Chapter 191: Harvest
Weeks had effortlessly turned into months, and the season of harvest had finally arrived in full bloom.
Sunnie’s farmland was the fastest to bloom. She was probably the first to begin harvesting her land. So while others were still waiting and hoping for some harvest, Sunnie and her little tribe were making preparations to gather their crops.
Before the harvest, Sunnie, her beast husbands, and the chipmunks had visited the farmland and began inspecting it carefully.
Sunnie and the chipmunks checked which crops had fully matured, which needed a few more days, which were damaged by pests, and which should be saved for seeds.
The chipmunks were utterly shocked at the results of the farming. Not only had the farmland bloomed faster than they thought, but it had also grown healthy. They couldn’t seem to find any underground or ruined plants at all. Everything was rich and green—none was ruined by pests or anything, which was surprising. And everything was technically ready for harvest. This impressed them beyond words.
"Can we just eat them now?" Luka inquired, curiously following the females behind to inspect.
"And why would you do that?" Eris questioned, flicking him on the forehead.
"Ouch, I’m just asking," Luka pouted.
They made their observations, and everything was fine. Sunnie and the chipmunks approved the harvest, as everything was ready and in perfect shape.
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On the morning of the harvest, everyone from Sunnie’s little tribe arrived at the scene. Sunnie, her husbands, the three little children, the women, the other men, the chipmunks, and Little Black all arrived with their equipment, ready for harvest.
As they arrived, the others were impressed by what they saw, especially the women. When Sunnie had started farming, they hadn’t expected much. Because they had heard it wasn’t such great land and they were only trying their luck. So no one had high expectations for the harvest.
But now, seeing it with their own two eyes, they didn’t know what to say. The land that once looked like bare dirt was now covered in wheat, millet, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans, and the like. There was so much to see.
"I can’t believe my eyes. Is this even possible? The last time I remember, it was poor land..." one of the women said.
"Exactly. And now look at this! This is the most successful harvest I’ve seen in my life!" another expressed.
"Look at all of these. And they also grew so fast and healthy?!" They turned to Sunnie. "Do tell us your secret! How is all this possible?"
Sunnie casually smiled and just said, "Maybe it’s luck?" For someone who suffered being called a jinx, it was rather ironic to say.
After everyone was done admiring the land before them, Sunnie and the chipmunks proceeded to organize them. They wanted to have an organized harvest season.
They divided everyone into groups and gave them tasks. After that, everyone proceeded to work to get everything done.
The first group were crop cutters, as Sunnie called them. They were responsible for wheat, millet, and corn and were to carefully cut stalks and gather them into bundles. They were to use stone sickles, bone sickles, and sharp shell blades—all of which Sunnie had purchased from her system.
The chipmunks had given them some serious training before they proceeded, and they monitored them all as they worked to make sure they weren’t messing up. Luckily, they were getting the job done.
The next group was what Sunnie called the root diggers. They were responsible for potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and the like.
Sunnie monitored them as they did their work. She couldn’t help but smile at the impressive looks on their faces each time they dug something out.
"Oh! Another one! A big potato!" Eris was impressed.
Maren had begged to join, so she was also digging with Mii. Sunnie kept a close eye on them while they happily dug out potatoes. At least they were old enough to do a good job.
Ronan got no job, so the little one ran around his sisters while trying to get their attention.
"Ronan, can’t you see I’m working? Go to the side and sit down," Maren said as she continued pulling while rubbing the sweat off her hair as though she was doing the hardest work here.
"You’re no fun! I’m not playing with you anymore!" Ronan said as he rushed off to meet Luka in the first group. "Papa!" He called. "Maren doesn’t want to play with me anymore!"
The next group were the vegetable gatherers. Sunnie instructed them to gather beans, squash, pumpkins, leafy vegetables, and the like. The women meticulously helped more in this team as Sunnie also assisted.
The last team worked at intervals—not consistently. They were the transportation team. Here, Sunnie’s beast husbands and other stronger men helped. They carried harvested crops, moved sacks, and transported baskets back to the tribe.
They worked for some time and carried the harvested crops back when they had gathered enough.
While everyone was gathering, Sunnie turned and caught Luka trying to feed Ronan some potatoes.
She snapped, "Hey! What are you doing?"
Luka immediately hid it and stared at her with a smile. "Nothing. We’re just playing around, yes, playing." He smiled.
Sunnie rolled her eyes. "You don’t feed him that, okay! I don’t want another running stomach. You should remember how you cleaned him up twenty times the previous time," she reminded.
Luka immediately recalled how torturous that was and took away the potato. When Sunnie looked away, Ronan demanded, "Papa, potato." He opened his mouth.
But Luka shook his head. "No, you can’t have more. Okay? Go and rest."
Ronan frowned. "I’m hungry. Give me some now"
"We’ll eat when we get home, okay?" Luka was insistent and didn’t bother listening to the kid complaining.
The kid shook his head as he angrily turned and ran off to Sunnie, complaining about how Papa didn’t want to feed him at all. Sunnie simply smiled, comforting him.