How I Died As A Cow

Sharpen Your Claws

PART TWO
CHAPTER 3
"Sharpen Your Claws"
Even before the death of my mother, nightmares continued to haunt me like a stormy cloud. The cloud looked twisted and darkly lit the sky with it's grim presence. Not a day came to that trickery of a cloud's disappearance until today.

This time I had a room of my own, no overbearing neighbors, no quest to save a dying world, no wisdom to put up with in a time of negativity. Often, I thought about the blind sheep following the tall dark man like a Shepard in a field. Kite was a sheep like no other, but he led a blind path if he thought surviving a force different from humans would be his upbringing. It'll only result in downfalls upon downfalls and eventually a death for a fight I thought didn't matter. Maybe it wasn't about me.

Little droplets formed a trial of drizzles down my room window, and the sky wore the darkest mask of a masquerade the world danced around. My feet and legs remained still as I stood in front of the wet window, so wet that some of water began to creep at the tired edges. When I had quietness, when all the noise just buzzed away to give my head time to be louder, my mother was my constant thought.

I felt it for a second. The spirit of the warrior hovering me, trolling me to chase after the determination. But once the feeling was completely felt, it slipped away like a brush of wind. In that moment, I felt like everything disappeared when you had no control over them. Slowly, my eyes welled up in fear I might lose myself. I had to wipe them away briefly, however.

Lowly, I moaned under my breath as I watched the door behind creak open. The mockingbird looked as a tiny parrot walking admist the tainted room. The bird flew up suddenly, flicking the switch above. Just like my face, the room lit up again.

"You resemble a depressed dog, cow." Funny. I've never met a dog in my years of living.

My head cowered when I went back to the window. The rain secretly kept me at bay.

"Is there something you want to say?" I asked annoyed.

"We no longer have to carry the burden of our group numbers. Animals from all over the globe are traveling to join our siege." When those words left the bird's mouth, I knew the game of war would change. Our voice was finally going to affect someone other than animal, other than being, something else.

The mockingbird pushed a small electronic I called a 'big screen' into my room. The mockingbird tilted his head, flipping the side of the electronic up. Exposed, a ray of lights equalivant to the sun on sunny days blind my eyes. In the background noise, roars of fans inside the electronic hushed my thoughts as the screen scratched my soul with surprise.

Along a list, names upon names simmer down like the rain dropping outside, and pictures of a diverse set of animals planned to join Liberty Species. The bird kept on scrolling the list down until I told him to halt. Something seemed odd. Different even.

A smiling black sheep covered one section of the list on the screen. I recognized him. It was Kite.

"You know him." The mockingbird saw right through my subtle expression.

"Just an animal I didn't expect to see."

The bird nodded his small head understandingly, proposing something that didn't sit quite well with me. That little flighty thing had to be testing me, my limitations. But maybe, maybe a little bit of that fear I latched onto came from uncertain intentions of Kite. That sheep clearly had a motive, though what?

"It's settled. The fellow is nearby. I say we invite him to catch him up with everything." The bird slapped the electronic side down.

"What a hasty decision coming from a plan we all coordinated so well." I opposed.

Pushing the big screen away, the mockingbird chirpped, "What I find most interesting about you cow is that you loved the way things looked before you recognized your sheep of a friend." Without serious care, I wasn't sure I passed or failed the obvious test the bird gave me.

But at least this cause was real. At least the silent tappings of the rain were. At least our voice was.

The next morning, a revelation had boomed past the air within minutes of me being awake. Suddenly, the wooded house became cramped of foreign faces of frantic animals, and supplies of food and water slowly deteriorated as I watched with my own eyes. The mockingbird hadn't been keen on when the army of animals would arrive, though I didn't expect them to reach here the very next morning.

Bulls gruffed at the loud hens, pigs rolled in boredom waiting in lines, pigeons chased each other in the air, ducks kissed lovingly. They all looked happy...and brave.

Then, I saw him.

The black stripped sheep.

He approached. "G'day, Lowell. Fancy seeing you here."

"You don't belong here. You never did." I spat spiteful.

"Neither do you. But I'm not the one saying whether you need to be here or not."

"Kite, this is not for you. I don't care why you've came. This is war. And war requires death."

"I'm aware." Kite shifted in his stance, peering about and dodging fellow animals that came his way undisturbingly. "Its why I joined Liberty Species. I can't let you die. Not when there's much to do."

I chuckled in a swarm of disblief and sighed in a pool annoyance. He thought he could protect me? From what? We all know the sheep are weak no matter how we put it.

"What do I still have to do?" I asked curiously.

"Save yourself, save the world."

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