As a white van raced across the driveway, the farmer opened the gate to the meadows. All animals stayed where they were, confused. Kuku mooed in surprise: she’d never been allowed outside before.

“Go on! Move it, move it.”

The farmer wore a blue overall, shiny and clean. His black boots shimmered as well.

Kuku recognized the sounds in his speech, but didn’t know what they meant. Ever since incident with the Babblebrothers at the end of the Second Conflict, most animal species were unable to talk to each other anymore. Except for Hess: their watchdog understood everyone.

The farm animals still watched the farmer in confusion.

He repeated the same noises, including something about “stupid creatures” and “glassy eyes”, but it was in vain. His large hands hit a few cows in their behind and a few sheep in their face, until they guessed they were supposed to walk into the meadow.

The white van stopped. Its side showed an illustration of a human, loosely drawn and surrounded by unnaturally happy animals. She held a clipboard, which held a paper littered with green checkmarks. A woman that looked exactly like the drawing stepped outside the van.

Only her paper had no green checkmarks yet—it was empty. She came to inspect the farm.

Her high heels clacked as they traveled the long and noisy gravel road. Her right hand wore a fire-red ring that was comically large and her face was stuck under layers of make-up.

Farmer Harry turned around and ran for the shed. He threw a few bales of hay to cover the gaping holes in the wall.

Kuku walked through the meadow as if she feared stepping into dog poop all the time. Her fur was mostly white, almost pink, with only a handful of black spots. Sometimes her own spots startled her.

Was this what they called … grass? It felt weird beneath her paws. Very weird. She leaned forward and sniffed close to the ground. Yes! Fresh grass! She mooed and bit into it.

Overcome with joy, she smiled at her mother. But she looked serious, angry even.

“Harry always does this. Don’t get used to it.”

The previous inspection had happened before Kuku was even born. A week ago, when the cows learned a new inspection would come, they went wild. Well, Kuku had imagined a bit more than one woman who awkwardly tried to conquer the uneven farming ground.

She’d almost reached Harry. He hastily cleaned the barn and tried to make the piles of poo disappear. This mostly meant throwing it into a different, darker corner. Multiple bottles of air freshener piled out of his deep pockets, and he emptied them all.

The front entrance of the barn had collapsed years ago, when wood lice and rats had nibbled on the two pillars. This had killed two sheep and locked the largest cows permanently inside since then.

Harry had hammered their roof all week to build a new one. The result wasn’t as great as the one by the legendary Bearchitects, of course not. But an inspector would not notice the difference, unless she climbed on top of the barn. That Kuku would like to see.

The collapse, dear reader, wasn’t the only odd occurrence at this farm. The chimney had rolled off the roof without cause. Once, around midnight, half their fences had suddenly fallen down. All the animals were punished; everyone claimed they hadn’t done it.

Regularly, someone erased large patches of their fields of grain. As if they played a game and tried to draw lines you could only recognize from above. All animals were punished; everyone claimed they hadn’t done it. Kuku had never even been allowed to roam freely long enough to discover the fields of grain near the entrance.

“Elize!” yelled Harry across the farming grounds. “Eliiiizeeee!”

His daughter, a young girl with red curly hair, ran towards him.

“I’ll keep that weird woman occupied, child. You must ensure the water trough is filled and that the other barn remains locked at all costs.”

“Locked? But then the animals won’t be able to—”

“Do it!”

Harry kicked the next group of “slow cows” onto the meadow. Elize made a pained noise.

“Don’t bleat like that, child. This is how you treat silly creatures who will not listen!”

Elize nodded and kicked a small sheep who’d lost its way.

“Yes, yes, of course. I know that, dad.”

“Oh, and bring medicine to that sick piglet.”

“Medicine? Where do we keep—”

“I don’t know! Fill a glass of water, write the word medicine on it. Must I pre-chew everything for you!?”

Elize frowned, then hopped to the water trough. She tried to wear the same clothes as her dad. Kuku heard her call herself Farmer Elize whenever friends came over to play. The big difference, though, was that her clothes and boots were already stained with dirt within five seconds, every single day.

Harry plastered a smile on his face and casually approached the inspector.

“Welcome, welcome, at Nightingale Farm!”

He shook her hand with a passion. She wiped off her fingers with a cloth.

“I am Beatrix and I have little time. I’d like to start with your barn.”

“Of course, of course, look around.” Harry’s hands fell on his impressive belly as he laughed. “We have nothing to hide!”

Beatrix was taller than Harry, but thin as a twig.

Kuku grinned. “She looks like a blade of grass compared to fat Harry—”

“Silence! Keep your snout!” mother said.

“He’ll never get those green checkmarks. The barn stinks like … like … Hess’ dog poop.”

Her mother fluttered her ears and mooed softly.

Harry and Beatrix walked into the barn.

They stayed inside for several minutes.

Then they left again, chatting pleasantly.

“Yes, yes, I find fresh air of the utmost importance for animals!” said Harry. “And as much time outside as possible. Look!”

Together they entered the meadows. The woman took only a few steps, because further on the glass grew to a gigantic size. High enough to tickle Kuku’s belly, which only made her more happy and giggly.

This made Beatrix frown. “Tell me again: how often do you let the animals roam freely here?”

“At least 200 days a year.”

“That means nothing. How many hours a day?”

“As long as possible. I’d say 8 hours on average.”

“Then why does the grass look like nobody has ever touched it?”

“See,” Kuku whispered. “She looks in a bad moohd. He’ll fail and then …”

And then? The farm would close? Where would she live then? The barn stank. And she was small. And she was locked up. And the food was terrible.

But if the farm had to close … what would happen to all its animals?

Harry placed a hand on Beatrix’ shoulder; she pushed it away and wiped off her shoulder with the cloth.

“I use an exceptionally effective fertilizer.”

“That’s not allowed. Too much fertilizer will drain the soil until it’s exhausted.”

He forgot to blink. “I meant, of course, that I have amazing pesticides. They keep away insects, so they don’t eat the grass, you see?”

The inspector raised her eyebrow. “Also forbidden as of recently. It’s poisonous and unnatural.”

Harry’s knuckles went white from his nervous grip on the clipboard.

“Sorry, of course, we stopped doing that recently and now we use a secret technique. Once the inspection is done, you may come inside. My balcony has a veggie patch with grass that grows just as tall!”

“Hmm.”

It was true. Across the entire farm, which was a considerable area, all nature grew as if it had entered a race to reach the sun first.

Beatrix decided to put down half a checkmark in several places.

“And how many animals do you keep?”

Harry pretend to count. His large fingers pointed at the animals one by one, as he called them by name. Names which he invented on the spot.

“Forty seven.”

“That’s barely below the limit of fifty for your plot, but acceptable. Then I’d just like to see that other barn—”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s been empty for years, locked up and unused.”

Kuku had joined Harry’s counting, but continued for a little longer. He had nearly a hundred animals. More importantly, her father stood in that other barn. Would he be able to breathe? With everything locked and the holes closed?

She nervously paced through the tall grass, hungrily nipping at everything within reach.

Elize entered the field too. Beatrix watched as the tiny girl carried a large bucket of water, which spilled some of it onto her clothes with every step. A bag was slung around her shoulder and showed the word medicine bag written in childish handwriting.

Beatrix suddenly placed her hands on Elize’s red hair.

“Different plan. I’d like to speak to your daughter. Alone.”

“Elize? Oh, yes, she helps sometimes.” Beatrix had a sour face. Harry shrugged casually. “Ask whatever you want. I’ll make some coffee.”

Beatrix went down on her knees to match Elize’s height.

Kuku walked past the fence, to a different part of the farm. Her heart hammered in her chest and she feared an attack or kick in the behind every second. But Beatrix just looked at the cow for a split second … and did nothing.

Of course! Animals were supposed to walk around freely. She was helping Harry now! Shouldn’t she pretend to be hurt? Should she moo? She hated the fact that animals couldn’t talk with humans anymore.

She walked to the other barn that was locked.

“He takes real good care of our animals!” Elize said cheerfully. “An animal’s best friend. We live off of our own farm and nothing else. Of the eggs, the milk, the meat. Delicious!”

“That … is great. Does he also take real good care of you? How often must you work?”

“Oh, no, I must do nothing. I like helping. They call me Farmer Elize!”

“Ah. And how many animals does this farm have, Elize? Do you know?”

She thought for a moment. Her index finger tapped her chin as the wind played with her curls. “I think fifty or something.”

Elize’s words sounded familiar. Harry had taught these exact noises and intonation to his daughter the past week.

“Hmm. And your father’s secret, mysterious veggie patch? Do you help with that too?”

“Veggie pa—” Elize asked. “Oh that.”

“You sound surprised.”

“Harry calls it that. He is, erm, proud. I think it’s nothing special and have accidentally destroyed it a few times. A veggie slash! A veggie crash—”

Elize’s cheer was contagious. Beatrix smiled too and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. Kuku wasn’t sure if inspectors were supposed to do that, but it was a kind gesture anyway.

