The Dark Arrives.

Creeping Up - Chapter one.

To survive, we have to light up the darkness. But Bree likes the darkness, so I just leave her be. To survive, we have to fight. Then again she likes fights. We have a constant threat growing on the horizon. The beasts come out at night, their minds set on one thing: destroy the light, and those who thrive on it. Hiding in the shadows, watching our every move. Those who grin, those who laugh softly, and those who are silent. We try to light the darkest places in the world, but sometimes, the dark wins.

Gael flails her arms like a windmill; screeching, "Hup! Hup! Come on now!" at the herd of cattle, who were overgrazing the pasture they had built a few years ago. The cattle eye her suspiciously, often mooing and huffing through their nostrils, breath visible in the frosty morning air. The grass was encrusted in silver dew, glimmering like a million stars. Trees and tall grass untouched by man or animal stool still in the pale golden morning light, seeming frozen to the place. Gael pulls her jacket around her tightly, then tugs on her woolen gloves and continues shouting, forcing the herd of cattle towards the deep end of the pasture. New calves had been born not too long ago; spindly and timid by humans and other cows. Their mothers kept their eyes closely watching them, wanting no harm to befall their precious brood. A few cattle snort and attempt to charge, then veer off in the opposite direction, making Gael exhale sharply in frustration.

  Trying to move cattle in the morning was like trying to tear an oak tree up from the roots. It wasn't easy; they would either obey or they would trample one another to death to get to a different location. 'Oh, come on!' Gael mentally screams in her mind. "Bree, I need a horse again!" she shouts over the moos and huffs of the cattle. No reply came back. "Bree?" Gael shouts again, feeling her cheeks flush with anger.

"What, for God's sake?" Bree pops up in the brush outside the pasture, her eyes narrowed in irritation and anger. "I fell asleep, an innocent child peacefully dreaming, until you started screaming like a little girl wanting a pony for her birthday."

"Sorry, your highness, I needed some help with these ass stubborn cattle." Gael replies sarcastically, smirking in satisfaction as she notices her friend getting flustered.

"Watch your tongue, honey." Bree sticks her tongue out and bounds away before calling over her shoulder, "Or I might just chop it off!"

Gael smiles slightly, though the comment disgusted her. Bree sometimes said the creepiest and perverted things, even though she barely tries. Gael gave up on the cattle and climbed over the fence, frankly too lazy to walk all the way to the gate. The fence was barely five feet high; high enough to keep the cows in, and hopefully high enough to keep the creatures of the night out. Gael lands hard on her feet and stumbles after Bree. "Wait!" she shrieks and runs after her. Bree just runs faster, singing loudly,

"Oh Gael, you hail me everyday..All the way down in Hell.." and with that, she whips around, bows deeply at the waist, and continues to run, still singing the same verse over and over again. 

"I do not!" Gael shouts and speeds up. Bree was shorter than her, yet at the time she seemed three times as fast."And I win!" Gael shouts and lunges forward, wrapping her arms around her friend and tackling her to the ground.

"Queens always win," Bree's muffled voice spoke through the dirt. "That means I win. Always"

"Aha, no," Gael whispers in her ear. "Gaels always win."

"What? There are more of you?" Bree wiggles out of her grasp. "That's even worse than when I found out what happens when you leave a pig outside during a lightning storm." she rolls her eyes and stretches her arms, sighing when her back pops along the spine. She then starts to rub the dirt off her face, though all she did was smudge it around. Gael raises one eyebrow.

"Was that your back or was it popcorn?" she inquired with an overdose of seriousness. Bree just shakes her head and stops stretching. "What was it?" Gael whispers, staring at her with both eyebrows raised almost to the top of her forehead.

"I will not tell you. I will leave you instead." Bree says brightly, smiles sweetly, and takes off running through the brush towards the house at the bottom of the hill. Gael's mind seems to wander as she runs, before she completely zones out. What she didn't notice as she was daydreaming, was the sun was going behind a couple hundred deep, rolling clouds in the dark sky. Soon, the horizon held a deep hue of crimson, before turning to violet, then to a deep azure.