Money Money Money
Sighing, Edith Norris shut down the engine of the tractor and looked with equal parts disgust and curiosity at her visitors. The silver SUV with “Halstad Hay & Silage” on it, had pulled into the working area and Edith could see Bob Halstad behind the wheel. He’d kept himself away from her farm ever since she’d kicked him off it, so something must have driven him to come now, and she had a pretty good idea what it was.
The part she couldn’t figure out was what the three other people who were in the vehicle were there for. Edith could make out the faces of a young man and woman, barely as old as Chiara, maybe even younger than her. With them was an older man in his late thirties by her estimation. He had the look of someone who was used to hard work. All three of them were obvious members of the migrant worker community, and all three looked to be nervous.
“Good morning, Edith,” Halstad said, getting out of the truck. “Lovely weather we’re having isn’t it?”
“Robert Halstad,” Norris said, aggressively leaning forward in her seat. “You’ve got sixty seconds to tell me why you’re here before I boot you off my land… again.”
“Woah! Don’t shoot, I’m unarmed,” Halstad said, holding up his hands in mock surrender, a smile on his face. A smile that slowly faded as Norris’ expression remained as stony as ever and she made a show of checking her watch.
“Either say your piece or get gone,” Norris said, still fixing Halstad with her disdain.
“Fine,” Halstad said, deciding to be serious. “Can we talk in private?”
“We can go into the barn,” Norris said, and she hooked a thumb at the three others who had now gotten out of the SUV and were standing by it, looking around. “What about your people? Why are they here?”
“Oh, they aren’t my people,” Halstad said, a sour look on his face. “Well, up until an hour ago, Jorge was. I just finished firing him and giving him his last pay. He and his brother’s kids asked for a ride here, and as a last favor to him I gave them a lift.”
“Huh,” Norris said, before addressing the others. “You three stay right there until I get back, you hear?”
Switching the tractor back on, Edith drove the short distance to the barn, and pulled in beside it while pointedly not letting Halstad ride. She hopped off the tractor and hobbled her way over to Luna’s stall. She suspected Luna was going to be the subject of this conversation so she sat herself down on a barrel with her back to the stall door. Edith felt Luna’s breath whuff on the back of her neck as Halstad entered the barn’s main passageway.
“Not now, girl,” Norris murmured to the big black mare, as she watched her foe approach. “I’ve got a rattlesnake to deal with.” A nicker answered her and she felt rather than saw Luna back away.
“How would you like to make fifty thousand dollars?” Halstad said, as he drew within arms reach.
“Straight to it,” Norris said, cocking an eyebrow at Halstad. “Well, I did tell you to be direct. What do I have to do to earn this princely sum?”
“I want to breed one of my stallions,” Halstad said, and Norris could see that the man was nervous. He was hiding it well, but Edith's husband had taught her how to read people and she could see the sweat on Halstad's lip.
“I only have the one mare, and she’s a therapy horse, not a broodmare,” Norris said, frowning. “But you didn’t mean Sunrise, did you?”
“Your witch told you, did she?” Halstad said, while Norris rolled her eyes at the term.
“Robert,” Norris said, her words still heavily salted with disdain, “unlike some people I could mention, Chiara doesn’t hide things from me.”
“The offer stands,” Halstad said, intent. “Fifty thousand dollars right now, for a foal from your Luna. I’ll cover all the other costs.”
“That much, for an unknown foal from a feral mare,” Norris said, laughing and watching Halstad’s face blotch with anger. “You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no one stupid enough to make that offer, or accept one like it without conditions.”
“Fine,” Halstad said, a growl in his voice now as he took a step closer. “I’ll buy the horse herself off of you. $100,000. It will take me a day to arrange a bank draft but you know I’m good for it.”
“Before I even begin to entertain that offer, impressive as it is,” Norris said, wondering how far she could push the man. “I need to know why you would be willing to lay out that kind of money for her. No one, especially you, offers that kind of money without good reason.”
“You really don’t know, do you?” Halstad asked, trying his own turn at sarcasm. “You have no idea what that mare is capable of, do you?” Luna, hearing her name, looked out over the stall door and Mrs. Norris suddenly felt like either Horatio or Gandalf at their respective bridges, in her sudden need to defend the ebon mare.
“Why don’t you tell me, Bob?” Norris said, reaching up and unlocking the stall door. “What is it about Luna that’s making you act like such an idiot.”
