Within the territory of Warking Alisart Cleavster, the Southern Shore spanned well beyond the sandy edges, giving in to wide plains of blossoming green and fields of bright yellow, on top of having a great access to the ocean and fishing spots overflowing with fishes overloaded with fat, the lands of the south were highly fertile, allowing for immense fields, using the cheap workforce that was enslaved wild ogres, about three meters tall and rather skinny, they still made for powerful arms, allowing to maintain such large fields without much cost, but of course, not willing to give those monsters anything sharp, the harvest was done by the farmers themselves.
These installations made for great open spaces, where one could see from far away, the only obstacles being the occasional small hills and farms, all in great shape as major infrastructures of the region, it was not too uncommon to see the knights of the south patrolling the fields and the surroundings on horseback, their pure white cloaks and immaculate suit of armours reflecting the light of the sun, which almost appeared like a spiral, at least the inside of this bright star seemed to be spinning as so.
Ogres were working the fields under the scorching heat, whilst the various families of farmers instead tended to their secondary source of income, the cattle, much less numerous as a source of food than fishing and growing crops, as the only cattle that was around for the people to breed were somewhat small bovines with heads and necks covered in intertwined horns, these creatures did not easily reproduce, but any money and food was welcome, their meat was considered a luxury and handsome rewards for the knights of accomplishments.
But of course, farming was secondary in renown only to the art of combat, the knights of Lord Alisart, all under the direct command of Aramap, as such, all families yearned for a child of theirs to be born strong and with dispositions to become a trusted knight rather than a regular soldier that would inevitably get torn apart in a future conflict.
The wandering knights looking over the exploitations also served as scouts for boys and girls that held some talent.
Sleeping peacefully under the shade of his farm, a stalwart man sat comfortably in a rocking chair, his worn out straw hat laid over his face, wholly unaware to the world around him, not only was this area rather calm as the borders were always keenly watched over, but after the four great warlords had come to an agreement to cooperation, life had never been so peaceful, the sound of his children playing loudly around the farm failed to disturb him.
After having so many of them in little time, having his ears blown off by the constant wailing and crying, this all sounded like a lullaby, the fresh air that often blew past lulled him into deeper and deeper slumber, but all of this came crashing down when someone roughly slapped his shoulder.
"Honey, the big corneau is making a fuss again" his most beautiful and gentle wife almost made her husband think someone had just tackled him with that tap, which was more akin to a punch.
"Oh, again? That one hasn't stopped since yesterday…" quick to get back onto his feet, he stretched a bit, the big corneau, or rather, the one male bovine they had at the moment had been restless since the night before, not turning violent or the likes but generally stomping and bellowing at absolutely nothing, hiding in corners.
"I am telling you, that big wimp probably got bitten or stung by something and thinks the pain is something attacking him" shaking her head, hoping to be right, because if the corneau was going cuckoo and was about to die on their arms, then they would to get a new one, the king and his knights paid good for that meat, and losing that income could prove problematic, especially since it was summer, and the ogres tended to keel over in that weather, they were not exactly cheap.
If corneaus were hard to breed, then one wouldn't want to try their hands at getting ogres to do it, they were difficult to convince and hard to train, it was generally a side hustle reserved for knights who could overpower the monsters without much of a problem.
The husband was pretty worried about the male dying, it was a young one at that, and they spent good money to keep their livestock in perfect health, the animals basically lived as well as people, with plenty of space, food, water and attention, procuring a single male was already difficult, and he was hoping to get another one, which would allow himself to produce more and replace females without having to ask other farmers.
The profits could be tremendous, but not if this young one just decided to go and die for no clear reasons.
Going over to the startled livestock, he inspected the hooves, the body and such, the man's presence seemed to reassure the bovine, not appearing to have hurt himself somehow, really just appearing utterly terrified of something, yet, the females were wholly unbothered, and since they were all pregnant, if anything, they should be the one more on edge about small things.
"Alright buddy, just calm down, this continent is at peace for once, everything is the best it could possibly be, relax" rubbing the corneau's snout, the beast seemed calm for now.
Looking around for anything that might have caused this sudden influx of fear and finding nothing, the man went back to the front of his farm, watching as his ogres worked the fields, whistling for one to go back to its stable, noticing that this one seemed a bit too sluggish.
All of the ogres sold to the farmers were castrated males, the sellers kept hold onto the females but still took measures to make certain that ogres couldn't be bred elsewhere, one could always just find wild ogres and attempt something, which was fair game, not that many people would see this as a good idea.
But they were well tamed, first in a simple manner as one would a dog, and then branded with a special seal for extra measures.
It was all well thought out, having inherited this farm from his father, the husband had had a good headstart and was planning on leaving this farm in an even better state to his own children.
Thinking about the still distant future, he noticed an approaching figure a bit too late, taking off his hat and bowing respectfully.
"Good day to you sir knight!" he greeted with a smile, the knight nodding in his direction, holding a spear in one hand, holding onto the reins with the other.
"Everything alright over there?" asked the knight in white.
"Oh sorry mam, yes, everything is alright!" correcting and responding at once in a quick breath, he was used to the same knight always patrolling the area, or at least, he assumed it had always been the same, but this one was clearly a lady.
The armour was the exact same, and considering the requirement to become a knight in this region, they all ended up looking uniform in spite of sex.
"No need to apologise, I was told to inform you that your son has successfully passed the tests and has already enlisted as a knight trainee, I'll be taking him along with me on this path to get him used to patrols" she said, one capable of making out a light small on her face even with the great helm in the way.
"That's great! But if I may ask, what about the gentleman who usually passes by here? I was under the impression that he would be the one taking care of my son since he scouted him out, or is it that he was moved to night shifts?"
"Well, he was supposed to, but was sent to the castle to be disciplined for sleeping with a trainee- Hold on sir, what do you mean, night shift?" tilting her head a slight bit, the knight asked.
"Are there no night patrols? I saw a knight on horseback passing in the distance well after night had fallen yesterday, you see, my male corneau was making a fuss and since it was a full moon-"
"And they truly looked like a knight?" she cut him off.
"Yes, they wore a white cape, although, now that you mention it, it did look a bit longer, and the horse was also wearing a white veil…" shrugging his shoulders, the farmer pointed in the overall direction he saw that knight, another dirt road that acted as the limit of his fields that way.
"I see, my thanks good sir, it is probably nothing, but do be careful in the coming days, alright?" and with this, the female knights pulled onto her reins, the horse quickly taking her away.
"Weird" the man did not think much of this interaction.
"Honey! You won't believe what the knight who usually patrols here did…" instead more focused on a juicy bit of information.