The sun struck the world, as it always does, like the kiss of an old lover. The light eased its way over the trees of the forest at the edge of the farm. A chill breeze blew across the field before the trees, where the herd was already moving and grazing.  The sun would warm the air by the afternoon and fill it with the joy of spring, but for now, the light breeze blew sneakily through like a drunken husband on the way to bed. The breeze curled its way lazily through the herd as the animals searched among the sparse fields for their morning meal. The sunlight, feeling pretty jealous of the breeze, chased after it with bad intentions.The soft light from the sun slowly followed the breeze over the field.

Ignoring the beautiful scene was a lone young man on a nearby hill. He leaned back against a tree that seemed as if it had molded itself to his body during his years of tending to the herd. He pulled his cloak about himself with a scowl, annoyed at the chill of the morning. 

Though he was tired and cold, he begrudgingly admitted to an uncaring universe that the last time he sat against this tree, he had been too small to fit comfortably.  He had grown more than he realized. His thoughts were miserable and tired.  “Stupid cold, miserable night!” Bob thought to himself angrily. He had been up all night, waiting for one of the wards to flash. It had been a full moon during the night, but there had been no trouble.  It seemed like the warnings of raids from the Sheriff were nothing but hog-wash.

He leaned his staff against the tree and kicked out the smoldering fire. Rubbing the weariness from his eyes, he looked over the herd again. He stopped brooding long enough to realize the dawn had come and there had been no attempt on the flock. Bob sighed and slowly pulled his satchel towards him with his prized possessions – two ancient books with tattered covers. He’d read each book several times – almost had them memorized, but reading “The Adventures of Sir Reginald Larkey: Slayer of Dragons” and “Talismans and How to Use Them” kept him occupied for the long hours of gazing over a field of cows, who really didn’t do very much when they weren’t being threatened.

A ward flashed off to his left some distance away..

“No.  No, no, no...” Bob muttered as his stomach clenched.

The ward gave off a low-pitched whine that quickly rose in pitch till it was out of hearing range.  Hearing range for humans, that is. The shrill sound blasting from the magical ward Bob had created over the past few weeks would be painful to these raiders, according to his research and notes. At least, that was the idea. Bob had never actually seen that happen, and didn't have any test subjects. 

Bob stood quietly and listened. Hopefully, the ward would do its job and drive them off.

It didn’t.

There was the sound of wood breaking, followed quickly by the wail of the ward fading back into Bob's hearing range and then away to nothing. 

“Well, poo,” Bob growled as he grabbed his quarterstaff and took off in the direction of the howling rising from the distance.

Candy woke with a start.  She lay still and listened for movement.  Something was upsetting her.  She felt tight and nervous. The hay underneath the wool blanket she lay on poked her naked back and bottom. When she was sure there was no immediate threat, she stretched her arms above her head, trying to work out the cramp that had formed in her neck during the night. Of course, that allowed the brisk barn air to creep over her chest and belly, making her shiver. She quickly moved closer to the young man lying next to her, nuzzling into his neck and wrapping her arm over him.  She relished in his warm skin, his smell.  He smelled of horse and sweat, but she didn't mind.  He smelled like home.

One of the horses snorted hot breath in the stable below them, finishing what Candy’s movement had started, bringing the boy out of his dream. He opened one bloodshot eye, grunted at her, and rolled back to sleep. Candy wanted to do the same, but she couldn’t shake the memory of her dream.

It started nicely. She was looking at herself in a mirror.  She was wearing an exquisite gown with gold woven into the lace. She shimmered in the firelight when she moved like a living gem.  Her long hair was pulled up in a style that must have taken someone hours to weave and set, yet it left a long strand leading into the low-cut, and ample bosom that the outfit proudly displayed. She appeared older than her age, a mature woman in her prime.

