Chapter Ninety One - Feathering The Nest

As the longest day came and brought with it the shortest of nights, the fruits within the garden began to mature.  Globes of red and orange began to appear amongst the otherwise green tomatoes on their supported stalks.  The first of the deep purple aubergines' were ready to be cut from their plants.  Cucumbers, gherkins and courgettes were hiding amongst the leaves of their vines with a handful here and there waiting to be picked.  Food within the garden was becoming ever more abundant and plentiful.  So, although there was no more flour to make bread or noodles, there was more than enough to fill stomachs with all of the fresh produce at hand and the pork in the ice cellar.

Thus the decision was made to allow the hens to keep their fertilised eggs for hatching.

According to the book that they had regarding raising chickens, this shouldn't be an easy thing; many egg laying hens raised by people had lost their natural maternal instincts and it was not as if they had incubation equipment.  They asked the soldiers about the base's hens, but only Luke had any contact with those birds, as he helped fill up their water tank sometimes. 

"There was one or two hens that just began to act odd, wouldn't let us near their nests, wouldn't leave them to get food," he recalled, vaguely.  "Their keepers weren't experienced either, were worried about them being sick and spreading bugs, so the healthy birds were moved and the keepers put feed right in front of the others to make sure they'd eat.  Sometime after, the eggs beneath them hatched."  Since then, the maternal hens were allowed to breed, while the other hens kept supplying eggs for consumption.  But that was the base's lucky situation.

Tyler, Dexter and Autumn could only stare at the hens, see if any of their girls were broody.  They couldn't really tell.

A certain little girl nudged in between them to stare along side, then tugged Autumn's blouse with one hand.  The woman smiled indulgently and kneeled beside the child she adored.  "What is it?" 

Lucy pointed to one of the birds, then pointed to another and another before dropping her raised hand.  Autumn and the men frowned in confusion, then looked at the three hens' Lucy had pointed to.  They didn't seem any different to the other birds... but what to say to the child not to disappoint nor discourage her...  "Does Lucy want to play with them?" Autumn asked, only for the little girl to shake her head.  Then she looked behind them at someone in the distance and waved.

Autumn rose to her feet as all three adults noticed Ren Zexian approaching in an unhurried manner.  Nathan was walking close by his side.  "Good morning," Ren Zexian smiled lightly as he greeted them. 

Since the last incident which had forced the couple to separate, the two men had become even closer and stickier, the atmosphere about them so pink that even a person with no imagination thought they saw blooms of roses with sparkling dew upon silken petals surrounding them both. Not that neither man physically clung to the other, just that if there was a space between them while they walked together, it was nothing more than a hair's breadth. And after breakfast and in the evening after dinner, they could be seen walking together closely.

Lucy didn't seem disturbed by the atmosphere surrounding the Cultivator and his lover nor did she worry about coming in between them.  She rushed over without qualms to tug at Ren Zexian's loose sleeves, before indicating the hens once more. "Ah, I see," Ren Zexian patted her little head as he replied.

The three adults opposite looked at him in query, urging him to share his understandings with their eyes. He chuckled, before saying; "she simply is indicating which of these birds you should pick."

Dexter scratched his head, still confused. "For what?" He couldn't help but ask, but Autumn had a small epiphany and kneeled back down to face the little girl.

"Those birds want to be mother birds?" She asked the child, who smiled brightly and nodded, before receiving a warm hug that caused her to giggle. "My daughter is just so clever!"  It came naturally for Autumn to refer to Lucy so, just as Lucy had come to call her 'mama' when speaking those rare times.  And as for other times, no one thought to question her lack of speech, just knew that she would do so more freely when she was ready to.

"How does she know?" Tyler questioned, slightly sceptical, as he peered into the cage to once more attempt to figure out differences between all of the hens behaviours.

"Ah, did I never mention?" Ren Zexian answered him, nonchalantly. "Lucy has a spirit root."

Spirit Roots were secondary roots and whilst they were under the umbrella of the same name, they tended to manifest in different ways which made the root quite mysterious. For instance, Ren Zexian once met a Healer with spirit roots who could always tell where the sickness lie within his patients and then there was a junior sister who could always distinguish those who were lying from those telling the truth. But while to the uniformed, these abilities seemed as if they were developed from differing body roots, in fact, that Healer and that junior sister could cultivate using the same spirit methods and techniques.

In little Lucy, the ability was already quite apparent, it was an affinity with animals and beasts. Had she been a part of his old world, the child would have already caught the eye of many Beast Taming Masters.

"You did not," Tyler replied in retort.

Regardless of the misinformation, with the small details that Luke could share with them, the decision was made to seperate the three hens from the rest. A large wooden shed that had seen better days was purloined from the abandoned village, along with any useable planks from fences or sheds. The shed was fixed up a bit, the roof recovered and three reasonable spaced pens were built within, each with their own small henhouse. With little Lucy's help, the three hens were transferred into their new homes over the next week, to nurture a number of eggs believed to be fertile.

As they were in the midst of this, the army base squad returned with Cole and Patrick and took back their own men.  The pair had been gifted new techniques by Ren Zexian to better suit their roots of Flame and Wood with advice and information regarding their abilities. The fire user was disappointed that he would be unable to create fire himself, while the Wood ability user was surprised just how powerful his own abilities could be in the future. And while it was early days, they both felt the differences in the old technique given to them by Chang Min and the ones taught by his Master, so overall both were grateful.

The squad had picked up bits and pieces including a truck filled with pallets, the wood ever suitable for building or burning, siphoned fuel from cars, both petrol and diesel and bags of clothing that had been intended for charity. Cole and Patrick had asked if they could take a few coats and boots from these, something their household lacked. The soldiers freely gave them and it was agreed that if the squad went out again soon, that the ability users could come back to learn a few things, while Cole and Patrick or anyone else who wished to, could got out with the squad to gain experience. Autumn sent them away with a jar of pickled gherkins, which they felt a little guilty accepting, but also reinforced the determination to keep and nurture this new alliance between themselves and these people. Even if it meant defying the higher ups in their own base in the future (though they doubted it would ever come to something so drastic).

Cole thanked the commanding officer, the man answering to the name Rhodes, before making a beeline towards the one he missed the most during his time away, while Patrick went to find Ren Zexian, to see if he had improved his cultivation.