“Idiot?!” Halstad said, exploding and stepping forward so that he was directly in front of Edith. “Only an idiot would pass up a chance at the greatest racehorse since Secretariat!”
“Go on,” Norris said, in a calm voice that seemed to infuriate Halstad even more.
“You’ve got her doing dressage when she’s the fastest thing on four hooves!” Halstad exclaimed, waving his arms toward Luna and not noticing that Edith had unlatched the gate itself. She wasn’t sure why she was undoing the door for Luna, but a little voice inside her kept assuring her she was doing the right thing.
“Oh, she’s not that fast,” Norris said, goading the man. Now that he was good and riled it wouldn’t take much to keep him going.
“I timed her,” Halstad said, finger upraised in emphasis, face florid. “With your witch on her back, on a gravel road, she was running at fifty miles an hour. That’s as fast as a Quarter Horse.”
“Well, that’s nice, but it still doesn’t explain why you’re willing to hand over six figures for her,” Norris said, keeping to that calm voice that seemed to be egging the man on. “Just go out and buy yourself one of them. It’s got to be cheaper.”
“Argh!” Halstad exclaimed, throwing up his hands and turning in a circle before facing Norris again. “You don’t GET it! Quarter Horses can keep up that speed for a quarter mile, maybe a bit more. It’s why they are called ‘Quarter Horses’ in the first place! But not Luna, oh no, not the horse that dropped into your lap from almost literally the heavens. She kept up that speed for at least three miles.”
“You did that, Luna?” Norris said, reaching up to stroke the animal’s muzzle, who nickered softly back to her. “Good girl. Chiara must be very proud of you.” The casual display of affection seemed to pour salt on the wounds, Edith’s feigned ignorance of horses was cutting into Halstad.
“That’s not all of it,” Halstad said, his voice dropping to a strangled whisper. “Chiara let me examine Luna afterwards. A horse, any horse, should have been lathered and on the near edge of dropping from exhaustion after a run like that. Luna looked ready to do it all over again. The horse is a gold mine I tell you, name your price and I’ll find the money to meet it.”
“No,” Norris said flatly, and with as much emotion as she would use wiping her boot off after some time in the pasture.
“What?” Halstad said, blinking in shock.
“I said, ‘No’,” Norris repeated. “I realize it’s a word you aren’t used to hearing, but that’s my response. ‘No’.”
“I get it. You don’t want to sell her. You want a partnership,” Halstad said, nodding. “I can work with that. We’ll form a racing syndicate. I’ll get my lawyer to draw up the papers. This is great! We’ll make millions.”
“You aren’t listening, Bob,” Norris said, feeling her anger rise and beginning to have serious doubts about the man’s sanity. “Luna isn’t mine to sell, trade, or hire out. She’s Chiara’s horse, and she already gave you the same answer.”
“No! This is the opportunity of a lifetime!” Halstad said, whirling and seizing her by the shoulders, digging in with powerful fingers. “I’ll make you see reason!”
That will be quite enough of this, Luna thought. She had been watching and listening to the exchange and while she had been confident that Norris would act as she had, it had chilled her to be reminded that here she was property, a thing that could be bartered and sold. Protecting the older mare wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was the safe thing. Luna pushed the gate open hard, deliberately knocking it into the man’s shoulder and breaking his grip on Norris.
In her time, Luna had been both a Mistress of Shadows and a warrior, both martial professions told her that you never gave an enemy an even break, or to let up once you had your foe off-balance. Pressing her advantage, Luna surged forward out of the stall past the older mare, and drove her heavily muscled chest into the man who had the temerity to try to buy a Princess of Equestria.
Halstad didn’t know what hit him. One moment he was trying to shake some sense into that idiot of a dairy farmer, and the next he had been sent flying by a wall of black furred muscle. He landed heavily on his back, the impact driving the air out of his body and leaving him stunned for a moment. A second later he tried to get up, but something was on his chest. He managed to focus his eyes on a column of black fur rising up to the dark mare who was now standing over him, her hoof placed delicately on his chest.
Robert Halstad had been a farmer, a rancher, a horseman, and an outdoorsman all his life, but for the first time ever he found himself afraid of an animal. All Luna had to do was to fully put her weight down and she would shatter his ribs like balsa wood. He tried to slide out sideways from underneath the mare, and she responded by pressing down just a bit more to keep him in place, while making a deep rumble of warning in her chest that sounded like the thunder of an approaching storm.
