Malice was extremely eager for finding out who won in the Mister and Miss Farmhand Competition, and she couldn't hide her excitement as she made her way up onto the stage area that had been set up for the announcement. She had her tail wagging so hard that it occasionally bumped Sarah's rear as they made their way up the steps to join the others that had participated in the competition.
"You know you don't have to hide it so much," Sarah teased with a chuckle.
"Oh come on, sis," Malice huffed back with a small smirk, "You're just as interested in this as me. We both worked hard in the competition."
"We did, yes," Sarah nodded, "though... I think Abby got a bit worn out on the requests for hints from the end of the competition to now."
Malice could only shrug a bit in the Little Red Riding Hood costume she had on. It was rather modest with the large red hood, with the hood pulled back to let the rest of hang like a cape from her back, with a short sleeved white undershirt that buttoned at the neck and came down her front, with a black vest over it. It was also complete with a black skirt that came down to her knees. It wasn't showy or skimpy in anyway, but that was also with regard to the rules for the reveal on who won. Since the announcement was to be held out in the same area as the main events of carnival that was park of the Spookyville celebration, more adult costumes weren't going to be allowed on stage. But her costume really wasn't the thing she'd been interested in.
Finding out who won the contest was, and that had been a big part of her curiosity and excitement leading to repeated questions on "who won." It was something that Malice was so eager for that she really didn't care if she and Sarah didn't win. Satisfaction at finding out who did win would be enough for Malice. Of course, a part of her did quietly agree with her sister that she might have asked a bit too much and that Abby had gotten even with her with a pretty good prank. The prank had essentially been to have Abby declare that the reveal was postponed to Thanksgiving, and Malice had been taken in completely. But now as she made her way onto the stage and shook hands with some of the other contestants and then waved to Simon, who was in the crowd waiting to watch and cheer for who won, Malice let the prank be and eagerly waited to hear who won.
Meanwhile, Abby and Samson made their way across the stage to shake hands with Josephine and Martin Brown. They then moved to stand on the other side of the stage so that the line of contestants were essentially between Abby and Samson on one side of the stage and Martin and Josephine on the other. It gave people a clear view who was in the contest and who served as judges. As they looked out on the crowd they could see that even with the scheduled interruption for the act for the main events for Spookyville hadn't diminished by that much. Travis was there and had been joined by his parents, who were there to cheer for the Lyre Firefighter who'd entered in the contest, and was actually one of the few Humans that had participated. Jessica was there with Roger, and Abby heard a cheer or two for Sammy. Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were also there and a bit further to the back, mostly due to the healthy crowd that was there.
"I believe we're ready, mom," Abby spoke across the stage to her mother, "now that we've gotten through the official Spookyville surprise."
Josephine Brown nodded and stepped forward with Martin, since the competition was largely under their control. Abby and Samson were also judges for the competition, but they had now administrative control over the contest, which Josephine and Martin did. And with the "surprise" handled, it was time to move on.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," Martin began, "now that the Spookyville opening act has passed, we will now move on to what has been Animalia's longest running contest... the Mister and Miss Farmhand Competition."
"It began after last year's fall harvest with some posts online on Animalia's webpage... mostly thinking on how... attractive those that had come to pick spare apples were," Josephine picked up from her husband, "though... Animalia is not unused to these sorts of suggestions, and there are probably plenty that would be perfectly fine with them. But it was agreed that sex or sexuality should not be Animalia's sole focus. And that is where we set the contest up to let all participants compete in a way that would mirror a lot of the hard work that America's... and the world's farmers go through every year."
"This has included planning with regard to the crop, arranging the supplies needed for that plan, the work of planting, watering, and harvesting," Samson added, "along with the various surprises that would relate to working around weather conditions and enduring any and all interruptions that said work will involve."
"And we've been pleased to have so many Lyre and Animalia community members participate and engage in that sort of work," Abby commented with a wave of her hand to the gathered contestants, "normally... the work that is done isn't a race... unless one is referring to a race against time. But the fact that it is a contest did add a "racing" element to the competition that was paired with the quality of work done and the value of the product produced. There were also various side events, such as the herding competition that would relate to at least some of the nation's ranchers and the work they put in to care for their animals. Tabulating the scores on all these variables wasn't easy, but we did reach a decision."
Malice wagged her tail as Abby and her parents went through the announcement that they'd had to have rehearsed. She was finally going to get to hear who won.
"And the competition had some brackets within it," Martin spoke, "Some entered as a team and competed in pairs. Others competed as individuals, which will mean that we will have one individual winner and one team winner."
There was a brief pause as the gathered crowd looked up. Some of the sounds from the act for Spookyville could be heard in the background, but it was now low enough that those that were gathered to watch the announcement.
"For the individual contestant bracket, the male winner is local Lyre Firefighter Linus Timmer," Josephine stated, "while he wasn't the quickest with regard to the herding challenge, his plan was the most advanced and he made excellent use of what he had, and among those in the individual competition he had the best time and the best quality work."
There were a few claps, with Travis and his family clapping and wagging their tails at the firefighter's win. The man eventually took a step forward and made a small bow with a small, almost nervous smile. Josephine beckoned that he remained where he was for the moment.
"The female winner from the individual contestant bracket was Kai," Martin spoke, "her plan was fairly sensible, and while she had a few small deductions with regard to calculating how much would be needed with regards to help tending to the apple trees, she did make up for it with a lot of hard work and determination... and an outstanding time in the herding part of the competition that ultimately put her over the top."
Following some tips from what she'd picked up from Linus's announcement, Kai stepped forward to stand next to the Human firefighter and shook his hand while Josephine then turned to a small table and collected a series of papers. Josephine then turned to both of them as they approached. Both accepted what Josephine held, which turned out to be a coupon to one of the restaurants in Lyre or Animalia, along with a small check.
"The coupons are good for any restaurant in Lyre or Animalia, and check is the money earned from the sale of what you harvested," Josephine explained, "and congratulations."
There were a few small claps here as the two individual winners thanked Josephine and Martin and then returned to the line with the other contestants. It wasn't the fanciest prize, but it was a welcome one, and made some degree of sense. While the Mister and Miss Farmhand Competition was a competition, it was a competition at performing well at a job that farmers, be they commercial or subsistence farmers did all year and often with little fanfare. As Kai and Linus returned to their place with the others, Martin then began the next set of updates.
"The race for the team competition was fairly difficult, particularly as there were fewer in that team bracket than there was in the individual brackets and partly because we had to very good teams that managed to match each other very well," Martin spoke and then turned with a small smile, "but Sarah and Mary Alice Wesley did work hard and did enough to narrowly take first in the team bracket, narrowly edging Sammy and Samantha Mariana. Congratulations to you both."
"YES!" Malice gave a happy cheer as she jumped into the air and then landed with a happily wagging tail while Sarah slowly stepped forward.
Martin then collected a similar set of coupons and the check for the apples that Sarah and Malice and harvested and approached the two Huskies with a semi amused smile.
"Thanks for letting us compete, Mr. Brown," Sarah said politely as she shook Martin's hand.
"It's no problem, and you both did well," Martin commented, "though... a bit of patience would probably go a long way."
Malice blushed a little bit under her fur, but she still wagged her tail. To a certain extent she really didn't care about winning. She liked that she and Sarah won the team bracket, but she'd been on edge for so long and knowing that she had to wait for the announcement on who won that she had gotten to the point where just finding out who won was bigger than actually winning. That was just a bonus.