She looked around and realized she was at a ball. Musicians, food, drinks, dancers, and opulent outfits were everywhere.  Candy had never seen such wealth.  Bob was there, fawning over some girls. Her brother looked happy when he threw her a glance from across the room.  He even gave her a brief smile before turning back to the women who hung on his every word.  It was strange to see her brother look so confident, so handsome, but she didn't take time to question the strange situation. The sounds of the party rose in her ears as if waxed cloth had blocked the sound and was suddenly pulled away.  As she began moving to her brother's side, the nobles and handsome sons of the city’s elite made their way over to intercept and greet her. All of them were vying with one another and trying to pull her attention to themselves.

"Please, gentlemen, I would just like a moment to speak with my brother.  If you would excuse me.  I'm sorry, I'll be happy to speak with you later," Candy pleaded politely.  Her gut told her to start punching the man who dared to take her by the elbow without permission but she held back.  This wasn't the Brown Boar back at home.  No one cared about scuffles there.  But this was different.  She chose a suitor at random and began to dance with him.

Then, she noticed the smell. An ugly odor was greasing its way through the crowd. Candy tried to ignore it.  No one else seemed to notice.  Maybe they were all too polite to react? 

"I'm sorry, sir, "

"Sir Francis Bernard the Third, Lady," her dance partner interrupted with a smile that seemed a little too wide.

"I'm sorry, Sir Francis, but is there an... odor in the air?"

With an arched eyebrow, he said, "I'm quite sure I don't know what you are referring to, my lady.  Do you plan to summer in the south this year?  My family will be taking residence on our lands near the sea. Perhaps you could join us for a few weeks?"

Candy felt herself almost gag on the stench in the ar.

She excused herself and pushed away from the man, looking for the source of the smell. Why did no one else notice? She called to her brother, but Bob wasn’t listening, too busy with his girls. She drifted through the party, getting more agitated by the moment. She couldn’t breathe. Her dress started feeling too tight, and her damn shoes kept slipping on the polished floor, as feet often do in dreams. Why didn’t anybody notice that smell?  The voices of the partygoers became a dull roar. No real conversations, just a wall of sound pressing in on her. People were in her way, no matter how much she excused herself and asked them to move. She turned left and right, trying to find a way through the crowd, when she saw it. A cloud of thin black smoke was trailing out of the large fireplace set into the wall. Some people were crowded around the mantle, but they didn’t seem to notice the smoke or the smell. Candy just wanted to get away from the party and go back to her room. The smoke was starting to make her nervous; nothing should smell so awful. She wanted to take a bath and get the stench out of her skin and hair, but bodies pressed her from behind. The black cloud of soot was filling her lungs, and she started to cough. Soon, she was bent over trying wheezing, and trying to get her breath. When she looked up, Aunt Petunia was there, in her usual smock and unkempt hair. Petunia was basting a pig over the flames in the fireplace.

“Aunty P, why are you dressed like that?” scolded Candy, “And why are you cooking?  We have a staff to do those things now.” But Petunia took no notice. She just kept turning the spit and smearing hot fat over the pig’s dark, cracked skin. Pus oozed from the cracks, and where the pus dripped into the fire, it would sizzle and give off more foul smoke. Candy reached for Petunia to shake some sense into her when the pig turned its head and looked at her, the cherries that the cook had replaced its eyes with glaring at her. Candy froze.

“Hello, Candice,” the pig said. Its voice scratched and pitched like an old woman. “We bring you a message.  Apologies for this nightmare, but we find this to be the only way to get you mortals to pay attention to things you don't like.”

Another voice, a younger, stronger voice this time, came from the pig, "Tis true, child.  We've tried speaking to your kind in what you call 'the real world'.  We've tried reaching you in nice dreams about feasts, and wealth, and..."

A third voice broke in, interrupting the second voice. It sounded young, bright, and dangerous, 

"And lovers.  Oh my, the dreams of lovers!  Don't even get us started on the dreams of lovers, child.  The things you mortals come up with shame the gods, I dare say.  But such things do not shame you nor I, do they, my dear, sweet Candice?"

"But we do like watching those," spoke the voice of the old woman matter-of-factly.

