The guard grabbed at a piece of rope, and a little girl came into my sight by the sudden pull. No, at first gnce, she looks young, but I think it was just her race. White hair only a few inches long, red irises, and sharp teeth. Her big, teary eyes and button nose gave her a more cutesy appearance. She was a little under five feet and was rail thin. Her distended belly told me she had eaten more than her normal fill for the first time in a long time.

  I noticed her hands and feet next. They weren’t human. Her brown skin stopped at some point under her clothes and shifted to red, almost scale-like arms and legs. She was dirty, and her clothes were ragged, almost falling apart. She spoke in a nasally voice, most likely because she was crying. “Forgive Tems. She was just so hungries.”

  It was hard not to ugh at her cuteness as I saw two of the guards behind her stifle chuckles. The beastkin guard spoke matter-of-factly again. “Well, she ate most of what you had grown. We haven’t taken a thorough look yet, but the damages could be up to a few silver. That’s not severe enough to sentence her to death, but it’s worse than just stealing a few fruits or vegetables.”

  She looked at me as if I was going to make a suggestion before she continued. “I think the best outcome for what happened is if she works for you to pay off the debt.” I asked, confused. “Can’t we just let her go and make her pay it off?”

  The beastkin pulled me into the house and started whispering. “We could, but what would stop her from running away… Also, I have no idea how long that will take. It would be up to you to collect the debt, whereas you can just work with her and have her learn civilized customs; otherwise, this is likely to happen again, and next time we can’t be as lenient.”

  I sighed as I knew this was going to be a whole thing. I was going to have to pay the cost of feeding this bum until she learned enough not to be a burden on the vilge. At least she was pretty in a creepy way… Or I was just so horney I’d fuck a cactus at this point. Either way, I was getting my money’s worth out of her before I let her free.

  Tem wasn’t stupid; she knew what she did was wrong, but it was either that or starve to death. She had approached the vilge from the forest and managed to sneak passed the guards. The only reason she was caught was that she fell asleep right in the middle of the field after she was done eating.

  Getting her cleaned up and into a set of actual clothes was the first thing I had to do that day. The housewives dove on her and cleaned her up in a wash basin outside as they shooed me away. The thoughts of going to a different town were pushed to the back of my mind as I took care of the half-feral worker I had gained. She came back looking like a functional person.

  With her hair clean I could see two tiny pristine white horns poking out of her head and little points squaring her ears giving her an almost elvish look to her. Like a corrupted version of an elf, that is. Her eyes met mine, and she quickly looked away as the other housewives kept whispering to her.

  I took her to the farm and put her to work immediately. Back-breaking work of picking the freshly grown strawberries from the pnts and putting them into crates. Strawberries weren’t a one-time-picked item, same with tomatoes, as I got to work expanding the third field. Growing those types of crops with the quantity multiplier would be a big cash flow in the cities if you could sell them all before they rotted. That’s why I think I made the right choices going with quality instead.

  I watched her like a hawk the first hour, but she made no clear signs she was going to run away. I greeted the townsfolk as I brought my produce to the vendor and unpacked everything for him. Tem kept behind me and looked over my shoulder as I talked to different people around town. With the crops taken care of about an hour faster than they normally would be, we got to work expanding and… Oh my god, she was a worker.

  The battered shovel I still had was quickly shredded as she worked feverishly on turning the soil. I needed to look into getting high-quality fertilizers to put down as well. She ran herself out of stamina before long, though. Two or three hours, she just watched me continue to expand the field as I drew lines mentally and worked from outside to in.

  It was right as dusk hit that I called it a day. Picking some of the pnts I left for us, I made a quick fire and began to boil some potatoes and mill strawberries into jam. Asking around was the only way I knew how to make this, and I needed to learn how to make cornstarch first. Making the strawberry jam was the most interesting thing Tem had ever seen.

  With her rge eyes staring at me, mixing the concoction as it cooked, she kept looking between it and the potatoes. I sliced the bread one of the women had made for this purpose and told her. “This strawberry jam needs to sit for a few hours before we can eat it.” The look of disappointment was quickly crushed, I continued. “That’s why it’s a good thing I already have a jar of it right here.”

  I spread out the jam thickly on both parts of the bread before folding it back together and cutting it in half. I handed her half of the loaf, and she ate the entire thing before I could get a bite, then gave me puppy dog eyes. “Mother fu- alright fine. Just for today.” I handed her my half as well. After she ate the entire thing in less than thirty seconds, she started looking at the jar of freshly made strawberry jam.

  “Lady got a pit in her stomach. How can you eat so much?” She looked down, embarrassed, before saying. “Sorry, Tems not have good food before.” She had eaten about ten people’s worth of stolen food, and now she was eating enough for at least two the day after. This bitch is going to eat me out of house and home. “Well, wait for the potatoes, and if you’re still hungry, you can finish off the rest of the older strawberry jam. That’s it, though okay!?”

  Her head nodded like she was trying to snap it from her body, and she just patiently stared at the potatoes cooking. When they were finally done and I drained out the water, she got to eat before the food was even cooled down. Taking rge handfuls of the still-steaming potatoes, she ate while making pained noises.

  Halfway through the grotesque dispy, she eyed the jar of strawberry jam and fingered out the rest of the contents into the potatoes. I mean, potatoes can be kind of pin, but I never would have thought to eat them with jam. I had to control myself from yelling and recoiling back in fear from the abomination she just created.

  Eating so rapidly, it was like the best thing she’s ever tasted. I held back my vomit as I knew I needed the nutrients in my body since I didn’t eat that night. After finishing up work, we headed home, and I needed to think of a sleeping arrangement for my single-room house.