A/N: Started out as an experimental side project in an attempt to see if I could make my readers hate me a little. Completed. Will post as I clean it up, I guess.

Disclaimer: Frozen characters are (c) disney corp

Day was breaking. With the first scorching rays of sunlight, Olaf finally knew he could take a breath. Slumping back into his rocker, the white-knuckle grip he held on his rifle began to relax, and he slowly lowered the gun into his lap, eyes slipping closed. It had been a terrible night. The noise had ended some time ago, but until he could see the world without the aid of a flashlight, he couldn't bring himself to budge. He took another deep breath as he recounted the events that had shaken him to his very core.

The rancher had been awoken at four in the damned morning to the most horrid screeches he had ever heard coming from his cattle out in the field. "Like banshees," he thought with a shudder. The man had been put into such a state of fright that he'd jumped out of bed and stormed onto the front porch in his underwear. He had hoped to see the cause of the commotion under the light of the moon, but all he could make out in the distance were his cattle going absolutely, stark-raving mad. Bucking, squealing, kicking, spinning; utterly frenzied.

Then he'd heard it. The howl. Not the natural call of the coyotes that inhabited the areas. It was deeper, colder. "Unnatural." The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he spun on his heel, racing inside and staggering on unsteady feet to grab his firearm. As he gulped for air, he ran a shaky hand through his scruffy, dark chocolate hair, and tried to decide what to do next.

"Call Anna," he mumbled to himself, then repeated the statement a few times as he rushed for his cellphone. He swept through his contacts at record speed, and dialed his best friend. While it rang, he checked to make sure the rifle was loaded, and flipped the safety off.

"Hnn.. h'lo?"

"Anna! Finally!" he tried to keep his voice quiet, watching the front door of his home with trepidation rolling off of him in waves, "You've got to get over here, right now."

That had apparently gotten his friends attention, "Whoa, whoa. Slow down. What's up?"

Olaf could hear the sound of rustling cloth, and the faint click of Anna turning on the lamp on her nightstand, "There's something out there. With the cattle." The young woman on the other end heard her closest pal gasp. There was a beat of silence before he whispered, "Listen."

Anna strained to hear what he was hearing. After another second of quiet, there was a baying, an animal cry that instantly sent goosebumps pebbling over her arms and legs. The sound had actually caused her to jump and pull the phone back slightly from her ear, eyes of aqua bugging. She waited until she heard Olaf again to hold the phone back up.

"Did you hear it? Please, please, Anna, don't leave me alone here," he sounded on the verge of tears.

"Okay, Olaf, just let me get my stock put away in the barn, and I'll be there. Have a cup of coffee and wait on the deck. You got your-" Much as she wanted to fly out to Olaf's, she couldn't risk whatever was causing such a ruckus at his place, taking her livestock as well.

"Yes, now please, just hurry."

With a sigh, the redhead rubbed tiredly at her eyes, "Yeah. An hour tops. Just sit tight." She hung up before her buddy could beg further.

So Olaf had sat. Tightly. In the chair on his porch, for the last hour, casting his hollow stare out over his field.

When he didn't respond to Anna pulling her noisy truck into his drive, she wrote it off as him being spooked. However, when she parked, got out, and approached him with still no greeting forthcoming, she turned and looked to where he was staring.

The survivors of the attack were much closer to the fence nearest to the house now.

The survivors.

Out in the distance, she saw the maimed and mangled corpses of several of Olaf's cattle. The fine hairs along her arms and neck bristled. Something about this whole thing was just wrong. She could feel it.