Routine Visit to Sunshine Hill
Sunshine Hill was located in a valley in between two large mountains in the Saint José Range. Its walls were tiered from near the base of the mountains downward to the town. A rather large lake bordered the west wall of the town and a small road to the other. There were two rather large gargoyles guarding the central gate and a labyrinth of locked doors leading into the town from each of the other walls.
It didn’t get many visitors and on the same token, not many people left. On the other side of the lake, were a few farms growing in tiers along the mountainsides. Most of the mountains on that side of the lake were also mined. The town itself was a bustling fishing town that generally flourished on mining.
Sarah was heading with her brother towards the town like they did semi-annually in order to get enough grain to last her father a year. “They have the best grain in the country,” he would often say before going off on a tangent of the elasticity and consistency of his bread dough.
Ian was not much older than she was, but he tried to act like the man of the house when her father wasn’t around. He would always drive and handle transactions, which left Sarah to lift the heavy bags of grain onto the cart.
This time, she was older and fully hoping some attractive young man her age would volunteer to put the bags on the cart. It wasn’t that she was lazy; she just wasn’t as strong as her brother and could use the help. She’d feel less self-conscious without wrestling the bags onto the cart when she couldn’t lift them very far off the ground.
Ian got off the cart and knocked twice on the town gate. The guard talked to him for a moment, before opening the gate and letting them in. Sarah helped drive the horses into the market. Ian took over again to cover the remaining length of the town. He paid a boatman at the harbor, after obtaining a pass to enter in the main town again, and they started across, with their trusty wagon, to the other side of the lake.
“Any news?” Ian asked the boatman.
“Nothing you’d be interested in.”
“All right.”
They continued the rest of the way in silence. The boat gently bumped against the shore and Ian got out to help pull the boat the rest of the way. Sarah calmed down their horses. She was always very good with animals and was probably the only job Ian would willingly give up. She led them carefully off the boat and towards the road again.
“No news?” Ian said catching up to her. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Maybe there isn’t.”
“He said it was nothing we’d be interested in, not that there wasn’t any.”
“Maybe it is nothing important. Well, to you. Maybe he heard news that his son was killed in the war, or maybe his wife is really sick. That’s news, but it’s nothing you’d be interested in.”
“Always practical, huh, sis?”
She shrugged and kept her eyes on the road. “How much farther?”
“Actually, we’re right here.”
The house was small, but well kept. Ian stopped the horses in the drive next to the house and got out.
“Stay here,” he said.
Sarah nodded and kept her eyes straight in front of her. Ian knocked on the door and then went inside leaving her alone with the horses. Once he was out of sight, she left the wagon seat and went around in front to pet them. At least it made her look a little more than a servant. The horse gently brushed against her hand when she reached up to pat it.
“How long do you think he’ll take this time?” Sarah asked the horse. The other one tried to rub up against her hand she reached out her other one and rubbed its neck.
“I’m sorry I don’t have anything to give you,” she said. “Just hope Ian’s quick.”
“You know, if you keep talking to your horses like that, people might think you’re crazy,” someone said behind her. She turned around to catch eyes with a mischievous looking boy. She reminded her of a leprechaun almost perfectly except he was wearing brown clothing instead of green.
“Well if there were people to hear me, that might be an issue,” she shot back.
He laughed. “Someone with spirit. And I really should be talking, all the things who hear me are the sheep and rocks.”
“So you’re a shepherd?”
He shrugged. “I work for whoever will hire me and this week I’m a shepherd.”
“What’s your name?”
“That depends. Who do you want me to be?”
Sarah was taken aback. “Nobody in particular.”
“Then I’m Nobody. What’s your name?”
“No one you need to know.”
“Pleased to meet you, No-one. That’s quite a long name.”
“You’re very strange.”
“You’re very pretty.”
“Uh, thank you.”
They stood in silence for a moment.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why a hired help is going around the farming district?”
“Well since you asked: why is a hired help going around the farming district?”
“See that’s a very curious thing, No-one. Most of the young men around the farming parts have disappeared. Some of the daughters were left, but there aren’t many that stay on this side of the lake to start out with. Rumor has it the monster in the caves takes all the sons and hides them away forever. They disappear in the night and are never seen again.”
“How…odd.”
“Don’t look at me. I’m not the monster.”
“Then where did you come from?”
“Lusitania. That’s far, far away from here. And no, not everyone is like me. I used to work in a mine there until the fumes finally got to me. Probably damaged something in my head, but I can still farm out here in the fresh air, so it works out.”
“That’s good.”
“No, it’s really not. It’s very boring. At least in the mines you never know if something was going to cave in and every step was a risk that you were going to die. You might scoff, my dear lady, but it’s very adventurous. My cousin and I used to make up stories about what lived in the caves. It was very entertaining. We used to believe we were explorers. Sometimes, just sometimes, there would be actual monsters down there and then we’d have to take a shovel—”
“Felix! Get back to work!” the farmer yelled from his house.
“Oops, that’s my cue to get back to work! Lovely meeting you, Miss No-one. Hope to see you again soon!”
“Sarah, help me load up this grain,” Ian called from the back of the house.
“Oh well,” Sarah said, “that’s my cue to get going.”
Felix smiled and bowed his head. “Tell your brother to get a move on before the monster comes and gets him too.”
“Really, Felix. What happened to all the boys?”
“Sarah’s a very pretty name,” he said.
“Thank you, but where is every body?”
“I told you,” he said.
She put her hands on her hips and gave him a persistent look.
“I don’t know Sarah,” he said. “But if they find them I don’t have a job.”
“I thought you didn’t like farming.”
He shrugged. “It’s money away from toxic fumes.”
Ian called her name again. “Are you sure you don’t know.”
“Positive and I’m not looking for them.”
“Well, good day.”
“You too!”
Sarah ran back to where Ian had already loaded five bags of grain onto the cart. He decided not to reprimand her and helped her load the remaining six-dozen bags. He waved to the farmer to thank him and set the horses back onto the ferry and through the town.
“Did you hear any news?” Sarah asked.
“Just about all the boys missing. Apparently someone’s been kidnapping all the farmers’ sons to take them to the mining fields in Lusitania. But you know they’ve been having trouble ever since that poisonous gas reserve was dug up lower down. That whole town is in trouble.”
“That’s a shame,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, well. Not much we can do. Sunshine Hill’s military is much better than ours and they seem to have it all under control.”
Sarah remained quite, resting on the bags of grain to make sure none fell. The road back was monotonous and monochromatic until the sunset welcomed them to their own home town.