“Come, child, let us take a quick look at the final barn, and then I’ll let you play farmer again.”

Kuku stood at that barn now. From the outside, it indeed looked as if it was used for the last time in the previous century.

“Dad?” she yelled at the wall. “Dad? Everything okay?”

To the inspector’s ears this sounded like regular meaningless mooing, of course.

But her father mooed back from inside the barn. A crying, deafening moo that gave everyone goosebumps.

Beatrix’ eyes shot open. She must have been much stronger than she looked, for she grabbed a piece of metal and forced the lock to break.

Harry ran from the house with a list of excuses. By the time he grabbed her shoulder, though, the lock had already broken and the doors flew wide open.

A merciless odor overwhelmed her. As well as a troop of scared animals who were eager to see daylight. The sick piglet staggered a few times, then fell on its side. A sheep had only been shorn on one half, which looked red from all the little wounds.

Beatrix fell and was trampled by sheep. She rescued herself just in time, though her perfect hairdo looked like an explosion of dry straw.

“The inspection has concluded that Nightingale Farm is in critical condition! I’ll demand it be closed!”

Harry looked at Kuku as if he could kill her.

Elize clung onto Beatrix’ skirt and hung from it with her full body weight. “Don’t close! Don’t close! Please?”

Her mouth became a line, as her long red nails tapped the clipboard. “You lied to me. You’ve been tested on twenty criteria and passed not a single one of them! I have no choice.”

She turned around. Elize cried and didn’t let go.

Kuku shuffled backward, out of the area.

What had she done? The farm would close! But she wouldn’t even live to see it, if Harry took his revenge. Maybe she’d be locked up in isolation. Or beaten. Or … slaughtered.

She ran across the gravel path at full speed, away from everyone. All the cows followed. She wasn’t sure if they wanted to escape too or wanted to stop her from doing so.

Beatrix shook Elize off of her and opened the front door of her van.

“Child. Let go of me. You lied as well.”

“Papa forced me,” she whispered. When she realized her mistake, she cast her eyes down. “I mean, erm, he wants me to be positive and friendly—”

“You keep lying.”

Beatrix climbed into the driver’s chair. Harry stood next to her now.

“I think I deserve a second chance!” yelled Harry. He talked to Beatrix; his eyes followed Kuku’s attempt to flee.

“You deserve nothing,” mumbled Beatrix. She started the van. “But for Elize’s sake I will give you a second chance. Within two weeks, I want the farm to satisfy all criteria! Then you can keep it. Otherwise we take control.”

She turned around and raced off of the premises. Kuku saw her pass by from the other side of the fence. Mere meters away from the highway … and still she would never get there.

The meadows were surrounded on all sides by thick mesh. Too strong to break, too tall to jump over.

She felt her life extinguish like a candle in the night. Harry stormed at her, white from fury. His shiny boots landed in puddles of dirt and ruined his clothes, but he didn’t care.

Their watchdog, Hess, had finally awoken. He could talk to everyone and was the only one allowed to roam freely. He was also old and looked wary.

Even in that state, the gigantic dog always gave Kuku a heart attack. And made her run even faster.

“You can’t leave,” he said calmly. “I’ve tried.”

Well, thanks for nothing. Kuku ran past the fence anyway, as if she hoped to get lucky and find a hole in the mesh. Hess had gigantic claws too—couldn’t he make a gap?

“The fence is electri—”

Kuku bumped her head against the outer mesh. Her body shocked and buzzed, as her world went dark and soon after blades of grass entered her nostrils. She’d never felt this sick, until she felt nothing at all.

Kuku awoke in a tiny, dark room. A prison? A cage? She barely had room to moohve. She wasn’t tied up, or wounded, or … dead. Why—

“Where is that devilish cow!?” Harry shrieked. He sounded far away and outside.

Kuku found small circular holes and looked through them. Night had fallen. Harry and Elize ran around looking for her.

So … they hadn’t found her yet. What had Hess done?

Of course. She lay inside his dog house.

It wasn’t as small as she thought. Hess simply blocked the entire entrance and cast the rest of the room in shadow.

“Thank you,” whispered Kuku.

“I wouldn’t make too much noise, if I were you.”

Harry walked past. “Hess! You’re supposed to have a great sense of small, right? Help us find that cow!”

Hess didn’t respond. He lay on his belly, eyes closed, pretending to sleep.

“They’re devilish creatures, all of them,” Harry mumbled. “Elize! You search near the food storages again, I’ll investigate the barns.”

Midnight had passed. Elize walked around in her pajamas, on slippers, and yawned perpetually. “I just think Kuku is well-hidden, dad.”

Harry threw a pitchfork in the dirt, not far from her slippers. “These creatures are too stupid to hide themselves well. Search, child!”

Elize could not stop yawning. “What … what do I do when I find her?”

“Catch her.”

“And then?”

“I’ll make an example out of her in front of the other animals. To make them cooperate in two weeks time.”

“So … so we’re going to renovate the farm? And make Beatrix very happy in two weeks?”

“We have no money for that.”

Harry visited the barn. Elize waved at Hess, patted his head, and talked to him. Did those humans really not realize that waving and talking didn’t mean anything to animals?

At least Elize was kind. When Kuku had just been born, the girl had visited often to cuddle her. She’d even tried hiding Kuku in her bedroom once. A cow seemed a nice pet, until they grew a bit too big.

When the coast was clear, Hess suddenly stood.

“Come with me.”

Kuku followed him. He ignored the barn and went straight for the farmer’s home. He ignored that too and went to a tiny building near the backyard.

Kuku grew nervous. Her head spun like a clock to watch for any danger around her. What if Harry returned? Would Hess defend her? What was his deal?

She stepped inside the building and was bathed in light.

Five animals circled an old light bulb. They stood in a room overstuffed with furniture, all of it covered with soft layers of grass or straw. A horse, a sheep, a cow, a chicken, and a pig. Every type of animal had sent someone. From the outside, this looked like a regular shed. From the inside, it looked like a room that belonged to Harry’s home. Until the animals stole it and destroyed most of it.

“What is this place?” Kuku mumbled.

“An invisible shed.”

“Mooh!? But I can see it?”

“Invisible to humans. Especially to someone like Harry, who has lost all connection with nature.”

Kuku didn’t understand how that worked. How can something just disappear when human eyes study it? She was glad it did, though, because it explained how this place was never found.

“We must get you out of this farm,” he said.

“I won’t go alone. My parents should come too.”

“We must get everyone out of this farm,” said the horse. “This is no place to live.”

Hess translated for everyone. Talk was difficult between species, but these had met many times before and were quite quick about it.

What was this? An animal council that convened every night? Why hadn’t she heard of it before?

“Madness!” said the pig. “If one cow can’t escape, how do we get a hundred animals away from here? And where would we live? In the forest, owned by wolves? In the city, with humans?”

“What is it with you and wolves?” the cow asked.

“The wolves were bad in the Second Conflict! They destroyed half of all the pigs on Somnia.”

“The pigs were bad in the Second Conflict!” said the horse. He turned to the chicken. “And the chickens were … were … well, really annoying, honestly, with their cackling and—”

“Our eggs were the only food for most soldiers around the world. And the cows? They literally did nothing during the Second Conflict! They just ate grass and—”

“Ssst!”

Hess pushed his large claw to the horse’s mouth and the chicken’s beak. “I hear something.”

Elize’s voice sounded clearly in the silent night. “As if she would hide near the food storages! Cows are stupid, but not that stupid. Then she might just as well hide inside our ho—”

She fell silent.

Kuku spied through the door, which was open a crack. Elize leaned on her back door, mere meters away from the shed. She yawned and looked over her shoulder, at Harry in the distance.

“If you hear me, Kuku,” she said towards the house, “go away. Hide. If you know what that means. I don’t want to find you.”

Elize opened the door, then froze. A rustle emerged from the darkness. She rapidly looked to the side; her mouth fell open.

Could she see the shed? She looked in their direction, but did nothing, as if the cold night air had truly frozen her.

A thick netting flew through the open door. Hess pushed everyone aside, but was caught himself.

Hess stayed calm. Or maybe he was too old for a fight. The ropes tightened around him as the other animals didn’t dare interfere.

Kuku didn’t doubt and bit through the ropes with full force. When someone pulled the net upwards, she moved along with it.

Someone stood on the roof and wanted to claim their prize. Kuku’s paws dangled high above the ground.

“Very kind,” said Hess, “but unnecessary.”

With a sudden burst of speed, his claws slashed through the ropes and turned it into twenty useless fragments. He fell to the ground.

As opposed to cats, dogs aren’t very capable of always landing on their feet. Hess awkwardly crashed onto his back and rolled outside. The other animals strained to prevent Kuku from doing the same; they narrowly kept her inside.

