DISCLAIMER
The following is a fan-based
FICTION
Las Lindas and other products set in the same universe are all owned by Chalo/Chalosan and SoulKat.
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Chapter 2: First Shift
Beta-Reader: Ant0nius
When morning came to greet us on our first day at work, my first interest in the moment I woke up was to get through my usual bathroom routine as fast as I could.
I only paused for a moment to check on Miles, and sighed as I found him still sleeping in his bed, the door to his room partially left open for me to peek a glance inside. I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting him to still be asleep, but I at least would've expected him to have placed all his stuff in an organized manner instead of ignoring the full luggage he had left leaning on the edge of the bed. I thought about waking him up, but then realized how that could have made things worse off for me.
If there's one thing I had learned from my time at college, it's that most Primes tend to have trouble dealing with their fur this early in the morning. I had two roommates, one who was a Dog Prime with lots of fur that shed more than once a week. And since it was a must for many of them to comb it to be suitable with the arduous tasks at hand, I figured that Miles would've wasted plenty of time getting ready.
Considering that he was someone with lots of fur to deal with and some degree of vanity was briefly displayed as we had been given two cramped rooms inside the house, I wouldn't take any chances in letting him take the first turn in the bathroom.
I disregarded going for an early shower, knowing that we weren't having enough time for that… but then again, I would still need to go back to it once I was done with my shift. Double cons, to a single good point.
Once I was done changing into a more suitable outfit to start the day, I began wandering around to see if our boss was currently awake, pausing for a moment to try and wake up the Cat Prime. The guy shuffled in his bed, holding staunch opposition to my efforts of waking him up, but he was soon 'encouraged' to get up as a pillow soared towards him at frustrating speed.
Scrambling in panic at the sudden attack, Miles looked around with a frightened expression. That is until he found me standing nearby with a calm look being displayed, my presence slowly getting him to morph that fright into annoyance.
"W-What? Isn't it too early for-"
"We're working at a farm. Of course we need to be up earlier than normal," I sassily commented, trying to avoid sounding too condescending on the basis that Miles didn't seem to have much experience with this kind of environment. "I've already taken my turn in the bathroom. While you're busy there, I'll check if Mora is awake and… give you some time to get ready if she is and is now waiting for us."
He tensed up at the possibility of making a poor first impression. Not because he cared much about appearances, but because he knew the woman wasn't someone he could afford to handle without some guarantees backing his butt. So once I had him bolt for the bathroom, I quietly proceeded to make my way to where the kitchen was.
I didn't know enough of this place to know exactly where every room was, but I at least knew where the kitchen and main door were. So, tracing back my steps to where the owner of the place could be, I decided to briefly stop to look around at the other rooms.
I spotted a living room, the place looking ready to die to the dust born from months of inactivity. The rest of the rooms were all hidden away as their doors were closed by keys. Unable to continue further down that kind of adventurous path, I ultimately decided to continue to my destination without any more stops.
Mora was there, as expected, but instead of doing anything important, I found her staring at the side of the kitchen where the appliances and the sink were. Her eyes hinted at some interest to do something in that area, but she seemed reluctant to try anything.
Was she planning to make some breakfast? Why was she waiting there, hesitating like that?
I knocked on the door, drawing her green eyes away from the empty space and up to me.
"Oh, you're awake," She muttered calmly, looking more surprised at the fact that I was here this early. "Good morning."
I nodded. "Good morning, boss."
I walked inside the room, looking at the table and finding myself humming a little.
"So… I suppose you're waiting for all of us to be up so we can make breakfast?"
She opened her mouth, ready to say something about it. Instead, the Cow Prime seemed to ponder about something before speaking up. Once she was done with her thoughts, I noticed a particularly mirthful gleam appear in her eyes.
"I was actually planning to ask either you or the stray cat to do that," The owner pointed out. "I suppose you can take on that task."
Surprised by that unexpected comment, I found myself blinking at why it had to be either one of us to do the task. It could've been easier if everyone cooperated for this simple task, since it would've cut down so much time that could've been better spent in the work hours. But then again, maybe this was a test to see how willing I was with my job.
I merely nodded, drawing a fascinated look out of Mora as I moved closer to the cooking section before checking my options. Two cartons of Eggs, four bricks of orange juice, and several stripes of beacon kept in three boxes.
Not much I can make with only this, I thought before picking a few eggs and bacon to start making something classic. It wouldn't be the first time I made scrambled eggs, so I managed to get through with the more 'complex' part of the cooking task with ease while I prepared the bacon in a different pan. I only paused once during the process while dumping the used egg shells to notice that there were several attempts to do this very meal, all of them seemingly ending in failure. The eggs appeared to have been burned, if not completely vaporized, within the trash bin.
