I decided that I would go and seek my dad out myself. I didn’t tell Ro because I just didn’t want her to worry. This weekend we are moving into our new apartment and Momma starts her job on Monday at the nursery. So things are starting to settle down here in Umbra. But Anson is demanding payment from me for last week’s work. I cannot keep him on by myself, so I need to find Dad and ask him for money. It’s time to figure out why he hasn’t come back to the farm.
This morning I woke up and headed over to the family farm. I got there and Anson said today would be his last day if I couldn’t come up with what we owed him for the previous week. *sighs* So I gave him whatever I had on me and still owe him 250g. So I got to work, I needed to process all the wheat from our farms into sacks of flour so that I could sell them to the locals. Hopefully for enough money to pay what we owe Anson.
As I was working in the barn, my girlfriend Rowan came to see me while I worked. I nearly bumped right into her outside of barn as I went to back out for more sheafing. She always brightens up my day. I started to tell her about the money my family owes Anson and she once again offered to help me, but I cannot in good conscious take money from my girlfriend when she’s an orphan and has limited resources. I told her I was really wanting to visit the zoo, immediately I noticed her frown and worry. I told her I wouldn’t do it without an adult and would ask Armand or Merida. That eased her worry, but really I knew I needed to find my dad at whatever cost or my family could loose their farm.
I took her to the fields with me and she showed me how well she had been doing with her magic. She, a freshman, can summon elementals! I was pretty impressed. And Ro just keeps at it, she doesn’t give up, love that about her. I want her to go as far as she wants to go! I will make it my priority to always be supportive and encouraging to her. After about 4 or 5 tries, she summoned a water elemental and I was about to wash my face, which helped me a lot. Like I said, it was a hot day so that was refreshing. I collected the wheat sheafs and we walked back to the barn. I showed Ro how we process the wheat into flour. And then I took the bags of flour over to the city, which Ro gated us to. I ended up selling off half of my stock to the bakers in Moonglow and while we exited, it looked like a healer had just missed her boat over to Cove and was asking us for help. I looked to Ro and she felt confident she could gate us over, and she did! *smiles proudly*
The healer gave Ro some money, which was great for her! She can and should start saving some money. And then Ro took me to see the house where she grew up. Everything in it had a layer of dust as thick as a spellbook, yet the house had an air of love to it. And suddenly I felt sad, sad for her… my darling Rowan. I knew in that moment that I would work very hard to ensure that she is safe and loved as she was in this house. And I just wanted her to feel that love again here… in this place. We made love right there and then! Afterwards, we sat and talked and I mentioned that I really want us to be together forever. I brought up the subject that had been on my mind; about us at some point later in life becoming vampires. So we could be like Merida and Armand, together forever. She didn’t seem opposed to the idea. After a little while, I had to return to reality and get back to work. I left her in Cove with some of her father’s old friends and returned to the farm.
I gave Anson the 100g I had made and he told me he would not be returning until I got him the other 150g, and then I would still owe the 1000g for this week. *sighs* I knew I needed to search for my dad. After feeding the chickens, I went to the zoo. I asked about where my father was and the one guy at that does the janitorial services looked like I had asked for a ghost! He pointed me to go ask the Director of the Zoo about Mr. Taylor. And when I did, I got the worst news. My father was killed in an accident at the Zoo about week ago.
I stood there in shock. And I didn’t know if I was more in shock that he had died or that I was sitting there crying for him. My father had been an asshole, but he had been my father. And he wasn’t always horrible. The Director tried to comfort me, he felt so bad. He said they had been trying to contact us but we were not at the house and no where to be found. I don’t know what to feel! I need Ro… I need her now!