“Hess? Where did you suddenly come from?” Elize’s hand was still on the door handle.

Hess ran away and tried to see who stood on the roof. Him and Kuku only saw an unrecognizable shadow that fled the premises.

The watchdog bumped into Harry.

“Ah! Finally you came alive. Found Kuku? No, of course not, lazy dog. We keep you around because our family has kept you for many generations, for otherwise …”

He didn’t see the invisible shed at all. Was it also untouchable? Otherwise he would’ve accidentally bumped into it at some point, wouldn’t he? In his ignorance, he walked past and pushed Elize inside.

Kuku wanted to walk to Hess, but the animals held her close.

“You stay here until we have a solution.”

First she’d felt safe. She could stay inside this invisible shed forever, right?

But once the other animals left her and locked the door, it jut felt like anther barn. Another tiny cage, without sunlight, without fresh grass.

At least Harry would not be able to touch her udders here. She saw how much it hurt when he milked mother with his large, clunky fingers.

Elize wasn’t much better. She imitated her father and thought you had to use all your force. And if an animal didn’t cooperate, she also yelled that it was a stupid animal.

No, she had to leave. They all had to leave. She didn’t believe for a second that Harry would really clean up his act and save the farm.

When the door opened again, Kuku didn’t know how much time had passed. The red light and the tall shadows betrayed that it was sunset.

“Harry is loading the truck,” Hess said hurriedly. “Come, come outside for a bit.”

Kuku hesitantly stepped outside, but stayed inside Hess’ large shadow.

Two trucks stood on the gravel path. Chest after chest of eggs and milk were loaded into them. It was unfathomable. One such chest could contain thousands of eggs. All the cows would be milked for months to fill one such trick.

And still they came back, almost every week, like a hungry monster whose stomach is a bottomless pit.

“Pardon?” screamed Harry. “The price agreed upon was one Soliduri per liter milk.”

“Fine, the Graviers Farm next door sells them for only ninety cents,” said a man in a suit. He leaned against the truck’s ribbed side. “We’ll go there instead.”

“This is madness! My earnings are down to almost zero. People should pay for quality.”

“If we make milk more expensive, nobody will buy it anymore. Then you’ll earn exactly zero.”

Harry crumpled the contract they’d offered him. Then he folded it open anyway and pushed it flat against the truck with the palm of his hand.

He signed the contract. “Thieves. All of you.”

The man in suit shrugged. “Your choice to run a farm.”

“You think? You really think that? You’re not only thieves, you’re braindead too!”

Harry stopped helping them load the truck. He greeted Elize, who cycled over the gravel on her way back from school.

Hess quickly pushed Kuku in a different direction. A different patch of grass behind the house. Here too, the grass was incredibly tall and could easily hide many animals.

“What does harry mean?” Kuku asked. With a mouth full of grass, she tried to imitate the noises she heard. “That you have been their dog for generations?”

He smiled. “I had the pleasure to experience the very first owner. A chimpanzee that established this farm, called Chef. Back then it was called Sulliwe’s Pride. Back then the world still had magic. Back then most Heavenly Objects were still on Somnia, in the hands of good beings.”

He shook his fur and watched as Harry squashed five eggs in frustration. Eventually, Elize had to take over the task.

“I was there when a sickness broke out that I’d never seen before,” Hess mumbled, his eyes trained on the tracks. “When someone left open all the doors and electricity vanished for a week without reason.”

Harry yelled at some cows and shut the barndoor with force. Elize apologized to the truck driver with some quick excuse.

“And all that time, the farm was passed on to the eldest son or daughter.”

Kuku looked around her. The electrical fence extended all the way to this spot. Harry seemed to put more moohney into making his farm a prison than caring for the animals. How could they ever escape?

“Harry didn’t want this,” said Kuku absently. “But he was required to take over the farm.”

“I can’t justify how he treats the animals,” said Hess bitterly. “I also don’t see how he could do anything else. He earns less every month and has to run this huge farm on his own.”

He leaned forward. “Elize works too much, it’s illegal. That’s child labor—and I was there when it was abolished! She misses more and more days of school. But if she stops helping too …”

Kuku’s four stomachs were full for now. She wanted to return to the safety of the shed; she wanted to roam freely through these meadows forever.

Darkness had fallen. Some lights on the walls flickered on, just enough to create white splotches. Harry had never paid for better lighting.

“I don’t like it that someone tried to capture me,” said Hess. His voice wavered for the first time. “It wasn’t Elize or Harry. Someone who could see the shed, even use it.”

“Mooh? How did you discover the shed?”

Hess smiled. “There is one Heavenmatter that I’ve been able to keep in this family all this time.”

He walked away. “I must stand guard. They don’t call me a watchdog for nothing! You must hide somewhere else, the shed isn’t safe anymore. Visit the horses.”

She dove into the grass and relied on its cover. The horses were all the way on the opposite side of the gravel road. They had no stables: they were either working or sleeping in the open air.

This meant she had to walk right past the house. No doubts. Don’t dilly-dally. Run!

She ran past the kitchen wall at full speed. She was short enough to stay well below the kitchen window. Still the lamp activated immediately.

Two seconds later, she scraped past the outer wall of the living room. There too, the lamp sprang to life and the window opened.

“There you are!” screamed Harry.

He kicked the doors open wide and stepped outside with a hunting rifle.

Kuku heard a shot. Her body rattled and she stumbled over her own front paws. Was she hit? She looked to the side. She couldn’t see if the black splotches were here own or bloody wounds.

She kept running. That meant she wasn’t dying, right?

A bedroom window opened at the upper floor of the home. Elize’s curls fell out of it, long before her face appeared.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing,” said Harry with clenched teeth. “Go to bed.”

But when she noticed Kuku, chased by father, she was wide awake.

Kuku looked up. She tried begging with her eyes. Elize was her only hope. She would never shoot an animal, she would care for her.

Right?

She had to moohve towards Elize.

The bedroom window closed, curtains drawn.

Kuku ran for the horses, then suddenly took a turn. An open window. Wasn’t that the bathroom? Wasn’t that were Elize had tried to keep her as a pet for a few days?

She jumped for it. Her behind was stuck, but she forced her way through and landed inside a slippery bath.

She turned upside-down and found no grip. It made her moo briefly. Hopefully nobody had heart. As if trying to ice skate on her back, she wiggled across the tiles and arrived at the door.

Just as she kicked it, the handle rotated.

Elize entered, crying. “Dad shot her! Dad sho—”

Kuku could finally scramble to her paws, thanks to the non-slippery wall.

Elize yelled. She pressed her lips closed and hugged the shivering lamb in front of her.

A sigh of relief. Kuku enjoyed the warm embrace, which included dozens of kisses between her floppy ears.

“Protect me. Tell father to let me go.”

It probably sounded like meaningless mooing to Elize’s ears.

“Please, E—li—ze.”

Kuku tried to imitate the noises of her name. She thought it a worthless imitation, but Elize breathed in sharply and looked stunned.

“You said—did you say—no you said—”

Footsteps echoed from the bowels of the building.

“Quick, quick, quick.”

She ran back to her own bedroom. Kuku followed, but had no place to hide. She didn’t fit below the bed. And surely Harry would immediately look inside the cupboard? Jumping out of the window, at this height, was a terrible idea.

Elize looked around, helpless. “Oh, I can’t put you anywhere. Sorry! I … I don’t know …”

“Not hide,” said Kuku. “Moohst convince father.”

Of course she didn’t understand.

Harry climbed the stairs and pushed open the bedroom doors. He still held his rifle.

“And now those monsters will listen!”

Elize lay in bed.

Kuku was nowhere to be found.

“Dad!?” Elize’s voice cracked. “Why do you point your gun at—”

Harry immediately dropped the gun, his cheeks flushed red.

“Child. I thought the animal was here. I thought it had attacked you.”

“No, no, I scared it. I, erm, kicked and pushed it until she went away.”

“You should have caught her,” said Harry with a sigh. He sat down at the edge of the bed and caressed her red curls.

Kuku was dying from the heat and cramped space below the sheets, caught between Elize’s legs.

“And … and then? She did nothing wrong. She can give us milk for years!”

“Animals never learn. Stupid creatures.” Harry turned around. “When the inspection returns, Kuku would betray us again. That can’t happen.”

Elize wanted to say something else. She bit her tongue and let her head, yawning dramatically, fall back on the pillow.

“Goodnight, dad.”

Kuku was done with it. Now she was caught in another cage: Elize’s tiny bedroom. Fortunately, Harry was too busy running the farm and rarely entered that room. Still Kuku hid below the sheets for most of the day, just to be sure.

It was terrible. Elize also didn’t visit often, afraid that would give her away. The girl was incredibly nervous, which Harry noticed. She claimed it was because of the “upcoming inspection”; Harry’s frown betrayed his disbelief.