“That would be three times a lady has told you, ‘No’,” Norris said, hobbling the few steps to stand beside Luna. “Now, are you done?”
“Yes,” Halstad said, with a squeak and unable to tear his gaze from Luna’s.
“Okay girl, you’ve made your point,” Edith said, patting Luna’s side. “Let him up before you slip and I have to clean up the barn again.”
With a final snort of contempt Luna took her hoof off the downed farmer, setting it down on his opposite side so that she still stood over him to demonstrate her superiority. Halstad scrambled back as quickly as he could, finally standing up about fifteen feet away from the pair with his entire back stained and soiled from contact with the barn floor.
“Robert Halstad,” Norris said, her voice as hard as the gavel of a hanging judge. “You are forbidden from ever coming on my land again. I see you here again and I’m calling the sheriff. You are not to contact me or Chiara about Luna ever again, neither is anyone working for you. You do that and I’ll involve the law. You’ve got five minutes to get off my property before I get my shotgun and deal with you like the snake you are.”
“Y-you haven’t heard the last of this,” Halstad said, sputtering, his face pale where it had been florid earlier.
“Yes, I have,” Norris said. “Unless you want to see either the inside of a prison cell or the barrel of my shotgun. Try me if you think I’m bluffing.” Halstad looked from one female to the other, and saw neither pity nor mercy in either gaze, and turning he strode quickly from the barn and a minute later Edith heard his car start up.
“Thanks girl,” Norris said, knees wobbling as she leaned heavily against the horse, who nuzzled her shoulder. “That took a lot out of me, just let me rest here for a second. Wish I could ride you instead of that stupid machine, you’re a lot better than some tractor.”
You would make a good pony, Luna thought, careful not to project the words to her worshipper’s mother. Maybe there is something I can help you with. With slow care Luna got down on her knees causing Norris to flop over Luna’s back. It was an obvious invitation for Norris to mount and ride bareback.
“Luna,” Norris said quietly, addressing the horse directly. “What are you? Bob was right about one thing, you aren’t a normal horse. There’s too many things about you that are just… more than a horse.” The horse, of course, said nothing other than to nicker softly as she nuzzled Edith at the spot where her neck joined her shoulder.
“Hee hee… stop it,” Norris said, giggling. “Okay, okay. No more questions.” Norris got her injured foot over the black horse who slowly rose back up to her hooves. Grabbing hold of Luna’s neat mane, Edith guided the two back out of the barn to where the other three were still waiting for her.
“Okay, I’m not up to much chit-chat after dealing with that worm that brought you here, so let’s make this short and to the point. You, ‘Jorge’ was it?” Norris asked of the older man, who nodded, looking up at her with something like awe. “Why did Halstad fire you? Give me the short version.”
“It was my son that La Curandera saved,” Jorge said. “Mr. Halstad fired me because the accident made his insurance rates go up. He said it increased his liability and he could convince the insurance company to lower their rate back down if my family wasn’t there any more.”
“That sounds like him,” Norris said, nodding. “You want a job?”
“Yes Doña,” Jorge said, as Edith raised an eyebrow at the title. “I’ve worked for many years on—”
“You’re hired,” Norris said, and a broad smile lit Jorge’s face. “Two week trial basis. You start tomorrow. My foreman is over in the milking barn, tell him I said you could use the farm truck to bring your stuff over.”
“Thank you!” Jorge said fervently, grabbing Mrs. Norris’ hand. “You don’t know what this means to me.”
“Actually, I do,” Norris said, a smile ghosting across her lips. “On top of that, hiring you sticks a thumb into Bob Halstad’s eye, and right now I’m all for that. Now, off you go and I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early.” Jorge was so happy he almost levitated his way to the milking barn, and while he went to see his new supervisor Norris turned her gaze to the young pair in front of her.
“Now, what can I do for the two of you?” she asked, feeling a little better already.
“I’m Matias and this is my sister, Carmen,” the young man said, indicating the young woman beside him. “Alonso is our cousin.”
“How is the lad, anyway?” Norris asked, already having a suspicion where this conversation was going to go.
“He’s going to be okay, Mrs. Norris,” Matias said, smiling. “Carmen and I wanted to show you and La Curandera our thanks for what she did, but we do not have much money to buy you a gift.”
“Don’t really need much of anything,” Norris said, running a hand along Luna’s long strong neck. “Everything I could want is pretty much here.”
