Harvest at Narthorpe

In many lands the time just before harvest is one of happiness and anticipation. There may be hard work to come but the end is at least in sight. Not so near the village of Narthorpe. At that time of year the village becomes a place of fear and anxiety, with nary a soul venturing beyond their door as night begins to fall. The nervousness reaches a fever pitch as the last full moon before harvest approaches. This is far from the only unusual thing about the village, where every set of farm buildings is surrounded by a sturdy fence and no greenery is permitted to grow within the bounds, or even in the fields in the 6ft nearest the fence.

The fields are full, the harvest ripe, but all’s not well on moonlit night.

— Children's rhyme from Narthorpe

According to the locals the crops know what is coming and don’t like the idea of being harvested. Rather than wait for the inevitable the crops will attack any who come within their reach at night. This would be bad enough but on the night of the full moon it gets worse as the crops will move and attack the farms.

Why would you stay?

Is almost the first question asked by those who believe the story. The answer is fairly simple according to the villagers. This is their home, and it helps that the crop yields here are better than anywhere else and they haven’t had a bad harvest since 160. There's also less vermin around from spring through to autumn.

The crops move slowly and always return to their places by dawn so gaps to the fences have been created to increase the time it takes the plants to make their way towards dwellings. Like seems to call to like and the plants move faster towards a dwelling if there is any greener growing inside the fence line so most of the farmers also keep the areas around their dwellings scrupulously clear of weeds.
The plants aren’t all that strong so a well maintained fence will at least slow them down and well barred doors and shutters may last long enough to keep them out till dawn. If all else fails a well wielded scythe or torches may keep them at bay for a while but when an entire field attacks it is usually too much for any defenders.

This was written for Spooktober 2023 to answer the Harvest Prompt.

What is really going on

In 159 there was a terrible harvest and the leader of Narthorpe took drastic measures to ensure it didn’t happen again. A deal was struck with a powerful witch to ensure the harvest would always be bountiful, but this witch was not a benign power. The villagers and their descendants are tied to the village and if the eldest child, or more than two children from a family leave the village they will be hunted by plants forever. If anyone speaks of the deal to an outsider the entire family will be relentlessly hunted by the plants.
Clerics and herbalists are barred from living in the village forcing the villagers to rely on the witch for healing and guidance.

Spooktober Cover

This year the Tremanac Spooktober cover image relates to this article. As with most of the other covers it was created in Flowscape.