Until Hess visited a few days later. Of course he was allowed to walk around the house freely.

“Harry and Elize are gone for the night. Some parent meeting at school. They question why Elize is called in sick half the time. Ha, I remember a time before school existed …”

He’d brought the animal council with him. They stood in the center of the living room, unsure where to lie down. It was a room with an impressive number of fridges and refrigerators.

The pig opened the largest refrigerator with his snout, looking for food. The chicken immediately took out a few eggs and started brooding on them.

“We thought you were dead!” said the cow. “Your parents were sad, and uncertain, and what have you been doing all this time!?”

“Elize hides me.”

This surprised the animals, once Hess had translated her words.

“She wants to earn your trust,” the pig said sharply. He’d found a few apples to put into his mouth. “To make you comply at the next inspection. That’s it.”

“I … I don’t think so?”

Kuku looked at Hess. He looked tired and old, more now than ever. “Has anyone tried to capture you again?”

He shook his head, spreading long hairs on the carpet. “But my paw was caught in a bear trap. A bear trap. In a place without bears.”

His left front paw held a deep wound. He spared it while walking.

Hess pulled the sheep off of the soft sofa and cleared his throat.

“We have an escape plan, but we lack one final part.”

“In a week, the trucks will return,” said the cow. “They moohst open the gate to let them in. If we can keep those gates open, and someone distracts Harry, we might escape with a large group.”

“I am strong enough to keep it open,” said Hess. “But how do we distract Harry? How do we prevent him from spotting a herd of animals leaving?”

Kuku stepped up to him. “We ask Elize.”

The animals grunted and groaned. The pig spoke. “Yes, sure, great, let’s ask a human to help us escape the claws of humans.”

“Elize is good.”

“Elize is a human! Who eats a tasty piece of chicken meat every night! And who wants a fresh glass of milk with her breakfast, or she’ll go into a crying fit!”

The cow took over. “Once you’re old enough, Kuku, she’ll press into your udders until you moo from the pain! While you just want to sleep!”

“Otherwise you’ll end up in the fridge too! Wrapped in plastic!” cackled the brooding chicken.

The debate seemed endless. Nobody wanted to trust Elize, but she was clearly the best person to distract Harry. She could at least talk to him.

Eventually, Hess made the call to execute the plan.

Friday afternoon. All animals were to be ready and prepared. Elize would unlock the barn. Then she’d run to Harry and yell that she’d seen Kuku, all the way at the other side of the terrain. And all that time, Hess would keep the gates from closing with brute force.

He seemed certain it would succeed. The others less so.

A car raced over the gravel. The animals cleaned up their trash and left the living room through the back exit. Only if Harry had kept a precise count would he discover some missing eggs and apples.

His angry voice was audible everywhere. “Then you’ll go to a different school! That complains less!”

“But … but I don’t want to go to a different school. My friends—”

“Then you’ll work the farm until midnight!”

Kuku heard them disagree for hours. When Elize finally came upstairs, she hugged Kuku as if she were her favorite teddy bear.

Her tears soaked the cow’s fur. “The only thing I love, all I ever loved since I was a baby, was being a farmer. Farmer Elize!”

She said it happily, like a presenter introducing the famous Farmer Elize, but it sounded like sad sniffling. “And now he makes me hate it. Because … because it’s work.”

The hug intensified. “He’ll take everything away from me. I won’t let him take you away!”

Kuku didn’t understand a word of it, but she felt Elize’s love and fell asleep enveloped by it.

Kuku tried to draw the escape plan. It had taken days before she came up with that solution, and Harry was gone for a bit, which meant it was already Friday tomorrow.

For her first attempt, she dirtied her front paws and tried to paint on the bedroom floor. That was a mess. One of which Elize disapproved.

She kept repeating how wonderful it was that Kuku could think and tried to talk to her. She compared it, repeatedly, to a broccoli who suddenly had brains.

A while later, Elize shoved a pile of white rectangles in front of Kuku. She called it paper. She also pushed a pencil into her mouth.

Cows never communicated with symbols or drawings, dear reader. Not since the Babblebrothers. It’s now just a human invention, and a late one at that. Fortunately, Kuku had lived on this farm her whole live had had regularly studied the symbols on the walls and fences.

She drew and drew. Halfway through, Elize had to put the pencil into some sort of machine to sharpen it again. Then she continued.

Personally, she felt she’d drawn the plan pretty clearly on the paper.

“You want we me to … step inside a box?”

Elize scraped her chin. “And fly on the back of a chicken? And then throw two soccer balls at a fat—oh, that’s my dad. And the other one … are either blades of grass, or you’re trying to draw that woman Beatrix?”

She looked questioningly. Kuku sighed and adapted the drawing.

“Sorry, I don’t recognize that animal.”

Kuku wanted to ask if there was something wrong with Elize’s eyes. She refrained from mooing. Harry still walked around here somewhere looking for that “devilish cow”.

Her third attempt was much better.

“Oh! That is the gate. And that is a truck. And you … you …”

She patted Kuku on her head. “You are going to escape. Of course.”

Kuku recognized the noises of gate, truck and escape. She nodded.

Elize smiled. “You can understand me—or, well, a little bit. A little itty-bitty bit. You can understand me! Sorry I called you a stupid animal. Sorry, sorry.”

Kuku had no clue about all of that, but she smiled back.

Footsteps on the stairs. Had Kuku been drawing that long? She hastily jumped below the bedsheet.

Elize grabbed the papers and crumpled them. No, she wanted to save them! She shoved the pile inside one of her schoolbooks, then threw her bag in front of the bump created by Kuku.

The bedroom door opened.

“Elize, child, I worry about you.”

Harry walked to the edge of the bed. Elize lay down in an awkward position to block the space, her legs angled as if they were broken.

“Why? I am very normal, yes.”

Kuku sneezed. Elize tapped a rhythm with her hands to hide the sound.

Harry pushed her legs aside to sit down. “I heard you talk to yourself the past few days.”

“It helps me learn. For school. And I have so much to learn, dad, so I shouldn’t be interrupted!”

Harry’s belly scraped the schoolbag, pressing it deeper into Kuku’s skin. She could barely breathe. Her longs felled unable to attract new air and a panic settled on her body like a heavy cloak.

“I … I need you, child. Please make sure you take enough time to do your farm duties.”

“Why don’t you do what my school principal said? Hire other people?”

“We don’t have the money!”

Harry picked at the beginnings of a moustache. No wonder it never grew into a serious moustache, with the way he nervously stretched it.

“Nobody wants to work on a farm,” he said somberly. “They’d rather sit in an office, with their degrees, building … websites or whatever. As if … as if they think their food falls from the sky! As if they think you could grow eggs with a computer!”

He leaned forward. Kuku’s belly was squashed. Fresh air was a commodity.

“It’s just you and me, Elize. Just you and me—Farmer Elize!”

Kuku wriggled below the sheets. Her body screamed for air. She was about to jump out of there and kick way the covers, surfacing like a dolphin.

Elize quickly stood and grabbed her father’s hand.

“Well, if I want to keep my title Farmer Elize, then I should indeed help on the farm!”

Harry stood as well, dragged by Elize. Both he, the bed, and Kuku groaned.

They left the room; Kuku quickly left the suffocating sheets.

Friday morning, almost afternoon. Elize knew about the plan. Kuku wasn’t sure she fully understood, but she’d at least help out.

The days had been long. Long schooldays, then work on the farm until midnight. And so Elize had slept until it was almost afternoon. Until the moment the trucks would come again.

Harry had prepared a special breakfast for her.

Elize attacked the delicious foods on the table. She grabbed a large chicken wing and a fried egg larger than her schoolbooks.

Kuku watched. She stood on the stairs and spied through the half-open door.

Even in her excitement, Elize was surprised too.

“I thought we had no money for this?” she whispered. “Or did I forget my own birthday?”

“Child, I wanted to spoil you for once! After all you did for us. Our last shipment of eggs and milk sold very well!”

Her fork jabbed into the chicken meat. Then she dropped it.

“These are our own chickens,” she whispered softly. “Aren’t they?”

Harry looked away. He probably considered some excuse for ten seconds, but found nothing. He sighed.

“Then I’ll tell you the bad news now.”

“Don’t tell me you hurt the red one! With the sort-of-freckles and the black spot on her wings like a tattoo and—what bad news?”

Harry placed piles of paper on the table. Contracts, many numbers, and Beatrix’ list of requirements.

“I can’t renovate the farm, Elize, even if I wanted to. The only way to comply is by slaughtering half our animals.”

“DAD?”

Father’s hand slammed the table; he regretted it instantly.

“It is the only way, Elize.”

Elize stood, leaving the delicious food untouched. She ran outside; Harry followed.

Kuku could enter the kitchen unseen, then take a turn to the invisible shed. The other animals would stand at the ready there.

