Nina's Observations, Entry 2: The Wood Family

Part 2 of Nina's Observations

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Journal Entry 7

Master shooed me out of the Tower today. He has noticed that, while I have indeed been doing the Observation Project he told me to do, I have only been doing it in one place; done by the road out of town that passes near the Tower. Very few of the townspeople themselves actually use that particular road, as they don’t like passing by the Tower if they can avoid it. The road is mostly used by travellers and merchant caravans - No one, he says, I am likely to see again.

He ordered me to start my Observation Project properly. He told me I don’t have to go down into the town proper, not yet; there are plenty of places on the outskirts where I can sit and observe from a distance.

I have settled on observing at the Farm by the edge of town. It is small, and I don’t have to get very close to observe, as the place I have settled it on the top of a hill just off the borders of the Farm itself, next to a tree I can easily hide behind if I think someone might see me.

Master called the Farm the Arrow-Wood Farm when he was telling me about the town. It is the home of two families - the Arrow Family, and the Wood Family. The land originally belonged to just the Arrow Family, but it was split between the two sons of one of the farmers in the past, rather than going to the eldest. They built a second house on the property when their respective families got too big to manage in the one house, but their families still tend the land together.

Villager Observation 2 - The Wood Family

The two families of the Arrow-Wood Farm split the responsibilities of the land between them. The Wood Family focuses on the animals. They have pigs, sheep, cows, horses, and chickens. They also have two dogs and a cat. I have had a couple of close calls with the dogs - I have been chased away from the Farm a few times by them over the course of my Observation - but the cat is alright. I don’t move around a whole lot while I’m observing, so it is quite content to settle in my lap and sleep.

There are five members of the Wood family; three men, and two women - though one of those men is actually still only a boy. It took me a while, but I learned the names of each member.

The oldest man in the family is also the “head” of the family. His name is Jacob Wood. The older of the two women is his wife, Ella Wood. The other three are their children; Joshua Wood, their eldest boy, Andrea Wood, his twin sister and their only daughter, and Erik Wood, their youngest son.

There are several farm hands on the Arrow-Wood farm. Most of them seem to work for the Arrow Family but help out the Wood Family when they need the extra hands. There are a few that work for the Wood Family, though. I do not know their names, unfortunately.

The easiest of the family to observe are Andrea and Erik. Erik doesn’t have many chores to do yet, being still quite young, so he spends a lot of his free time playing in the garden near the house, where his mother can keep an eye on him.

Andrea, on the other hand, has to tend the sheep and keep the wolves away. So she spends most of her time out in the fields with them, watching them with one or both of the family’s dogs. She always looks so bored though; like she’d rather be anywhere but there. Sometimes she practices fighting against invisible enemies with her shepherd’s crook.

It is obvious she has something else she wants to do with her life. I have seen her away from the farm on the odd occasion, standing on the road near the Tower. She usually has a pack over her shoulder and her Crook in hand. It always looks as though she’s about to leave, but she never actually does; she always ends up turning around and heading back home instead.

Maybe when little Erik is older and can take over her chores and shepherding, Andrea will leave, to find whatever it is out there that is pulling on her. For the time being, though, she stays, fighting invisible enemies, and the occasional hungry wolf.

Master said I should decide who amongst the townspeople I think I could talk to, and whom I think I should avoid. For the most part, the Wood Family strikes me as people I should avoid. I cannot tell with Andrea though, and Erik is too young to be as judgemental as everyone else. I shall have to continue observing them.