Yellow

"This is boring," sighed Marie Patel as she and Andie reached the edge of the malfunctioning fence and turned around to go back the other direction. They'd been patrolling this side of the fence for a week and absolutely nothing had happened. The cows wouldn't even wander this far because of the temporary fence that Marie's father had installed a few days earlier. The main concern was yeks, a large, cat-like creature native to Mindoir. They wouldn't be put off by a temporary fence that wasn't electrified.

"It won't be much longer," Andie said reasonably. "You said your dad is going to replace the fence soon, right?"

Marie shrugged, looking uncomfortable.

"I think so?" She hesitated, shaking her head. "I don't know, Andie. We aren't rich, you know. We lost a lot of the herd to that nasty disease last year, plus half of the calves to predators." She threw a half-pleading look at Andie. "Don't tell your folks. I wasn't supposed to know that things were so bad, but I accidentally saw Dad's datapad." She toed the dirt with her scuffed up boots. "If we don't have a good year soon, we might have to move."

Andie didn't reply. Marie was one of the few close friends she had. The Patels were the nearest neighbors to the Shepard farm. Everyone else was closer to town. Sure, there were some friends at school, and she was getting really close with the girls of the school soccer team, but she and Marie had been friends ever since she could remember. Marie was two years older, but she'd never really thought about that until now.

If Marie left, that meant Colby would be leaving too. Andie looked down. Of course, he was going to be gone soon anyway, going to college… he'd have to go off-planet for that, but there was a community college in Toscani… Andie shook herself from her reverie.

Don't be stupid. Colby doesn't even know you exist.

"What about school?" she asked, lifting her head, hoping her thoughts about her friend's brother hadn't made her silent too long.

Marie shrugged. "I'll have to transfer. Lots of people do it…" She swallowed, turning her face away. "Let's talk about something else."

But they didn't get a chance to talk about something else, for at that moment, a high yiiiip followed by several answering calls sounded through the still summer air.

Marie froze, hands gripping her gun in white knuckles. "Yeks!" She whispered, eyes wide.

Andie's arms turned to rubber, and she nearly dropped her shotgun.

"Don't fight the fear. You'll only waste time and your enemy will take advantage of that."

"'Enemy'? Dad, they're wild cats, not vorcha."

"Same principle holds."

Recalling her father's words, Andie took a deep breath, lifting her shotgun to her shoulder with trembling hands. The yeks appeared at the crest of the hill, staring down at them with orange eyes. They were close enough that Andie could see the tufts of yellow fur on the ends of their ears twitching back and forth. She looked over at Marie, but her friend was still frozen to the spot, her gun seemingly forgotten.

Without barely a thought, Andie cocked the gun and fired off a blast into the air. The yeks scattered, hissing in surprise, and soon she and Marie were alone on the field again.

Andie breathed in deeply, the leaving adrenaline making her feel shaky again. She carefully put the gun on the ground, safety back on, and rubbed her face with her hands.

"Are you okay?" Marie's worried voice made her look up.

Andie laughed. "Are you kidding? That was probably the coolest thing I've ever done! I just pulled the trigger and—" She mimed cocking the gun and firing it, "BOOM. Did you see them run?"

Marie stared at her. "Weren't you scared? I was freaking out over here!"

"Well, yeah, I was at first, but it was like… I don't know, the first time in a shuttle or riding a horse. It's scary but exciting you know?"

Marie shook her head. "I was just plain scared." She rubbed her hands down her jeans. "Glad you kept your head, though. I was pretty much useless."

Andie shrugged but inwardly, she was beaming and the warm feeling stayed with her the rest of their patrol time. Was it wrong to wish for the yeks to return?