Sounds from a dozen different cities echoed in Kev’s ears. Through his earpiece he heard trains pulling out of one station and arriving in another hundreds of miles apart. What he heard most of all was other minotaurs, of course. The other members of the so-called Executive Review Board, one in each of the corporation’s offices scattered around the country, were making one noise or other: breathing, coughing, or writing down a note. Maybe the phone’s connection was just too good, or he wasn’t paying enough attention to who was actually speaking.
The latter couldn’t be the case. If he didn’t want to pay attention, he’d find something else to stare at besides the sheets of paper spread out on the desk. The mine’s office, his office, was a single room that housed a few file boxes, office supplies, and the one piece of modern technology that corporate headquarters had blessed them with. Kev didn’t know what half of the telephone’s buttons did. All he knew for sure was what time it was supposed to ring, and what sort of data he’d need to present to the executives on the other end of the line.
He held up a pencil and tried to gauge the time by the shadow it cast. The sunlight coming in through the left hand window didn’t do much good, even though it seemed to be drilling right into his eyes. In a few hours, it’d dip below the mountain peak, leaving a view of the winding trail that led to the village. The view out of the right hand window was just the opposite. The mountain’s shadow practically hid the dirt road that led back to civilization, save for the line of telephone poles that traveled alongside it.
Kev’s ears perked up at the sound of his name, or rather the name of his division. “All right, let’s hear from the western mining operation and call it a day.”
Kev smiled. “I’ll keep it short then, Sirs. Gem production has continued to skyrocket over the past week. By the time I submit the quarterly report, we’ll have broken every record this site has ever had. I’m confident that we’ll have shipped out a year’s worth of raw product before our last shipment leaves the refining factories.”
“Excellent news, Mr. Kev. I’m assuming metals have continued to stagnate?” It didn’t matter who was speaking; as the junior member of the board, Kev could refer to them all as Boss.
“Yes, Sir. I have our best prospectors exploring options to increase ore production, but for the time being I’ve concentrated our excavation teams on gems. Production is up, and so is morale. The only workforce statistic that’s gone down is on-site accidents.”
Someone else on the line cleared their throat. The tone of voice alone identified him as the executive from corporate headquarters, the boss of the bosses. “I think I speak for everyone here when I say that your performance has been stellar, Mr. Kev. You’ve taken our least productive operation and really made it boom. We’ll be expecting great things from you in the future, and I’m sure your year-end performance evaluation will reflect that.”
Kev jumped out of his seat and pumped his fist in the air. “Thank you, Sir.”
He practically skipped out of the office after the call ended. He held his clipboard in his right hand and spun the ring on his left with his thumb.
Ezer stood a few feet away by the equipment racks. “Hey, Boss?”
Kev walked over and slapped him on the back. “Ezer! How’re things looking down there?”
“Fine, fine. I’ve… I’ve gotta ask you something.”
Kev smirked. He’d had this same conversation more times than he could count. “Yeah?”
“Is it true? Did you really… marry a pony?”
“Yup, a week ago.”
“I get that you were the only single guy in town and everything, but… What I mean is…”
Kev savored Ezer’s pauses, the little moments of silent begging to keep his job and his teeth. “Relax. Just say it.”
“What’s it like? What’s… she like?”
“I wouldn’t know. It’s all business, Ezer. She brings water back from the oasis, helps my sister out around the house, and sleeps in her own bed. That’s all it is.”
Ezer gasped. “Wait, the water part is true? I had an easier time thinking… never mind. N-not that there’s anything wrong with… I mean, if she’s bringing up water, you must be saving some serious cash.”
Kev held his ring up to the light. “Yup. Sooner or later I’m buying my way out of this dump, assuming corporate doesn’t relocate me first thanks to that new gem vein. She’s like a good luck charm.”
“But what about what everyone else thinks?”
“Who? Everybody else in town already figured it out. At first, I thought they’d think what you did, but they get it. They get that it’s just about her having a place to stay. You know the best part? They’re jealous. They’re jealous that I’m getting water for free.”