Could it be that Mora wasn't good at cooking? It would've been a major surprise, but not one I was exactly expecting to be the main reason why she wanted us to cook breakfast. Was that also going to happen for lunch and dinner too?
Once both bits of the dish were ready, I swiftly served the results on three separate plates, ready to bring the food back to the table. I turned around moving back to the table to deliver the plates to the seats.
Miles still wasn't done in the bathroom, but I was sure he wouldn't mind having something to eat instead of nothing despite the fact his plate would become cold very quickly. Mora was quick to pick up her fork, testing the meal without hesitation and with a calm-looking demeanor.
The woman froze with the fork still close to her lips, her eyes widening at something I could only perceive as surprise as she slowly munched happily at the egg. She gulped, then took another bite to devour her meal.
Sighing in relief at that silent but encouraging sign of success, I took my seat and started to eat from my own plate. I nodded contently at the food, feeling rather pleased with the work I put into it , and enjoying the situation for a while.
Eventually the Cat Prime arrived in the kitchen and, after trying and failing to make a smooth entrance by throwing some compliments at our boss only to be flatly ignored, he joined us to finish that first breakfast together. The event didn't last for long as we had important things to do, with Mora getting us up and running to start doing our first tasks at the farm.
She decided to split us in two sections to handle two different jobs at once while also joining us on that working day. While Miles was moved to properly set all the hay in a single spot within the barn, I was soon helping the owner of the farm to do something incredibly dumb and potentially harmful if not taken with utter caution.
"I don't believe this will go down well for us, boss," I pointed out, quite unsure how we were supposed to push the plow around and not mess things up with the fields. Heck, the size of the camp we were working on was nothing to scoff at, and even if we managed to get through the first obstacles to have it work in these conditions, I was more sure that we were going to break our arms while working with it.
On a second thought, maybe I would be the only one to break their arms considering how tough Mora was compared to me. The Cow Prime had some muscles, and I doubted she would've ever had to fear the chances of hurting herself too much while going for that situation. But I was still worried for my own well-being, and so I reluctantly went through to approach the plow.
"Don't be a wuss. You made a good impression until now, and you don't seem the guy that backs away from this kind of challenge," She commented calmly. "And I was also thinking of giving you a reward for breakfast and… this."
I sighed. "I thought I made it clear that-"
"I know, I know. No tricks, even though it makes me annoyed by- I was referring to giving you the chance of asking me anything you want about the farm."
Frowning at that opportunity, I was surprised that she knew what I was currently interested about.
"How-"
"Yesterday, I caught you staring at some of the old pictures," She explained with a small smile, almost teasing me for noticing that. "And I'm sure you wanted to know more about Las Lindas. Of what it once was."
An interesting proposal, but then again I wasn't planning to make it so clear I was that interested. Which is why I tried to pass it off as a simple curiosity rather than anything more than that.
"I'm just… curious about the place I'm going to live for a while," I explained as calmly as I could. "Hopefully, for a long time."
"You're doing a fine job alright, and I don't see any reason to kick you out… yet," She sighed mirthfully while saying this. "Just keep up the good work, and I will not mind asking to share a drink with you."
I sighed. "I guess… I'll give it a try."
Her smile widened as I took one of the ropes that was tied to the plow, starting to pull it forward in the same direction Mora was. The heavy tool started to move shortly after, but the movement was barely enough to warrant the strain it was putting on the two of us. I was pulling as strongly as I could, gritting my teeth as I advanced… meanwhile Mora was having her own tough time with her side of the rope.
She was stronger, but the thing was still too heavy for the two of us to handle without suffering the weight. We managed to get through two lines without a pause, the two of us burning underneath that unfair sun as we tried to at least get the small section of the fields done… only to stop in the middle of the third line.
"This is… this is not doable," I reaffirmed, breathing raggedly while the woman sat down with a tired expression.
"Maybe we could've started with something easier," She admitted with an annoyed sigh. "How about we go to the orchard first and then we try this again at a later time?"
I nodded, more than happy to do something as horrible as that. Getting apples shouldn't be as terrible as this attempt was. Following the Cow Prime around the property, we paused for a moment to check on Miles at the barn.
The place was quiet at first as we approached, with the door closed and keeping us from seeing how well the guy was doing with his simpler task. While it wasn't something many were capable of doing during their first time, Mora gave him a good enough explanation with how he was supposed to get through with the assignment.
Despite my faith in the man to be able to do this, I found my hopes slightly squashed as we saw him be dragged away by an avalanche of hay the moment we opened the doors and allowed for the immense sea of gold to trail down through the opening.
He looked at us, then down at the hay, once more at us.
"I'm working on it."
