August 30, Summer, year 20

I've been feeling rather anti-social lately. Not sure why. I've been feeling this way since the Firefly Festival, so maybe it's lingering melancholy? At any rate, I don't know if I want to go watch the fireworks with everyone… Maybe I'll just stay home and read the new book that Win loaned me after I returned Alora's journal.

More Moon People legends… stories. Win says they're real accounts from eye witnesses, so they don't exactly qualify as legends.

Hmm.. I could sit outside and read. With Fall starting tomorrow, there's a nice cool breeze.

Oh! And I brought my official Sprite count up to forty-eight! Go me!

Claire exited the house, book tucked securely under her arm and glanced around as she locked her door.

The scent of fresh cut grass hung in the air, a testament to Claire's hard work of the day. Working with some of the odd cursed tools she'd found in the mines had worn her down quicker than usual, but it had been well worth the extra effort. She had every intention of getting them all blessed as quickly as possible, but at one hundred thousand gold a blessing… Well, it was going to be a while.

The summer plants had all been pulled to make way for the Fall ones which she'd plant in the morning, and were currently sitting in the compost pile along with chicken dung and horse manure. Smelly, maybe, but it would make a wonderful fertilizer for use in the coming years.

The chickens were scratching for bugs, the ducks—and ducklings—were playing in their pond, and the few chicks that had been hatched (much to Claire's surprise she now had three full grown ducks five full grown chickens, and three of each in the way of newly hatched babies), were following Lirin around with peeps for food.

Honey was happily munching on some of the tough weeds, Dakota, Puppy, and Coconut—who had taken Serri's place in the horse barn—were all curled up in a heap, napping in the afternoon sunshine.

Warmth filled Claire then, and a fond smile crossed her lips. Inevitably, Jill had been right, the farm work grew on a body until there was no way to think of it as anything but a blessing. A hard one, but the reward was worth the effort.

She let out a long, contented sigh, and just leaned against the side of the house for a minute, simply reveling in everything she'd done.

"Claire?"

She jumped about half a foot, and spun. The young-looking woman standing behind her jumped back, raising her hands defensively, sunlight glinting off of silver-streaked black hair.

There was a long pause. It took several long seconds for the farm-woman's brain to click. When it did however, a bright grin spread across her face.

"Lauren?!" Claire exclaimed. "Ohmygosh!"

She launched herself at the older-woman—dropping the book in the process—who laughed and hugged her back.

"What're you doing here?" Claire asked, book forgotten. "Don't you have work in the city to take care of?"

"Oh, they can do without me for today. I've been worried about you kiddo! Damien came back yesterday, throwing a hissy fit about you being too stubborn for your own good, so I thought I'd check up on you," Lauren's grey eyes were worried. "Did he do anything stupid?"

"You could say that," Claire said dryly. "But a friend of mine helped me fix things, so everything's alright."

Lauren let out a sigh of relief and a smile.

"Show me around?" she asked. "I always meant to come out here, but it's been wedding season… you know?"

Claire laughed.

"My brother's getting married this winter," she confided as she picked the book up again. "And I'm pretty sure that any day now my sister's going to get a proposal from her boyfriend…"

Lauren chuckled, slinging an arm around the farmer's shoulders.

"And no one for yourself?" she teased, grateful that her friend was alright.

"…Maybe," Claire replied, blushing slightly. "But I'm not sure yet. He's got some… habits I want him to change first. And I've still got a bit of growing up to do myself, you know? The farm's a lot of hard work and responsibility… I slacked in the Spring…"

As Claire talked, Lauren scrutinized her subtly. The blonde was doing okay, she finally decided. There had been some stress recently, that was obvious enough, but overall, her fears had been unfounded. And from the looks of things, this place was better for Claire than the city had ever been. The girl was stronger in both body and spirit, and standing up for herself against Damien, a real change from how she'd acted in Ming City.

And though Lauren didn't understand more than half of the things Claire spoke of in the complications of running a farm, she listened and listened. Who knew when the girl's knowledge might come in handy after all?

Finally Claire ran down, and grinned a little sheepishly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Oh pish," Lauren said waving a hand. "You never talked this much when it was everyone in the city. I like it! It proves that you're really changing into someone you can be proud of."

"Even though you didn't understand half of that?"

There was a glitter of laughter in Claire's blue eyes, inviting Lauren to share in the joy.

"I understood… Okay maybe a little less than half."

Laughter rang over the farm as the two friends whiled away the afternoon, trading stories and gossip.

"So, Damien's back in the city?" Claire asked, as night started to fall.

"Only because his boss threatened to fire him if he didn't show up to work next week," Lauren nodded, sipping some of the fresh pineapple juice Claire had made. "He's been playing hooky for too long, so you'll have a break for a few weeks at least."

"Good!" the farmer sighed in relief. "I have to concentrate on Fall planting now, so that I can finish out he year and get some cows and sheep over the winter! How long are you gonna be here?"

"Oh, I think I'll be leaving soon," Lauren smiled as Claire's face fell. "But I can give you my number and you're welcome to call me any time you have a problem, okay? The shop can survive without me for a couple of days if you're in a jam."

"Hey Laur'?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you ever learn anything more about your heritage?" Claire tried to word the question carefully, but curiosity was making her want to jump.

"Mmmm, not really," Lauren sighed a touch disappointed. "I mean the records were all lost in that big town fire when I was a kid, and trying to find out information by hand isn't very easy. Why?"

"Well, it's just…" Claire tilted her head slightly. "I've been learning more about the People of the Moon. A few people I know are… part of that gene-pool, and one said that one of the more dominating genes of the People was silver hair…"

Lauren reached out and ruffled Claire's hair, chuckling.

"It's possible," she admitted as Claire brushed her hair back into place. "I mean, there's all this talk about slower aging, and I keep getting mistaken for someone who's half my age… But I thought you said that they were nothing more than silly stories."

"Yeah well," Claire rubbed the back of her neck slightly, voice dry. "Circumstances since then made me re-evaluate my thinking."

"Good," and Lauren had to laugh at the surprise on Claire's face. "You're too old to blindly agree with everything Damien says, yeah? It's time I got decent opinions on what you think. Actually, I already knew about that part. Dad found some old journals from his ancestors, so we've always known that."

"You've got journals?" Claire couldn't help but be envious. "You probably know more about them than I do, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that," the older woman laughed. "I know enough to make me happy, and I doubt any of them are going to come down and pick up a mongrel for their palaces, you know?"

Claire went silent for a long moment, thoughtfully.

"Claire?" Lauren's eyes sharpened, taking in her friends body language and expression. Something in them suddenly seemed very sad.

"It's nothing," the farmer replied. "Just… thinking too far into the future, is all. You should stick around for tonight at least, there's going to be fireworks down at the beach."

Lauren filed away the questions for a later date, and got to her feet.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" the woman propped her hands on her hips as Claire stood too, brushing dust and dirt from her legs. "Let's go watch!"

It was awesome to see Lauren again after so long! She's such a sweetheart, coming all this way to check up on me when she's the head designer for the wedding shop she runs. She's pretty famous too, Muffy flipped when she saw who I brought to the display.

I think the girls spent more time talking to Lauren than watching the fireworks. That's a first. I'm pretty sure I have some miffed guy friends now. Hahaha! It was worth it though, and Lauren was awesome to put up with all their questions.

Phew, there's a chill to the air now, I'd better go and close some of these windows before I go to bed.