Chapter 2 - Life on the Farm

  

  Aleksi sighed as he trudged behind the two oxen, watching the plough they were dragging slowly draw furrows in the dirt. Not for the first time he found himself daydreaming of adventure, perhaps saving a princess from shadowspawn and being rewarded with money, land and a life that went beyond his village.

  He was still young, he'd only inherited his farm a year ago when his father had died of a sudden fever. He still missed the man, could remember his smile, the calm, confident way he'd taught him everything he knew.

  His father would want him to stay and keep the family farm going, but that didn't change things. The idea of another thirty or forty years behind a plough in Ramshorn made him shudder.

  Still, if he wanted to eat this winter the field needed ploughing. He just wished something, anything would happen to break up the monotony of his work.

  He was so caught up in his reverie that he nearly fell over the plough when it came to a grinding halt, its blades caught on something in the soil.

  "Flaming rocks," Aleksi muttered to himself as he stepped closer to examine whatever it was that had stopped the plough's progress. Hopefully it wasn't too big a stone or it would be even more of a pain to dig out of the soil.

  What he hadn't expected was to see something artificial poking out of the ground, an unnaturally straight, if grime covered, corner of something larger. It had no give to it at all when he pushed at it with his foot, so he bent down for a closer look, trying to push away some of the mud.

  When he brushed his hand over the object his skin tingled and the dirt seemed to almost fall off like it didn't want to stick to whatever it was, exposing dull, grey metal, unblemished by the plough's impact. He glanced back at the plough, with a muttered curse, was that a dent in one of the blades?

  After a moment he looked back at the object, a flutter of excitement in his belly. Maybe this was the adventure he'd been looking for? A chest of riches buried in his field? Or even a mysterious relic from the Age of Legends?

  He knew it was a silly fantasy, but still, this wasn't normal and he'd have to get it out of the field either way, unless he wanted to leave a chunk of his land unplanted.

  After a moment's thought Aleksi carefully started backing up the oxen before steering them and the plough around and away from the mysterious metal corner. He'd come back later, but for now the farm had its demands.

  That evening he returned with a spade to work under the spring evening sun. An hour's digging exposed more of whatever it was. He suspected it was probably a box or chest of some sort, but also that it was huge. At least three paces to a side.

  It wasn't going to be easy to unearth it, but his curiosity had been fired up. He could hardly spend his life complaining to himself about how boring things were and then ignore something as interesting as this!

  He'd need more time to dig it out properly and then he could decide what to do.

  The real question was whether he should tell someone else about it, but in the end it was much more exciting for it to be his secret, at least until he worked out what the thing actually was. It wasn't like anyone else ever came to this bloody field anyway.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  It took a few more days of digging, in between sessions behind the plough, but eventually Aleksi got enough of his new treasure uncovered to have a better idea of what it was. The back half still lay buried in the dirt, but it was clearly a box of some kind, made of a dull, grey metal. Perhaps three paces across and seemingly completely unmarked by its time in the ground, other than by dirt which didn't really stick to it anyway.

  He'd heard stories about other people who'd unearthed strange things. Some had been cursed by them, others had been able to sell them, not even for silver but for actual gold! He'd never heard of something like this though. A solid box, no seams, no markings, just sitting there. It was at the same time the strangest and yet most deeply mundane thing he'd ever seen.

  At first he'd tried brushing the dirt off it with his hands, but that had been unpleasant. His skin always seemed to feel strange when he touched it, an odd tingling sensation running through it, but there was nothing else interesting about it. Not a thing.

  Eventually he'd even brought a broom with him to brush the dirt off the exposed parts. This revealed nothing other than more dull, grey metal.

  He gave it an experimental prod with his foot and, as ever, nothing happened.

  A harder prod yielded the same, frustrating, results for his long hours of work.

  "Mother's milk in a cup!" He gave it a hard kick before hopping away yelping from the pain in his foot.

  Still cursing to himself Aleksi was distracted from the pain by the feel of the rising hairs on the nape of his neck and goosebumps shooting up his skin. Something had changed.

  At first there was just a low humming noise, like a distant beehive, seeming to come from the box. Then the sound started to rise in both pitch and volume, quickly turning into an almost painfully loud whine.

  Aleksi froze, his hurt foot forgotten staring wide-eyed at the box as red lights started to flash rhythmically in each exposed corner.

  This must be witchcraft, the One Power! He staggered back, falling over as he tried to get away from it. Why was the box shaking, was it about to explode?

  Aleksi realised he wasn't as ready for adventure as he'd thought when he found himself crawling backwards in terror, unable to take his eyes off the now violently shaking artifact.

  A woman's voice rang out, clearly enunciating nonsense words that still sounded smooth and elegant, "Danger. Catastrophic system failure detected. Initiating emergency shut down. Please clear the area." The noise from the artifact reached a crescendo and then suddenly stopped, the lights going out.

  A second later there was a loud hiss of escaping steam. The front of the box swung open, its movement completely unimpeded by the soil still surrounding its bottom half. Aleksi had to shield his eyes for a moment as blazingly bright light shone forth from inside.

  A moment later it was gone and he was left lying in the dirt staring into it with wide fearful eyes.

  As his vision recovered he saw a woman silhouetted in its entrance, surrounded by disorganised piles of paper.

  She was wearing strange clothes coloured in patches of green and brown, but covered in dirt. No skirts though, a man's trousers and boots. Her dark skin seemed to suggest she might be Taraboner, but he wasn't sure. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail and it looked like it might be matted with blood, he was fairly sure there was blood on her face.

  She looked young, only a few years older than he was and he was already starting to smell something burnt now that the box had opened.

  Even as Aleksi gaped at the sight from his position in the mud she reached out in front of her, staring forward with unseeing eyes, screaming something incoherent. She took a couple of steps forward and then collapsed into a heap face first in the dirt.

  All he wanted to do was run. He had no idea what was going on, but this must be something to do with the One Power. There was no way that woman could have survived for as long as that thing must have been buried. But no, he'd wanted to be a hero and he couldn't just run away at the first frightening thing he saw. Instead, with an effort of will, he forced himself to stand up and move towards the woman, he didn't know what was going on, but he couldn't just leave her like this.