“Think about it,” yelled Harry in the distance. “We’d have less than fifty animals. We could just break down the other barn. We can finally give our animals enough space! The profit from that meat could be put into some small renovations. We could … we could buy a machine to do the milking for us!”

Elize calmed down. “A machine? No more milking with hands and …”

“Yes! They have machines for everything nowadays. Once we buy one, everything will be better. We could … we might even be able to take a night off every now and then.”

His daughter hesitated. Then she hugged Harry’s legs, until he caught her and lifted her from the ground for a proper hug.

“I miss mom,” she whispered.

“Me too, child, me too.”

Hand in hand, Harry led his daughter back to the kitchen. They enjoyed the delicious meal anyway.

Kuku stepped inside the shed. The animals were ready. Not all of them, but surely half the farm.

“You’re sure that witch will help us?” grunted a cow.

“This was a mistake,” said another cow.

“She’s eating chicken with the devil. This plan will fail.”

The other animals grunted their own complaint, but Kuku could not translate that.

“Mooh! She will help us. Believe me,” she said, though she wasn’t sure who wanted to hear it.

She needed Hess. Where was he? Oh, he’d already done his part. The trucks had already arrived.

The gate opened.

Hess pushed his massive body against them. She couldn’t see how he did it, but the gates stayed open. Maybe that’s why someone wanted to capture him. He was unbelievably big and strong, even in his … how old was he?

The trucks came to a halt amidst peeping and puffing. Harry ran outside, with Elize behind him, still chewing something.

Come on. Come on! Distract Harry. Give the signal. Had she understood she was supposed to give a signal?

Not long after the arrival of the trucks, however, suddenly a white van also raced through the open gates.

The white van slowed down, then reversed direction, to go back to the gate. None other than Beatrix stepped out. She walked to Hess and asked if he was alright.

“We moohst hurry,” yelled Kuku. She already exited the shed, but nobody followed. Not even her parents.

“See! Elize isn’t working with us—”

Kuku ran back inside.

Harry yelled something and stepped away from the trucks. He walked through the shed, as if it wasn’t there, and ran to the other side of the terrain.

Was that … was that a thumbs up from Elize? She could barely see it, and Elize didn’t dare give a big signal. Of course not. She didn’t even know where the animals were, as she couldn’t see the shed. And now Elize had to help load the trucks.

“This is the moohment! We go!”

Kuku left the shed again. She quickly passed the trucks and neared the gates. Hess kept Beatrix busy—and the gates open. He pretended to have accidentally fallen asleep there. His default tactic, apparently.

When Kuku started on the gravel path, however, she still didn’t feel other footsteps.

She looked back.

She was alone.

The other animals still hid inside the shed or the barn. Yelling at them would’ve been suspicious now. She stomped the gravel path and ran back again.

Elize had wiggled her way out of her duties loading the truck. And now she stood …

She leaned against the invisible shed.

“Where did this thing come from?” said her voice with a crack. “Did this shed always exist? No, right?”

She opened the door. Nearly fifty cramped animals looked back with fear.

“Go then! Go!”

Elize stepped inside. The animals stepped backwards, back against the wall.

“Harry will be busy for ten more minutes. The gate is open. Go! Flee!”

Chickens cackled. Pigs grunted. Horses snorted.

Kuku could only understand the cows: “She knows our secret hiding place! She’s betraying us! Flee!”

The howling animals stormed from the shed, as if Elize didn’t exist, pressing the fragile girl flat against the wall. She screamed in pain. Scared to death, she crawled away from them, nearly trampled beneath heavy cowsteps.

Kuku watched how all the animals neatly returned to their square meter inside the barn.

This was stupid. Her yell echoed across the entire farm: “Come to me! The gate is open!”

She stepped forward again, showing everyone they were free to leave. Slowly, some animals left their barn again. The pigs spoke with each other.

The truck driver scratched his forehead. “Seen lotta strange things on farms, but this …”

Elize stood with difficulty and felt the shed wall. She was wounded, but paid it no mind. She looked as if she’d never seen a building before in her life and her fingers tested if the wood was even real. If it wasn’t an illusion or dream.

They’d hesitated for too long.

The gate started to close. Hess ran to Kuku in a panic, Beatrix after him, clipboard in her hand as if she were about to throw it. He yelled something, but the words were in a language that Kuku had never heard.

When he reached her, he curled his front paw around her body and placed her on his back without effort. He ran back to the gate, which had narrowed to the point that Hess couldn’t fit through it himself.

“No! Hess! Not without my parents. Not without you!”

“I’ll make sure the others follow,” said the panting dog. Kuku believed he’d try; she didn’t believe he’d succeed.

Beatrix grabbed the dog. First with her hands, then a rope that Hess chewed to pieces easily, then with a sort of machine.

Kuku hadn’t seen it before. When the machine came close, Hess received an electrical shock. He ran for a bit, but slower, and slower, until he sunk through his legs and landed in a field of grain that Kuku didn’t even know existed.

They lay near the fence at the edge of the farm. Just behind them a car passed by on the asphalt.

The gate closed with a click and a clang.

“Sorry,” whispered Hess. “But she should not have done that.”

“Oh cow’s gods, are you going to take revenge?”

Kuku feared his revenge. If he wanted, he could fatally wound a human. He seemed furious—no, it was a mixture of fear and fury.

“She has revealed her true nature. Look where you are.”

The events on the farm were tiny dots at a safe distance. Here, amidst the grain and fences, it was peaceful and quiet.

Kuku felt around her. The field of grain had paths, like a maze. Why would you make a maze here? Why did the paths seem to travel in circles?

Hess led her to a hill at the edge, which had been further supported with rough rocks. From that height she could clearly see it. It wasn’t a path, it was …

“Crop circles.” Hess shook his head. “Humans go insane when they find one. They think some alien creature has visited and, for some reason, drew messages by creating lines in their grain. Or something.”

“And that is silly?”

“Of course! What do they think? That alien creatures build spaceships and reach Somnia with ease, and their only action is to create primitive drawings on farms?”

Hess narrowed his eyes. Kuku only saw Beatrix and Harry as vague splotches that met each other and shook hands again.

“Crop circles are obviously the result of spaceships that land here.”

“Mooh!?”

“Look. That circle is the exhaust pipe of the rocket. Those three lines are support pillars to stay upright. It’s a paw print, you see, but one made by a gigantic spaceship.”

“Why … why would those creatures come here?”

“Because I am here,” Hess spoke softly. “My real name isn’t Hess. It’s Hespry.”

That name sounded familiar. Hess continued with difficulty, as if the memory was hard to access. “Of all Heavenmatter, there was only one that lived. Me, the Hespryhound, Feria’s pet. I’ve never been glad about the title of heavenly object, but oh well …”

Kuku bend her front paws to bow to him.

“No, no, that’s not necessary. The gods are gone, the magic is gone. I am nothing more than a very unique, large, dog-wolf-like being.”

“Then why do they still want you?”

“That stupid prophecy of Guds. It predicted that the animal who’d collect all Heavenmatter would conquer the entire galaxy. It seems like one group has taken that seriously. And Beatrix is one of them.”

Of course. Beatrix had met Hess at the previous inspection. She had tried to capture him all the time. She had some sort of technology that didn’t belong to Somnia.

Hess jumped off of the rocks. A drop of several meters that he took with ease.

Kuku walked down more carefully. As long as they stuck to the grain circles, they’d be well-hidden.

“I don’t know what she discovered first. Me … or the Stone of Destinydust.”

“That thing is here as well?”

Hespry smiled. “Why do you think all the grass grows unnaturally tall? What do you think created an invisible and untouchable shed?”

They could walk close to the gravel road without being spotted. But Kuku could not walk this maze of grain forever. Where must she go now? Elize knew about the shed! Elize could see and feel it.

That meant … she had restored her connection with nature.

Wasn’t that a good sign? Now she was certain Elize should help with their next escape plan.

“I am deeply disappointed,” yelled Beatrix. “You have done nothing to renovate the farm. You only have a week left, you know that, right?”

“I am trying my best!” said Harry.

He tidied his appearance and continued at a softer and sweeter tone.

“We barely have money. And now my daughter is wounded! Maybe some mad cow’s disease lingers with our animals, why else would they attack her? Please, I ask support, and a delay—”

“Support? Delay?” Beatrix spoke the words as if they were foreign to her. Maybe the human language was foreign to her. “I am considering retracting my offer in the first place and closing the farm immediately!”

Harry didn’t speak again.

Beatrix looked out over the farm. She hesitated and twitched, then entered her van and left. Soon after, the trucks did the same.

“Dad, it hurts. It hurts a lot,” Elize spoke with difficulty. “I think I broke a rib or something.”

Harry roared. Kuku felt the heat of his anger at this distance. She thought she heard the straining of his muscles, ready to pounce like a tiger.

“I saw Kuku here, joined by Hess. I swear it! They flattened all my grain! We must catch them and show them what we do with troublemakers.”