“We heard that La Curandera, Miss Walsh, had gotten hurt when she brought the medicine to Alonso and we heard that your foot was broken,” Carmen, the woman, said. “We thought we could cook, clean and do chores around your home to show our appreciation until you go better.”
“You know,” Norris said, taking a moment to think, “that’s a damn fine idea. I’ll take you up on that.”
“Thank you!” Carmen exclaimed, pleased. “Where is La Curandera so that we can tell her?”
“She has her own place up near the woods,” Norris said, pointing to a service road. “You’ll have to ask her if she’s willing to have you folks a.. Oh, wait a moment.”
“Is there a problem, Mrs. Norris?” Matias asked.
“Not yet. Look, don’t take what I’m about to say as a threat. More of a friendly warning,” Norris said, to the confused looks of the siblings. “When you go up to talk to her, you’re likely going to see things that may… take you by surprise.”
“She is a woman of power,” Carmen said, shrugging. “We are expecting to see unusual things.”
“Fair enough,” Norris said, leaning forward. “But hear me on this. Nothing you see is to be considered her offering anything, and I so much as even think either one of you is taking advantage of her and I will tan your hides and use them to make a new saddle. Got that?”
“Yes Ma’am”, “Yes, Mrs. Norris,” came from both immediately.
“All right then,” Norris said, sitting back on her mount. “Off you go.” The pair headed on up the service road on foot while Norris sat on Luna, resolving to dig out her book of Irish folklore later on.
Sighing, Chiara leaned back in her chair and propped her aching foot up on the stool by her desk. It was the second day of her enforced rest and her foot hurt worse than ever. Grudgingly, she admitted that it might have been possible that spending yesterday cleaning up her little cabin home might have been a mistake. It had just been so boring sitting around doing nothing that drove her to it.
Now her foot was telling her that she should have listened to the doctor and rested, or taken things a little slower. At least she was able to be properly naked, as she had come into the world and as the gods and goddesses saw her. No pretensions, no masks, just herself in her natural form. Smiling, Chiara pulled the keyboard into her lap and surfed the internet until she found what she was looking for.
Paranet Log in: MidWestWitch92
38 messages waiting
Chiara frowned at seeing the number of messages. Although it was true that she hadn’t logged into the Paranet site for weeks due to spending time training, and being trained for the dressage competition, there shouldn’t have been that many messages.
“Periander!” Chiara shouted out loud, in sudden realization and clicking frantically on the message stack. With the events of recent weeks, she had completely forgotten her promise to Periander to let them know how the ritual to Selene had gone. Memory of that ritual, and its results, filled Chiara with happiness that dulled the increasingly concerned messages from Periander. Clicking through the last messages Chiara logged into the advice channel that Periander was a moderator in.
Paranet chat
Advice channel
<User: MidWestWitch92 logged in>
Periander: MidWest! Where have you been? No one has heard from you in weeks!
MidWestWitch92: Sorry, things have been crazy busy here.
Periander: Are you okay?
MidWestWitch92: I’m fine, but have I got a lot to tell you.
Periander: This have anything to do with the ritual?
MidWestWitch92: EVERYTHING!
Over the next twenty minutes Chiara told Periander, and the rest of the channel, all about the past few weeks. How the ritual had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. Of befriending an avatar of the Triple Goddess. About spending nearly every waking moment with Luna, and most of all, how the Goddess had spoken to her during their desperate ride to save the life of the young boy having an allergic reaction.
Periander: And she spoke to you?
MidWestWitch92: Yes, it was a calm, cool voice, as old as the universe itself.
Periander: What did she say?
MidWestWitch92: That I shouldn’t ask questions, because we had a job to do.
Periander: Ha! You have any pictures?
MidWestWitch92: I don’t have a camera or a phone, so no.
Periander: I’d really like to see what Luna looks like. I’ve got an old phone I could send you?
MidWestWitch92: I’m not really comfortable with that.
Periander: Sorry, I should have realized. I’m just so blown away. I mean this is huge.
MidWestWitch92: <laughs> That’s okay. I’ve had time to get used to it all. You just had all this dropped in your lap.
A knock sounded on Chiara’s door, interrupting her conversation.
MidWestWitch92: Someone’s at my door, gtg. I’ll try to borrow a camera and send a pic if I can.
Periander: Okay, MidWestWitch, stay in touch, and Blessed Be!
Chiara turned off the computer and hobbled her way over to the door, a crutch under her arm helping her as she reached the door of her cabin. Opening it, she saw a young man and woman standing there in front of her. Both were migrants and both looking shell-shocked as they looked at Chiara.
