The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (33 page)

Simon appeared in almost
the exact same spot that he'd been standing earlier, but he was
alone. The two elementals were gone and the cows in the field were in
a state of chaos.

The herd was running in
all directions, mooing in panic. The large beasts were incredibly
loud and the air literally rang with their cries of alarm.

“
What the hell is
happening?” Simon said aloud as he frantically looked around.

He quickly spotted the
source of the herd's fear, and found the bull at the same time.

Apparently Kronk and his
fellow earthen had spotted some likely targets and had gone ahead and
walled off several cows from the herd. The walled-off section rose
out of the ground in almost the exact center of the large field; tall
slabs of rock jutting out of the earth in a rough circle and tilted
toward the middle.

The other cows were making
a dash for the trees and disappearing into the forest. All of them
except for the bull. He was racing around the field in wide circles,
head down, eyes red, and bellowing with fury. It took Simon a moment
to spot his target: it was Aeris.

The wizard leaned against
his staff and put his free hand over his eyes.

“
I can't leave them
alone for five minutes,” he said tiredly. “God, if this
is what it would be like being a parent, give me puppies and kittens
any day.”

He sighed and opened his
eyes. The chase continued and Simon realized that the air elemental
was obviously letting the bull chase him. In fact, he was leading it
in its mad circling run. Aeris could easily disappear or fly up and
out of reach, but he wasn't doing that. The obvious question
was...why?

“
Master! You're
back.”

The wizard looked down and
saw Kronk climbing out of the ground at his feet.

“
I am. What's going
on?” he asked and pointed at the raging bull.

“
Ah yes. That. Well
master, when we trapped the cattle, and I think you will be happy
with our choices, the bull went berserk, as you can well imagine, and
began hurling itself at the barrier.”

The little guy looked
distressed.

“
The beast was
slamming into the rock over and over again and was going to injure
itself.”

“
Yeah, I'm not
surprised. Bulls are very protective of their harems. So why is he
now chasing Aeris all over God's creation?”

Kronk laughed his deep
bass rumble.

“
When Aeris saw what
was happening, he intervened and got the bull's attention. It took
some yelling and a few rather well-chosen curse words to do it, but
he finally distracted the animal and got it to chase him. I'm
guessing that he's trying to tire it out so that it will not begin
harming itself again.”

“
More curse words
from Aeris?”

“
Yes master. And I'm
sorry to say that they are words he learned from you. No offense
intended.”

“
None taken.”

Simon had to laugh. He did
have a tendency to drop the occasional f-bomb when he stubbed his toe
or a spell went wrong. Apparently Aeris had been listening.

“
Well, I can't fault
him for saving the bull from injuring himself. The herd needs a bull
for protection and procreation, so he's doing the hard-headed beast a
favor. Not that the animal will ever appreciate that.”

Both Simon and Kronk
watched while Aeris continued to lead the bull on a merry chase. The
wizard leaned against a tree as he looked on appreciatively. He
hadn't seen a good comedy in years.

It took quite some time,
but the beast finally gave up trying to squash the elemental. It
stumbled to a stop, snorting loudly, and Aeris disappeared at once.
Simon watched nervously to see if the animal would try to free its
captured cows; the females were still mooing mournfully. But
apparently the bull decided to go after his scattered herd instead
and turned around and trotted wearily into the forest, fortunately at
a point far from the wizard and Kronk.

“
Well, that was
fun,” Aeris said lightly as he popped into view a few feet away
from Simon.

“
Was it? I'm glad
you thought so. You're lucky that beast didn't perforate you.”

“
Oh please,”
the air elemental responded with disdain. “That lunkhead
couldn't have caught me if it had been twice as fast. Anyway, it
stopped bashing itself to death on that enclosure that Kronk made and
that is what is important.”

Simon and the elementals
emerged from the trees and walked over to where the trapped cows were
still bawling with fear. They sounded a little less terrified than
they had, perhaps because they weren't being harmed, but how they
would react to being dumped into a walled-in pasture was anyone's
guess.

“
Are you absolutely
certain that having milk and beef cattle is worth this?” Aeris
asked as they stared at the thick tilting stone walls.

“
I think so. We'll
have to see how they take to their new home. I mean, if they can't be
domesticated, then I won't keep them. I'll bring them back here to
rejoin their herd.”

“
That would be best,
master,” Kronk said with approval.

“
So, how many did
you manage to capture?” Simon asked. It was impossible to tell
from the overlapping mooing coming from the temporary pen.

“
Five adults and one
calf, master,” the little guy said proudly. “The mother
is a milk cow with her child, while the four others are beef cattle.
All appear young and healthy.”

“
So six. Hmm.”

Would one milk cow be
enough, Simon wondered. After all, how much milk did he really need
anyway? Of course, if he could make butter as well, then that would
use up more. Hmm. It did open up some possibilities. If he got a lot
of milk, he could store it for several days in the deep cold storage
and take it to Nottinghill Castle to trade once or twice a week. He
knew they had children there now and kids loved milk.

He smiled down at the
little guy.

“
I think that will
do nicely, my friend,” he said happily. “Call the other
two earthen, would you? Let's take the cows back and see how this
goes.”

Kronk nodded and slipped
into the earth.

“
It could be a
disaster, you know,” Aeris said to him quietly while they
waited.

“
I'm aware, thanks.
Like I said, if the cows stay wild, then they are of no use to me and
I'll return them. This is an experiment, after all.”

