Ask anyone who owns one, and they will tell you that horses run on hay. Even that wizard who tried to make his survive on old soap and odd socks. Horses have to eat hay, and without hay, they don’t do much and eventually lie down in a very permanent sort of way.
This means that because such a large proportion of the nobles and tradesmen on the Crescent Continent require horses, for pulling carts, taking them places they need to go, or dressing up in ruffs and having pictures painted on top of, the people who make the hay can charge whatever they like. The people who make the hay are the farmers in the Phelta Plains, a huge expanse of lowlands and plains in the centre of the Crescent Continent. Almost all of the continent’s food and hay supplies come from here, and now there is a problem.
In the capital city of Skyth, some people have been saying for a long time that the city should have its own supply of hay, to regulate and control itself. These are usually people who have a lot of money, yet regret having to spend it all on someone else’s goods. They are the kind of people who could buy and elephant and still manage to make a profit, or have a castle built and at the end the builder will write them a cheque. Suddenly, these people have been proved right by some very unfortunate incidents.
The problem with the Phelta plains is that being in the middle of the Crescent Continent, technically no one owns it. Seven kingdoms find it lying within their borders, but ancient laws set down by ancient kings decree that no kingdom or man may ever own the Phelta Plains. A lot of people seem to think that now that marrying sheep is banned, some of the other old customs should be looked at as well. But mostly the people know that a war over hay is something that would not end well, or quickly.
What is currently happening in Phelta is not a war over the plains, but another general, miscellaneous war about something else. The problem is when the field he’s meant to be harvesting is full of armoured people trying to smack each other in the kidneys, giving a farmer a wheelbarrow and scythe and saying ‘off you go’ tends to produce a response with only two fingers. No one wants to be shuffling through the melee just to get some hay; ‘Excuse me… sorry, excuse me, I always hate it when people turn up late… is that your arm there, sir? Excuse me.’
Which means hay reserves are running low. Naturally, this has caused the price of hay to rise. The hay dealers have realised they can make a lot of money, and also that if the crisis in Phelta isn’t resolved soon, there won’t be any hay to make money off. Naturally, it was the dealers with eye patches, cigars, big dogs and other such signs of unscrupulous behaviour that thought up a price hike first.
The poor, of course, are being hit hardest. The rich can afford to reach into their silk lined pockets, bring out a polar bear-fur purse and throw another few gold coins at the servant who comes in with the bill. If the peasants dig any deeper into their pockets they are in danger of having their hands bitten by the mice that live there. It’s getting to the point where those peasant or trader families who have two horses are having to get rid of one, trading in their fast, flashy racing horse for one with an extra long back that they can all fit on. Many have given up using the horse at all, and thousands more people across the continent have started using the dragon transportation system to get in to work every morning.
The people of the Crescent Continent have two options. First, try and invest a lot of time and resources into getting horses to work just as well on a diet of fresh grass and other green foods. The second, and more likely as it requires a lot less effort and a lot more moaning, is to sit and wait it out. Wars can’t last forever, and as soon as the problems in and around Phelta end, it will be safe for the hay convoys to begin leaving the region again, and everyone’s problems will be solved. Everyone is confident – one of the armies is clearly on top. They went in strong, drove back all resistance and have only got to find the enemy general and things will be over for good. It’ll all happen very soon…
