Idyllic Farmlife

“Glad to see the cut on his flank healed nicely. For a feral, he’s in pretty good shape.” The veterinarian straightened and pulled off her gloves. “Clear sclera, healthy dermis– as long as you’ve been keeping up with his vaccines while he’s been in quarantine, I don’t see a reason he couldn’t join the herd. Call me if you have any problems with integration, though.”

“Thanks, doc.” I stuck my hand out to her and, after disposing of her gloves, she shook it. “Always a pleasure.”

“Of course.” 

I followed her out to the porch of the farmhouse, the moon casting a pale light over the fields. 

“Oh, before I forget– did you start those prenatal vitamins for Nellie?”

“Not yet. We thought we might wait a year, she’s still pretty young.”

The veterinarian clicked her tongue. “Your choice. I’d be careful, though– pretty filly like her might attract more attention than you want.”

“She’s a good girl.” I knew she was right, but Nellie was one of my bottle babies when her mom got sick. It was hard to remember sometimes that she was out with the other girls now and I didn't need to check on her every few hours in the little bed I made for her in our parlor. 

“Maybe she’ll hit it off with the new fella, once he’s more comfortable. It’s been a while since your herd had new blood, hasn’t it?” 

“Maybe. Oh, hey, are you coming to dinner Sunday night?”

The veterinarian finished buttoning up her coat. “Might could, as long as my sire’s not still staying with us.”

“That’s fair. Just let me or Lenora know.”

“Will do. If you want to send the bill straight to Joshua, that would probably be the fastest. Call if there are any complications.” She sprung into the air, her coat morphing into rippling, leathery wings as she flapped off into the night. 

Lenora emerged from the shadows a second later and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I don’t care for that woman.”

“I know, darling.” My arm wrapped around her waist, the stiff denim of her overalls against my skin familiar, comforting, if a bit scratchy. “But play nice, she’s the only vet in a thirty mile radius that’ll do house calls.”

Lenora huffed. “I know. I know. How’s the boy doing?”

“Clean bill of health.”

“Good.” Lenora breathed a sigh of relief and led me by the hand back through the farmhouse to the door of the temporary holding pen we had set up. “Should I wake him up?”

“Start the process. I’ll fetch David to make the awakening easier for him.”

“You softie.” She kissed my forehead again before creaking open the pen door.

David was already awake by the time I made it upstairs to his bedroom. Standing next to his bed, he bowed deeply as I entered. 

“Goodnight, Master.”

“Ah, you’re already up. We’re going to wake the feral. He’s a pretty standard size, but he was pretty agitated when we got him in, so do be careful.”

David nodded and moved to his closet, pulling out one of his pre-prepared bags. By the time we made it back down to the pen, Lenora had almost reversed the hypnosis. 

“You’re just in time,” she whispered, and the three of us watched the milky fog slowly drain from his eyes. The moment he blinked on his own, Lenora and I sped out the door before he could blink again. 

David, accustomed by now to his role, sat calmly nearby as the feral startled fully awake and scrambled back into a corner. His voice was higher than I had expected as he screamed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” David soothed, and the feral did seem to settle slightly as he appraised David’s blunt teeth and brown eyes. “You’re safe now.”

After a few more seconds of rapid breathing, the feral snatched away the blanket that David held out. 

“Can you speak? Can you tell me your name?”

Eyes still darting wildly around the room, the feral nodded. His voice creaky after two weeks of disuse, he nodded and rasped “It’s… Benjamin.”

Next to me, Lenora scribbled ‘Benjamin’ on his chart above ‘Height: 179 cm’ and ‘Weight: 75 kg’. 

“Okay, Benjamin. I’m David. Do you know how old you are?”

Benjamin’s eyes furrowed. “I’m… nineteen.”

Younger than we thought, then. Lenora scratched out the vet’s approximation of ‘23’. Above Benjamin’s head, David made eye contact with where he knew our eyes were and nodded. 

I took a step back before Lenora did and stretched. After nearly four decades of service, I didn’t need to supervise him, which was a huge timesave.

“I’ll check the stables if you check on the fields?”

Lenora handed me her clipboard and rolled her eyes. “You just want to avoid grass stains on your trousers.”

“No,” I protested, “you’re just more dressed for the occasion, darling.”

“Sure, sure. A likely story.” Despite her tone, she still smiled as her form swirled into a grotesque and she flapped noisily out towards our corn fields. 

