The Farm (CH1)

-Darren Novel. GameLIT type-

  Steve blinked twice and looked around himself. He was standing in the middle of what looked like a dirt field.

To the west of the field looked to be the start of a forest. In the south, a decently sized lake. To the north and east were empty fields of grass.

“Where the hell am I?” Steve asked.

Looking down at himself, he could see he was wearing a black windbreaker, brown shirt, dark blue jeans, and work boots.

“Just what exactly is going on,” he said to no one. As no one was around.

Steve was completely alone here.

In this field.

Off to one side of where he stood were two large wool sacks.

Beside that was a large open topped wooden tool box.

Moving over to inspect it, he found it was more or less what his mind told him should be there.

Inside were various miscellaneous small and medium sized tools. Like hammers, wrenches, mallets, a saw, and other things that he wasn’t even sure of the use for.

Next to that was a hoe, a pick, a shovel, a rake, an axe, and a watering can.

“Hello?” Steve called aloud.

“Is anyone here?” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Welcome.

Steve froze, staring at the window that popped up in front of him.

There was a small button in the corner that said, “Proceed”.

Reaching out, Steve tapped it with a fingertip.

Year 1- Season: Spring

Name: Steve

Again there was another proceed button that needed to be touched.

Spring seeds are now viable and will begin to grow.

Steve hit the proceed button again that came after that message.

Except no further window appeared. There was nothing else to be read.

Frowning, Steve looked to the sacks.

“I guess I’m supposed to… farm? Before that though… what the hell?” Steve asked, looking around again.

He was still alone.

“I don’t know how I got here… I don’t… I don’t even know who I am other than my name, or where I am. Or what this is. And those weird windows that pop up. They remind me of-”

Steve blanked.

There was something just out of reach in his memory. The windows reminded him of something but he couldn’t recall what.

Sighing, Steve knelt down where he stood and poked his fingers into the dirt a few times.

It felt like dirt. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

“I have no food, a water source that is probably drinkable. But I can’t boil it as far as I can tell yet, and no idea what’s going on. This feels like a horror story,” Steve said.

Moving over to the sacks, he resolved himself to see what he had to work with.

Inside the first huge sack was potatoes. An endless amount of potatoes.

“Hey now. Lookie here. Now if this was a mission to Ma… a mission to… to where?” Steve frowned, his memory failing him again.

Grumbling, Steve closed the sack and looked to the second one.

It was full of smaller sacks, and each of those were full of seeds he couldn’t even begin to identify, though no two sacks were the same.

“You’re not an idiot, Steve. This is clearly an abnormal situation. This isn’t normal, and this whole thing is strange,” Steve said to Steve. “Your memory isn’t normal. That window thing isn’t normal.

“We’re in… something. Something abnormal. The loser part of me wants to run as fast and as far as I can. Which would be a bad end, I think. Fleeing from here is the wrong answer. Especially when clearly so many things were prepared for me.”

Moving over to the wooden handled tools, Steve picked up the hoe.

“I have no memory of being anywhere else, or even how to use this tool.

“Now that I think about it. I don’t know a thing about… farming.”

Frowning, Steve set the hoe on his shoulder and glared at it.

“What is it that I do? The ground doesn’t look… farmed,” Steve said, looking to the dirt around him. “Is that the word? Farmed? Tilled?”

Lifting the hoe off his shoulder, he experimentally tried hitting the dirt with it.

Suddenly the dirt five feet in front of him radically changed itself. One moment it was packed dirt, and the next it wasn’t. It was if it had been repeatedly hacked at it and churned up.

Looking at the hoe in surprise, Steve squinted at it.

“You seem quite normal though. I mean… you’re a piece of wood with a metal bit on the end of it. The end.”

Giving the tool in question a shake, Steve waited.

Nothing happened.

Moving several steps over in the dirt till he was standing in front of a fresh patch, Steve eyed the ground. Then he hit it with the hoe again.

Once more, for five feet in front of himself, the soil changed.

+1 Hoe proficiency

“Buh?” Steve asked, peering at the window. Closing it, he stared at the hoe again. This time he practically glared at it. Forcing all of his concentration on it.

Masterful Hoe

Increased efficiency

Increased speed of use

Increased usability

Indestructible

~pt3. way. Then I traded our memories for better tools and start. Sor-

Dropping the hoe at the sudden window, Steve wasn’t sure how to proceed. Licking his lips at the sudden window, and that he’d managed to see the hoe this time as something other than a normal hoe, he thought on the situation.

Feeling brave, Steve picked up the shovel and tried to do the same that he had for the hoe.

Masterful Shovel

Increased efficiency

Increased speed of use

Increased usability

Indestructable

~Steve, its Steve. I can’t explain it all, but you need to farm as bes-

Success! But… that seems like a message, doesn’t it?

Dropping the shovel, Steve picked up the rake, only to discover it was a different line of the message.

Picking up the axe, he tried to invoke the window again.

~pt2. t as you can. I picked a spot for us in a territory out of the -

Steve moved to the pick.