"Yes.  Yes, we do, " replied the younger voice with a giggle. "Especially the ones who like groups and get a goat involved.  So naughty!"

"Enough, sisters.  Some decorum, if you please."  There was a pause.  "A Goat?  At an orgy? Sisters?  Have you no shame?  Mother's creation, it is just wrong."

"You like it too," muttered the youngest voice, sullen and chastised.

"Do not give me any of your sass!" admonished the middle voice.

"And don't you be yellin' at her, you cow!  She ain't tellin' but the truth and you know it!"

The three voices turned into a three-way shouting match as the roasting pig slowly turned on the spit.  The cherry eyes looked at Candy as they slowly rolled past her on each revolution, almost in apology.  If dead, roasting, stinky pigs could talk, this one might say, "Sorry.  This happens all the time.  You might want to give them a moment."

Candy coughed politely and asked, "I'm sorry, but should I just leave or something?  I feel like you have things to discuss, and speaking to a roasting pig with three voices is... Well, I'm sorry to be rude, but it's just not normal.  I'm.. Yes, I think I'll go."  She turned on her heels and tried to push through the crowd.

All went black.  The pig, Aunt Petunia, the crowd, her dress... everything.  She floated in darkness, naked and alone.  A single candle lit itself before her as three women stepped into the light.  

The old woman, back bent, fingers gnarled with age, leaned heavily on her cane.  The wisdom of years seemed to weigh her down.  As Candy looked, she realized every experience of the old woman's life was etched into the lines of her wrinkled face.  She could get lost in just one line and never return, reading the story held there like an epic tale.

"Hold, child!  Do not anger Fate!" the crone yelled with a voice that could shake a mountain.  Then quietly, "We take rudeness personal." 

The woman in the middle, older but still handsome, wise but still with things to learn, crossed her arms as her eyes flashed with anger.

"We are here to perform a kindness for one of the gods of this world, little mortal.  Do not take our kindness to him or you lightly."

The young one, Candy's age and stunningly beautiful, stared at Candy.  Candy found that she couldn't meet the girl's gaze.  Candy felt true fear for the first time in her life.  The youngest of the fates stepped close to Candy and pulled her naked body into a hug.  

"There is a god here in your world.  A very cute god, I don't mind saying.  Hung like a bull.  And he needs help."

"So this god wisely prayed to us.  He begged us.  He showed us true humility and paid proper tribute," said the middle Fate as she stepped behind Candy to embrace her and the youngest.  Candy felt her own mother's love flood into every part of her soul and began to cry.

"He is a handsome one at that.  In my youth, I would have taught him a few things.  By creation, I can still teach him a few things, " said the crone with a crooked grin.  She winked at Candy and gave her a comforting smile.

"Sister! Enough.  We've lingered here far too long, and this grows tiresome.  Child, you have our blessing.  It does not mean you will succeed," said the middle.

The crone chuckled, "Oh, no.  No promises of success, child.  Gods and mortals all think we scribe out the destiny of all.  Hogwash."

"Don't be afraid, my delicious Candy," whispered the youngest into Candy's ear. "We chose you for good reason.  You and your brother.  You can succeed.  And there will be others who will assist you in this task.  We are Fate, but we are not cruel, no matter what you mortals think of us.  Besides, I may have cheated a little to help you out.  Don't tell the others."

The mother continued, "And so we deliver the message, as promised, and it is this: 'Help.'"

Candy paused.  "I'm sorry?"

"'Help'," repeated the crone.  "Are you deaf, child? No, of course you aren't. We decided you would be healthy and strong before your father even first learned to pull on his mushroom as a wee lad.  So don't make an old woman repeat herself."

"But, help with what?  I don't understand, " stammered Candy.

"Nor are you meant to, child who is blessed by Fate.  You and your brother will do great things, or you will fail and die in obscurity.  You won't remember this dream, child.  But with our blessing and the message, you will make the right choice to start you on the path.  What you do after that... will be interesting for us to observe."