When the three elementals
popped out of the ground, Kronk asked the obvious question.

“
How are you going
to get them back, master?”

“
Yes, I've been
wondering that as well,” Aeris added with a sly gleam in his
eye.

Simon ignored him.

“
Simple enough.
There's too much stone for me to just Gate the whole enclosure and
the cattle too.” The tilted walls towered a dozen feet over his
head. He looked at Kronk and the other two earthen.

“
So can you guys
lower the walls to where we can just see the cows' heads? Keep them
tight so the animals can't jump out, but get rid of some of the mass?
I should be able to Gate that much in one go.”

“
Easily, master,”
Kronk said with assurance. He nodded at his fellows and the three of
them trotted over to their barricade and rested their small hands on
the stone.

There was a moment of
hesitation and then the large sheets of rock began to sink slowly
back into the ground. The meadow rumbled and shook slightly as the
stone was reabsorbed into the earth and Simon looked around, a bit
nervous that the bull might be lured back to the field by the noise.

Fortunately that didn't
happen, because the cows began mooing frantically again.

The walls slowly lowered
to the point where the five bovine heads were exposed and then
stopped. Strangely, now that they could see again, the cows seemed to
calm right down. They noticed Simon and, instead of reacting
fearfully, a couple stretched out their necks toward him, wide-eyed
with curiosity.

“
I think they like
you, my dear wizard,” Aeris said with some amusement.

“
If they do, they
have great taste,” he replied with a smile. “How you
doing, ladies?” he called out loudly.

One of the cows mooed
gently and tilted her head, trying to see him better. The other four
just watched him with interest.

“
They are not
reacting the way wild animals should, master,” Kronk told him
as he and the others returned to Simon.

“
No, they aren't,
are they? Maybe they are more intelligent now, like Chief and the
mares. That would be good, and bad.”

“
Why bad?”
Aeris asked.

“
Because, if they
are intelligent, I couldn't take them to Nottinghill Castle for
slaughter. I mean, it wouldn't feel right, you know? Milking them,
okay fine, but eating them? I don't think I could.”

He walked forward and
looked up at the large heads sticking out of the pen.

“
My God, they're
big,” he muttered. “And I have a feeling that they're
going to hate Gating.”

“
Everyone hates it,”
Aeris said from behind him. “Fortunately it's quick and they
won't be distressed for long.”

“
I hope so. Okay,
everybody come over and touch my robe or the barrier.”

The three earthen
skittered across the grass and grabbed the bottom of Simon's robe,
while Aeris touched his shoulder.

“
Okay. Now the fun
begins,” the wizard said worriedly. “Gate!”

The cows were frightened
by the Gate, naturally, but settled down quickly. The earthen had
raised the height of the fence and had extended it to enclose the
lake and Simon felt secure in releasing the five cows and the calf
once they were calmed down again.

He did take the precaution
of casting a Shield spell around himself and backing off twenty yards
or so before Kronk and his fellow earthen lowered the barricade and
freed the cows.

The first reaction of the
calf was to race away in a burst of speed that would have put a
greyhound to shame. Its mother trotted after it, mooing loudly, and
the calf slowed down, sniffing and poking its head into every corner
of the field.

“
Is the baby a male
or a female?” the wizard wondered out loud.

“
No idea. Would you
like me to ask its mother or go over and lift up its tail?”

Simon gave Aeris a look of
disgust and turned away to watch the cattle.

The cows were easily
distinguished from each other. The milk cow had the obvious hanging
teats but was also almost pure white, as was her calf. Kronk hadn't
caught the cow and calf with the racing stripes, but Simon thought
that these two were even prettier.

The four beef cows were
solid looking and, well, beefy, but all were so black that they were
almost purple. Except for their faces. Each had a different pattern
of white spots or blazes on their heads.

Once they were free, the
beef cows immediately split up and began to roam the pasture calmly,
exploring everything just as the calf was doing, but more sedately.
One of them cautiously approached Simon, who took a chance and
dropped his shield before she ran into it.

Okay, so she's not so
bright, he thought. She is a cow, after all.

The bovine stopped a few
feet from the wizard and looked down at him. Her head was at least a
foot higher than his own and it was very large. She tilted it
slightly to look at him with one deep brown eye and he stood still
and waited tensely.

“
Careful,”
Aeris said quietly from somewhere behind him. “Don't spook
her.”

“
I wasn't going to,”
he muttered irritably. “Shush.”

Finally the cow lowered
her head and snuffled up his robe with her big, wet nose. Her head
was bigger than Simon's torso.

She backed off when she
was done, snorted softly and turned away. She ambled across the
pasture and began munching on the long grass.

“
Whew! That was a
bit nerve-wracking,” the wizard said in a shaky voice.

“
It certainly was,
master,” Kronk said. He was standing next to Simon's right knee
and the wizard wondered whether the little guy been ready to leap
into battle if the cow had attacked. Knowing Kronk as he did, he was
sure that that's exactly what the earthen would have done.

They watched the cows
together for a few more minutes and then Simon turned back toward the
tower.

“
Okay. It's been a
good day but I think I want to sit down for a bit. I'm tired and
hungry and my head hurts. As usual.”

He looked around and
frowned.

“
Where are the other
earthen, Kronk?”

“
I sent them back to
the wall, master, with thanks for a job well done.”

“
Ah. Excellent.
Thank you for that. Could you stay out here for a bit and keep an eye
on our new residents? Let me know if they start to freak out or
something.”