Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Continued from here.

Vhalar 35, Arc 722

Autumn had finally arrived on Scalvoris. The sweltering heat that had troubled the island during the season of Saun was gone, although it was still warm for the time being. Everywhere the leaves changed from green to lively red, yellow, auburn and purple, and fruit and vegetables ripened. The time for the first harvest of the cycle had arrived – and what a harvest it promised to be! There was a lot of plant growth. Devin who had led his helpers to Smooglenuff Manor’s small vineyard and celebrated Harvest Dawn with them looked at the rows of trellises with pride and joy. There were normal green and red grapes as well Fire Grapes that glowed prettily and would hopefully make the Barony famous.

The Fire Grapes looked so tempting that Devin found himself unable to resist. He looked left and right as if he wanted to make sure that nobody was watching him, and then he quickly plucked a grape and popped it into his mouth, enjoying the sweet taste and the warmth. Some of his helpers laughed, and he laughed along with them – because he had just put on a bit of a show and played the part of the sneaky grape-eater in order to entertain them. He wanted everybody to be in a good mood when they started working. So, when a young woman with brown hair and nice hazel eyes looked at the grapes longingly, he plucked one for her as well and proceeded to hand it to her.

“I think it’s okay if you eat a grape every now and then. Making sure that the grapes taste alright is important, after all. We wouldn’t want to accidentally make wine out of disgusting grapes”, he told his helpers in a generous tone of voice before he became a bit more serious and pointed at a number of large baskets. “I’d like most of them to end up in these though”, he continued before he turned back to the grapes and considered them. He was trying to figure out how he could harvest them without his fancy canary-yellow suit getting dirty. He really didn’t like dirt. A moment later, he had quite the epiphany though. If his suit got dirty, he would have an excuse to change into a new outfit; and in the worst case, he’d be able to pass the stains off as the newest avantgarde fashion trend.

He liked coming up with new fashion trends!

So, without further ado, he got to work. First of all, he checked the grapevine in front of him in order to make sure that the color of the grapes was consistent which was a sign that they were ripe and sufficiently plump. The grape he had eaten had been delicious and looked nice, but it was best to always check several grapes in order to be safe. When he was satisfied, he grabbed a pair of shears. Just as he was about to cut off the first bunch of grapes and drop it into the basket next to him, he noticed something. Birds had begun to gather on a nearby trellis and filled the air with their beautiful song. If that wasn’t a good sign, then he didn’t know what was!

Devin started to hum a merry and obviously off-key tune as he cut off one bunch of grapes after the other one and dropped them into his basket. He worked slowly and meticulously and made sure to cut off the grapes at the top of the cluster stem, where they met the large grapevine, and he tried not to use too much force lest he damaged the grapes. He didn’t want to take any chances. He wanted to have the best wine and the best vineyard in all of Scalvoris and beyond.

Fortunately, the trial was just perfect for that!

Devin had been worried that it would eventually start to rain, but so far, the weather was holding up. If it rained, the grape skins would become saturated with moisture, and you couldn’t store them properly anymore, and besides, they wouldn’t taste as good. In short, it was best to harvest grapes when the weather was nice and pleasant, and it was warm.

Devin was rather proud of the fact that he knew that!

He was pretty much a gardening expert now; but then again, one of his goals in life was to become an expert or even a master at everything (without ever becoming boring, ugly and nerdy, of course!).

He would be the best!

Smiling, he moved on to the next grapevine, when one of the trainees from Cally’s that were supposed to help and learn how to make wine, a young man with beautiful green eyes, suddenly moved closer to him.

The man smiled at Devin, and Devin smiled back and raised an eyebrow slightly. Before he could ask him what he could do for him, the man wanted to know, “Why are there so many birds in the vineyard, Your Grace? I find that unusual. Does that have something to do with your being a priest of Delroth, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Devin was about to tell him that yes, the birds were of course there because of him because he was great, when he suddenly had a much better idea. He smiled absolutely radiantly at the trainee that he hoped to impress and informed him, “Let’s just ask the birds themselves, shall we?”