The crone smiled and waved as she disappeared.  The mother kissed Candy on the cheek and faded away.

"Bye.  It was nice to meet you.  Good luck.  Though luck doesn't actually exist, right?  What you people call 'luck' is just us deciding to be nice to you. You call it 'bad luck' when we're feeling bitchy."  The maiden winked at Candy with a smile, kissed her other cheek and faded away.

"Wait!" Candy begged just before she woke up with a start.

Unsure why she felt so upset, Candy slipped her arms around the young man next to her and moved in close. She shivered from more than the pre-dawn cold and, without knowing why, quietly wished for her long-gone mother.

Bob ran to a break in the fence, heading for the ward. He was tired and huffing from the run, but his adrenaline was pumping. It helped that he was in a foul mood.  Whomever was stupid enough to trespass on this farm was going to regret it. Their family didn't have much to spare, and the thought of theft made his blood boil.

As Bob neared the fence, he slowed.

"I am a wave in the ocean, guided by the moons.  I am a spore in the air, guided by the winds.  I am the root in the ground, guided by the earth," he intoned as he forced himself to calm his breath.

"Alright, slowly," he thought. 

He reached for power around him and began to weave it together in his mind.  Sweat broke out on his forehead as he imagined each thread of power moving between one another like a box of worms

Bob thought that if he could circle the herd before the pack of werewolves maybe he could get the emus to run back in the direction of the main farm buildings, where, theoretically, help might be coming – mostly in the form of his twin sister, Candy, who was probably sleeping in the barn with her latest conquest. The pack of wolves had made it to the break in the fence and were starting to circle the herd along the side of the fence that backed up to the forest.

Bob sprinted as fast as he could in the opposite direction towards the herd, but just as he started picking up speed, he noticed a smaller group break off from the main pack and head in his direction. Bob glanced between the herd and the ne,w smaller pack and calculated that he wouldn’t be able to make it unless the emu herd miraculously started moving towards him on their own.

“Sombitch! That’s the wrong way,” Bob moaned as the emus started running towards the opposite end of the field, toward the forest. Of course, they were running in the wrong direction - nothing was going his way this morning. At this point, Bob’s best bet would be to run back to the farm for reinforcements – maybe Uncle Joe-Bob or Aunt Petunia had also heard the wards and were on the way. Or Candy had woken up from her post-sex sleep (he wasn’t jealous, really – he wasn’t pissed that she got to have sex in the warm barn while his virginal ass was stuck out in the freezing fields all night).

As Bob changed directions and headed in the direction of the barn, the smaller pack also shifted and followed him. This field in front of Bob was slightly sloped downhill as it transitioned from the grazing fields up towards the uncleared area of forest outside the farm’s boundaries, to the main part of the farm where the house, root cellar, and barn were located.  

"Shit, shit, shit.” Bob knew the small pack was moving quickly enough that they’d be able to catch him before he could even get close to anything resembling safety. There was a small outcrop of rocks just ahead that might give him some cover at his back, as he would have to hold them off as long as he could. “Come and get it, you mangy dogs, ” Bob bellowed as he reached the rocks, turning to put them at his back and swinging his staff out in front of him to get ready for the pups running towards him as he prepared to make his stand.  

Candy had not quite fallen back asleep when she heard the whine of the wards as they went off. “Oh crap,” she mutters knowing that Bob is out in the fields all by himself.

She jostles the boy next to her in the hay pile as she rummages around looking for all her clothes. Pants, shirt, underwear…….I know I had a bra…………..eh, good enough for now, she sighs to herself.

“Colin – I need you  to go wake up my uncle. The herd is in danger!” Without waiting for a response, Candy quickly climbs down the ladder from the barn loft, grabs her staff and heads out the door at a dead run towards the field where Bob was watching the emus last night.