He pushed the first grain stalks aside and entered the circle with them.

Where was Harry? The earth shook under his boots, but Kuku couldn’t figure out from where the noises came. Why did it have to be circles in the grain? Whatever direction she chose, she’d eventually meet Harry.

Her only hope was to move just as quickly as him through the maze of grain. Forever. Or, well, until one of them tired.

That was no solution.

Hess calmly walked beside her. Ten steps for her meant one step for him. He wasn’t interested in escaping: he kept pausing to inspect a specific patch of dirt.

“My little cow! Cowie!” yelled Harry. “Come here! I want to give you a nice snack!”

Kuku had to laugh. Did humans really think that worked? Any time she’d heard the noise cowie in her life, Harry was about to do something mean.

Harry quickened his pace. Kuku couldn’t move much faster and the Hespryhound lacked the power now to put her on his back. The electric shock from Beatrix’ device had hurt him badly.

Was it even an electric shock? Maybe those alien creatures had something stronger. Something to turn off magic.

Only one option remained, really. Run back home and hope Elize would protect her once more.

“I buried the Stone of Destinydust somewhere below this field,” whispered Hess. “I forgot where. It’s been centuries.”

“This is not the moohment for an investigation!”

“Kuku. Do you have any clue as to the power of that stone?”

She tried to estimate the fastest route back home. She would have to create another path through the grain, then run in a straight line to the wide open kitchen door.

“Erm … the Stone of Destinydust makes grass grow? And sheds invisible? Something with fertilizer?”

Hess kept using his front paws as feelers. “Those are side effects. No, whoever controls the Destinydust, can turn any particle into any other. You’re able to turn mud into gold. You’re able to turn wood invisible. You’re able to grow glass as if it was a plant. If we want to defend ourselves against the alien creatures, we’ll need that.”

“Or defend against Harry…” said Kuku’s wavering voice. She hadn’t heard his footsteps in a while now.

But he wouldn’t give up that easily.

Of course not.

Stalks of grain bent aside as two fat hands came for her like birds of prey. Kuku mooed loudly; Harry placed one hand against his ear. His other grabbed her back paw tightly.

Hess jumped in front of her and bit the hand until it let go. Harry furiously lashed out and hit the watchdog in his face.

Kuku ran away. In the direction she thought was the right one. Grain hit her eyes and ears, and turned her into a cow with yellow splotches, as she broke one stalk after another and created a new path in the maze.

She exploded out of the grain. As if she’d been under water for hours and finally resurfaced, gasping for air. She was right! Within ten seconds, she’d sprinted into the home.

There she looked back. Harry had brought heavy chains. Now he led the Hespryhound behind him like a slave.

“Now I moohst save you too,” she whispered.

She climbed the stairs. Elize’s bedroom door stood ajar. She sat on the bed, back to the door, as she tried to wrap bandages around her own wounded arm. Her red curls were so long they almost hid her entire body.

“Go away!” she screamed.

Kuku froze in the doorway. She crept closer and pushed her soft fur, filled with specks of grain, against Elize.

She pushed Kuku back with her good arm.

“Father was right. You are stupid and you never work together. Thanks to you my life … my life … my life will soon be over!”

The front door opened. Harry yelled at his dog.

Elize had seen the shed. She might be angry, she might say a lot of things, but the Stone of Destinydust had decided she was worthy. That she understood nature enough to see its invisible stones.

Then Kuku should trust her too, no matter how hard it was.

She snuck closer to Elize again. The girl tried to hold the bandages with her teeth, as her good arm had to cut them and wrap them in the right place. This was near impossible to do alone.

So Kuku grabbed the bandages and held them in the right spot for her. Elize quickly finished the job, mumbling and sighing. Then she pushed Kuku aside again, and the cow tumbled backward onto the carpet.

This time, though, she smiled.

“Stupid, sweet Kuku. You probably don’t even understand what you did or what’s happening. You … you just want to stand in the meadows, enjoying some sunlight.”

Elize gazed out the window and whispered: “Me too.”

She wanted to tickle Kuku’s belly, but couldn’t do the movement because of her wounds.

“Sweet, dangerous Kuku. You must leave. Prevent more injuries. Before—”

Her bedroom door swung open with a loud squeak.

They’d practiced this many times. Kuku jumped underneath the covers, Elize threw something in front of the bump, and she’d pretend to read or work on the bed.

Never had they practiced it while injured.

Kuku’s behind partially protruded from of the covers. Elize hadn’t even moved yet.

Harry’s mouth forgot to close.

His hand hovered around the door handle. The rope fell out of his other hand and clattered onto the floor.

“You … have …”

“It’s not as it seems!”

Steam erupted from his ears and nostrils. Kuku wriggled free from the covers and used Elize as a shield.

Harry easily walked around her, grabbed Kuku from below, and lifted her off the ground. His other hand searched for the rope on the floor.

“Dad! She did nothing wrong. If you hadn’t locked up her father … if you … if everything had been different—”

“I thought it was just you and me.”

He looked straight into Elize’s eyes, as he wrapped the rope tighter and tighter around Kuku’s neck.

“Apparently it’s just me.”

Elize moved to stop her dad. She lacked the power completely. Her fingers were like annoying mosquitos that Harry easily swatted aside.

In the doorway, he paused. He held a flailing Kuku below his armpit as if she were a package to be delivered.

“You are grounded! And I’ll find another punishment! Double duties! And—”

Elize stood and wiped the tears away.

“Grounded? Yeah, sure, because normally I visit my friends all day and go so many places. Double duties? Why not triple? I do everything around here anyway.”

“Where is this coming—”

“Don’t force me to hate what I used to love!”

Kuku squeaked from the pain. Harry tightened his grip.

“And you’ve grown a big mouth too. Quadruple duties! And I’ll send you to a different school!”

“If you hurt Kuku or Hess in any way—”

“Great idea, Elize. You may exact the punishment today. It’s about time you learned how to slaughter—”

Elize exploded off the bed as if it were the strongest trampoline ever. She made herself as tall as possible, standing before her father.

She hit him in the face with all her strength.

In his surprise, Harry dropped Kuku and let his cheek slowly turn red. He filled himself with air, build up his anger, like a balloon near breaking point.

“What’s with the glassy eyes, dad?” screamed Elize. “This is what you do to stupid animals who won’t listen.”

The balloon deflated.

Elize thought she could grab Kuku, but Harry still held her in a death grip. His back was bent, making him nearly as small as his daughter. His voice was weak, almost inaudible.

“Fine. In one week our farm will close. Who knows where our animals will end up. A centuries old tradition in my family ends with me because my daughter loves cows more than her dad. I hope you’re looking forward to being poor and losing your freedom. Being laughed at by the city snobs and living in a tiny, tiny terraced house in the polluted city.”

Harry stormed out of her room, Kuku still under his armpit.

It made Kuku endlessly nervous. It had been days since she was bound, next to Hess, but Harry seemed unsure what to do with her. After they’d pooped in the living room, he let them go outside, but didn’t unchain them. The rope around her neck was tied to some metal pipes next to the backyard doors.

With each passing day, she grew more confident that Harry would not kill her. Now, however, she was and inside a cage, and chained, and without her parents.

Those were the worst days of her life. No sleep, only worry. No way to move, only pain and fear. No warmth, only walls and cold stones.

Fortunately, Elize came by regularly. She brought a pile of paper again and pushed a pencil between Kuku’s teeth.

“What’s that? A mushroom?”

Kuku continued drawing.

“Yes, I know what a circle is. What does it mean?”

Elize understood her once she’d drawn a crude version of grain. Her face went white.

“Aliens landed here? That’s what the crop circles in our grain mean? And they’re looking for Hess … and … a pebble?”

Kuku didn’t know what the Stone of Destinydust looked like. She had drawn a regular old stone. Hess took the pencil and continued the sketch into something that, indeed, seemed more magical.

“The Stone of Destinydust!”

With her good arm, she rummaged through her school bag. She found a book and opened it to a bookmarked page.

“Yes. That’s the one!”

Her face cleared up and her nose wiggled.

“We have that thing? Below the ground? Dad always said that Chef was our ancestor. That those school books don’t say anything about how the world was ruled by animals for centuries, and only start when humans appeared. I always thought it was a fairy tale, made up to make me feel good about the farm and my family. But …”

She stood and studied the fields bathed in sunlight.

“This farm should be the prettiest and best in the world,” she mumbled. “And we’re letting it be closed down in a week. If those … aliens don’t attack earlier.”

Kuku was still surprised that she’d been able to communicate the concept of alien creatures by drawing an animal with three eyes on top of feelers. Apparently, some images or folklore remained the same among all animals.

“Is that Beatrix even an inspector?” Kuku asked Hess. “She belongs to that other organization you mentioned. The one collecting Heavenmatter. Maybe she doesn’t even have the right to close this farm!”

