Wesley stared around the farm in bewilderment, it
was all gone. One minute there had been a thriving farm and now nothing. It was
as if the hand of god had come down and wiped the slate clean - a religious form
of a plague of locusts. But it hadn’t been, they had done it, so quickly and
efficiently that it chilled him to the marrow, thanks to the slender Texan
standing next to him. She had worked around the clock to develop a mystical type
of insecticide that would not have any long term effects on the land.
And she had.
“Come on let’s go home,” Fred plucked at his
sleeve and gestured to the others who were piling into the car. “We’ve done
all we could. The crops were too tainted to save. They had to be burned. Anyone
who ate it would’ve suffered so badly… and died. We couldn’t let that
happen – no one would’ve wanted that.” She rubbed tiredly at her face,
unaware of the smudge of dirt she smeared across her nose.
“But what about the land?” Wesley whispered,
still in shock at the quick decimation of all the wheat and greenery.
“We will tend it and it will recover my oath on
this.” The leader of the Brownies who had contacted AI Investigations earlier
in the week stepped forward, cap in hand. His elfin face nut brown and creased,
his slightly pointed ears drooped sadly at the sight of devastation all around
him. His kind usually were the ones who worked the land and hearth, tending to
all the produce and ensuring a good harvest. Now they were greeted with
devastation. All because a Vorash demon had decided to make a nest under the
crop and lay her eggs, her presence had tainted the wheat crop to the point of
no return. Her breath and that of her young had poisoned the roots of the crop.
When AI had arrived to have a look around the crop
was limp and ruined. It had taken Angel falling down a sink hole to discover
what exactly had been going on and fighting and killing the nesting demon and
her young. Wesley tried not to giggle at the memory of the usually immaculate
vampire up to his neck in mud and cursing a blue streak as he was sucked under.
Up until then all five of them had been moving from farm to farm trying to
source the contagion.
Wesley had been impressed with the enterprise of the
Brownies in the small community hidden away from mortal eyes behind a simple
glamour. They did what they did best, planting, growing and working the land.
The small people’s energy and enterprise had been a pleasant surprise, a
contrast from LA where all that he witnessed mystically was evil, death and
pain. Here the magicks were pure and good and worked to benefit mankind and the
land. It had been salve for his battered psyche, something he would take back
with him to keep the darkness at bay. He felt that was why he was reacting so
badly to the destruction of the Brownies hard work and the land.
“I really am so very sorry…” He knelt down and
took one of the Brownie’s long fingered hands and squeezed it apologetically.
“What can I do to help?”
“There is nothing to be done, but let Mother
Nature work her will, everything will be put to rights she is powerful, but
thank you.” The wizened elf patted Wesley’s hand and gave him a small smile.
“Wes come on I want to get back home, there is a
sale on at Neimans I sooo don’t wanna miss!” Cordelia’s voice broke the
silent communion between the mortal and the elf.
Wesley pulled a face, “I’m terribly sorry about
that,” he sighed and looked over his shoulder. “Truly she can be the
most…”
“Annoying, unsympathetic person?” Fred whispered
and then blushed bright red and slapped a hand over her mouth. Shame filled her
for betraying her only female friend. But then again sometimes Cordelia just
didn’t have a sensitive bone in her body, especially when it came to a bargain
and designer clothes.
The lead Brownie looked over at Cordelia and
frowned, “she is not what she seems, be careful with that one.”
Wesley looked over at the Cordelia and wondered what
had changed since her return to earth and her recovering her memory.
Only time would tell.
