Walking down a narrow pass Genn pulled out her map that the kind old item shop woman gave to her. "Hmmm, well Julia and Marcus, according to this map, our ranch should be right over that hill!!" She pointed. She squeeled with glee and began running towards the hill until she could see what was beyond it.
Genn was so shocked at what she saw she almost tripped over her own feet. Mouth gaping open to the ground, she could hardly believe her eyes. A small but quite comfortable hut was settled to the left of a large almost clear landscape. A large stable was settled about 100 yards away from the house. It's large doors swinging on it's hinges in the cool autumn breeze. Geese honked about a small pond set in the middle of this ranch.
"Wow........." Was all Genn could mutter out as she made her way to her ranch. " I knew it was gonna be great, but I wasn't expecting this much!" She said to herself. Genn headed over to the house and peered in one of the windows. Suddenly the startled honking of the geese turned her attention to them.
Julia and Marcus were rushing at the alarmed birds. Mot took flight immediatly but one wasn't so lucky. Julia pounced onto it and put her tiny fingers around it's neck. Genn gasped as she realized what the little pixie was going to do. "Julia!!" Genn rasied over to her. " Don't!" Julia looked up puzzled. Catching her breath as she finally reached Julia and a barking Marcus "Let it go right now!" Genn demanded. The little monster looked at the horrified goose clutched in her hands and then to her trainer. With a small giggle she loosened her hands from the goose's neck and finally let it go. With a gleeful honk to be alive the bird flew away to catchup with it's companions.
"You were going to kill it weren't you?" Genn asked as she knelt beside the monster. A giggle and a stretch of her small pink wings was all the response she gave. "Listen to me.. You are never to kill anything! Do you understand?" Julia turned and was about to run off not hearing a word her master just said. Genn let out a soft grumble and grabbed the pixie by the arm before she could flee. " I'm talking to you! You are never to kill anything and you are never to ignore me! Do you understand?!?" Julia let out a startled squeel and winced as Genn's grip tightened. Finally the small fragile monster nodded. "*sigh* Alright, I'm sorry for having to do that. You can go play now, but don't go too far because dinner will be served soon. alright?" The pixie nodded and skipped off with Marcus at her heels.
"This is going to be harder than i thought." Genn thought to herself as she headed back to the house. Opening the small wooden front door she peered inside so her eyes could adjust to the darkness. After a few moments of hesitation she walked into her new home. "*cough* Place is kinda dusty... but I guess that's ok... I can get rid of that." She said to herself as she pulled the dusty white sheets off of the furniture.
Suddenly Genn stopped as she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She caught her breath in her throat as she turned to get a better look at what was in the house with her. With a gust of wind and a quick movement the shadow raced towards the door leading out but Genn was faster. When she realized what it was up to without thinking twice she ran to the door and slammed it shut to trap the intruder inside with her.
" Yo...you better show yourself before I start kicking and punching air and trust me sooner or later I'm gonna hit something so you better come out!!" Genn threatened as she felt her knees begin to shake. " I'm gonna count to 3!"
Finally, not wanting to get hit or kicked in a most uncomfortable place someone stepped out of the shadows. " Ok ok... I give up, just don't hit me!" Genn could barely keep her laughter in when she saw who the intruder was.
" Warren!? What the heck are you doing here?! H.. how did you find me??" Genn asked to her childhood friend. Warren fumbled slightly as he tryed to think of a way to tell her his story.
He pushed up his thick blue rimmed glasses back up his nose so his brown eyes. " Well you see.. uhm.. it's a long story and uhm... you have to promise not to beat me up when you hear it!" He whimpered as he found a small wooden rocker to sit in close to the unused fireplace.
Genn giggled thinking of all the times he made her promise that and her still beating the daylight out of him anyway. " Alright alright, I promise. Tell me how you got here." She fumbled around the dark room searching for something to light the interior. Finally her hands brushed against an oil burning lamp. " Hey you got a match or something?" Warren nodded and pulled a book of matches out of his pocket. " Alright! Now time to see if this thing has some oil left in it." To her surprise and joy it did. Instantly the room lit up with life giving Genn her first real look at her home. She smiled to herself and finally gathered herself together enough to sit and listen to what Warren had to say. She pulled up a small footstool to face him as he spoke.
" Well, it all started when I heard you won that contest. I was really happy for you, but not for very long. I heard from people saying that you were too young to go off and be a rancher and that you wouldn't last a week." Warren took in a deep breath and pushed up his glasses once more. " Well I wasn't about to just stand by and let everyone think you were going to fail, so after you left, I sorta, uhm...... followed you." Genn's eyes widened in surprise.
" You followed me all the way here?" She was uterly shocked, not thinking her puny pathetic friend would be able to make such a trek.
But he nodded in response. " I knew it was gonna be a long walk so I packed all I could. My mom was expecting me to turn back after a mile but I showed her! I followed you all the way to that big town and I even saw you talking to that old shop woman and uhm... Oh! Come out of the shrine with your pixie. I was really happy for you. Honestly." Warren smiled his crooked smile and proceeded along as he felt his cheeks blush. "*cough* Well anyway, After you got all that stuff from that woman I followed you until you reached here. I didn't know what I was gonna do. You know... I didn't know if I shoulda just come up and say Hi or what...."
" No you just decided to hide in the house till I whacked you over the head thinking you were a burglar!" Genn giggled as she noticed his cheeks becoming an even brighter shade of red.
" Yeah, see I didn't know what to do so I uhm... came in here when I saw that you were distracted with your monster. I was gonna hide until it was the right time to come out but I didn't think you would see me. And uhm...... sorry... I didn't mean to scare you." Genn could only giggle as she reached over to take his hand. Automatically he reacted with a whimper with hands covering his head from a blow.
Genn only began to laugh harder. " Oh you silly boy! I'm not going to hit you this time. Actually I'm glad ya came here. It is a big ranch for just little ole me to be on all by myself, and *cough* I could use some help with........... stuff.... and yeah.." She was never good at asking for help from people she knew her ego was always the most important thing to her.
"*gasp* Is that really you?? Did you just ask for MY help? Well if this isn't a cold day in hell.. I don't know what is!?" Warren laughed.
Feeling her cheeks begin to burn Genn stood suddenly waving her fist towards him. " HEY! It's still not too late to beat ya to a bloody pulp ya know! If you don't wanna help then leave! I don't care!" She turned with a rush and began sorting through the items she obtained in town.
" Oh oh... I'm really sorry. I was only joking with you. I wanna help. It's not everyday you get to stay on a ranch this nice.. with someone you lik..... *cough*hack*..... know." Warren bent down beside Genn and smiled towards her. " Lemme help, please?"
She smiled back and nodded. " Thanks... I knew you'd stay if I got mad enough." She winked and turned her head enough to hide the secret grin on her face. " But you know..... you're sleeping out here."
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