"What are you doing?"  A girl of fifteen asked.  Varian remembered someone calling her Faith.

"The laundry," he answered.  He pointed to the barrel.  "I made an invitation to make laundry easier so it won't take up your whole day.  Would you like to use it?"

Faith's eyes lit up.  Varian took out his now clean laundry and showed her how to use it.

"Now what?"  She asked.

"I like to read while I wait," Varian said.

"I'm not good at that.  I've only been able to teach myself a little," she admitted.

"Here, I can help you," Varian offered.

"Wait, really?"

"Sure.  I have a beginner reader at my house.  I'll be right back.  Keep an eye on my clothes."  He rushed to the house and returned within a few minutes.

The two sat there and he helped her with the harder words.

"The blue bird that flies... over the dark... wood.”

"That's perfect," Varian encouraged.

"What on earth are you doing?Teaching another girl to read? Isn’t one enough?"  A man glowered.

"Does it matter that she's a girl?  If she wants to read, she should be able to read," Varian retorted.

"We have to do something." A woman huffed.

They grabbed the barrel and dumped out the contents.

"Wha-hey!"  Varian stormed over but they were walking away already.  "Cowards!  Jerks!"  He shouted.  Huffing, he began to put Faith's wet laundry in her basket.

"I'll just rinse them off and take them home... I've overstayed," Faith said.  "I'm sorry about the trouble."  She scurried off before Varian could say anything to her.

"Am I catching you at a bad time?" Caine asked.

Great.  Things really couldn't be worse, could they?  He didn't spare her a glance and continued to gather up his broken invention.

"Having trouble with the Headmaster? He never liked me either," she continued. "Can I give you a little advice about the villagers, though?"

"It appears you will whether I agree or not, so fire away, I guess," Varian said.  Varian rolled it to his house.

"They’re never going to trust the kind of change you’re trying to bring," she warned.

All I wanted was to help her read," Varian muttered.

"It's how the world works. For simple folk, it doesn’t get any better than what you have.  I wouldn't continue to risk losing that."

"I appreciate the gesture of trying to help.  I might be a farm boy but, I’m not simple."  Varian set the barrel by the steps.

"Never meant it like that," Caine retorted.  "What I meant was, the only way you're going to be trusted if you marry someone they trust and look up to."

"I’m never going to marry you, Caine.  We'll just clash, I’m sorry."  He went inside and locked the door.  How many times must he reject her?  Was this the tenth time this week?  It was getting annoying.

He walked out the back when he was sure she had left. "Can you imagine? Me? Married to that selfish, scamming..."

The raccoon that Varian hand named Ruddiger stared up at him.  He didn't care that Varian threw the bread to the ground that he usually handed him.  He just picked it up and listened to Varian rant.

Monsieur, Sir Caine
Can’t you just see it?
Madame, Miss Caine
She'd be my wife

"Ugh!"

No, sir, not me,
I guarantee it
I want much more
than this provincial life!

Varian ran out of the town and up a hill.  The breeze blowing in his hair.

I want adventure
in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand
To have someone understand
I want so much more
Than they’ve got planned...