“But what about—”
“The merchant goats? I’ve never seen ’em so angry! It’s great. As for the others—”
The squeaky wheels of a mining cart drew their attention. As the cart left the darkness of the tunnel, sunlight bounced off the small mountain of gems it contained. The goat pulling the heavy load shot Kev a smile as he approached them, and spoke in his native language rather than that of minotaurs. “Hey hey, Pony Boss. Things good?”
“You know it. What do you say we quit a couple hours early?”
The goat held up a hoof, which Kev bumped with his fist. “I like the sound of that! I’ll tell my boys down in the shaft.”
“Thanks.”
Ezer stared at the departing goat with an open mouth. “You understand goat?”
Kev laughed. “Like I said, I’ve got a good luck charm. I guess her pony magic is rubbing off on me. Comes in handy when the merchant goats are whispering to each other about how much cash they think I’m carrying.”
“But… what’s corporate think?”
“Huh? They don’t know. It’s none of their business.”
“It will be, if you get relocated like you’re saying.”
Kev paused. “Why?”
“Look, Kev… I get that things are going good here, but what happens if you move to the big city where the water comes out of a faucet? What’s your water pony going to do for you then? What’re your neighbors going to think? What about your boss? If the corporation thinks you’re some sort of… What I mean is, they’re not going to want you on their board of directors or whatever you’re after.”
Kev’s thumb left the ring. “My brother in law died in that mine. My sister is stuck raising his son on her own, and she shouldn’t have to do that in a place like this. There’s no schools here, no playgrounds… no future besides inheriting his dad’s pickaxe. I’m not doing this to climb the corporate ladder. I know that’s not what it sounded like a second ago, but… I’m just trying to get my family off this rock.”
“Does that include the pony?”
Kev made a fist with his left hand and felt the ring press against his skin. “I guess I haven’t figured that out yet.”
---
The walk home felt longer than normal, even if Kev was making it two hours ahead of schedule. He didn’t want to think about what Ezer said, especially when thoughts of home came so easily. Maybe he’d stop at the market again today just to feel the heat of Grey Beard’s glare. Maybe he wouldn’t even bother with celebratory meat; he’d just buy Morning Dew some apples. As clear as he could tell, she liked those better than vegetables, but then again she didn’t make such things easy to discern, at least to him. She never ate at the table with them, and would only touch produce and baked goods, the later of which Dana had made three times this week. Morning Dew might have asked her for homemade bread, for all he knew. She and Dana seemed to have no trouble talking, unlike himself. Somehow, his being able to understand the goats didn’t equate into understanding the creature that’d gifted him with the ability.
Ezer’s words came to him again. Money wouldn’t change the law, and nothing short of divorcing Morning Dew would get him a real wife, the kind that could bring children of his own into the world. Still, he didn’t know what Morning Dew had planned; she might get fed up with that grueling daily hike and leave tomorrow.
Tam would be crushed if she did. Every day when Kev got home, he’d find them playing together. If it wasn’t peekaboo, they’d be engrossed in his toys, or she’d be trotting around the house with him balanced on her back.
Not today, though. Today he’d be home early, hopefully before Morning Dew. Today he’d have Tam all to himself for a little while. They could play and goof around just like they used to. Then she’d come home, and the two of them would play and go to bed. Morning Dew’s penchant for turning in so early at night all but ensured she and Kev never interacted. Even if she could speak to him, she’d be asleep before he and Dana finished eating dinner and out of the house by the time he woke up.
Kev strolled past the Magistrate’s brick palace and directly into the heart of the market. Grey Beard’s eyes were on him immediately, this time from behind the pottery table. The usual din of barely intelligible sales pitches died down as the goats exchanged bleating whispers that he wasn’t supposed to understand.
“That’s the one, the min with the water pony!”
“Can we get him thrown out?”
“Think he’ll get a baby pony out of her?”
