Wings of Fire: Chapter 3

	The rabbit eared woman stood near the entrance of the Plant in the early morning sun
with a clipboard of papers. "Obern! South field!" she called out and the foxman ran off to
his post for the day. "Alan!" she looked at her young woran apprentice, "North field!"
	Alan tried to hide his disappointment. Apparently Miss Momo hadn't forgotten
yesterday's Incident. He ran off towards the north field to begin weeding.
	Yesterday's Incident was when he'd mistaken a young grassman for a turnip and it had
barely survived. Momo had decided that Alan shouldn't be aloud to work in the greenhouses
for a full week. He hated working out in the fields and Momo knew it. If he had to take
allergy medicine, so be it.
	Alan wondered why she even had an apprentice. She didn't like kids very much and
looked like she was determined to live forever.
	He sat down on the edge of the field and began to pull up the weeds that thrived as
much as all the other plants in their enhanced environment. He was careful to make sure that
he didn't pull up anything that was supposed to be there.
	"What'd you do this time?" asked a voice behind him.
	He jumped in surprise and turned to see Tess, probably his only friend in the entire
Plant right now. "You haven't heard? I thought everyone knew."
	She shook her head and sat down next to him weeding.
	"One of Momo's grassman pets decided to fall asleep in the greenhouse. In the turnip
section."
	Tess snickered, "She never does understand that those things look like turnips does
she? I wish she'd keep the damn things at the tower, then stuff like this wouldn't happen."
	"Na, she wouldn't let her 'babies' out of her sight for an instant if she had a
choice. I think some friend of her's brought them here while he went traveling or
something," Alan sighed.
	They fell silent for a while, just weeding, weeding, and weeding some more.
	Finally Tess broke the silence, "Are you still going on the trip to Windia today?"
	"I hadn't even heard about it. I guess not then," Alan replied.
	"Me either but I think most of the senior staff are going. I have no clue why so
many people are going but I guess there's some sort of big event," she said.
	"Maybe the princess is back," he suggested.
	"After thirteen years? It doesn't seem likely. If Princess Nina can't forgive her
mother in that much time I don't think she ever will."
	"We'll just have to wait until they get back," Alan said and then added, "If Momo's
speaking to me by then."

	* * *

	Early the next morning Momo and what looked like about half the plant piled into the
Plant wagons. "I'm leaving Kiren in charge with Alan as second. I've left a list of things
that need to be done in the lab. We should be back in a few days," Momo said, looking down
at the remaining staff. "I expect a full report when I return."
	Alan noticed that she had packed most of her turnip pets into the wagon as well. All
the better, now maybe they could go through the day without tripping over every single one
of them. 
	The wagons slowly made their way out of the Plant and down the road to the north
with Momo at the lead. When they finally were out of sight, Kiren turned to all of the staff
and began listing assignments. Everyone would have to work harder to keep the Plant running
with less workers. Alan was assigned to work at two of the green houses because he was one
of the few who knew all of how to take care of everything in there. Even the people who had
run the inn and shop were assigned to work in the fields.
	Alan worked harder than he ever had before. He wanted Momo to be impressed when she
came back, maybe if he did a good job she would start teaching him everything that needed to
be done in the lab. He somehow managed to finish the work that needed to be done in the
greenhouses before noon. He turned off the sprinklers so the plants wouldn't drown and went
to see if anything else needed to be done.
	Surprisingly everything was running smoothly. Until he got to the cookhouse that is.
	The cook, one instead of the usual half dozen, was trying to make a vegetarian
lasagna and a casserole at the same time. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten about
the bread that was baking.
	Alan's sensitive nose noticed that it was starting to burn. He made his way through
the kitchen, which looked like Momo had gone berserk with her bazooka in there, to the stove
that was cooking the bread. He turned it off and looked around for a pot-holder. The one he
found looked like someone had spilled strawberry scrumpy on it but it was probably the
cleanest one in the kitchen.
	He opened the oven and got out the slightly overcooked bread. He put it in a basket
and covered it with a towel to keep it warm. Then he placed it on a shelf, high enough so it
wouldn't be knocked over, and turned to see what else needed to be done.
	The cook, Alan remembered his name was Tero, gave Alan a relieved glance and turned
back to the dishes he was nearly finished with. Alan turned to set out plates, silverware,
and everything else that needed to be done.
	Half an hour later everything was ready and unburned just in time because the
workers, especially hungry after trying to do the work of two, began to come in. They lined
up to get their meals, cafeteria style. As they were served their portions by Alan some of
them looked somewhat surprised but most were too hungry to ask.
	After lunch he stayed to help clean up and ended up helping with dinner as well.
That evening when he discussed it with Kiren they decided to stick with the schedule. Alan
would spend most of the morning in the green house and help out in the kitchen for the rest
of the day.