Candy made her way around the outside corner of the barn and slowed, but didn’t stop as she tried to absorb what was happening in the field above her. She saw the large pack of wolves as they were closing in on the emu herd who were running and darting around in a seemingly frantic manner – but it was actually a pretty effective tactic for getting away from another group of animals, at least in the short term. More immediately, a short ways in front of her, she saw that Bob was cornered by a smaller pack of pups against some rocks. “Smart boy,” she thought as she noticed his strategy of keeping something to protect his back. She raced in the direction of the rock outcrop – Uncle Joe-Bob might or might not agree, but they could always buy more emus at market, but Bob was less replaceable.

Bob was swinging his staff in front of him and thrusting out when one of the pups tried to break through to get closer. The pups were testing his ability and he was

Just at that moment, Bob heard scrabbling sounds on the rocks behind him, and he raised his head to the sky just in time to see Candy launch herself off the rocks and land in front of him. As she landed, she brought her staff down on the head of the two closest werewolf pups in quick succession and smashed their skulls in powered by the momentum of her leap.

Candy and Bob quickly moved so that they stood back-to-back against the pack of werewolf pups. “Good morning, sunshine” trilled Candy as she gave Bob a cheeky little grin.

“You are way too happy this early in the morning. Must have been a good night,” said Bob. “Do I get any details this time?”  

“Now, I wouldn’t want to shock your virgin ears” teased Candy. “Let’s just say it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the situation you seem to have gotten into here.”

Candy twirled her staff to be ready to strike and Bob tightened his grip as they readied themselves for the next wave of attack.

Candy immediately jumped out in front and swung her staff in a semi-circle in front of them, catching the two werewolves in the lead across the head and knocking the one on the left into the next one so that they tangled up amongst themselves and were knocked out of the way temporarily. She shifted her grip and punched her staff out straight in front of her so that she challenged the third pup directly. He was a little more wary after seeing what had happened to his companions and tentatively snapped at Candy while dodging her thrusting staff. Meanwhile, Bob had his hands full with two more werewolves who were trying to edge around Candy to challenge Bob, who was so far able to keep them at a reasonable distance by sweeping his staff back and forth but his arms were already getting tired after fighting off the first wave of the attack.

Eventually the initial two pups untangled themselves and reengaged in the fight by circling between Candy and Bob and charging . Bob caught one of them on the side as he was completing his protective sweep in that direction, but the other pub broke through and launched itself onto Candy’s back, knocking her forward. As she fell, she reached out with the staff one last time and delivered a stunning blow to the werewolf that she was sparring with that knocked it out of commission, but she hit the ground hard and had the wind knocked out of her. As she was on the ground gasping for breath, her hands patted the ground around her looking for her staff that had slipped from her grasp when she had landed on the ground. Her movements became more panicked as she sensed the werewolves that were still standing begin to circle back in towards them.

This was looking like it. Candy couldn’t believe that she had wasted her last night on earth sleeping with a dolt like Colin. He was a cute enough boy but he was really not all that – as the son of the local magistrate, he was just home for a visit from his first semester of college in the big city. She thought that maybe he’d have some special tricks or knowledge about sex that would have made it more interesting than sleeping with any of the other local farm boys, but sadly she was once again disappointed.

Bob had watched Candy get pushed forward and hit the ground hard with horror, knowing that he couldn’t hold the pack off by himself but he couldn’t let anything happen to his sister either. He reached forward with his free hand while trying as best as he could to keep the outward circle sweep with the staff in his other hand to keep the pups at as much distance as possible. Candy slowly pushed herself up to her knees, still breathing hard but starting to pull herself together. Bob’s hand landed on her shoulder as he said, “I’ve got this – I’ll protect you!”   

A flash of light emanated where the twins were huddled together and immediately the werewolves surrounding them blinked out of existence. Bob slowly blinked, thinking the flash was something he had imagined, but as his focus slowly moved outside of the scope of their immediate battle, he noticed that the wolves that had been circling the herd were gone too.

Candy pulled herself fully upright and looked around, shaking her head. “What happened? Did I get hit harder than I thought?”

Bob just shrugged as Candy pulled him into an exhausted hug – they had survived another day. “I still hate this fucking farm.”