Mora groaned, face palming at the incredible fail Miles managed to get out of this situation. Instead of joining the woman in the effort of pulling him out of the hay in a rather 'loving' manner, I decided to try and see how he managed to make this disaster happen. I looked inside the barn, turning my attention to the broken hay bales from where the hay that had tripped Miles off the ground were coming from.
"Did you try to stand on those to pick the one in the uppermost?" I asked quietly, turning slowly to see the Cat Prime as he tried to fend off Mora's efforts to grab him.
He gave me a confused look, but he nodded. "Yeah, why-"
"The bales aren't meant to stand on! Especially with how fragile the containers are," Mora replied in my stead. "I told you that if you wanted to pick the ones set up above you should do it by taking them from the second floor."
"But that would have been… tiring."
This time I had to move to stop the woman from legitimately killing the Cat Prime. While I was really trying to make a case to spare him from her wrath, I couldn't help but notice that he was unconsciously fueling her rage the more he spoke about it.
"Boss, let's talk about this-"
"He needs to pay. Look at the damage he has done."
"I know, and I don't want him to get free out of this situation, but hurting him will hardly help us all in the long-term," I tried to point out, pushing incredible effort to try to sound as appealing as possible. "Which is why I have an alternative that you may like."
She frowned, still pissed at the silver-haired guy, but giving me an intrigued glance.
"And that is?"
"We can fix this situation while he can be sent to the orchard to get enough apples to fill the quota for today," I started to explain. "And then, after dinner, he will have to go through half-shift."
While this seemed to get the woman's interest as she thought more about it, Miles didn't seem happy with these concessions.
"W-Wait, I made plans with Taffy to visit her after lunch!"
Surprisingly enough, it was Mora that spoke up again. "Maybe I should just make it a full shift then."
"No, I mean-"
"Declan here is trying to give you the sweet mercy of me not booting you out of the farm for having screwed up with a perfectly simple task," The owner of the place interrupted again. "In a normal situation, I would've just fired you and allowed you to spend as much time you wanted with that waitress you're fawning after. And you wouldn't have to worry about any tough work since you would be without one at that moment."
…
He sighed, looking rather defeated. "I really didn't mean to mess up."
"Then you can try to prove that by not messing up like this again anytime soon," I pointed out kindly, trying to offer him a way to 'get up'. "Mistakes can happen, but that was a lazy mind's blunder. If you want to make a change for good, do it right."
Shrugging, the young man seemed to be relieved by my solid support. "I will be more… attentive to not make any other mistakes."
"I hope you mean it," The Cow Prime added with a stern tone, and the guy nodded at her with a confident look.
"I will not, boss."
With Miles going to the orchard to start working on the easier task, Mora and I started to slowly try and get our bearings straight as we prepared to fix that kind of mess. It was a tiring job, but not one as impossible as handling the plow.
Since the hay could be easily recovered and brought back to the big box that was usually assigned to keep the new strands, the only issue of doing so before preparing the new hay bales was time and quantity. We were fast, but just enough to get all the bales remade by the time we were supposed to go to eat some lunch.
"This has been an interesting first day, chief," I commented with a sigh. "How are you doing?"
She blinked. "Despite the annoying roadblocks we suffered today… it's better than being alone while at this."
I frowned at that response, feeling intrigued by this very detail.
"I actually wanted to ask that," I started to say with a fascinated tone. "This farm looks big enough to have been invested a lot in, so..."
"Why are there no other workers right now?" The woman suggested, which made me nod as we both sat down by a bench near the barn's entrance. "Well, the place was once owned by my mother and… things took a turn for the worse when she turned out to be suffering an illness and couldn't afford to pay her former workers."
"A shame, really," I said with a small grimace. "I bet this place was a beauty."
"It still is in its own way," Mora muttered with a quieter tone. "Just… in ruins. And missing a couple more workers."
I could feel a degree of melancholy as she said this. I could only imagine the kind of pain that it had been the discovery of shambles this place had been… and that her mother was no longer there. Both were unpleasant events, and I hoped that she wasn't holding any suffering up within herself right now.
"It will recover from this," I commented with a determined voice, trying to cheer her up a little bit. "I'm sure you'll manage to do that, boss."
She sighed, looking rather uncertain about it, but still glancing with a hint of fortitude about the topic.
"The hopes are there, let's just see what we really can make out of them."
I turned at her, mustering a quick smile as she brought both Miles and I into this whole approach.
"We will do it."
…
A nod, and I could see her mood lifting up at that push.
"We sure will."
And with that quiet agreement, we returned back to the house. I still had numerous questions about the farm, but now I knew that things were more complicated than I thought those were.
AN
Let us see where the comedy, the drama and… the lewd will start to happen.