Hess shook his fur. “The entire idea of that organization is that it’s secret. All members have a regular job, a home, a family, as if nothing strange is going on. I don’t think this assumption will save us.”

“What then? How do we defend against a spaceship coming to get us?”

“Again, secret organization. They don’t want to be seen. Beatrix hopes the farm will close in a legal way. She waits until everything is cleared out and nobody looks at it anymore. Then she’ll take the Destinydust and me, unseen, and … she is gone.”

Elize frowned. She’d just heard a conversation of mooing and barking.

“I’m starting to understand why my friends call me crazy …”

Suddenly, several cupboards opened behind Elize. A second later, the window opened abruptly and pushed a strong wind into the room. Without a hand or paw to move it, one door unlocked and swung open, while another locked itself.

Elize crawled behind Hess, white as a sheet.

“We’re assuming the aliens will come, with a large spaceship and bright lights and whatnot,” said her trembling voice. “What if … those aliens are invisible and untouchable … and they have been walking around us all this time?”

Kuku did not understand her, but she felt her bone-chilling fear. Not long after, she and Hess realized the same thing.

This was truly a cursed place.

Everyone yelled when the living room door swung open.

No aliens. Just some regular animals. The leader of each animal species, the ones with whom Hess had met in the invisible shed several times.

Why … why were they walking around freely? In the middle of the afternoon? Where was Harry?

They walked to the outside doors.

Harry had opened the barn and unlocked the fence to the old pastures. Most animals still waited inside the barn. But once a few sheep had ventured across, most of them followed.

The pig stole Kuku’s pencil and some papers.

After a long and painful drawing, Elize picked up the paper and read it.

Sorry!

Elize crossed her arms.

“I wanted to help you. You could have escaped that day! But no, you didn’t trust me and almost killed me. I expect a bit more.”

“More?” puffed Hess. “It’s a miracle that a pig apologizes in human language!”

The pig continued drawing, grunting from exertion.

Plan?

“But … look, Harry allows you to walk around now! Everything will be better, I promise. Do you still want to leave?”

No reaction. Her face darkened.

“Well, sure, we still have no money at all. Of course you want to leave these filthy cages. But I don’t know—”

Her mouth froze halfway the next word. All followed her gaze.

Animals were rising from the grass.

The sky was clear blue. Not a spaceship in sight. Harry ran across the field and desperately grabbed a flying cow to pull it down.

Elize undid the chains on Kuku and Hess, then ran outside.

“The aliens! The aliens!”

“What?” yelled Harry.

“They are already here! They’ve been here for a while!”

Out of breath she reached the meadows. Suddenly she turned right, to the field of grain near the front gate. The animals followed, though Hess quickly fell behind, still not at full strength after the shock.

Elize extended her arms and paused just before the first crop circle.

“This grain circle is not a footprint left behind,” she said. “That rocket is still there.”

The weather took a dark turn. Sunny skies turned into darkest nights. Lightning strikes rumbled and zigzagged, until they all ended in the sharp tip of a tall rocket.

The spaceship had wings on all sides. It looked like a mushroom with a parasol. Left and right, this parasol sucked sheep and cows to itself, lifting them into the air.

Below the rocket, half the soil had been destroyed. Multiple drills, thick as tree trunks, twisted and dug deeper and deeper holes.

“They’ve been looking for the Destinydust for weeks,” said Kuku.

“The must have found some pieces already,” said Hess, panting. “Otherwise they couldn’t have hidden this from us. In fact …”

Hess pointed his snout at the left wing. It was larger than the others and painted a slightly different color blue. He had to scream to cut through the noise.

“The Windgustwing! That amplifies everything. All gods—how many Heavenly Objects do they already have!?”

The wind picked up. The rocket seemed the center point of a sudden tornado. Harry clamped the fence to prevent gaining wings himself. Elize held herself to the ground by clinging to a horse.

A white van traveled over their gravel path. Beatrix stepped out and smiled.

“Well, that was fun while it lasted,” she said with pretend kindness. “We’ll leave soon, don’t you worry.”

“Who are you?” screamed Harry.

The gusts of wind tore the wooden planks of the barn, which he’d attached in a panic to pass the first inspection. Several windows of their home burst, while fences stood increasingly slanted.

“And if you don’t mind, we’ll take your watchdog too.”

“We do mind,” said Elize.

“Ah, well, even if you do mind, we’ll still take him.”

A latch opened at the spaceship’s side. Bright green bursts of light shot out, like a giant spotlight to take a closer look at Hess. The bundle of light pulled on his fur, snatched at it as if to pluck him bare.

The Hespryhound stood firm and dug his claws deeper into the mud.

“Maybe you get me. But you will never get the Destinydust.”

“Oh? We’ve progressed quite far already.”

“How long? Weeks? Months? Years?”

Irritation flashed over Beatrix’ face. She quickly plastered a smile on top of it.

“We are almost there.”

“I buried the Stone with magic that protects it from being easily stolen. Hurt me or my friends, and you will never learn the secret. You’ll be digging for centuries.”

Latches opened on all sides of the spaceship. Their entire might was trained on Hess, trying to lift him off the ground and catch him in a beam.

Unsatisfied with the results, the aliens also fired electrical bullets at random targets. Green flashes of light burned through fences or lit trees on fire. Yellow squarish lights reached the water troughs, which turned into wild fountains and waterfalls. Red lasers rained down on the animals roaming the meadows, which longingly looked at the safety of their barn now.

A purple bullet aimed at one of the barns and made it explode.

Hess turned around and trudged away casually. As if the farm at his back wasn’t on fire.

“Then the Destinydust will never be yours.”

Kuku couldn’t believe her eyes. Hess stayed so calm. They just could not lift him off the ground. He had been alive since the dawn of time, had seen everything and everyone. She could see it now.

Their attackers stopped firing.

“We negotiate!” Beatrix said. “What can we give, to get Hess and the Stone of Destinydust in return? Gold? Power? Secrets? A positive inspection of your farm? Say the word.”

“Nothing,” said Hess. “Never would I help those who killed my beloved Feria.”

To the others, dear reader, this conversation happened in a foreign language that even humans could not figure out. Though many words sounded vaguely familiar. I often wished I had told the Hespryhound how proud I was of him, when I still could. That I commended his bravery, but that it was okay—it was okay to give up the fight, for Feria had died so long … so long ago …

Beatrix’ teeth clenched until they broke. Her smile was far gone now.

“Oh well. The farm will close in a few days anyway. Why don’t we start the demolition work early?”

The spaceship revealed all its weapons and shot without mercy.

Elize ran away from the spaceship. She was surrounded by animals and aimed for her dad. He only had eyes for his daughter.

“Mercy! Mercy! You would not kill an innocent child, would you?”

He stumbled past the ruins of fences, over the gravel, to Elize. Just before they could embrace, a blue flash exploded between them, and blew them to different corners of the terrain.

They scrambled to their feet and looked at the spaceship, the feeling of inevitable defeat coming over them. What could they do against that? It could blow up the entire farm. It could catch them all easily and force them to do whatever.

Harry thought he was above all animals. That he was at the top of the chain of food. Here was the proof that the chain continued above him.

The humans and animals had locked themselves into a cage—a farm with a needlessly effective fence—and could not even flee this attack.

“Elize!”

He ran for her. She was too tired to walk. The animals crowded around her and formed a shield, which was hesitant to leave a gap for Harry.

Kuku sought her parents and found them, shivering from fear, near the invisible shed.

Was it safe there? It didn’t feel safe anywhere.

The next explosion set the roof of their home on fire. Most shots were aimed at the grain, though, hoping to shake loose the Destinydust.

A buzzing sound. Then it turned into rustling. And eventually the sound of a pump deflating.

The electrical fence had shut down.

No words needed to be spoken. All animals ran to the closest fence like a battering ram. After a few focused hits, the fences fell down and gaping holes appeared.

Kuku wanted to join them, she wanted to leave this place so bad—

But her cow ears only picked up Elize’s terrified screams and Harry’s endless begging for mercy.

She sighed deeply. Then she checked if her paws still worked and ran to the farmers.

Deadly flashes of light fell around her like raindrops. To the unknowing spectator, the farm would look like it was having a party, complete with cozy bonfires.

The truth was that Kuku, Elize, Harry and Hess were soon the only living beings that remained. Near their house, exactly in the center. If they would attempt to reach the holes in the fence, they’d be shot down before they got there.

They looked up. The spaceship had discovered their location. All weapons were pointed at them, accompanied by a chorus of mechanical whirs and whizzes.

“I ask one final time,” said Beatrix.

She didn’t look like an animal anymore. She was a large bird with a long neck. A body that could easily fit—or eat—multiple humans.

“Hand the Destinydust to us and we’ll let you live. Otherwise …”

A weapon fired. The bullet barely missed their heads and, instead, burned a hole into the brick wall behind them.