~pt4. ry but it was needed. Use the tools, plant, live. We already fai

Dropping the pick, he grabbed the watering can.

~pt5. led once at this. If you get the chance, turn the farm into a vi

The rake came went next.

~pt6. llage. It’ll help in the long run. Thats all I can do. Good luck

Steve frowned and looked down at the tools as they lay in a pile.

“I guess that answers some things. And apparently I did this to myself.”

Reaching into the sack with seeds, Steve pulled one of the smaller sacks out.

“And what, I just take the bag and sprinkle it on the soil? Think happy thoughts and just…”

Steve grabbed a handful of seeds, only to have them vanish.

The ground he was standing in front of shifted again, the churned soil becoming small raised mounds instead.

“Uhm… alright… then. Happy thoughts it is. That’s certainly easier than trying to plant it by hand, I guess.”

Steve looked at the bag in his hand. Then the field.

“Let’s… do this the right way. The OCD way. All dirt will be hoed, then planted, then… watered?

“In that order. Yes.

“Good job, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Real team player, Steve.”

***

Sighing, Steve dragged his wrist across his brow. He’d spent the last… well, day, he guessed, planting his field.

Not a single seed remained, and the entire field was tilled and seeded.

“Apparently previous me planned everything out well enough. I’ll trust in me. Good job Past Steve. If I have to do this again, I’ll plan for Future Steve. You’ll be proud,” promised Steve.

The sun was starting towards the distant horizon. He only had a few hours left before the sun would set.

Only now, did he realize he had nowhere to sleep.

Nor any bedding material.

Looking to the woods, Steve contemplated what to do.

At the same time, his stomach growled. He was also feeling like he was dying of thirst.

“Damn. Maybe there’s… something edible in the forest? Like… berries… or… something?” Steve said. “I can’t eat a raw potato damn it. Pretty sure that’s poisonous. I think.”

Grumbling, he snatched up the watering can. Briefly he considered what’d happen if he drank untreated water. Then he realized it didn’t matter. If he died of dehydration it wouldn’t do him much good either. So he began to drink out of the front of it. And drink.

And drink.

Until there was nothing left, and his stomach felt not so empty.

“Blegh. Tastes like dirt. Lots of dirt.”

Setting the can down, he grabbed the axe and looked to the forest again.

“Guess we’ll see if I can make a log cabin with no experience, no knowledge, and only an axe.

“Whatever. The alternative is, you know, get used to sleeping on the ground. In the middle of a field. With whatever animals come out at night.

“Right out of the forest and seeing the dumb human.”

Grumbling, Steve walked into the woods, leaving his field for the first time.

Stepping between two large trees, he immediately felt it was different. Not just that he wasn’t in his field, but it might as well have been in a different country.

Looking back over his shoulder, he could still see his field.

Gripping his axe firmly, Steve looked at a nearby tree.

Setting his feet apart, he cocked the axe back, and swung at the base of the tree.

Only to have the tree explode in chunks where he struck.

Instantly, the tree toppled over, crashing through other trees and striking the ground with a loud thud.

“Uh,” Steve said intelligently. “Probably could have planned that better. Like trying to get it to fall into the field and not in the spooky fucking forest.

“But how was I supposed to know I’d blow it the fuck up like the jolly green… jolly… whatever.”

Stomping over to the fallen tree, Steve measured out what he felt like would be long enough for one wall.

“I mean… it’s just like that toy set we played with. Linco… Linco… I can’t remember the name. Or… anything about them… other than the shapes of them.

“Damn it Past Steve, trading our memories doesn’t seem like a good plan anymore,” Steve said. “I’m going to treat Future Steve so much better.”

Lifting the axe, he brought it down on the log. Another similar explosion of wood chips and sawdust blew out from the tree.

Grabbing a branch from the huge section of tree, he began dragging it out of the forest. 

“Yeah, gonna end up sleeping on the ground tonight at this rate,” Steve grumbled as he drug it along. It was back breaking work, and slow, but he had to do this.

“Sounds great. Sleep out in the open. Next to the spooky horror woods where I’m sure a serial killer lives. Or a god damned werewolf.”

Dropping the tree trunk in the grass next to his field, Steve grumpily headed back into the treeline.

“That or I just get gutted like a fish before nightfall even happens,” Steve moved to the next part of the tree he wanted to cut down. “Gonna jump out at me and EEEEEH!”

A woman had appeared in front of him, stepping out between two trees. At Steve’s screen at the top of his lungs, she’d fallen down onto her rear-end in front of him.

She stared up at him, while he stared back down at her.

Except Steve followed up his previous screech with another, lifting the axe up above his head and intending to bring it down.

“Wait, wait, wait!” shouted a woman with dark obsidian colored curling horns. She was holding her hand up in front of herself, her head tilted to one side. She had large furry ears where normal human ears should be.

She was dressed in what looked like a woolen tunic and trousers. Though the fabric had rents it, and looked as if it’d been worn consistently for days. Short black curly hair sat around her head in a tangled mass.

And strangest of all, was set in that pale pretty face, were a pair of dark brown slotted eyes.

