Druid's Blessing

My first day on the farm. Kind of exciting.

The bunkhouse where the hands sleep is on one side of the loft in the barn. It is not insulated and pretty drafty, but there are plenty of blankets to keep out the early spring chill. There are four hands, including myself. The other three are local boys that are looking to make a little money for a couple years before getting married or running off to the castle. They are good workers and trustworthy, but they lack some discipline. It was probably after midnight when they finally shut down their dice game and quieted down.

I figure their late night probably helped me slip past them just before dawn. I have been anxious to engage some druidic rites I learned. Since today we start planting the east field, this will be the perfect opportunity. Before anyone was awake I took the seed bag out to the field to prepare for planting and to initiate the rite.

The rite begins just before planting the seeds with an awakening ritual. So, dragging my rusty brain back to the forest druids camp, I forced myself to remember how to do it. I began the druidic awakening chant and began to run my hands through the seeds to get a feel for them. As I did this I reached deeper and deeper into the bag until I was churning and stirring the bag getting every seed moving. After a couple minutes I shifted from chanting to a soft humming melody.

It was amazing. I could actually feel the life in the seeds stirring. It was almost like watching a room full of people awake to a scrumptious smell after a long winter's night. I could feel them turn their awareness toward me as they became anxious for the chance to sprout.

I continued to drift from humming to singing and back until I heard the bell for breakfast. I was almost sad to tie the bag and walk away. It was like saying goodbye to some friends after a fun party. But the sun was peeking over the mountains and I was anxious to see what Diana could do with some eggs and flour.

Breakfast was great. We had hotcakes and eggs cooked in bacon dripping and some fresh milk. With my belly full of such a magnificent feast, I felt well paid before the days work even began.

The other hands ribbed me a bit about taking the seeds out to the field already. Something about a sheep begging to be sheared. It was all good fun, and I let it pass as just the new guy anxious to show his new employer he was ready to go.

I taught the other guys some of the druidic melodies, but pretty quickly, they all got distracted with the planting and left the 'noise making', as they called it, to me. They were all pretty quick, and I struggled to keep up even with their occasional games clodding each other and general foolishness.

As I sang and released seeds into the ground, they felt like a young swimmer making his first cliff dive. I shared an electric excitement and strange trepidation with the seeds as they launched into their great adventures. A couple times the other hands mentioned being shocked by the seeds or like the seeds were buzzing, but they wrote it off as nonsense and proceeded to pepper the poor commenter with dirt clods.

Kib and Diana brought some jerky and dried fruit out for lunch, and Kib stayed to help plant for the rest of the day. He wasn't interested in druidic 'gurgling', but he was a good worker. By the time the sun began slipping behind the trees, my hands were absolutely numb and my voice was completely gone, but my mind was electrified and I couldn't wait for another day of the same.

Dinner was goat steak and some wild tea-like concoction that was supposed to help overworked vocal chords. With no ability to talk after dinner I just retired to a night of absolutely uninterrupted blissful sleep.