//------------------------------// // The Harvest // Story: Things Are Rarely as They Seem // by Orkus //------------------------------// When the day of the harvest came, the bounty all could see that the garden had provided was like something out of an old painting. Vegetables, all healthy and fully grown, were showing in abundance. Now ready for the picking, Habeas was the first to set upon collecting them after wheeling the wagon up to the garden when noon hit. And when he started, he nabbed as much as he could with that hallmark grin of determination glowing on his face, and it seemed especially brighter now that his leg had healed up enough for him to take the sling off. His wings were clearly beginning their own healing process, but with his hoof now usable again, he found this to be a great time to exercise it. Instead of using his magic to snatch up the many vegetables, he used it instead. The hole-filled limb handled all it grabbed ahold of with ease, and from there he deposited them neatly into the cart, and then repeated the process. Also joining him in this endeavor was Peach Blossom. She was more than happy to help him with the job, and that could be seen clearly with how she hard she worked alongside him. When they both eventually began to focus on the area of the garden containing the patch of squash, the changeling couldn't help but crack the worst pun imaginable. "Ooh... you'd best be very careful now," Habeas spoke to Peach Blossom in an ominous fashion as she was just picking one of them up and balancing it over her back. "You don't want to trip and end up... squashing the squash, do you?" The filly chuckled at his lame pun, but still brought the vegetable over to the cart in a careful stride. "Really, Mr. Brittle? That's the best you could come up with?" "Little do you know how much of a fan of the cheesy jokes I am," he said back with a smirk of his own. "But even so, there's a certain brilliance in simplicity, am I right?" From a short distance away, Persica was putting away the last of the gardening equipment and plant food into the deeper parts of the barn; storing them away for next spring. When she left the building through its front doors, clapping some dust from her hooves, she looked in the direction of the garden and at the changeling who was cheerfully working within it. Habeas was mirthfully going at it with as much energy as when he started. Glad that he wasn't paying attention her way, she took the time to look him over while he toiled on. One thing worth noting was how he certainly looked less awkward now instead of when he was walking around on three legs. But other things about him caught her eye, like a fish swimming toward a glittering lure in a cold stream. Aside from his odd chitinous exterior, he did at least have a... mildly attractive physique, she began to think. It was the sheer level of exuberance he had and gave off, and the amount of politeness he expressed when addressing her that was what made her see him in that light, she supposed. And the way he was so unfailingly helpful, played and got along with Peach Blossom as though she were his own child, and all-around did his best not to be a nuisance was quite... prepossessing. To say she didn't find him somewhat desirable would have been a lie... Ugh... what am I thinking? The clear words were like a jolt of static electricity that snapped her away from the outrageous idea forming in her head. It was all just a crazy thought. Nothing more or less. Sighing, she watched the changeling as he went on with his business, digging around and hoisting up a particularly sizable squash with his changeling magic, since the thing would probably be quite unwieldy for him to lift away in his bare hooves. "Mom, why are you looking at Mr. Brittle like that?" The voice of Peach Blossom ended the train of thought zipping around within Persica's head. Snapping back her regular self, she instantly stared down to her daughter who stood to the left of her. Were this any other pony she was speaking to, Persica may have snapped up a quick and unfriendly excuse, but to her daughter, her response was calm, collected, and lacked any form of worry whatsoever. "Oh, I was merely staring at the large squash Habeas was carrying away. It must have been my bad eye you saw pointed in his direction." The filly was quick to point out the flaw in her hastily-drawn defense. "Are you sure? It looked to me like it was your good eye looking his way. But I guess I shouldn't be so nosy. I only came over to ask you when you were going to help pick out some of the plants with us." Persica peered down at Peach Blossom with a curled brow. She thought for a moment about chastising her daughter for her assumption, but ultimately found that she had nothing worth speaking of without causing a scene. "I'll be over to help in a moment," was all she replied with. Saying nothing and smirking, Peach Blossom passed by her mother and began skipping back to the garden. "Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..." she hummed into a tune positively reeking of teasing derision, merrily rejoining Habeas in the harvest. Sighing again, Persica also went to the garden and entered it behind her daughter. As the changeling had started on collecting the tomatoes, smallest to biggest, she in turn focused on digging up the potatoes from the dirt. While Persica did that with some of her scooping tools, Peach Blossom noticed one more squash still remained, one of an impressive size that was partially hidden under a leafy vine, sitting just in front of a patch of cabbage. Dogged and determined to bring it to the cart herself, she severed its stem and hoisted it over her back. The moment she did so though, the weight of the object instantly made her top-heavy, and she started to teeter with instability. "Uh-oh..." she mumbled to herself. Traipsing over a particularly moist patch of soil, she slipped on it, losing the