A HERO APPEARS
UNKNOWN FARM
"And the winners are Pearl and Grace"
O'Hara's mouth was open "this can't be happening! My bull is a champion! I won this contest three consecutive times! This can't be happening!" he was thinking as everyone was clapping and the judge gave her the golden ribbon who says "Animal Farm" written with golden letters on a blue background.
"We did it Grace! We did it" Pearl was hugging Grace and rubbing her head, Grace was happy too; she won for Pearl, it was a warm feeling on her heart who made her hug Pearl with a movement of her head.
The O'Hara farm came closer to Pear, pretending he was happy for her
"Well, it seems you won this time Pearl" he said at the same time he showed his hand to Pearl
"I knew we were going to win O'Hara, Grace is a special cow, I hope you're not upset" she shook her hand with O'Hara's hand
"I admit I lose this year Pearl, but the next year I will win" after those words he left the tent with his bull.
The rest of the day, Pearl & Grace were enjoying the day together, visiting the other tents and tasting the delicious food. Soon, it was getting dark, Pearl and her champion cow, Grace, were walking to the place where the truck was parking, the door was open and Grace entered with a distracted look; she was feeling proud "wow, two contest! I won two contests!" she was thinking as she climbed the ramp and the door close five seconds later "wow, I don't remember the truck was so big" she said to herself, so she leaned back to one side of the truck "And why it's warm?" she said to herself again.
With all the excitement Grace fell fast asleep as the truck was running and jumping, after a long trip the truck stopped, the door opened and a voice said
"C'mon Aldebaran, we're home"
The wall at Grace's side started to move, she was scared when she saw Aldebaran pushing her outside the truck.
She was with her eyes wide open, just like the farmer O'Hara when he saw Grace coming down the truck instead of Aldebaran. Then Aldebaran pushed Grace again making her fall, one of the O'Hara sons walked straight to his dad
"Hey, isn't that one of Pearl's cows?" the kid said.
"It seems it is, son" O'Hara said
"Should we call Pearl and tell her we have her cow?"
With an evil smile the farmer O'Hara said
"Nah, this sloppy ol' cow dared to take us away the award we deserved, but now we have our award, or should I say…. Aldebaran's award?" the O'Hara looked at Aldebaran, like if both knew what he was talking about.
The farmer O'Hara placed a rope around Grace's neck and dragged her to one of the barns, once inside the tied her to a pole and threw away the two ribbons Grace won in the country fair; finally, he leave her alone with Aldebaran.
When the farmer left Aldebaran showed his true personality.
"Ok, let me explain you how we do things here: you do whatever I say, you obey and never make questions" Grace was shocked: how can a bull change from being nice to being like… like… like that. Aldebaran continued
"Oh, and if you try to escape, just remember this…. Accidents happens"
The last sentence caused her chills, Aldebaran left the barn and walked to his own warm, cozy stall and slept like a rock. Grace spent the night tied to the pole without a chance to lie on the floor, so she slept on her four legs and thinking "Please Pearl, please you must realize I'm not in the truck, Please Pearl"
Grace woke up so tired, her legs were killing her, the pain was so huge; and she was starving. The O'Hara farmer entered on the barn and threw her hay, it was not enough to fill her stomach; in fact it was too little, Grace was still starving.
After eating the hay, the O'Hara farmer released her, and allowed her to go outside the old barn; Grace realized that farm was really strange: like if she was still sleeping. All the animals were sad for some reason. She looked around; there was the hen house, the pigpen and another barn; Grace had her doubts about how was the life there and thinking where could be Patch of Heaven… she slept all the way to that unknown farm, so Grace didn't knew to where should she have to run.
The farmer O'Hara walked to the hen's house to pick some eggs, from where Grace was standing she could see how the farmer was picking the hens and putting the eggs on a basket, then the farmer sighed when he picked up the last hen, it was an old one; covered with white feathers and red feathers on her head. The farmer placed the basket on the floor and grabbed the hen by her leg; he walked to the center of the farm where there was a chopped log and then…
He cut the hen's head in front of all the animals, Grace was terrified and shaking "how can he do that? It was a living thing and he just did that!" she thought, now she was feeling a cold wind running through her body.
The other hens were just watching but when the farmer took the axe, ready to cut the hen's head they looked away and their feathers trembled when they heard the sound of the axe against the log, one hen passed next to Grace and said
"The third hen this week"
Grace looked at the hen "what's going on? Why did he…" She couldn't speak, it was horrible the thing she just saw.
"I guess you're new here, so I will explain you what happened, they treat us like things; only to get profits, this is the O'Hara farm; but we call it "Produce or Die farm" then the hen hide a tear
"That hen… her name was Rita, she was my best friend"
And then, like if the sky knew someone good was gone, turned black and started to rain, Grace looked surprised when she saw no one was looking shelter when the rainfall intensity increased; it was a bizarre scene, they didn't care if they got sick or something…
Suddenly, a thought assaults Grace's mind: the "Produce or Die farm" and Aldebaran's words "…Accidents happens…"
Grace saw other cows, they were feeding their calves, except one, this calf was thin; it was pushing the other calves, trying to find food but the cows pushed him away and saying stuff like "Get away" and one calf dared to say "Get lost, fatherless calf" the lonely calf walked and stayed under a tree, shaking.
The calf, shaking and crying, huddled into a small ball; the calf looked up and saw a yellow, smiling cow. This cow huddled next to him with a sweet and kind smile looked at the calf's eyes and said
"Are you hungry?"
The little calf looked down and nodded, in response of that and after seeing what the other cows did, she smiled at the little calf again
"My udders are full with delicious milk" the little calf looked at the cow, and the cow finally said "It's all yours"
The cow rose, showing her udders to the little calf who started to drink the milk from that cow who was offering friendly her milk.
The rain was still falling, the cow and the calf were standing under the tree; finally when the calf's tummy was full, the cow said
"Do you have a name?"
The calf lapped the milk it had on his face and said.
"Louis"
Grace hugged Louis, and sitting next to him, she smiled; Louis smiled too; for one second she had forgotten everything about trying to escape, Louis was all alone; without anyone at his side. Somehow, Louis became Grace's first priority. Without noticing someone was watching that scene, two dogs came closer to Aldebaran who was looking at Grace from his stall and one of the dogs said.
"What do you think about the new cow?"
Aldebaran smiled, like he did when he saw Grace by first time on the farm.
"I think we are going to have fun" then he started to laugh.
Well, this is how the second chapter, I hope you enjoyed it; that Aldebaran looks like a creepy creature isn't? If you want to know what happens next, wait to read the next chapter entitled "Iron Hoof" where things are only getting worse for Grace & the little calf, Louis.