Like a goat.

All in all she had the look of someone who’d be wandering around in the woods.

Steve hesitated, the axe held above his head.

The fear in him demanded he bring the axe down and put the goat lady to death.

“Wait, I mean no harm!” she called, her hand moving up higher.

Steve’s response was to crank the axe further back.

“Stop!” she cried. “I mean no harm. I was just lost and I was just following the noise! Really!”

Shivering from head to toe, Steve didn’t know what to do.

“Ok,” Steve said, his voice quivering. “Ok… just… ok. I’m just… chopping down trees. So… keep away.”

Keeping his eyes on her, Steve walked over to the fallen tree he’d been working on.

Looking down quickly to the section of tree, and feeling like it was roughly the same length as the previous one, Steve brought the axe down.

With an explosion of wood-chips, the tree broke into two parts. The section he was in front of he could use as a log later, but the other he wasn’t sure of. It looked much more thin comparatively.

Grabbing the tree by a thick branch, Steve started dragging it back to his field. The entire time he did so, he kept his eyes on the goat woman.

For her part, she remained at the edge of the tree line, watching him as he struggled.

Not saying anything, she left the line of trees, and grabbed ahold of the would be log and started helping him.

She practically ran him over with the tree though. Her end of it was moving much faster than his own.

How damn strong is she?

Dropping it next to the first, he eyed her questioningly.

“What do you want?” he asked finally.

“Ah… I could use a place to sleep,” she said. “Maybe some food. I can help you. It looks like you’re going to build a cabin here?”

Her attitude was odd, and Steve couldn’t quite place it. To him it felt like her fear had left partially, and was replaced with curiosity.

Curiosity and a strange… excitement.

Eying her, he realized she was further removed from human that he originally thought. Her feet were cloven hooves, and it looked like fur was peeking out from the bottom of her pant leg.

In fact, there looked like a small fluffy tail sticking out from between her tunic and trousers.

“Yeah,” Steve said, fixing his eyes to her face. “But I don’t have anything to feed you with. That was going to be the next thing to work on. I guess.

“Didn’t know what to do so I just started chopping trees.”

“Ah… I see,” said the goat woman. “I’m Nikki. Well, Nicole, really, but I go by Nikki.

“As far as food goes, we’ll figure out something tomorrow morning. Maybe try our luck at fishing.”

“Uh… yeah… hi Nikki,” Steve said, feeling rather awkward. Setting his axe to his shoulder he frowned.

“Oh, perfect. I’ll start working on the branches. You go get more trees,” Nikki said, moving over to the toolbox. She pulled out some sort of saw, and what Steve felt like was a damn short sword.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Hefting the blade lightly, she turned back to the tree and started to hack off smaller branches with it.

Grimacing, but not really knowing how to respond, Steve looked from the goat woman, to the trees.

She’s helping. I guess.

She can… get the trees trimmed to logs while I get more logs.

Ok… uh… yeah. She’s a goat woman.

Steve glanced to her chest, then away, setting out for the trees.

A goat woman with a decent rack. Damn.

Unable to help himself, Steve glanced over his shoulder as he walked and got an eyeful of Nikki bending over the tree.

And a great rear end. Damn.

Shaking his head, and putting his brain on the task at hand, Steve headed back into the creepy serial killer horror woods.

Working quickly, he’d managed to bring out ten more sections of trees, while Nikki continuously cleaned them up.

When the sun finally hit the horizon, they were nowhere near done making a cabin.

But the apparently handy Nikki had created a lean to out of the mass of branches they had. Then amazingly had somehow made a fire out of the tools he had laying around.

“Oh! Wheat grains,” Nikki said happily, peering into the sacks. “Can I eat some of this?”

“Uh… yeah. Just leave enough so we can plant it later. I ran out of dirt to use so I had some leftover seed,” Steve muttered, watching Nikki sort through the sacks she’d dragged over to the shelter.

“Of course, of course, I don’t eat much,” she said, putting a handful of raw grains into her mouth. She immediately smiled and began to quite happily chew them.

Uh huh. So… she eats weird stuff.

Good to know.

Sitting down in the shelter next to Nikki, Steve didn’t know what to say or do.

Then his stomach grumbled.

Loudly.

To the point that Nikki looked at him and raised her dark eyebrows.

“I’m sorry, that’s rather rude of me, isn’t it? You can’t really eat this. You’re a human, yes?” she asked.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. Like you said. We’ll try something tomorrow morning and see what we can do about it,” Steve said. He wasn’t about to slight her for eating if she was able to. She’d spent quite a bit of time and effort in getting this shelter together.

He’d just supplied the muscle and starting materials, really.

If it was just me, I’d be sleeping amongst a bunch of trees. Next to the spooky woods.

Where a stupid werewolf is probably and wants to eat me.

Or a serial killer.

Blinking, and giving his head a shake, Steve grabbed the watering can. Drinking his fill, till his stomach seemed as if it could hold no more, Steve felt momentarily satisfied.

Laying down amongst the piled up branches, he closed his eyes.

In seconds, he was out like a light.