Fallen from the Stars

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tomari stood straight from her bent over position as she had been plucking potatoes from the ground. She wiped a few beads of sweat from her forehead and the back of her neck, grateful that she kept her hair short; else she would be very much hotter in the scorching summer heat. Blowing a strand of the pinky-blonde hair out of her violet eyes, she wondered whether she should get it cut again.

Slowly she brought her arms over her head and curled backwards, a smile crossing her lightly tanned face as she felt the pops and cracks resonate from her spine. The sound came as a nice change to the silence that was added to the extensive crop fields she was tending to. The only other sounds she had to accompany her were the rustles of the corn fields a few hundred feet to her right and the common squawk of the crows, ironically perched on the scarecrow to her left.

If it had been any other type of bird, she would be able to tolerate them. God, if it had been any other flock of crows she would've been okay with it. But when it came to these crows, she couldn't stand them. Somewhere along the way they had smartened up and realized that the multitude of scarecrows placed all throughout the crop fields could not harm them, no matter how creepy Tomari made them. After they had made this discovery, all they would ever do was sit on the hay-filled dolls and stare at any passing human, especially Tomari. They took a keen liking to the teenage farm girl. Whenever she came around they would follow her, flying from one scarecrow to the next to keep up with her as she made her way down the rows of harvestable vegetables.

A handful of loud caws stopped Tomari in her stretch. Slowly she turned her head to see the culprits, a gruesome glare filling her face. About seven or so jet-black, beady eyed crows stared at her, occasionally tilting their heads to the side, letting out another irksome screech.

Leisurely the girl straightened back up, not taking her eyes off of the dumb animals. When she did finally break her stare, it was to size up the potatoes she had just plucked from the dirt. She bent down, grasping one of the more rounded vegetables. Standing back up, she looked over to the murder once more, tossing the potato in her hand a few times, a smile engulfed her face.

The birds watched as she reeled in reverse a bit, before winding back and flinging the potato at the crows. They erupted into a chorus of caws and squawks as they took flight to avoid the vegetable hurdling towards them.

Tomari released a holler of her own when she saw the projectile clip the end of a wing, causing the receiving bird to falter a bit before flying higher.

"Ha! Take that you dumb crows!" she laughed in her small victory until she saw a few of her enemies landing, and pecking at the potato she had thrown. "Hey! Don't do that! Shoo, Shoo get out of here!" she waved off the birds from her recently picked crop, only to watch them fly over to the bag of starchy vegetables and help their fellow flock members steal an even bigger one. "S-stop! Hey get out of there!"

By the time she reached the bag, though, they had already flown off with their afternoon meal. The girl steamed as she realized she had been outwitted by a few crows.

Letting out a drawn out sigh, Tomari flopped down next to the potato sack. Grumbling, she picked up the spilled vegetables and went back to work.

Her movements were rhythmic, bend, pluck and place in bag. Bend pluck place bend pluck place bend pluck place. Her work took hours, and it wasn't uncommon for her to silently wish for some high tech machines to do all of it for her. But every time the thought crossed her mind, she would force it back. It was rude of her to desire anything more than what she had already gotten from her Uncle.

Tomari's Uncle Henry was her only living relative aside from her parents and had taken her in 7 or so years back. Ever since then, she had been living on his farm with him, helping him tend to the crops. They didn't keep many animals on the property, making it easier to focus on the corn, potatoes, grain etc. that they did have. The only animals they actually owned were a couple cats that resided inside the barn and a sheep dog, Bailey. Though they did not have sheep for the dog to heard, Tomari loved sending her to chase birds when they had the time. The black and white fluff ball had been given to her by her Uncle when she moved in, and was loyal to her ever since.