“Uh, excuse us, Curandera,” said the man, who was nearly the same age as Chiara, and sporting a very impressive blush. “But we heard that you had been hurt, helping little Alonso. So Carmen and I… “ The young man trailed off and he seemed to be trying to look anywhere but at Chiara. The woman, named Carmen apparently, was keeping her face focused on Chiara’s face, and it took her a moment to realize why.
“Would it help if I put on a robe?” Chiara asked, a small smile on her face. Normally, she wouldn’t even think of accommodating someone who was uncomfortable with her nudity. If they didn’t like it they could leave, but Chiara sensed these two hadn’t come to confront her but rather to help.
“Come on in,” Chiara said, backing away from the door. “Grab a seat, and I’ll make you a little more at ease.”
“Thank you, Curandera,” Carmen said, looking embarrassed. “We are sorry to bother you at home, but Mrs. Norris, she said you were here. We did not realize…”
“That I would be naked?” Chiara asked, limping to her bedroom to shrug on her bathrobe. “I wear clothing as little as possible as part of the way I worship my Goddess. I came into this world naked, why shouldn’t I stay the way I was made as much as possible?” She came back out to see the couple seated on her old couch, wearing relieved looks at her attire. She plopped herself down heavily on her computer chair and turned to face the pair.
“So, what can I do for you?” She asked, before putting up a hand. “By the way, I don’t put spells on people, or do animal sacrifices, or ride a broom. I much prefer to ride a horse.”
“So we have seen, Curandera,” the man said, steadying himself with a breath. “My name is Matias. This is my sister, Carmen, and little Alonso is a cousin of ours.”
“How is he doing?” Chiara asked, unconsciously touching the silver moon emblem at her throat.
“The doctors at the big hospital say that he will be able to come home tomorrow,” Carmen said. “We came up to ask you something, if we might?"
“Go ahead, and you don’t have to call me ‘Curandera’,” Chiara said, lifting her foot to prop it back on the stool. “‘Chiara’ is fine.”
“You were hurt helping our cousin, so we thought it would be a good thing for us to help out around your home while you recovered. If that is okay with you?” Matias asked, spreading his hands wide. “A lot of times we would just go up to the person and start helping them, but with you, Curandera, there are complications.”
“My being a pagan, for instance,” Chiara said, then spoke again at their look of confusion. “A witch, a bruja.”
“That, and Mrs. Norris insisted we have your permission first,” Matias said, frowning. “And bruja is not a word we use politely, but yes, that is part of it too.”
“So, if I get this right, you two want to basically cook and clean for me over the next few days, while my ankle gets better?” Chiara asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes,” Carmen said, nodding firmly. “We have little money to properly repay you for what you did for our cousin, so we thought this was the best way to show our appreciation.”
“Well, I don’t make much mess,” Chiara said, chewing her lip in thought for a moment. “But it would be good to keep my foot up for the next couple of days. So, I accept. There is one condition though.”
“What is that?” Matias asked, and Chiara could tell he was dreading the answer.
“That you understand that I’m not going to change who and what I am to make you more comfortable,” Chiara said, to which the man seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief. “I’m going to be naked almost all the time. If you can’t deal with that, there’s the door. I won’t be mad, if you decide that it isn’t something you can handle, as long as you tell me now and not later.”
“Will we have to do anything to help you with your… worship?” Carmen asked, nervously fingering a small cross on a thin gold chain.
“Not unless you want to,” Chiara said, smiling to try to put the couple at ease. “Part of my beliefs is that everyone has their own path, and they are the ones to best decide how to walk it. If your path is close to mine, that’s great. If not, that’s fine too. So, in or out?” Carmen and Matias looked at each other for a moment and nodded to each other.
“We would like to stay,” Matias said. “Is there anything in particular you would like us to start on first?”
“Hey Steve, Bob Halstad here. You still work in that pharmaceutical warehouse right? Good. Any chance you can get me a supply of ketamine and some fast injectors?”
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This story is criminally underrated.
9044131
Thank you for that.
At this point this story is more a labour of love than anything else, and I will be giving it regular updates until it's done.
9044131
I respectively agree
Oh, crap. Let's hope Luna's magic helps her resist traquilizers.
This story came across my radar today, and its been interesting
Her name was not repeated until the following paragraph.
9044476
Oh, you're goooood.