The Higher Plain Ch 15: A Good Day To Learn Farming!

Sunlight streamed through the window, warming my face as I stirred awake. I stretched, wincing at the dull ache in my muscles. My entire body felt sore, like I had been squeezed into a space far too small for me—which, technically, I had.

Holding this compact form was harder than I had expected. My body seemed to have a mind of its own, shifting sizes at random throughout the night. One moment I'd be small enough to fit comfortably in the bed, the next I'd be slightly too big, my feet pressing against the wooden frame. It was exhausting, but at least I had made it through the night without growing through the roof.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes, when something caught my attention. A neatly folded set of clothes rested at the foot of my bed. I blinked at them, tilting my head. I didn't remember bringing any clothes from home, which meant...

Krelzor.

A small smile tugged at my lips. He must have left them here while I was asleep.

I picked up the clothes, running my fingers over the fabric. A button-down shirt and a pair of tan pants—simple, practical, very human. I pulled them on, buttoning the shirt carefully. It felt strange wearing lower-realm clothing, but at the same time, I kind of liked it. I actually looked like a regular human.

Excitement bubbled up inside me. This was the experience I had always wanted.

With that thought, I stepped out of my room and made my way toward the kitchen. The scent of something warm and familiar filled the air, making my stomach rumble.

Krelzor stood by the stove, stirring a pot with a wooden spoon. He glanced up as I entered, his brow lifting slightly.

"Morning," he greeted.

"Morning," I said, sliding into a chair at the small wooden table. "You're cooking?"

"Well, unless you know how to make breakfast, then yeah."

I grinned. "Can't say I do. What are you making?"

He tapped the spoon against the rim of the pot and grabbed a bowl. "Just porridge. Nothing fancy." He ladled a portion into the bowl and handed it to me.

I took the bowl eagerly. "Food is food."

The first bite was warm, thick, and slightly sweet. I hummed in approval and began eating with enthusiasm. This wasn't the first time I had tasted lower-realm food—though usually, it was something I snuck from the kitchen back home. But something about eating it here, in this tiny house, after waking up in a human bed, made it taste even better.

Krelzor sat across from me, watching me inhale the porridge with mild amusement. "You eat like you haven't had a meal in days."

I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. "Not my fault. Holding this form takes energy. A lot of energy." I scooped up another spoonful. "Besides, it's good."

He snorted but didn't argue.

We finished breakfast quickly, and once the bowls were cleared away, Krelzor stood and stretched, glancing out the window.

"Well," he said, stepping toward the door. "We've got a lot of work to do."

I followed him outside, my eyes landing on the ruined fields. The once-rich farmland was a mess of uneven ground, giant footprints embedded deep into the earth. Some of the crops had miraculously survived, but others had been completely uprooted by my careless steps from yesterday.

My stomach twisted.

This was my fault.

I had wanted to meet a human so badly, had wanted to experience the lower realm firsthand, and in doing so, I had destroyed his home.

I looked at Krelzor, waiting for him to say something about it, maybe scold me or tell me again how much trouble I had caused. But he just sighed, placing his hands on his hips.

"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see if we can fix this mess."

I stared at him. "You're not... mad?"

He gave me a sideways look. "Oh, I'm mad," he said dryly. "But being mad won't fix anything. Unless you've got some kind of giant magic that can make plants replant themselves."

I bit my lip. "No... but I do still have some size left in me."

Krelzor raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

I grinned. "Meaning—" I closed my eyes, focusing on that familiar pressure inside me. It took effort, but I felt the shift immediately—my body stretching, growing, expanding. The world seemed to shrink around me as I shot up a few feet, stopping when I was just tall enough to make a difference without completely overwhelming the field, it was to bad my clothes began to rip.

Krelzor took a cautious step back. "Just... be careful this time."

I turned to the ruined fields, rolling my shoulders. "Let's get to work."

I always thought farming was simple.

You plant seeds, water them, and then—poof!—crops appear. Easy, right?

Wrong. So very, very wrong.

Standing in the middle of Krelzor's ruined fields, sweat dripping down my back, my arms aching from just an hour of work, I was beginning to regret ever thinking that farming was an easy job.

Krelzor, on the other hand, was working like he had endless energy. He moved through the fields with ease, using tools I had never even seen before—some kind of metal thing he called a "hoe," another he called a "rake," and something called a "plow," which he claimed I was too big to use without breaking.

"Alright," he said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. "Next, we need to rework the soil."

I blinked at him. "Rework?"

He gestured to the ground. "We can't just plant seeds in this mess. The soil's all compacted and uneven, plus your footprints didn't help."

I looked down at the deep craters my feet had left behind. Yeah... that was fair.

Krelzor handed me a rake. It looked so tiny in my hands, like a child's toy. "Just use this to break up the soil and even it out."

I tried. I really did.

But no matter how carefully I moved the rake, I kept tearing up too much dirt, leaving massive grooves in the ground. Every time I tried to fix it, I just made it worse.

Krelzor groaned. "Alright, maybe we should try something else."

"Yeah," I muttered, tossing the poor, bent rake aside.

He picked up a small bag of seeds and poured some into my hand. They were so tiny they almost looked like grains of sand.

"These are wheat seeds," he explained. "We're going to replant the areas that got ruined."

I nodded, excited to finally do something right. I crouched down and pinched a few seeds between my fingers before carefully pressing them into the soil.

"Not so deep," Krelzor said. "You just need to cover them lightly."

I pulled some of the dirt away and looked at him expectantly.

"Perfect," he said, nodding. "Now do that... about a thousand more times."

I stared at him. "A thousand?"

He smirked. "Welcome to farming."

I groaned but kept going, planting seed after seed. It was slow, exhausting work, and within an hour, I was sweating again. My back ached, my fingers were covered in dirt, and every time I thought I was making progress, I'd glance up and realize I had barely covered a fraction of the field.

"This is so much work," I huffed, wiping my brow.

Krelzor chuckled. "Told you."

I sat back on my heels, stretching my sore arms. "How do you do this every single day?"

He shrugged. "It's just life. You get used to it."

I shook my head in disbelief. My kind never had to do work like this. We had magic, technology, and entire systems built to make things easier. But here, in the lower world, everything was done by hand—by sheer determination.

I glanced at Krelzor, watching as he moved effortlessly through the fields, his movements precise and practiced.

Humans weren't as fragile as I once thought. They were strong—not in the way my people were, but in their own way.

And honestly? I was starting to admire it.