“Maybe a min and a pony make a griffon!”
“Can we charge him more?”
“Hah!”
“Get the boss! He’s headed for the food!”
Grey Beard pushed his way through the crowd and beat Kev to the fruit stand. The young goat who’d been running it shrank down and disappeared as his elder approached.
Kev merely smiled. “I’d like some apples.”
Grey Beard clicked his tongue, and One Eye appeared next to him. “Apples, you say?”
Kev nodded. “Apples.”
Grey Beard moved his hoof over the produce on display, and picked up a small apple covered in bruises. “Here you go. Fifty coin.”
“No.”
“Fifty coin. Want water to go with it?”
Kev locked eyes with the goat. “I’ve got twenty coins for you, and I want five apples. That’s what everyone else pays.”
Grey Beard shrugged. “Market change day to day. Today this apple cost you fifty coin. Tomorrow, maybe a hundred. Maybe it only forty if you buy some water.”
“Are you married?”
Grey Beard gave a quick, stern nod. “Yes. Big family. Need coin to feed them.”
“Me too. My wife only hauls in one thing, but she’s dying to branch out. She’d love to bring up enough soil to start growing our own food, but I’ve been against it. I wouldn’t want to hurt your business, after all.”
“She grow meat, too?”
One Eye gave Kev a smile, which was somehow more sinister than his usual sneers.
Kev smiled back. “Heh, ponies are supposed to be amazing gardeners, so who knows? If not, we could always start selling whatever we don’t eat. Maybe next time I’ll be selling apples to you. You like apples, right?”
Silence hung in the air.
Grey Beard set his hoof over the apple. Juice squirted across the table as he slowly crushed it. “Bag up apples.”
One Eye gaped. “Eh? You mean we still sell—”
“Bag up apples! Five apples for twenty coin. You get smashed one free. Sign that we not upset good market if you don’t.”
“It’s always a pleasure doing business with you two.”
One Eye held up a menacing hoof. “I keep watch on you, min. My horns have ‘business’ with you if—”
Grey Beard’s glare silenced him. “No talk. Go patrol.”
A tinge of red at the edge of Kev’s vision caught his attention. Morning Dew’s vibrant mane was unmistakable at any distance. “Can we make this fast?”
He hurried out of the market, much to the goats relief, if their whispers were anything to go by. Morning Dew was one row of houses over, ears flat against her temples and head bowed so low that her mane brushed the ground. As she hurried along with her water jugs swaying in time with her quick steps, a short and spindly goat followed closely behind.
Tuft Head’s shadow crept up behind her, and his bleating words closed the gap. “Slow down, Water Pony. You don’t need to run. What’s the big hurry? Need to pay your rent to the two-legger? You should come live with me. I’ve got better ways to make you swea—”
Kev leaped a fence and burst through a gap in the huts. His hands closed around Tuft Head’s neck a moment later. Inside of a heartbeat, the namesake mass of hair on the goat’s head was pressed against the ground. “You want to fly back to the oasis, bleater?”
Tuft Head opened his mouth, which only prompted Kev to squeeze harder on his windpipe as he bellowed in his ear. “That’s my wife you’re messing with, goat! It’s my legal duty to protect her, and if anybody so much as hurts her feelings, I’m mounting your horns over my front door, and your pelt under it!”
Kev didn’t wait for some form of affirmation. He’d sooner rip the goat’s tongue out than listen to him beg for mercy. Instead he stood, gave him a kick in the stomach, and turned away before the urge to kick him again took over.
“You okay, Morn—”
Morning Dew was gone.
Kev stormed into the house a few minutes later. The empty kitchen and toy-free floor meant Dana and Tam weren’t home; they were probably visiting a friend. Morning Dew was in her corner of the house, straightening the lines of potted flowers that now flanked her bed, a two-second job she apparently intended to spend an hour on, if her half-hearted nudges and rapid breathing were any indication. Hiding her agitation wasn’t going to work, not this time. Kev had grown used to her habitual frowns, seeing her eyes dart around and her hooves tremble was more than he could take.
