Endless Work

A low whistle escaped from Misa’s lips as she took in the sight. She couldn’t believe how beautiful the cavern with the rice fields was! Never before had she seen something like this, and, quite frankly, she wouldn’t have believed that such a place existed if she hadn’t been standing right there. It was seemingly straight out of a fairy tale.

Gorgeous farmland stretched into the distance as far as she could see, covered with perfectly grown rice that was ready for harvesting. The whole cavern was bathed in soft morning light from the glowing fungus far up above, and a light mist from the nearby waterfall lingered over everything, catching the light every now and again, causing small rainbows to flicker in and out of existence throughout the area. Although it seemed like it should be cold here as well due to the time of year, it was pleasantly warm. She wasn’t sure what the source of the heat was.

“No time to waste!” a gruff voice called from nearby. She turned her head to look over at the taller, masculine bun as she was pulled back to reality, lightly smacking her cheeks with her hands. Of course Dan wouldn’t want to wait around. They were here on a mission, after all.

He set down his backpack full of supplies and pulled out a pair of sickles and baskets. Wordlessly, he handed one set to her and took the other, striking off down the path towards the nearest field. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to do yet, so she followed him, hoping that simply watching what he did would give her enough of an explanation.

When they reached the rice, he pulled a handful of the stalks close and deftly cut off the tops, making sure to save just the bit that had the clusters of seeds. He placed that portion of the plants into the basket and grabbed another handful of stalks, repeating the process. He made quick work of it, probably because he had been here before.

After a few minutes of watching him, Misa decided that everything seemed pretty straightforward and it was time to try her hand at the task. She set off down a different field, pausing at the edge while she gathered her own handful. Bringing out the sickle, she tried to make the same motion that Dan had, but the blade got caught. She had to hold the stalks steady as she sawed away until the blade had finished cutting through them. It was much less elegant than the other bun’s handiwork.

She placed the seeds into her basket and tried again with a different batch. The result was the same. She had no idea what the difference in technique was, but she knew she didn’t have too much time to figure it out. As long as she was making some progress, that was better than nothing, so she kept trying. Eventually, she was able to manipulate the blade into making a much cleaner slice through the rice, at which point everything went much smoother. Success.

The morning quickly slipped away while the two buns worked, and then it was afternoon. Misa was ready for a break, but she never saw Dan stop to rest. Deciding not to risk getting on the wrong side of the other bun, she continued to work as well. It wasn’t that big of a deal. She’d eaten plenty for breakfast and would technically be fine for a while yet.

About halfway through the afternoon, Dan caught her attention and started walking back to the start of the fields. They had been gathering mountains of rice back there, at their makeshift base camp, whenever their individual baskets became full. She hoped they had gathered enough.

The work wasn’t over yet, however, as it was now time to remove the seeds. Dan handed her a strange flail while he laid out a huge but lightweight threshing board, placing some of the stalks they had cut on top. He showed her how to use the flail to beat the seeds out on one half of the board while he worked on the other. She had thought their jobs would get easier throughout the day, but she was mistaken.

Only after a few more hours had passed, taking with it both the light and warmth of the day, was it finally time to collect up all of the newly harvested seeds and hull them. Each grain of rice needed to be removed from its shell and polished to perfection before they could use it. Ugh. This had ended up being so much more work than she had bargained on. There wasn’t anything to do about it now though.

Misa was over the moon when at long, long last, they were finally done for the day and Dan had cooked up a delicious meal using some of the rice. She didn’t suppose she had ever had a tastier meal. She fell asleep almost instantaneously upon lying down a little while later.