Railiana Monroe's Arc

Chapter 1 of 10

For three mornings, Railiana Monroe found her seed rows dug up and empty. She was sixteen, and this failing plot behind her cottage was all her family had left. She wanted to make it the richest farm in Ruvalia. But something crept in each night and ate every seed she planted. She knelt in the wrecked dirt and pressed her fingers to a paw print the size of her palm. That afternoon she hauled stones from the creek bed. She stacked them into a low wall around her plot, block by block, until her hands bled. By dusk the wall stood knee-high and solid. She patted the last stone and told herself no animal could climb it. She was wrong. At dawn the rows lay torn open again, and the wall wore fresh claw marks near the top. Whatever came was hungry, and it was smarter than a pile of rocks. Railiana sat on the cold stones and nearly cried. She could plant, or she could sleep, but she could not do both. She needed someone to watch the plot while she rested. That night she stayed up to catch the thief. She hid behind her rain barrel with a lantern. Near midnight, a green creature no taller than her knees marched to the wall. He wore a wide brown hat and carried a wooden staff. A small flame danced at its tip. He tapped the staff on the ground, and the flame flared bright. Railiana jumped out with her lantern raised. "Stop! Are you the one wrecking my garden?" The creature did not run. He tipped his hat back and grinned up at her. "Wrecking it? I've been guarding it, girl. You think that badger fears a wall of rocks?" He waved the staff, and the flame spread into a ring of light around her plot. "My magic keeps the critters out. Name's Tibble Critterward. Warding beasts is what I do." Railiana lowered the lantern slowly. "Then why are my seeds still gone?" "Because I only got here tonight," Tibble said. He planted his staff in the soil, and the ring of light held steady. "I heard a farmer was losing her crop. I don't work for nothing, though. You feed me, I keep the beasts off. Deal?" Railiana looked at the glowing circle. Nothing crossed it. For the first time in days, her ruined rows sat quiet and safe. She stuck out her hand. "Deal. I can cook. You won't go hungry." Tibble shook her hand with a grip surprisingly strong. He settled cross-legged beside his staff to keep watch. Railiana went inside and slept the whole night through. At dawn she ran out, heart pounding, and found her rows untouched. The animal was beaten. Now she could plant. But she had promised her strange new guard three meals a day, and she owned barely enough food for one.