He paced back and forth between the door and the kitchen table. “I’ll kill that goat if he ever bothers you again! I don’t care if it lands me in prison, nobody messes with my family! If they ever…”
His fury vanished when he caught sight of her. Morning Dew had curled herself into a ball in the corner his pacing had inadvertently boxed her into. Her tail obscured most of her face, save for one tear-streaked eye. If she was flustered before, nothing short of abject terror could describe her current bout of shivering.
Seconds passed before Kev found his voice. “I’m… I’m sorry if I scared you. I-I meant what I told the goat, though. If somebody out there has a problem with you, they’re going to have a bigger one with me.”
She steadied herself enough to nod, although Kev couldn’t see that as a sign of willing agreement, not with her watching him with the same mortal fear as Tuft Head. She mumbled a few unintelligible words, and wiped her eyes.
Kev backed away, and remembered the bag he was still holding. “I… I bought you some apples. I’ll just leave them here on the table and… go somewhere else. I won’t bother you anymore. I swear I was just trying to protect you.”
He walked into his bedroom and shut the door as quietly and gently as possible. Being home two hours early wasn’t as nice as he’d anticipated.
---
Night eventually came, but sleep didn’t. Kev lay awake in his bed with nothing but the peeling paint on his ceiling to aid his contemplation. No matter how many times he replayed the day’s events, he couldn’t figure out where it’d all gone wrong. He’d been on the winning and losing ends of plenty of schoolyard fights, and no bystander, male or female, ever ran away scared. He’d watched Dana bloody the face of a moron that hadn’t gotten as lewd as that goat, and cheered her on. What was wrong with ponies? The race that controlled night and day couldn’t possibly be that passive and spineless.
He should’ve asked Dana about it. She could’ve talked to Morning Dew for him, maybe even gotten him a few answers. Instead he’d let time roll on. He’d put on a smile when Dana and Tam came home, and watched the typical evening play out in front of him. Now here he was, on the verge of starting another workday with no sleep and a head full of questions.
What was he supposed to do? Did Morning Dew actually want to be victimized? Did ponies have some obscure code of conduct when it came to defending their spouses? What was wrong with just hitting the guy?
The only question Kev did have an answer for was Ezer’s: of course Morning Dew was part of the family. He’d known that the second he’d rushed in to ‘save’ her. Even if she wasn’t the wife he wanted, she was a good addition to the house. She was Dana’s helper and Tam’s playmate. She made their lives easier, and the money she saved him each and every day had the potential to change everything for the better. Inside of a year, they’d be able to move.
Something stirred in the silent house. Kev’s ears perked up. Was that Dana coming to tell him what he’d done wrong or, more likely, grill him until he figured it out himself?
His ears followed the sounds of hooves approaching his bedroom door. No one turned the handle. No one knocked. Instead, a piece of paper slid under the door, and the hooves echoed off into the distance. The house’s front door had opened and shut by the time Kev got out of bed, and the first rays of morning sunlight shone through the window as he held up the paper. On it were two words in Morning Dew’s careful script: Thank You.
---
Kev left for work early. He excused it as making up for coming home early the day before, rather than his desire to sit on top of the hill and watch the day begin. The sun bore down on the world as he sat there, particularly on the path to the oasis. An inch tall Morning Dew drifted in and out of his sight as the path led her through light and shadow. He saw her do this every morning: as he walked to work, she did the same. They went about their parallel lives, meeting only briefly under one roof in the evening, just enough contact to acknowledge each other’s existence.
The tiny pony in Kev’s sight paused. He squinted to try to make up for the distance. If she was hurt or stuck, he wouldn’t be able to tell. The goats were hours away from her, so it wasn’t them. “What are you doing down there? What’s wrong?”
Morning Dew lifted one of her front legs and waved.
All he could do was return the gesture.