Later that evening, when the harvest had successfully been stored in the sheds and the involuntary helpers were sent home, Syela, Aymala and Milena were walking along the trampled path that led from the fields back to their village. As was custom in this rural area, whereto the long arm of the King and his tax collectors never seemed to extend, towards the end of the summer holidays the pupils of Rutland were ordered to help with the harvesting. None of the groans and threats and theatrically played-out fainting sicknesses had ever managed to spare any of the schoolchildren this fate. Any boy or girl over the age of ten was sent to the fields; the boys to guide the oxen and horses that pulled the ploughs and, in groups of three or more, to shake the trees, the girls to pick up the roots on the fields and catch the fruit falling from the trees. It was now the fourth fall that Syela, her best friend and her sister had worked together, and the first time the nuns had been clever enough not to send them to the fruit plantations (after the farmer they had been sent to help the previous year had complained of them devouring half of the harvest while they worked). Though the harvesting was hard and exhausting work, it was not without reward, for the helpers were allowed to join the harvesting feast that took place the last Church Day before the start of a new school term. And for the children, who spent all year confined to a school run by a convent of strict nuns, a feast like this was the epitome of their wildest dreams. Especially for three adolescent girls like Syela, Aymala and Milena.
Syela linked arms with her sister and her best friend while they were walking home in comfortable � and tired � silence. She had to stifle a deep sigh. The coming school term would be the last for the eldest of the threesome, Milena. She would be turning seventeen next summer and � Syela was sure even He didn't know why � the nuns had decided that this was the perfect age to unleash the pupils onto the world. Though Milena was far from being the model student, she would surely pass the final test and leave the school and probably the village as well. Apart from being a farmer or a housewife there weren't many bright future prospects for young people in this small town, and as Milena desired to be neither, she would have to go and find her luck elsewhere. Syela felt a pang of pain whenever she thought of her best friend leaving. They had been sworn allies since Syela's seventh summer and she could not imagine her life without her trusted partner in crime. During all these years the two girls had developed such a strong mental rapport that they could practically talk to each other without speaking. Would this connection survive whatever big a distance would be put between them, Syela wondered?
To rouse herself from her gloomy thoughts Syela lifted her head and sniffed the air. "Winter will be coming early this year", she murmured. "Oh, don't tell me you can already smell the snow!" Aymala cried out. "I don't want to start the new term wrapped up in furs!" Inevitably Milena shot back:"No, you want to show Mr. Chay how your boobs have grown over the summer first!" Fortunately the girls had just reached the home of the sisters' family on the outskirts of Rutland, so Syela escaped another catfight. She hugged Milena hurriely and then dragged Aymala to the back door of their little house, eager to separate the two from their good-humoured fighting.
