Vivian grinned at the sight of her old squire walking up to her, then laughed at his question. Valrum had been a good student, if stubborn, during his brief time as her squire, and she had tried to teach him as much as she could in the short time they had. Now, her squire had fully become a Guardian and she felt a sense of pride in that, though she was aware that in terms of martial ability, he had been far from a novice when he had joined the knights. However, they had a good relationship with each other still, if based partially in sarcasm and backsass. Now, she looked back over her shoulder at the farm, then looked back at her squire with a serious expression. "Of course not, Varlum. I expect you to defend both the farm
and the toddler with nothing but a stick. And not a very good stick, even." she said, before grinning slightly. "Although frankly, if it comes down to defending this farm, it's going to be tricky." she said, looking back at the farm with a grimace. It was a very open place, no real walls or defensive structures to speak of.
As the two spoke, Raio walked up to Varlum and growled at the big Ithecal, causing Vivian to look at the big blue feline and shake her head. "Friend, Raio! Behave yourself, you big vain fuzzball." she said, causing the big cat to ponder Varlum for a moment, then walk up and rub his head against the big knight, being careful not to stick him with his horn. "This is my Zephyrus, Raio. He's loyal and smart, but he's as stubborn as you are sometimes and very vain. Tell him he's a pretty boy and he'll leave you alone, unless he decides he wants pets." she said, before she looked back at the farm. "Well, shall we then?" she said, nudging Speckle forward the last few yards to the farm. As they made that last leg of the trip, she looked at her squire curiously. "That shield? It's a blessing, yeah? Who from?" she asked. She had done some research on the Immortals since Cassion's Endgame, but she still wasn't overly familiar with them.
When they arrived at the farm, a middle aged fellow who looked like the kind of fellow who could eat steal like it was breakfast came and eyed the two of them. "Two knights? I've been having my cattle stolen and my life threatened by who know how many bandits and they send a mere two knights?" he said, his tone so ornery that Vivian wondered if he decided to be a farmer because it meant he didn't have neighbors to put up with.
"I assure you, the two of us will be more than sufficient for the task." Vivian said, swinging down from her horse to stand beside Varlum. "Now, you say your cattle is being stolen and your life is being threatened, but we're going to need more details than that if we're going to be of any help." she said, her tone serious.
After a moment, the farmer nodded and scowled, which seemed to be his default expression. "My cows started going missing half an arc ago. One or two every dozen trials or so at first. Thought it was wildlife at first, wolves or zephyrus. Then they started going missing more frequently, and the first death threat came at the beginning of the season." he said, handing over a note.
Vivian took the note and looked it over, shaking her head. "Leave the farm or die, old-timer." was all it said, in a simple font. The parchment was some sort of leather, cow skin if she had to make a wild guess, and the writing was in charcoal. She handed the note to Varlum for his perusal, then looked at the farmer. "Is there anything special about your farm? Any reason they may want to drive you off of it?" she asked, her tone intent.
The farmer paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Nothing at all. Lands good, but not any better or worse than anyone else out here. You could get land just as good all over the Stormlands. House is nice, but in the same way as my land." he said, before squaring his shoulders. "So, what do you all intend to do about it? I won't be chased off my land by anything or anybody." he said, his jaw set.
Vivian could see that the farmer was as stubborn as the day was long, so she just smiled. "Well, once we're done here, Varlum and I will deal with the trouble makers." she said, before turning to Varlum. "Any questions you want to ask, Varlum?" she said, but there was a note in her voice that he would recognized. It was the same tone she used when she was throwing him a test during his time as her squire.