Disclaimer: And now, as an adept of the obvious: Farscape is owned by the grand high Mucky Mucks and the Jim Henson Company, I'm just mangling the characters a bit :) I'm making no money off this. No copyright infringement is intended. Any similarity to any other story is coincidence.(and there is similarity to "Long December")

Title: The Harvest
Genre: Farscape ficlit; Chiana character piece; spiritual/melodrama
Rating: PG for Farscape swears.
Timeline: Two years after the Peacekeeper Wars
Summary: Chiana is on Hyneria with a small farm that she's built. She's still not really over D'Argo's death, but someone has just arrived to help her heal.
Author's Notes: I so don't know where this story came from, and it took on a life of its own. Hence why it's longer than I intended, and it sure isn't the story that I originally set out to write. This is the first story that I've posted that doesn't focus on A&J, though I'm in the process of writing more. I hope this one is okay :)

I've always felt sorry for poor Chi, with her loss getting so overrun with the J&A story, even though you can tell that J&A are probably some of my favorite part of the Farscape saga. :) I'm still not certain that I did justice to our favorite little snurcher, but I hope the effort is appreciated. Thank you.

Also, since the only thing we know about Hyneria is really only that its natives are amphibious in nature, I have felt free to play as I will with the poor little capital planet. After all, Farscape has never been a place for the sane or shy. :) Also, since Delvians, Delvia, and the Seek are not all really strictly defined, I went with what felt right. :)

Oh, and story breaks are indicated by the boldface and an ellipsis. Dreams are indicated by purple text.




The Harvest


“Frell,” she swore violently. “Frell, and double frell. Stupid frelling plant!”

With a frustrated sob, the young Nebari sank to the ground before the spiky purple leaves of the hatha plant before her.

“Stupid plant,” she half gasped, half sobbed.

A gentle male voice from behind her almost made Chiana jump. “You have to pierce the center of the root from the top with the urth pole.”

Chiana twisted and shielded her eyes from the bright blue Hynerian suns. With her eyes thus shaded, she could see the young Delvian man standing a few feet away. He was dressed in practical loose blue trousers and shirt. He wore a straw-like hat of light brown made from banta reeds. It shaded his face and made it impossible to see the color of his eyes.

“Here, let me show you,” he continued as he stepped forward, holding an urth pole before him. With a practiced hand, he thrust deep into the heart of the root with the harvesting tool. The twisted tines at the end of the pole dug into the soft flesh of the root as the young man turned the pole clockwise. The muscles of his arms bulged slightly as he lifted the large plant from the soil with a firm tug. Using his foot, he pushed the root from the end of the urth pole.

“Like that,” he said lightly, taking his hat off to nod his head in greeting.

Without the hat, Chiana noticed that the man’s eyes were a warm brown, bright with amusement at the world and all he saw.

“My name’s Yael, nice to meet you.”

Chiana stood slowly, her stance clearly showing how tense she was; how ready to fight or flee. Years of experience on the run were hard to forget, even on the relatively peaceful world of Hyneria; even two cycles after D’Argo’s death.

Yael shrugged slightly, not offended in the least by Chiana’s distrustful attitude.

“I heard that there was a young woman that might need help with her first harvest. I assume that that’s you. I’m looking for work, and if you need help, I’m your man.”

Yael grinned brightly, and Chiana realized that if she had met him before D’Argo‘s death, she would have begun to flirt outrageously with him. She smirked slightly to herself, she would have done more than that of course, but nothing was the same since D’Argo. Her smirk turned to a frown and she found herself edging toward tears.

Yael’s expression turned concerned. “Did I say something wrong? You are the one that needs help on your farm?”

Chiana nodded slightly.

Yael sighed quietly in relief. “Well, should we start with all this hatha root?”

Chiana nodded once and together with the young Delvian man, began to harvest the first crop of hatha root on her farm…

TBC

Harvesting the Hatha
Dreams
Sleepless
Haunted
A’hadis
The Harvest