last of what little balance she had and inevitably falling with a panicked shout. "Wait, Peach Blossom!" came two voices at the same time. Just before she and the vegetable could collapse onto the dry soil, Peach Blossom felt as two pairs of hooves simultaneously caught her and the squash, holding them in place. Staring to either side of her, Peach Blossom saw, to her relief, that Persica and Habeas had saved her. "Whew..." she puffed with a hoof to her chest, after the changeling and her mother set the vegetable to the side. "I almost really did squash the squash, hehehe..." "And the squash might have also squashed you," joked Persica. "Good thing you're both okay." "Yeah, it sure is," she smiled as she looked to her mother, and then Habeas. "If you guys hadn't saved me, we might've had one less thing to keep for dinner. Thanks for catching me." Deciding to go after some of the vegetables in the garden more to her size, Peach Blossom trotted off. With the ordeal over with, Persica looked to Habeas as he raised up the large squash on his own with his magic to bring it away safely. Whether from the mild temperature outside or not, the second their eyes met, her cheeks seemed to pick up a light reddish tint to them, as though blushing. By the slightly wide-eyed look on her face right afterword, she knew about it, and reacted accordingly. "Thanks for... helping to catch my daughter before she could get herself hurt, I guess," she said, looking to the peach orchard a ways away; the year now too late for the trees to bear fruit. "That was very nice of you." Habeas chuckled sheepishly in return, rubbing his back with once-lame hoof. "You're welcome." For dinner that night, the three dined upon the hardly-wrought spoils of the garden's exceptional bounty. Mashed potatoes, peas, pods, and Brussels sprouts littered everyone's plates, including the one belonging to Habeas. Persica had allowed him to join them at the table as part of a personal 'thank you' gesture for all he had done with the garden, and it didn't really help that it was Peach Blossom's goading that inspired her to do so in the first place. Habeas was the first to clear his plate. "That was a great meal," he said, putting a hoof to his mouth as though he was about to let out a small belch, which never came. "If you both will excuse me, I need to go use the restroom." "We'll be having some fresh peach cobbler when you get back," Persica mentioned, as her fork stabbed at another sprout. "It's still in the oven right now. Don't be gone for too long, or it might get cold." Habeas smiled. "Sounds like a plan." With that, he got up from his seat and headed off to the washroom as the mare and her daughter finished up the last of their meals. He entered it, closed the door behind him, but instead of relieving himself, he filled the sink up with water and looked at his scrawny self in the mirror hanging above it. As what his image was currently doing, he came in here to reflect on some things. He had shortly before come to a (rather grim) realization that being with Persica made him feel happier than normal, almost content with most things, and... very warm. Warmth that felt many thousands of times better than the kind experienced by lazily laying in a great sunbeam on a cold morning. It was a sensation in his chest that he noticed he was beginning to crave. A sensation that he didn't want to lose, and having the mare just staying in his vision ensured that it would remain. He sighed and stared at his unsure face looking back at him in the mirror. So much had transpired in so little time, and his mind felt greatly weary from it all. One, single, damning word to describe these feelings came to his mind many times over the last few weeks, but he continued to ignore it until he could deny it no longer. Was it love he was feeling? True, earnest, undeniable love? For Persica? The very same mare who once- no, twice nearly took his life without a thought otherwise? To this incredulous question, Habeas was not sure if he had the answer. Splashing his face with the cold water in the sink and then drying it off with the handkerchief around his neck, it seemed to help him refresh his mind a tad, though not truly by much. He did find her quite attractive and simply blithe to be around - in the ludic and dry sense, anyhow. But there was a fine line between common desire and true, passionate endearment. A line as thin and perilous as the blade of a knife, and Habeas was starting to find himself balancing on its edge. Ever since that night where the two had drunkenly fallen asleep together, he could sense a greater amount of ease and peace with herself coming about her. He could feel that sulking murk within her faltering with every passing day he was around, and what replaced it was a warm feeling that he perceived was very similar to what he himself was enduring. Habeas only wondered if Persica saw it the same way he did. As her scar told all, she had been through much. Too much. She had her own husband, one she seemed to love more than anything else, and she had lost him in the most monstrous way fathomable. That was the only fragment of gloom that rested within her soul, clinging to it like a cancer, and Habeas knew it wouldn't leave anytime soon. But then, before he left the bathroom, that one question came back into his head. Was he actually falling for Persica? Had this mare, unintentionally or otherwise, ensnared his affections to her infatuating being like a moth flittering mindlessly to a flame, daring to be burned? Did he even hope to think that he was in love with that fierce, battle-scarred, warrioress-of-a-pony? To all of these queries that came into his head like a flood breaching a dam, Habeas finally came to his conclusion he felt comfortable with. He believed he was. And for quite an obvious reason, as he returned to the dinner table for the oncoming round of dessert, he felt extremely worried about it.