The wind was blowing gently over the wide open plains of the Thunder Ranch in Colorado. A beautiful woman was standing on a nearby ridge, watching a small herd of American bison graze on the last dying blades of grass before the winter would kill it off. She closed her eyes in pleasure and the wind blew her long auburn hair away from her face. She opened her eyes and she watched as her favourite bison, Thunder, whom she had raised herself from a calf, lead the group towards the rock cleft in the mountain, to the right of the ridge for the night. The girl looked towards the setting sun, dying the blue sky orange, red, pink and gold. Her sister walked up behind her and came to catch the last bit of heat before it became unbearably cold for the night.
"Here Reese," she said, giving the first girl a jacket.
"Thanks Amber." Cerise said, putting on the jacket.
"So, have you thought about what you're going to do?" Amber asked her sister watching as the last of the bison made it into the cleft.
They moved quickly towards the warm rocks that seemed to retain the warmth of the day throughout the night. The rocks in this area seemed to have a lot of iron in them and it coloured them red and kept them warm in the evening. The local wolf pack often used to sleep above the cliffs to keep warm too.
"I don't have a choice, I have to sell it." She said unblinkingly, staring at the sun, like it was keeping her from crying.
She loved the land; this is where she had spent her childhood. Everything she and her sister knew was here, on these rolling plains and open skies.
"Why?" Amber turned to face Cerise. Cerise looked into her sister's blue eyes. "There must be another way?"
"There isn't Amber, it's either I sell the bison herd, or the property, and the bison mean more to me than this piece of land." She said, putting her hands in her pockets and kicking the dirt at her feet.
"So," Amber said, looking back at the dying sun. "Where will you take them?" she asked.
"I heard of a small reservation on the west coast, the Quileute Indian Reservation. They might want them." She said.
"Don't Indians eat bison?" Amber asked.
"Not anymore, besides this tribe are fishermen and," she stopped and looked at the ground, kicking it again.
The red dirt blew up and glowed like sparks in the sunlight.
"And what?" Amber asked.
"They also used to hunt whales." She looked at Amber.
Amber thought for a second and continued. Cerise looked at her, knowing what her sister was thinking, and looked back ahead of her.
"Cerise, you hate people who hunt whales, this isn't going to work." She said.
Cerise hated whalers and the counties who 'researched' whales by killing 1000 every year. She had once considered joining the Sea Shepard crew, but with a little bit of extra ammo. It wasn't fair that the whalers fought back with live grenades. Now she was perhaps forced to move to an area where these people lived. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. How would she manage?
"I have to find a way to make it work." Cerise said as the last sliver of sun sank behind the plains.
The nip began with a tiny little shiver on their arms and pretty soon their feet would get cold.
"Come on, let's go." Cerise added, turning around and walking back to her house, a lovely little white house nestled between two hills, retaining heat from the indoor heaters better than any other home in the district. Amber ran to catch up to her.
"What about Will?" Amber asked.
Cerise smiled, remembering the times she had had with him, but the fun faded into heart sore and she looked at her.
"It's over between us, but you can have him." She said knowing Amber had always had a thing for her ex fiancé even before him and Cerise were dating.
"But I thought he loved you? Aren't you going to fight for him?" Amber said, curious to hear her sister's state of mind.
It looked like Will and Cerise were going to settle down soon, then bam, it was over.
"Yeah, so did I. But no, I'm not. It's not worth the fight He's not worth the fight." she said as they walked up the stairs to their home.
The porch was covered with light green shade net to keep the mosquitoes out during the summer, when Cerise and Amber would often sleep out in the warm air.
"Aren't you sad, or angry?" Amber asked, stopping at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her sister as she stopped at the top of the stairs.
Cerise looked at her with a strange look in her eyes. Amber had seen it only once before, when Cerise woke up the morning they got the call about Thunder from a neighbour. The local wolves had killed her mother in childbirth and Thunder needed a herd to join, but first she had to be nursed and raised.
"No," she said, looking at the dying ambient light. "Great things are waiting for us, and we need to cut the dead wood to allow for new growth." She smiled at her sister and went into the warm house.
"Okay, Confucius." Amber said, following her in.
The family had decided to go back to Africa, and they left Cerise in charge of the ranch. She informed them about her decision and they agreed it would be best.