September 25, Fall, year 20

Serri… passed away last night. Sometime between me going to bed and me getting up this morning. There's not…

I'm not going to let the kittens die. I had to run over to Vesta's this morning for milk, and I've asked Uncle T to get some supplement when he goes into town, enough to last a while..

I guess this means my crops are going to be…. Neglected for the season. But I can't just let them die! I won't let that happen.

The best way to describe Claire's emotional state was numb. Serri had been the oldest living animal on the farm, and in truth, more Claire's baby than any of the animals. Serri who would always come up for a quick snuggles whenever Claire was just hanging about the farm, often riding Claire's shoulders until the farmer gently pulled her off.

And the kittens were just born, she was lucky they hadn't expired during the few hours of sleep the farmer had managed to get. Both were now mewling plaintively, wrapped in warm towels—Claire had thrown some in the dryer for a few minutes, to keep the kitten's body temperatures up. They were looking for their mother, which the farmer knew she would have to become.

Which meant that she would have to let the crops fallow this season. It was literally a one or the other choice. She couldn't run back to the house every two hours to feed the kittens and try to take care of all her plants at the same time.

For one point, when working with the plants she lost all track of time. And coming home to Serri's dead kittens would be more painful than the farmer wanted to chance.

Tux and Clara had been curious at first, sniffing at the kittens. But when Claire had shooed them away they'd gone with tails held high in disdain. So that would be at least one less problem to deal with. Though it was very likely that Claire would have to shut them out at night so that she could sleep with the kittens.

Speaking of the kittens…

Claire moved carefully, trying hard not to squeeze frail kitten bones as she moved them from her lap to the couch and went for more milk and the eyedropper. She'd raised kittens before—had needed to when Serri had been made ill by her third litter, the one that Clara and Tux came from—but it had been so long that she'd needed to think for a while before doing anything.

Back when she'd done it the first time, her parents had gone into the City for the day to buy up several months worth of supplement that would replace the milk Serri hadn't, and now could never again produce. In the pinch that was the waiting for them to come home, Mirei had told Claire to put a tiny bit of corn syrup into cows milk and feed them carefully with an eyedropper.

Which was what she was doing now. Warming the milk carefully on the stove and adding a few drops of corn syrup, Claire carefully, methodically fed them. It was a challenge, but it helped her to focus.

"I wonder if maybe I could ask… No, they all have their own crops to attend to," she sighed. "And Uncle T's already taking care of the farm chores…"

Lulled by the warm milk and the warm towels, both kittens apparently dozed off as the blonde watched and mused.

A thought occurred to her then, that despite the three days of negligence, the watering can had been emptied, the yams had been freshly picked, and the peppers were regrowing… Which meant that someone had picked up her three days of slack so that she could continue to earn the money that was keeping her farm afloat.

But who? Marlin might have done it, but it was unlikely. For all his protests, he really was prone to illnesses, and took frequent breaks when caring for the animals Vesta had. And Celia worked full time in the vegetable field, so it couldn't have been her…

For a brief moment she considered Skye, then had to grin faintly at the image of him grubbing in the dirt to weed and water her plants. Just as quickly, she discarded the thought. He was a… thief, not a farmer.

She tilted her head back, and let out a long sigh. Whoever had done it would probably stop since she was back, and her crops would die from lack of water. Then she snapped her fingers, sitting upright abruptly.

"Of course! I'll hire the Harvest Sprite to do the work!"

Two seasons of work would cost her a lot of money in medals and flour, but in the end it would be well worth it. Mind made up, she carefully tucked the kittens into her room and bed, before bolting down to the Sprite company tree.

There's one problem taken care of. I had to empty my wallet and promise them an asinine amount of flour to be delivered in the winter, but they're going to do all my watering and harvesting for me.

Now I can concentrate on the kittens. I think I'm going to end up skipping the Cooking festival though. Not like I was planning on entering, but still.

I think I'll wait and see on names until they're running around.

I have to go and bury Serri… I think I'll go up to the Goddess pond and do it there. She always did love chasing the dragonflies near there…