SCARECROW SHOW OFF 2

“The task is as simple as can be!”

Pepper was spending her time in the Wind Valley once more. Considering that events were often held here, it made sense that she would be expected to be a part of it if it just so happened that her carriage driver was having problems with the vehicle and she had no way to continue her journey to the next city over until everything was once again in working order. This was annoying for many reasons.

She didn’t want to participate in the scarecrow competition. She liked animals and thought that anything that required her to play nice with others was going to stretch her patience beyond the limitations that she had set for herself for the day, but her driver was not able to do anything more than offer a reassuring shrug and then ignore her entirely.

A vague promise to be ready by the end of the evening with nothing more to offer outside of that. It was difficult to put into words, but Pepper just gave up and dragged herself out to the corn fields to hang around until the carriage was back up and running. She quite literally had no other choice, and that was probably the most damning thing about the whole ordeal in the first place.

The corn maze was enormous. The Scarfox Realm so far had not been built with Minis in mind, as much of the world was far too big for Minis, and if the Mini in question did not have the most perfect grasp of magic in the world - in order to change their shape to something larger and more standard - then those Minis in particular were out of luck.

Pepper was one such Scarfox. She was Mini, and had her special charm that would allow her to change her shape, but she simply did not have the grasp of magic to complete such a task. She had no idea what ailed her, but some mentioned that it was just difficult to really get it right on the first few tries. Pepper hadn’t taken it to heart, as she did not mind being so small by default.

But when she had to be stuck in places like this, it made her apathy morph into something much more harmful. Something that stayed inside her for the time being. Now was not the time to develop such tangents, not when the world was currently operating on the B-side.

The corn maze was closed for now. There were signs posted about a scarecrow competition of sorts to help save the maze from the pesky crows that would peck at the corn and ruin the orderly rows and tunnels of the maze itself. After all, the corn maze was supposed to be the star of the show for those who were returning from their meal offerings to the Mini God.

Pepper remembered the Mini God from a time before now. A faint air of familiarity that had been something more closely related to spring than the crispness of autumn. It was a shadow of understanding before it was gone, and she made her way to the open area where Scarfoxes of all creeds were gathering and dressing for the contest.

Well, the event in scaring the crows off. Pepper saw a number plans enacted. Some foxes were dressing up as scarecrows, ready to perch on wooden stilts and wave their arms or stand still and sway in the wind. Some were sharpening their use of magic, firing off harmless puffs of magic that would dazzle and daze the crows into flying off. And some still were setting up devices that were supposed to do the work automatically, but were plagued with malfunctions.

Pepper was not going to engage with any of that. Instead, she made her way to where the Mini God was supposedly resting. The Slumbering Stump or whatever the locals had taken to calling it.

“Hey!” Pepper called. “Get out here.”

There was no response, but the mushrooms that lined the stump seemed to bend into listening. Angled in just the right way that made the hairs on the nape of her neck stand up.

“I’m here to deal with the crows,” Pepper said. “In a way that doesn’t involve me dressing up like an idiot.”

The mushrooms shuddered, and a tiny hand - a hand tinier than her own - waved from the little hovel located in the stump. A hand that Pepper immediately followed.

“The secret is seeds,” whispered the stump as Pepper crawled in.

There were seeds in a pouch in the center of the hole. She could still see the tiny hand waving at her to follow. Pepper looked at the seeds and then picked them up and scooped them into a pouch. She then followed the hand and was on the other side of the stump, the mushrooms shifting in place. Pepper  rolled her eyes.

If the gods did not want to face her, then so be it. She didn’t much care for the gods anyway. Not after what had happened during the summer months.

She took the seeds to the corn maze and climbed onto a wooden crossbeam that had been made for an actual scarecrow, though she was so light that it barely moved as she climbed up to perch on the tip. The crows flew around her warily, but pecked at the corn. At least until she had opened the pouch and held out a handful of seeds for the crows to peck at instead. Whatever had been in the seeds drew them like moths to a flame as the flock swarmed around her and picked the seeds out one by one.

Each time her hand was empty, Pepper refilled it until all the seeds were gone. The crows seemed pleased, as a single seed filled them for the day and they flew off to play amongst the trees in the valley.

Pepper watched them, wishing for a moment that crows could have taken her away, but brushing the idea aside as other Scarfoxes came to help her down from the perch. They ignored her dismissal, as she seemed so afraid so high off the ground.

She wordlessly left the corn maze after that.