Cattle

121045

"Hey guys!..What is this?"

Four kids stand in front of a barrier in the forest, their game of tag long forgotten. A six-year-old orange-haired girl carefully approaches it, grabbing the metal bars in front of her.

"It's a gate," a black-haired boy answers, walking closer to her. "It connects the inside and outside."

"Outside, huh? We've never been outside." The girl murmurs, inspecting the gate.

"That's because we've been here ever since we were born." A white-haired boy explains, making the brown-haired girl behind him frown.

"Mama says to never go near the gate or fence in the back of the forest because it's dangerous."

The black-haired kid shrugs at her words. "Well, that's obviously a lie."

The white-haired boy quickly turns to face him, his eyes widened slightly. "You really think so?"

The black-haired boy goes to respond but is cut off by the orange-haired girl turning to him with a large grin. "What do you want to do if you go outside?"

The boy shrugs, his eyes fixated on the gate in front of them. "I don't know. What about you?"

"I want to ride a giraffe!" The orange-haired girl exclaims, making the brown-haired girl giggle.

The boy turns away from the gate, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Well, good luck with that."

The white-haired boy frowns, grabbing one of the poles. "I wonder...I wonder what this gate is protecting us from." The brown-haired girl squints to see past the gate, a chill running up her spine. It's so creepy.

She tugs on the back of her friend's shirt. "Come on, we better head back before we get in trouble."

The boy reluctantly nods, taking one last look at the dark gate before he lets himself get dragged away.

I wonder what's out there.

~

Adica's day begins the way it always does. She quietly slips out of bed and gets dressed, glancing at the clock hanging on the wall. 5:30 AM. Good, that means she's right on time. Although she would love to lay in bed for a little while longer, she knows that she can't, especially not on a special day like today. She clasps the last button on her shirt and quickly makes her way downstairs, smiling at the date circled in bright red on the calendar.

Conny's adoption day.

"Let's see, what should I fix for breakfast?" She murmurs to herself, scanning the contents of the pantry. "Maybe eggs and pancakes? Conny doesn't care much for sausage, but maybe I should fix a few for Mark and Rossi." She grabs all of the ingredients she needs, frowning when she sees that she'll need to make a second trip.

"Do you need any help?" The familiar voice makes Adica turn around, smiling at the familiar white-haired boy.

"Oh, you're up early, Norman."

The boy smiles, nodding his head. "Yep, I'm on breakfast duty."

"I'm glad that you are here actually, do you mind taking a couple of these ingredients to the counter? I want to make sure that today's breakfast is a good one."

"Oh yeah, Conny gets adopted today doesn't she?" Norman asks, gladly accepting the ingredients that Adica hands to him. The girl nods, following him out of the pantry.

"Yeah, she does. So I want to do what I can to make it an exciting day for her." Adoption days are always bittersweet for Adica. Because although she's happy that her siblings are getting to go to happy families, she knows that she may never hear from them again.