After how helpful the two of them were said to be the last time they'd gone to help out on a farm, the ranchers were actually excited to have a couple of dignitaries from Sky Peak Village visiting them for once. Usually the political representatives were stuffy old noble or inspectors that just watched everyone work and micromanaged everything they did, needing someone to wait on them and just making everything even more difficult than it needed to be. Horrible. But this time they heard it would be different. These two actually lent a hand and were incredibly strong. One even invented something to make their work easier. Maybe they could do something like that here!

"Look! I think that's them!" Someone suddenly called, pointing down the road where two figures were approaching in the distance. Wait, were those two figures flying in the air? Was that really them? Well, they had also heard the two dignitaries had some interesting abilities, so it was possible.

Blue stood proudly on the back of what appeared to be a large bird made from blue clouds with red lightning flashing around inside it. A much more complicated and difficult to pull off new technique the ooze had concocted recently after consuming an Origin Matter, getting a core full of Arcuila lightning, and putting in a whole lot of effort.

"Look, it lasted the whole way here! It's really working! I could do this all- ah." Blue was cut off as the cloud bird suddenly dissipated and they fell down to the ground, splatting facedown on the road. But they were fine, getting u and brushing the dust off their armor as if it had never happened and then offering a thumbs up to show they were fine.

The ranchers just stared on, dumbfounded.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Food Distribution
Participants: Requires exactly two people (you and one other, if the other participant does not qualify, they will not gain the reward)
Location: Anywhere (Can be repeated for a different region)
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +10 Security for selected Region (+10 more if your home region)

Description: Keeping the region strong means keeping its people healthy and fed. While it might seem menial, preventing our region from going hungry is extremely important. You can help by passing out food to the local communities, or visiting a more remote village and helping them harvest crops, gather food, or hunt. Whatever you can do to help feed the region will keep the masses happy.

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Cloud Waltzing
Cat's Grace

The amount of work Blue put in to manifest a cloud into something that could be ridden by the both of them astounded Astrid, and the fact that it worked as well as it did also surprised her. To make a cloud dense enough to ride is certainly a feat, and she’s proud of the ooze knight for working on something so incredible. In their excitement to arrive however, they lose concentration, and the cloud dissipates beneath them.

“Ack!” Astrid cries, managing to catch herself by manifesting solid air beneath her feet. Blue splats to the ground below with a loud clank and recomposes themselves quickly, and she hurries down her invisible staircase to check on them (read: their armor). “Are ya alright? Ya gotta be careful. That magic’s still new ta ya.” Dusting off their cuirass, she looks over at the ranchers who seem shocked by their appearance.

“Uh, hiya!” she says, waltzing over and offering a hand for each of them to shake. “Good ta meet ya. I’m Astrid, an’ this is Wolfe. Uhhhh.... S'pose we're Lord an' Lady or somethin', but just Astrid an' Wolfe is fine. We’re here ta help with whatever ya need out here!”

---

Step of the wind

"I'm fine! I only landed on my face." Blue replied cheerfully as Astrid looked over their armor to make sure it wasn't damaged by their fall. The armor was undamaged, thankfully. The ooze had absorbed the brunt of the impact and it was lucky that they weren't that high off the ground when they'd fallen. "Sorry, I just lost my concentration for a sec."

Blue stood behind Astrid with a friendly smile while she gave their introduction. A few of the farmers just looked at each other and shrugged. They had heard these two were oddballs, so they guessed this just confirmed that. They both seemed friendly. A few were still shocked to see Wolfe was perfectly fine and walking around after that fall and they also still didn't know what to make of the strange cloud bird the two had flown in on.

One farmer who must have been in charge judging from his air of authority stepped forward. He had a long, shock white beard and mustache, a straw hat, and a well-worn pair of overalls and leather boots on over a red flannel shirt. He looked every bit like an old, seasoned farmer that was about to go into retirement. No, he looked like he should have retired years ago. His back was a bit hunched forward  and his smile was missing a few teeth. Even with his frail appearance, everyone turned his way when he clapped his hands together and spoke.

"Welp, it's fine ta meet ya Lady Astrid and Lord Wolfe! Welcome to our here farming community. We're happy ta have ya. I'm Jeremiah, the head farmer here. This is my son, Jessie, he'll show ya around."

