joined her mother, who had laid out a small blanket under the shade of a tree, right on the edge of the field. As had become routine for the mother and daughter pair, they prepared to have lunch there before continuing their tasks.
While Ana handed the sweaty Alice a cloth to wipe her face, she couldn't help but comment. "Tomorrow we start the early planting festivals. Are you sure you don't want to take the rest of the day off?"
Ignoring her mother's words, Alice mumbled while wiping the dirt from her cheeks, "Even if my physical stamina isn't the best, I can still at least do this."
Used to her daughter's stubbornness, Ana gave in and decided to change the subject while handing Alice a small bowl of quail stew with fresh vegetables and some dry bread. "Well, if you're going to work so hard, you at least need to eat well."
Looking at her daughter with a love only a mother could feel, Ana felt a mix of joy and nostalgia seeing the kind of woman Alice was becoming. In an attempt to break the silence, she decided to bring up the topic that seemed to make her daughter uncomfortable. "Tomorrow you'll turn fifteen, Alice. The whole town is very excited, and I'm very excited myself."
It was evident that the topic made Alice uncomfortable. She stuffed her mouth in an attempt to avoid it. But under her mother's piercing gaze, those somewhat childish pouts had no effect. Swallowing her last bite, Alice finally muttered, "I know the big party is because of the planting season, but everyone in the village always tries to give me many gifts; it doesn't feel right to be the only one treated like this."
Any other young person would be more than happy to be treated specially, loved, and pampered by everyone around them. However, Ana knew her daughter better than anyone else, so she knew very well how to cheer her up. "I suppose you're old enough to stop believing the excuses we made to celebrate your birthday as if it were part of the planting festival," she said to try to ease those worries from her head.
Alice nodded to her mother's words; she had realized this a couple of years ago. "Alice, you will always be my greatest joy and pride. You are a kind and intelligent girl, though somewhat stubborn. Think of it this way: you feel bad about being treated specially, but you work on the special part of the planting. It's only logical that you have a special mention in everything related to it, don't you think?" Ana continued, looking at her daughter, awaiting any kind of reaction.
Alice stood up suddenly, leaving her food behind and blinking a few times as she processed her mother's words. Miraculously, what her mother had said made perfect sense: "I just have to work very hard and earn being treated that way so that I won't disappoint anyone in the village."
Maybe not the line of thought her mother had expected, but it worked. Seeing Alice's fighting spirit fully ignited, Ana just shook her head. Her daughter was a good girl but was too stubborn and enthusiastic about this particular issue. Ana went back to her tasks while Alice returned to the field with the flames of ambition burning deep within her.
For a couple of hours, the villagers could only watch worriedly as Alice worked tirelessly. No matter what they said to her, she didn't stop until the sun began to set.
It was that time of day when the woodcutters and hunters started returning from the outskirts of the village, a sign that Alice had worked very late and the sun would soon set, probably the time to head home. Since it wasn't safe to stay too late away from the village, hunters and woodcutters had the habit of leaving very early in the morning to return early, before twilight began to cast dangerous shadows in the forest.
Some of them carried significant amounts of freshly cut wood, while others brought back some rabbits, quails, and other small animals they'd just caught. Quality wood and the hides of certain animals were perhaps one of the few resources that had decent trade value, so many of the villagers were engaged in it.
Being a small village, Alice recognized all the faces she saw returning, greeting them always with a gentle and natural smile, bringing a little joy to anyone who saw her smile. For most, this was fine since they only saw Alice as she was an adorable girl. However, two faces lit up more than necessary upon seeing that smile. The youngest of the group were, respectively, a hunter's apprentice and a woodcutter's apprentice.
At first glance, one could see that these young men weren't much different in age from each other and Alice. And in such a small village where everyone knew each other, it was safe to assume that they had grown up together. However, their joint upbringing didn't exempt them from noticing how beautiful Alice had become over the years and how close she was to marriageable age.
Eager to catch the eye of the girl of his dreams, Thomas, the hunter's apprentice, approached Alice to show off his day's catch: three partridges and three rabbits, from which he let her choose. But she declined them all with an apologetic expression. Even though it was an offering from someone she considered a friend, her mother had taught her a long time ago that she shouldn't take things from others just because she could; only hard work would bring rewards that would bring her satisfaction.
Seeing the defeated hunter's apprentice, Raúl, the woodcutter's apprentice, feeling smarter than his predecessor, didn't try to give gifts. Instead, he attempted a display of strength and prowess, striking some strange poses while trying to show off all the wood he could carry.
Alice only laughed lightly, finding it amusing how her friends greeted her. She began to wonder why they behaved more peculiarly as the years went by. She even wondered if she was the strange one.
As had become routine over the past year, Ana turned a blind eye to the antics of these precocious boys chasing after her daughter. Since Alice didn't seem even slightly interested, Ana was in no hurry to bring up the topic. She wanted to enjoy her daughter as much as possible before she reached marriageable age.
Little did Ana know that Alice would probably remain single for much longer. This became evident by the fact that she would turn fifteen the next day, just two years away from the age considered suitable for marriage in the empire, yet she still showed no interest in romance. As obvious as it was that these boys were trying to court her, she didn't seem to notice at all.
Fortunately, marriage rituals and courtship etiquette were quite different in the countryside compared to the big cities, so there was no great pressure or opinion surrounding the topic of Alice's marriage once she reached the appropriate age. Ana only smiled a bit embarrassed seeing the boys' antics and her daughter's obliviousness.
"Tell me we weren't like that." A rough voice positioned itself beside Ana. A visibly burly man carrying considerably large pieces of wood. One of the older woodcutters, Ricardo, Raúl's father and a friend of Alice's late father.
Ricardo was the one who told Alice stories about her father. Thanks to him, she had heard that her father used to be a hunter, so she always felt curious about the trade. And though he tried to answer her questions as best he could, her mother never liked the idea, so she didn't allow Alice to get involved in the trade.
As expected, Alice approached to talk about the bed she wanted to order for herself and her mother, a request Ricardo was more than happy to fulfill. However, years of experience had taught him there was no way either Alice or Ana would accept it as a gift, even with the young girl's birthday so close, so he didn't even argue when Alice mentioned the payment.
Very sure that the bed wasn't an appropriate way to offer a gift for Alice's birthday, Ricardo did something else instead. He approached the day's catch pile took the largest animal he could find, a wild boar, and handed it to Ana. "It's not a gift; it's an order for the festival's start tomorrow, and in exchange, you can keep the hide and other parts that won't go into the stew." With full intention, Ricardo sent Thomas to help transport the boar while he stayed back to instruct Raúl on how to make the bed and gave him some tips to stop making a fool of himself.
Unfortunately, Alice was too happy thinking about how she could now do things to take care of her mother to pay attention to the boy walking behind them with a large boar on his back. Alice followed her mother home with an expression a bit more cheerful than usual. Completely oblivious to the suffering she caused her friends due to her density. Upon arriving home, she only bid her friend farewell, thanking him for his help and nothing more.