Demesne

I stood under one of the few trees near our village—I refused to call it 'Lori's Village' or anything like that—looking up at the branches above as I held open a sack, one of the canvas sacks that had gotten progressively more beat up as the year had gone on. The happyfruit tree was heavy with fruit, but because of the heat, the only ones picking at the moment were me, Karina and Shana.

Karina was nearby, holding out her skirt in the unabashed immodesty of children as she used it catch fruit. Once they'd been caught, I'd take the fruits from her and put it in the sack so that other fruit would be more likely to land softly instead of hitting another fruit and bruising. A little sweat trickled down my skin, the sun piercingly hot as always, but it was more than mitigated by how cold the air was. Even without wind, it was cool for me.

Up in the tree was Shana.

Barefoot, she moved with utter confidence, hands and feet on the branches. Her slight frame allowed her to move very close to the ends of the trees limbs, and for the fruits a bit too far, she carried a stick with a hook carved to the end, which dangled from a rope tied around her waist.

With both feet on a branch and one hand gripping another branch above her, Shana plucked at a cluster of happy fruit, giving them a practiced twist to break them off from their stem, glancing down briefly so she could gently toss the fruit to Karina, who caught the fruit as gently as she could.

I probably had better uses of my time than helping the children pick the fruit from the trees—like learning to do my own laundry so that I wasn't such a burden to Umu and Mikon—but few of them were as important as keeping our other Dungeon Binder from getting herself killed.

It was very similar to my more usual duty of keeping our Dungeon Binder from getting herself killed, except Shana was likely to do it knowingly and deliberately.

Lori had done what she could, in her way, when she had given orders that Shana not be allowed access to sharp objects. As everyone had vividly seen why she had given that order, they were complying with it.

As was usual though, Lori had left things at merely giving orders to prevent something that had happened already, and not bothering to address the root cause. Very typical of governments, actually. In that way, Lori was depressingly suited to being a Dungeon Binder.

She had given no orders about whether or not Shana was to be prevented from climbing tall things such as, to take a random example, trees. Trees that she was very skilled at climbing at, as evidenced by how she was doing so now while Karina stayed on the ground. Trees that she could so easily simply… step off.

I'd done what I could. I'd given orders that those watching the children when Karina organized them to gather food keep an eye on Shana—and everyone else—who climbed a tree in case they fell. That had been the best I could do. Unfortunately, it was the younger men and women who were usually watched them and…

Am I getting old? I feel like I'm getting old, since I had a strong urge to think 'when I was that age, I did my chores more diligently!', and only caught myself halfway through the thought. I'm only twenty-two, I'm too young to be a cranky old man complaining about how the younger generation… oh no. They're the same generation as me, aren't they…

I blame Lori for me becoming a cranky old man. It's worked for me before, I see no reason to change it.

So… with the designated watchers being… less than diligent… and with the children being more trusted to handle themselves as time had gone on and no one had gotten seriously hurt, the young ones more or less went unwatched except when they were seeling, which in this heat only Karina did. Two children deciding to go out in the afternoon heat to pick fruits? They could be trusted not to get in trouble, especially since they were both girls.

Except one of the children was Shana.

All it would take was to let go, and she wouldn't need a sharp object. The ground would do it for her.

And so I stood there, holding a sack of fruit, ready at any moment to drop it and try to catch Shana…