Fence Repair

During her sleep the winds picked up, as Trinh was deep within her dreams, away from the world around her the world was causing chaos on her land. As she awoke, and glanced from the window she let out a frustrated sigh. The fence had blown down, again, it felt like every day that Trinh was having to repair, or rebuild a part of it. Getting up early, trying to avoid the hottest part of the day she wandered out to where Kamon was waiting. The horse huffed gently, blowing her hair with his breath before giving a look towards his tethered companion. Gourd would have eaten his way through all her crops overnight if she had left him untied, luckily because of the expected weather she had secured him, the slightly rotund animal had a bottomless stomach.

Grabbing some equipment Trinh moved over to the fence, dropping some wood, rope and nails on the ground before moving back to grab her shovel, fully aware of Kamon following her watching her curiously. The slight sound of his hooves, and the smallest glances of him out of the corner of her eye made her smile. Looking at Gourd, who was stood with a surprisingly pitiful look on his face she sighed and moved over to him.

“If you get in the way, or eat anything you shouldn’t you will be sorry” she grumbles as she unties him. Gourd nudges her hand before prancing around, tossing his head excitedly. Trinh shakes her head with a sigh and moves back over to her repairwork. As she kneels down something heavy is lands in the ground beside her and she looks up to see Kamon nudging her forgotten shovel towards her. His ears flick towards hers as she gives him a small pat on the nose in thanks.

“Need to get this bit cleared, no point repairing it when it’s this battered. Whole new fence here I think” she said half to herself, half to the horses. Grabbing the broken, snapped pieces of woods she let out a small snort of amusement at Kamon’s attempts to help, using a combination of pawing with his hooves and nudging with his nose and was stubbornly pushing a piece along the ground towards the pile she was slowly building. Once all the wood was moved aside she rose back to her feet and sighed.

“Okay boys, we need to see what here can be reused, and what’s going to be waste. But, let's get this new fence up first before one of you gets hungry” she said glancing over the field of almost ready to harvest crop. With the shovel she quickly packed earth into the holes the old post’s had come from, clearly they hadn’t been sturdy enough and the dirt had degraded around them, it would be a lot easier to dig new holes further down. Kamon seeing what she was doing stomped near one of the holes, breaking up the compact earth making it easier for her to dig it back in. It takes the two a good few hours to get everything ready for new fence posts and Trihn has to keep moving her headscarf to keep her hair from her face. The sun is bearing down from the sky as she settles herself in the shade from her home, sipping from a waterskin. Kamon was wandering around, trying to ignore Gourd who was nudging at him, trying to convince him to play. The rounder of the two was prancing around, while Kamon looked a little worn after being as useful as he could be for the first stage of the repairs. Trinh pushed herself back to her feet making sure the two had something to eat and drink, and making sure Kamon definitely drank something.

While her back was turned she heard the telltale sound of a certain pony sneaking too close to her fields for comfort and turned quickly. “Gourd, don’t even think about it” she said watching as he froze, one hoof up, about to cross the gap where the fence had been. Kamon snorted, trotting over to him and nudging him back away from the plants and towards where there own meal waited. The three, the two who were actually working, and the one who was more of a hindrance than a help took a short break. By the time they were ready to move some more the sun was high in the sky, beating down upon them. Trinh moved back over to where she was working and felt the familiar feeling of Kamon behind her.

“You don’t need to help you know, you’re welcome to relax, I can do it” she said turning to look at him, unable to resist a smile as he stubbornly huffed at her and started pushing over some of the wood she had put aside for a new fence post. Grabbing the piece of wood Kamon was being so helpful with she picked it up and slammed it into the space she had dug out. Holding it in place she started kicking a little dirt back in to hold it in place and grabbing a mallet she started hitting it hard, pushing it deeper into the ground. Kamon nudged her on the arm and she looked at him curiously as he half tugged on the sleeve of the hand with the mallet. With a grin she held it, handle towards him and couldn’t hold back a laugh as he took hold of the handle and tried swinging it at the pole. A curious snort came from behind her and she looked back to see Gourd looking at them with the most puzzled look she had ever seen on a horse.

After a few more hours work, the fence is starting to look more like a real fence, the posts are in place, most of the slats were nailed in, Kamon was continuing to be reasonably useful for an animal with no hands. He had picked up rope, pushed things, pulled things, the only thing she hadn’t let him help with were the nails, shards of wood, driven through holes she had made in both sets of wood. They were easy to break and Kamon wasn’t exactly gentle. By the time the sun was beginning to set, the fence was done. Trinh sat herself down with a sigh of relief, looking at a well done days work. Kamon looked tired but looked about as smug as a horse could. Gourd was leaning against the new fence, looking miserably at the crops that were now out of reach, stretching his neck to try and nibble even the closest of leaves.

Trinh and Kamon shared an amused look, watching him struggle. As she took a sip of her drink, looking away for a moment a rumble, and then a crash echoed through the area and looking up she leaped to her feet. “Gourd, what did I tell you?” she said moving towards the pony, who had just crashed through part of her newly repaired fence. Letting out a sigh she untangled him from the ropes, and wood as Kamon nudged him with his nose, seemingly berating him. The two looked at the broken fence, well, at least they knew what they would be doing the next day.