Peasants and Kachinas are Not the Same

I'm still horribly sore today, but the Fire Lord hasn't taken his bad mood out on us again so far, which is good. We've only been called in to entertain him once today. I suppose he's fairly busy with the peasant trouble and all.

I still can't figure out what the "peasant trouble" is exactly. As far as I can tell, the only peasant that caused any trouble was the fellow that the Fire Lord had arrested a couple of days ago. The Fire Lord had him done away with, though, and I haven't heard anything more about trouble in the village. Flare and I went to Coal and asked him earlier, but he wouldn't tell us anything. I'm not sure if it's because he's been ordered not to, or if he's still angry with us for spying on him in the garden that day ...

Anyway, since the Fire Lord was tied up with other things, we kachinas took the day off a bit. Well, we planned to, at least. We went to Torchess' house again, planning to relax wit her. She wasn't in a very good mood, though, and when we told her we'd come to sit and talk with her, she got irritated and told us that not everyone gets to sit around all day in a cool palace while every else does all the work.

I got angry when she said that. She has no right to criticize our lives! She's just a peasant! We're kachinas! We may not be exactly royal, but we've more standing than Torchess has any day. (I don't suppose you humans know this, but kachinas are highly valued in Southeastern Jeolotoe. We're almost like noblesparktresses, only we're still treated like slaves...it's difficult to explain.)

And we don't just "sit around all day"! We have to be ready to dance at any moment, right under the Fire Lord's nose. He usually calls for entertainment when he's under a lot of stress and needs to take his mind off his troubles. That basically means whenever he's in a bad mood. So really being a kachina is quite a dangerous profession when you think about it.

I tried to explain this to Torchess, but she only got more irritated. That was probably due to the fact that I accidentally called her a lowly peasant...Anyway, she told us to come with her and she'd show us what a typical day was like for a "lowly peasant".

She took us to the fields where the food for all the Furierites is grown.

I think the way our city is laid out is very practical. All the houses are in one section, the fields in another, and the large livestock like horses and cows in another. Then, of course, the Royal part of the city where the Palace of Furier is located. It seems so much mroe practical than having everyone make their fields behind their houses. The soil isn't the same everywhere, and it makes sense to plant everything in the one spot where things grow best, don't you think? I geuss I can't really take credit for knowing all that, though. Coal told me why the city is laid out the way it is. Sorry. Back to the afternoon.

Torchess took us to the fields. There were lots of fire fairies there pulling weeds and picking the ripe vegetables. Torchess looked at us kachinas and told us to start helping.

Every move I made hurt after the beating I got yesterday, so picking wild sancion wasn't exactly a picnic.

We must have worked for three or four hours before Torchess would let us go back to the Palace. I'm still mad at her for making us do that. It's too hot to be outside bending over silly little roots and picking cammimont leaves. Well, it is if you aren't used to it. We kachinas aren't used to doing silly things like that, so it wasn't fair to expect us to suddenly be good at it.

I asked Firefly if she didn't think Torchess was being childish about the whole peasants-have-it-so-difficult thing. Firefly wouldn't say, but I know she agrees with Torchess. Firefly can be such a pushover sometimes. All Torchess had to do was gripe about how hard it is to be a peasant, and Firefly was immediately agreeing. It's disgusting.

I know I said that picking wild sancion in the hot sun was hard and not much fun, but that's because we aren't suppose to do that! Peasants are. It's what they do. It's their job. My job is being a kachina for a hot-tempered Fire Lord, their job is to raise food for the Fire Lord and his Palace. It's not that difficult to understand, FIREFLY AND TORCHESS.

Flare and Comet and Sparkle agree with me, and Flicker won't side with anyone. Typical of her. Flicker has no oppinion on anything. That's what bothers me about her. She just exists, she doens't live.

Anyway, today wasn't the best, but it was a ten compared to yesterday.