I took my time, shifting more subtly and padding away from our farmhouse towards the paddock and stables. Our herd was relatively small– with four room-stalls per stable, we barely needed ten to provide more than enough space. Still though, I liked to take my time flitting in, making sure everything was safe, everyone was healthy. The guard hellhounds watched me from their posts around the perimeter with their sleepy, blazing eyes. I stalled for a minute with Nellie, adjusting her blanket. The vet had a point in that she was growing up, but I still balked at the thought of her in the nursery, a baby of her own. She rolled over in her sleep as I checked off her name. Lenora was right– I was becoming a softie in my old age

Next to our general stables were our feeder pens, and despite being prepared I wrinkled my nose– our feeder males weren’t exactly known for their cleanliness. Angus, our meal for Sunday, slept curled into a heap unbefiting his massive, muscular frame. Gingerly, I pried his hands off his face and peeled open one eye– no jaundice, always a good sign. After putting on a pair of latex gloves, I gave him his injection as quickly as possible and while he frowned, he didn’t wake up. I patted his head fondly and he curled into my hand– it was almost a shame. He was such a sweet boy.

Still though, at the same time, picturing the feast on Sunday already made my mouth water, enough so that I had to clap my teeth shut to keep from drooling. I poked Angus gingerly in the thigh– he’d be the largest and juiciest meal we’d had at our farm in almost a year.

 I intended to only stop in the nursery briefly, but Rosie’s bleary eyes over her wailing baby belayed me. Her son settled a little in my arms– the summer heat roiled even throughout the night and the poor lad just wasn’t used to it yet. Rosie didn’t thank me so much as fall asleep immediately, but who could blame her? Her boy snuffled into my chilled skin and finally opened his big brown eyes at me.

“Oh, you little cutie pie. I could just eat you up, you know that?”

The baby cooed at me and blinked sleepily as I lay him back down next to his mother, although I didn’t pull my hand away until he was fully asleep. Once again, I heard my wife’s voice echo– softie, softie, softie. Well, so what? It was no crime to care for my herd. Our hellhounds popped up their heads when they heard me flap past, curling up again once they realized it was me. The summer night was as still as it was short, always over too soon. The vaguest glow of dawn was already starting to fuzz the edge of the horizon. 

Lenora met me back at the farmhouse, the cuffs of her overalls stained green and brown. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, the herd’s fine. Everything in the fields okay?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I checked in with the fieldhands– no news, the cows and horses are all fine and the corn crop is coming up as expected. Oh, but Romiere did tell me he thinks that Toph was eaten by Stefan, not a ghoul.”

I stifled a sigh. There was always drama with the hired fieldhands. “How do you want to handle it?”

Lenora shrugged again. “I’ll confront Stefan about it tomorrow, I suppose. If he did eat Toph, I guess I’ll kill him. Can’t have a danger to the herd around.”

“Do you want me to handle it, darling?” 

Lenora bumped me with her hip. “Very chivalrous, my love. But no, I can do it. Do you want to check on Benjamin before bed?”

I had almost forgotten about our acquisition. “Oh, yeah, that sounds good.”

David had dressed Benjamin in some of our spare clothes we keep for ferals– now that he wasn’t so panicked, he looked competent, strong. He was young and healthy enough that we could train him in any number of disciplines. A thin shiver of relief ran through me. So often we had to toss the ferals back to the ghouls because they were so physically and mentally shattered. It was lucky our guard hellhounds had found him when they did.

When we entered, David bowed deeply and Benjamin screamed, clambering backwards and nearly falling over the cot they’d set up in the temporary pen.

“Vampires!” he choked, scrabbling into a corner, fists clenched defensively in front of him as if he could punch us. 

David was quick to his side. “It’s alright. This is our Master and Mistress– they’re our benefactors, our saviors here. You’re safe.”

“David, we just wanted to check in before bed. Everything all set here?”

“Of course, Master.” If I didn’t know better, I would note the hint of resentment in David’s gaze and tone. “Do you require my assistance?”

“No, you’ll be of more use here.”

David bowed again as we left and adjourned back to the basement, and despite our three centuries of marriage, I still made it a point to turn away as Lenora changed from her overalls to her white silken nightgown. She swatted my shoulder playfully. “Always a gentleman.”

“Always, darling.” 

With a goodnight kiss, I helped her into her coffin before getting into my own. Sleep came quickly, as it always did after a day on the farm, along with dreams of the thick, strong veins in Angus’s neck and the feast that awaited us Sunday.