Another farmer stepped up beside Jeremiah. He looked exactly like a younger Jeremiah and like the exact opposite of Jeremiah at the same time. Same outfit, similar face, but with brown hair and a short beard instead of the white. He looked young and fit, but his demeanor was timid with none of the authority in Jeremiah's presence. He gave a shy wave to the two.

“Nice ta meet ya, Mister Jeremiah, Mister Jessie,” Astrid says cheerfully, shaking Jeremiah’s hand and attempting to shake Jessie’s. The son’s hand moves hesitantly, and the grip is weak. Astrid’s eyebrow raises as she grips his hand firmly but not too tight and gives a shake. “Come on, I’m just a kid. Nary somethin’ ta be afraid of,” she says, trying to encourage a better handshake. “Come on, like this.” Astrid pulls her hand away and tries again, hoping for a different outcome but getting nothing much better than the first shake.

“Won’t impress no dwarves like that,” she notes, shrugging a bit. “S’alright. We can work on yer confidence! Tell us what ya need us ta help with!”

Jessie timidly looks to his father who gives him a nod that says that he knows what to show the visiting nobles. “Erm… well, if ya don’t mind getting your hands dirty, I can show ya how ta milk a cow…” He seems even unsure in the offer. “We’ve got a buncha bessies that need milking… Our best milkmaid’s sick this week.”

“Milkin’ cows?” Astrid asks. “I’ve never done that before! Sure, ya can show us how ta do that!”

"Me neither!" Blue said excitedly. They'd never milked a cow before! What was milking a cow? They'd heard of milk, like the drink, but what did it have to do with cows? They'd never really questioned where the stuff came from. Did you turn cows into milk?

Jessie was a bit taken aback. He'd never seen anyone so eager to try milking a cow, let alone a noble.

"Alright. This way then." Jessie said a bit nervously and turned to lead them to a large barn. The doors opened up into a straw strewn wooden floor. A path went down the middle of the bar, leading straight back to another door at the opposite end of the barn. On either side were wooden fences forming a large enclosure, each one with about twenty cows milling about or drinking from the troughs. The sounds of mooing filled the air along with the smell of manure.

In the middle of the room were a couple of milkmaids sitting on stools, already busy milking a couple of cows and chatting idly.

"That side is the cows that are already milked." Jessie pointed to the pen on the left. "These are the cows that still need milking." He finished as he lead them over to the pen on the right. He grabbed a few metal buckets that were lying upside down outside the pen. "Lead the cow out of the pen, milk her, and then lead her into the other pen. We just keep doing that until they're all milked and then they can go out into the field to roam around and eat the grass."

Jessie handed Astrid and Blue each a bucket.

Walking into a barn full of cows, the first thing that hits Astrid is the smell. It isn’t that cows poop a lot in their barn, it’s just that cows in general don’t smell all that great. A few milkmaids give them small waves as they pass by while they receive a basic explanation from Jessie about the various parts of the barn. Then he hands them the buckets, and Astrid takes it with a confused look.

“So, how do we milk them?” she asks, looking at the rancher.

“Uh… I’m not that good at it…” Jessie admits. His eyes look over at the milkmaids, and he goes over to them. “Um, Marcy, can ya show the Lord and Lady how ta milk a cow?”

A dark haired woman, presumably Marcy, looks shocked. “Lord and Lady???” She looks past Jessie at the odd duo waltzing through the barn and looking lost. “Oh, gods, Jessie, why didn’t you say so?” She stands up quickly and beckons them over. “Evening, m’lord, m’lady! Come, come, I’ll show you the proper technique for milking cattle!” Marcy sets up a couple of stools for each of the visiting nobles then takes her seat again and gets to explaining how exactly milking cows work. Apparently the pull and squeeze techniques are very important.

Blue was not good at this at all. The pull and squeeze took a far more delicate, finessed touch than the ooze was used to. And apparently, milk came from these weird little dangly bits on the bottom of a cow that were utter something that no one would finish explaining to them. Utter whats? UTTER WHATS!?

