How I Died As A Cow

Beautiful Territories

                       PART ONE
                      CHAPTER 3:
               "Beautiful Territories"

Today, I saw a chicken. In its last attempts to escape what we only knew, death and nothing but, he tried to attack me with his sharpest claws, some more conniving than a bear on his worse day. Though, he was weak like the rest of us trying to understand what was happening, he was probably too frightened to think clearly. It's probable he thought I was a human, therefore reached for me. But in his last bit of strength, in the final moments of weakness, down the chicken went, silent like the dead that slept and motionless like the dead laid.

His eyes was extinguished of any sign of life, only a peaceful look over compensating the pain felt before the end. I could walk, I could journey to my freedom faster than I reached the exit of a farm that took my only family. The humans took them all for their own gain. I didn't belong here. I didn't deserve the same fate as the souls that descended from this earth nights ago.

Limping, I steadied myself on the empty rural roads filled with the remnants of sand and dirt, an often occurrence as I traveled the unknown territories that dawned me in a new light of the world. Although the ugliness settled in quite nicely, the earth, it's plants and lovely animals that roamed about were all beautiful. A tear or two could drain my face, but my spirits stayed lifted for a moment, reminding me that I couldn't remain sad much longer. But I still needed a way out of the dark my mind seemed to be wrapped in.

A sign sparkled my vision with hope, for my eyes conceived it as a place where my heart could find a haven and my mind could possibly rest in harmony, though the figures on the sign looked very distinctive. I couldn't understand what the message was trying to convey. Then, a box on wheels strode near the sign, stopping shortly to the thick smoke flowing from below it.

Above, beams of light flashed the word, "metro" slowly as it blinked twice like an eye. Walking on fours, I made my way to the box on wheels cautiously, inspecting the structure of the thing. May my eyes behold the machinery, for this was something I've yet to witness till now. Machinery it was, advanced was another. The glass doors of the entrance swayed open for me as I rounded closer.

Dazed as my mind rattled in silence, my head darted at the master behind the box on wheels. There behold nothing but a human. I felt a stray walking upon the box on wheels, waiting for a trap to come onto me. Though as I took a place to sit, the machinery continued to roll on strong wheels, and the vibrations below upset my empty stomach. When I finally grasped the new environments, I realized my mistake. The spaces around was occupied by a human I didn't trust, and seats full of blinded sheep.

Among the sheep rested a black one, who viewed at the window beside me. His face neutral and young, his blackest eyes staring at the mountains of grass and fields. The sheep looked tired, almost as tired as my body felt, yet through twenty minutes of bits and pieces of silence, he appeared as awake as day.

"Unnatural the skies look today, for dark and cloudy blends weren't clear on the news. Something is wrong." I didn't respond to the sheep. Instead, I pretended to be like a ghost, invisible to the naked eye, erased from existence. Then, with a short laugh, he nodded his head my way. Only a glint of my eyes laid on him.

"Unnatural it may be for me, I still talk to strangers although they think I whisper to the air."

"You want to know what I think, sheep? I think you honestly have no idea what to say, so you just say it out of spite."

"Yet I feel no spite. Perhaps troubling times cloud your judgement?"

I said no more, for this putrid sheep was correct for once, and changed my mind. Maybe they weren't known to be lost after all. They're minds seemed to be more intact than mine felt. I closed what was left of my red, weary eyes, succumbing to the sleep that wanted me to rest. I've never slept inside a box on wheels, though it was peaceful. My dreams however, dictated something else. My dreams only reinforced what my fears were and what they meant to me.

A scent or two dissolved near my nose, immediately waking my body from its restful state. My nose followed the scent like a wolf on a hunt, tracking it to the black sheep next to me. He held a cup of tea, the strong smells emitting from the corners of the cup gave me a thirst. The sheep smiled with the brightest white teeth, nodding like he did earlier.

"It's okay, I assure you. The tea is supposed to wake you up."

"Where did that appear from?"

"Sometimes when the trip becomes longer than expected, the bus driver hands out snacks and whatnots. Personally, I enjoy it."

"How come I couldn't smell the scent of the tea from others? Surely if I did, I could've gotten some myself."

"I'm the only one with tea, that's the simple truth. Perhaps if I was like the rest of the sheep here, I wouldn't have gotten up. After all, they don't call me Kite for nothing. I fly freely." The sheep shrugged, handing the tea for me to take.

I stared at the window, watching as the box on wheels took us farther and farther away from the farms that held my family hostage, that grabbed everything then crushed. I still remember. But in the back of my head, it all felt like it happened in an instant. The downfall of the innocent animals led me here.

The tea I held tenderly warmed my hands like the sun radiating the last bit of grass we passed, for where we entered, wheat surrounded lands upon lands. Indeed, the view was beautiful.

That day, I finally understood a different kind of freedom.

Vote and a dog will protect his territory.