When the man looked at him with curiosity, he turned to face the birds that were still singing joyfully. He complimented them on their beautiful voices before he asked them in a friendly tone of voice and with comparatively simple words why they were there. He didn’t pressure them, and he didn’t order them to obey even though he could likely have done so. He believed in freedom of choice. In his opinion, birds should be treated with respect!

Their answer wasn’t what he had expected. Instead of praising him, the birds were praising the grapes.

They wanted to eat them!

Devin wondered if he should tell them to leave because them staying would inevitably result in losing some of the harvest, but he couldn’t bring himself to doing so.

Birds were sacred!

He wasn’t even particularly disappointed that the birds weren’t there because he was such a great and important man. He loved the grapes as well, after all!

With that thought in mind, Devin readied his shears again when he noticed that the pretty green-eyed man was still looking at him expectantly, his eyes wide, as if what he had just witnessed had surprised him. He grinned at him and told him, “The birds have come for the grapes, just like we have! So, shall we continued the harvest now?”

Everybody was okay with continuing the harvest, and nobody had said that they wanted to take a break or have something to eat or drink yet, so Devin snipped off another bunch of grapes. As he did so, he noticed that the trainee with the hazel eyes had dropped her shears and was about to break off a bunch of grapes with her bare hands.

He furrowed his brow.

Now that was just plain wrong!

When he had been younger, Devin would likely have been a little miffed and gotten a little loud. Telling people that they were doing something stupid rarely worked out though as he had learned when he had been teaching at university. And besides, the trainees were all awesome apart from this mistake. So, he put on a bright smile instead and calmly told the young woman, “If you use your hands, you can damage the grapes and the vine. Is something wrong with your shears, if you don’t mind me asking?”

It had just occurred to him that she might have dropped the shears for a reason (other than being stupid)!

“They are dull”, she replied and blushed a little. Devin furrowed his brow some more before he quickly produced a fresh pair of shears, and handed it to her, bowing slightly dramatically as he did so.

Her eyes widened, and then she smiled.

Devin smiled back. He really enjoyed the attention he was getting – and being seen as a helpful and benevolent leader!

He did in fact enjoy being seen as a helpful and benevolent leader so much that he clapped his hands once they had harvested about a third of the grapes (The vineyard was small!) and told his helpers in a very enthusiastic tone of voice, “Let’s enjoy a couple of snacks now. Our cook, Mrs. Adams, has made tea, and there’ll be sandwiches as well!”

Before long, they were all kneeling or sitting on the ground or sitting on benches in the garden, enjoying their break, chatting and socializing. Devin beamed at his helpers, and especially the pretty green-eyed man and the woman with the hazel eyes because he really enjoyed the moment.

Eventually, they went back to their work though. Once they were done, Devin walked a few rounds in the vineyard in order to make sure that the grapes that his helpers had harvested were indeed okay. A few of them turned out to not look perfect, but he already had a solution for that (apart from eating them himself or just throwing them into the trash). Hands on his hips, he proclaimed, “We could give the grapes that we can’t using for the wine to the people of Faldrass as a gift rather than throwing them away. They'll likely still taste alright. What do you think of that, ladies and gentlemen?” he asked them, because knowing if your idea was met with approval was important.

Some people applauded, and the rest did at least not disagree.

Devin waited for a moment in case someone had something to say before he continued, “Some of the grapes aren’t quite ripe yet, so we’ll likely return later in the season. For now, will you help me carry the grapes into the cellar though?” he asked which they did immediately.

Once they were in the cellar, they filled the grapes into boxes that were lined with straw so that the grapes were less likely to get squished. Someone had already set up a couple of mousetraps to minimize the risk of rodents eating the grapes. Devin was fine with birds taking some of the harvest because they belonged to Delroth, but he definitely didn’t like mice.

Mice sucked!

They was one thing he liked a lot though, namely wine, so, when they had put all of the grapes away and locked the cellar, he told the trainees from Cally’s that they would finally start making the wine later that arc – that was one of the reasons they were all there for, after all.

The trainees from Cally’s wanted to learn how to make wine!