Marcy shook her head as she watched Blue trying to milk the cow and utterly failing. She kicked him out and focused on teaching Astrid who was much better at this being already used to working with her hands. Blue went off with Jessie to help lead the cows from the pen, to the milking station, and then to the other pen. A much simpler job that they were much better at.

"S'alright. Like I said, I'm not very good at milking the cows either." Jessie muttered, trying to have a little bit of conversation while they worked, but too nervous to keep much of one going.

Blue didn't really mind that they weren't much of a milker. They were used to not being good at certain things, and they knew they had their strengths, so it didn't get them down.

"Don't worry, I'm not upset about it. I'm really good at other things."

"Like what?" Jessie asked curiously. A lord was probably good at... what do lords do? Collect taxes? Read reports on stuff?

"Eating, fighting, carrying stuff, uhhhh, eating stuff, turning into stuff..." Blue started trying to list off the things they were good at, counting them off on their fingers.

"Wha- turning into stuff...?"

The amount of refinement it needs to properly milk a cow isn’t Astrid’s strong suit either. She’s a girl with a lot of strength, but her finesse is lacking. Of course, the milkmaids have dainty hands and perfect technique. Astrid’s a little gremlin child who needs grip strength for heavy objects. Pulling an udder too hard hurts the cow, but pulling too softly doesn’t produce enough milk.

Still, even when she’s frustrated by the challenge of something like this, at least she’s doing better than Blue, so much so that Blue gets assigned the much simpler task of moving cows from pen to pen.

Eventually, Astrid gets a feel for it, especially when she figures out the exact ebb and flow of the movements, and she feels much better about the whole situation. She even opts to strike up a conversation with Marcy and the milkmaids about her and Wolfe’s adventures together. The women are shocked to hear that she and Wolfe aren’t blood relatives and that they earned their titles from their deeds around Charon. None of them can imagine the true dangers the two adventuring nobles face, but they’re flattered to see them trying even the small tasks like helping farmers throughout the region.

Astrid hears Blue mention that they can turn into things, and she lifts her head to call across the barn. “Aye, they’ve got magic that lets ‘em shapeshift!” At this point, trying to help Blue explain themselves to others is just second nature.

"Oh. I didn't know you could use magic. Does every noble learn magic?" Jessie asked curiously. He hadn't heard Astrid and the milk maids' conversation while he was away from them with Blue Raspberry, so he wasn't aware the two of them hadn't been born nobles.

"Hmm, I don't think so. We've met some other nobles and they didn't look like they could. They probably would have used it when we stole their tables. They were pretty mad." Blue shrugged.

"What?" It felt like every answer to every question Jessie asked of Wolfe just caused him to have even more questions. They stole some tables from other nobles? Do nobles steal from each other regularly? He'd heard some of the other farmers complaining about how nobles stole from the common folk, but that was just taxes. You know, maybe this wasn't a good conversation to have. He didn't want to get involved in anything illegal.

"Uh, never mind. So umm" Jessie tried to change the conversation, thinking of some new question to steer away from the subject of what might have been some weird table-based political sabotage. "What can you turn into?"

"Oh, lots of things! Animals, objects, lightning.... Oh, I guess that's the whole list. Well, I usually turn into a big bird or a wolf." Blue replied cheerfully.

Astrid shouting about Blue being able to shapeshift catches the milkmaids’ attention, so now she goes on about some of the things that Blue turns themself into, especially since Jessie and Blue seem to have made their own idle conversation. Blue will be alright. Probably.

While Astrid is used to working with her hands, the muscles she has to use to milk cows are not muscles she uses very often, and she feels a bit worn out. Shaking out her hands, she looks over at Blue and Jessie. If anyone is easy to talk to, it’s Blue. They don’t judge anyone, and they wouldn’t know what socially awkward is if it slapped them in the face.

Once all the cows are milked, Astrid and Blue help carry buckets to the cellar for storage in airtight tins. When asked what the milk will be used for, Marcy explains that all the excess milk gets made into cheese since it stores easily. She gives them a short tour of what the cheese making process looks like, which honestly seems like a lot of fun to Astrid. Maybe next time they’ll come back and help with that!

With another day’s hard work done, the two bid the group farewell and head off for their next adventure in Dragon’s Cradle housekeeping.