Formicea
Epilogue: A Farm at the Outskirts 2

"Maja, you're today on worm duty!" (mum)

"Yes, I know." (M)

Yep, this is it.

After that incident, while Dad and Mum continued to argue over what we should do, we still settled in with those worm-bug-thingies.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if they like grass as much.

Contrary to what we were told, they seem to be quite the picky eaters.

We could get them to eat samin roots, nuts, and, as weird as it is, even some bugs, but at their size that won't work much longer before the first signs of starving show themselves.

They don't even seem to digest this diet very well.

On this note, taking care of their crap is absolutely disgusting.

And something like this came out of that princess?!

Nonetheless, we need to take care of them, or we may anger this princess for not treating her offspring well.

At least, they are quite gentle.

They don't thrash about, eat quite calmly, and don't leave their place in the barn.

If I'd just know how we could feed them.

But our own storages are almost depleted.

We may still have some oatmeal, vegetables, or corn, but that is for us.

We can't just give away to them our last rations.

Also, it would be far too expensive to sustain them with that.

Even the gold we received won't last us like this.

If we'd just be able to sustain them with some cheap animal food.

...

Don't tell me.

Could it be?

I quickly run towards our home.

"Mum, I'm taking some regium corn." (M)

"Are you so hungry? It's just a few more hours till I prepare the food." (A)

"No, that's not it. Where is it?!" (M)

"Locked in the shed, with the other supplies. Not like the animals would ever take it." (A)

"Thanks!" (M)

I don't wait for my mother's reply, take the key, and open the shed.

Yep, the stocks are full.

Following my idea, I take a sac full and move it over to the barn.

Down the hole, there are those huge worms.

I feel a little sad that we didn't feed them properly, so it only makes sense to me to try the most obvious solution.

With this thought, I pull a bit of the regium corn out.

"Ehm, here. You might want this." (M)

Uh, it's sucking my hand in.

It's gross how it wriggles inside there.

Also, I should be careful, as I don’t want my hand to get eaten, but it does seem to be fine.

Is it fine?

I wish there'd be anyone to tell me if what I'm doing is right.

Yet it's eating, munching even all the corn I gave it.

This sounds like a success.

If this were to be true…

Regium corn is so hardy that it grows with barely any attention.

We only used it as a cheap supplement for animal food, but if those worms are fine with it, maybe we can give them more than our usual livestock.

It's strange that they even seem to like it, but I don't think I can judge the taste of worm bugs.

Whatever is the case, I need to tell everyone at home about this.

This is great, as with that, we can keep them alive.

The main issue would still be that we don't quite know what to do with them.

They are supposed to replace our dead cattle, are they?

They don't look very fancy, so I don't think they're supposed to be pets or such, and we can’t eat them if we’re supposed to keep them alive.

Not like they look especially tasty.

But if not for this, what else could you do with them?

Anyway, I think I should clean them.

Otherwise, the stink is only going to get worse.

First, I shovel the dung behind them away.

It's fortunately not that much, but coming from the stench it might make for good fertilizer.

The crap doesn't even cling to their behinds, which is a welcome feature.

It's just a bit cumbersome that I have to roll it all the way out of the cave and the barn.

Though now I need to give them a good scrub.

It's at least nice that the two are letting me work on them.

Daddy doesn't like them, after all that happened with the insects, but I think these worm bugs have gentle eyes.

They don't even shift while I stroke the rough cloth around their leathery bodies, except for when I get to their lower parts they stretch their tiny spike legs to get a little higher.

I think they want to help me with this.

Their skin is taut, so nothing clings to it.

One can do wide strokes and there's nothing to obstruct me.

Uh, aside from this bulge.

What is that?

"Splotch"

Uwah, it's leaking!

Some weird fluid right below it.

Is this its pee?

Uh, what do I do now?

It's on the cloth and my hand.

"Sniff."

Huh, it doesn't smell bad.

Not like the waste.

I wonder...

Buah!

That's so sweet!

Far too sweet!

But... it's sweet.

If you'd mix it with something else...

I need to tell everyone at home about this!

So I run over.

"Mum! Dad! You won't believe this!" (M)

"Maja, what are you so excited about?" (A)

"The worm bugs! Those big ones!" (M)

"The one we got sent by this insect princess?" (A)

"Yeah, those we won't get rid of anytime soon. No idea why they are putting that on us." (J)

Dad is still not in favor of the insects.

Yet from what he said it doesn't sound like they'd leave again.

"Dear, at least she tried to compensate us. We got some valuables in exchange." (A)

"But now we have to take care of them, which may develop into a curse. What happens if we can't afford to feed those grubs? We don't even know what to feed them!" (J)

"That's what I wanted to tell! They eat regium corn!" (M)

"How do you know this?" (J)

"Well, I fed them." (M)

Duh!

"Oh do they? Did you hear that, Dear? We can afford one more field for that purpose, right? After all, regium corn grows all year round." (A)

"Tsk. Not like we have much of a choice after they enlisted us for this ridiculous duty." (J)

"It's not that bad. They were pretty docile." (A)

"Still, we need to host those things, and even if regium corn is quite hardy, cultivating a whole field just for the sake of feeding these things isn't a small task." (J)

"They can walk, can't they? Why not just spread the corn as much as we can and let them roam themselves?" (A)

"Huh, that might actually work." (J)

Awh, I still didn't get to my most important news.

"In any case, good job on finding that out, Maja." (A)

"Yes, I agree. It's gonna make handling these useless things a little easier." (J)

"But, I think there's something else." (M)

"Something else? What do you mean, Sweety?" (A)

"I, I think they're giving milk." (M)

"Milk? Uh, how did you get to that, Maja?" (A)

"Maja?" (J)

"Ehm, I was cleaning them, and suddenly one released milk, or something. It, it smells sweet. And tasted so." (M)

"Urgh, Maja, please don't tell me you licked something you didn't know." (J)

"But it works! It's very sweet! I milked other animals before, so why not those?" (M)

"There are many reasons!" (J)

"But shouldn't we try?" (M)

It was my discovery, so when I'm right, I'm the hero!

"Our daughter may have a point. It also kinda makes sense why we got those creatures, out of all things, as compensation. I think we could give it a try. And if no one wants this... milk then nothing's lost." (A)

"Urgh, I don't like it. But... maybe you two are right. Sigh. Seems like I need to grow more corn." (J)

Yay, I won!

So it comes that we start growing more regium corn.

It's quite helpful that this stuff is so hardy, it even grows like scrubs around our farm.

Therefore, we can for now even feed them by leading them to the rich spots.

This could really work.

I'm just not sure if the milk will become something we can actually sell.

Nonetheless, I take the time to lead them the whole day out, as I think they produce even more milk the more they eat.

At least it seems so.

Yet then I see something north and grow distressed.

There's a lot of insects there, and I think they're building a road, right in the direction of our farm.