“Take me,” said Elize. She jumped in front of everyone.

Harry pulled her back and switched places. “Take me!”

“We don’t care about you! We want the DOG and the STONE!”

Her wing twisted. Another type of bullet fired and hit Harry.

His right arm fell limp across his body, instantly unusable. No blood. These creatures were advanced enough to kill others very cleanly.

Harry staggered backward in surprise, but he’d been lucky. It was just his arm, nothing else.

Beatrix made the movement again. Her hungry eyes looked at Elize this time.

Hess dropped his head.

“Forgive me, Feria,” he whispered.

He leapt forward, roaring, feinting an attack at Beatrix. In truth, the little machine with which he was attacked earlier had made him weak. He wasn’t the same as he used to be; he wasn’t strong enough for a real fight.

He merely wanted to frighten her.

Beatrix stopped her movements.

“I will go with you. At the condition that you leave Somnia immediately and never return. This farm is to be left alone in perpetuity.”

The predatory birdform smiled. That just made her look worse.

“Agreed.”

“Hess! Hesry! No!” yelled Elize.

Harry turned around. With his daughter and Kuku both held under his good arm, he ran inside. Most of the upper floors had been destroyed, but the ground floor was fine.

A click. The sound of a million glasses toasting and fire stones looking for sparks. A fountain of mud erupted below the spaceship for several seconds.

The Stone of Destinydust was pried loose.

A thick, white Magnet Beam shot out from underneath the spaceship. It latched onto the stone and refused to let go. Kuku had expected the stone to be bigger. Maybe it was bigger, in the old days, when magic roamed.

A similar Magnet Beam lifted Hess off the ground. Hess, his godly head held high, whose claws made Beatrix nervous even now.

They had the Hespryhound. They had the Destinydust.

Kuku felt defeated: brute violence did win at the end of the day. If you were at the bottom of the food chain, you had no other choice than cooperation or death.

“But they don’t have us, hey, hey,” whispered Harry. “Nor the animals.”

Why weren’t they leaving?

Kuku spied through the stained window. Creatures appeared out of thin air. Creatures who looked like they came from Somnia, but carrying a third eye, or three tails. Like stars being born, they landed on the terrain without clear origin. They had been invisible all that time, but now they—

They came for the home.

“They have Hess,” Elize still lamented.

“They are coming for us,” Harry grunted. His rapid heartbeat was visible through the swollen veins in his neck. “They don’t keep the agreement!”

Kuku could not say she was surprised. Of course they didn’t stick to their promise. Why would they? They were stronger and could take whatever they wanted.

The only problem, to them, was that a group of humans had seen everything that had happened her. Such a secret organization obviously didn’t want to leave those humans alive to tell the tale.

The creatures swarmed the house like moths to a flame. Elize was wounded; Harry was wounded. They looked at Kuku for an answer.

She had one. Two, in fact.

She walked to the refrigerators and threw open the doors. Thrusting her head in and out, she ripped out all the content. Elize and Harry did the same to another refrigerator.

The mess of food could be hidden among the rubble. That was no issue. The home was dark as night and nothing was in its usual place anymore. As they emptied the shelves, gravel fell from the ceiling, usually followed by another collapse.

“Would they really not look inside the refrigerator?” whispered Harry.

“If we play hide and seek,” whispered Eliza, “would you look in the refrigerator?”

They couldn’t discuss the plan any longer.

Kuku jumped inside her refrigerator, joined by Elize. Harry barely fit inside his own refrigerator next to them.

Doors and windows need not be opened anymore, for they were long gone. When footsteps suddenly tiptoed through the home, Kuku almost mooed. The footsteps multiplied. Here or there, a wooden beam or chair was kicked aside.

“Not a trace,” said a squeaky voice.

Even heavier footsteps appeared: Beatrix. Something scraped past the refrigerator doors. Her wings?

“They can’t run away that fast.”

“Maybe they’re underneath the rubble.”

Even heavier footfalls shook the refrigerator. Kuku and Elize were a mess of tangled limbs. They could hear Harry’s heavy breathing, even through the wall. Elize placed her hand against it, hoping it would somehow calm her dad down.

A new squeaky voice. “The humans. They heard the fire and shooting. Police and firemen are on their way!”

“Thousand wingbeats,” screamed Beatrix. “We can not allow two stupid farmers and a cow to give us away!”

“Maybe they’re hidden?”

Beatrix laughed at that. “These creatures are too stupid to hide themselves well.”

She loudly sniffed. “Fine. Burn down the entire house, just in case.”

The footsteps rapidly left. Soon after, the floor shook, the entire house shook, as the spaceship charged itself for departure.

Kuku opened the refrigerator door and jumped out.

“Kuku! What are you doing?”

“Stay! Stay! Second part plan!”

She waved her paws at Elize to get her back into the refrigerator. Then she ran out of the house herself.

The ascending rocket created a sandstorm, or rather a mud and grain storm, which disoriented Kuku. Fortunately, there was always that bright Magnet Beam holding the shiny, magical Destinydust.

She ran at that target, with all she had. The spaceship lifted off the ground now. She had to close her eyes; many grains of sand peppered her face. The gusts of wind pulled her fur taut and backwards, but she had to move forward, had to keep walking, had to touch the stone.

Elize had said it. Their largest problem was a lack of money.

Hess had said it. Visible to invisible. Mud to gold.

The spaceship departed.

Kuku’s front paws briefly touched the Stone of Destinydust.

As the rocket elegantly sought the heavens, the Destinydust transformed all the mud around itself.

Gold coins rained down instead.

Clinking, shining, real pieces of gold. They covered the entire farm in a yellow, heavy snow. A glimmering snow of incomprehensible worth.

The rocket fired a final shot. The house exploded.

Once the fire was extinguished, calling the house a black skeleton would be undeserved praise. Still calling the farm a farm would be too. Kuku had tried to catch all the gold coins, but they were scattered across the premises. Without buildings, barns or animals the area suddenly felt enormous.

As the firemen carefully assessed the damage, two refrigerator doors opened.

“Air! Fresh air!” said Elize, as she crawled out on hands and feet. Harry did the same.

“Survivors!” yelled a fireman.

Father and daughter were supported and led to one of the few wooden benches left standing. They received food and a blanket wrapped around their shoulders.

“Eight hours in a tiny closet,” mumbled Harry. His face contorted out of disgust. The bullet wound in his arm was treated, while he kept mumbling about the nightmare he just experienced.

Kuku walked up to him and dropped some gold coins from her teeth.

Harry studied her for a while.

“You … you were inside a closet every day. All hours.”

Harry closed his eyes and shook his head.

“The only reason a hundred animals didn’t burn to death today, is because I happened to let you out of your cages for once. Otherwise …”

He scratched behind Kuku’s ears. The cow recoiled.

“I am sorry.”

“What … what is this?” asked Elize, as she twirled the coin between her fingers.

More and more firemen found gold coins and brought them to Harry. They assumed it was his money, scattered by the explosion. They had to borrow some chests and metal containers to store all of it.

“Our path to a better future,” said Harry with a smile.

“A final gift of Destinydust,” said Elize. Then she jumped into a large container of gold coins and pretended to swim.

A police officer visited Harry and asked for a statement.

“All bombs and grenades, what happened here?”

“Yes, well, that inspector the government sent us, Beatrix, turned out to be part of a secret organization!” said Harry. “They attacked us. They stole our watchdog. They were, erm, surely out for my money!”

The agent frowned. Someone called someone else, who called another officer, and eventually somebody received the proper information on their mobile phone.

“None of our inspectors is called Beatrix.”

“You don’t believe us, hey? Then look around you.”

The agents took his full statement. Even though they frowned at every mention of invisible aliens and a spaceship made of weapons.

The next day, Farmer Harry was called insane in all the newspapers. His story was called a bad dream or a conspiracy theory. At the same time, however, he received letters and phone calls from people all over the world who had met this Beatrix too, and were sure he was right.

Harry and Elize shrugged and planned to rebuild their farm. Better, prettier, bigger, more natural. The barns would become large spaces, with more than enough daylight and strong walls that didn’t collapse.

The tall electrical fence disappeared. Only a low wooden fence would mark the border of their territory.

“The animals must love it here so much that they want to stay,” said Elize. Harry agreed. Even though he added that this was far cheaper and required less maintenance too.

Elize received permission to paint everything in bright colors. They even had enough gold to add a new river that meandered through the farm grounds. This addition quickly turned the area into a blooming habitat for many new plants and animal species, as if they’d added a new forest to the world.

Perhaps some remnants of the Stone of Destinydust’s magic remained. Elize sure felt the farm was magical again. It was beautiful, especially in the full summer sun, especially when she woke up in the morning to the sound of singing birds, nestled in the blossoming trees around her bedroom.

The only missing piece returned voluntarily a few days later. The animals returned, one by one at first, then in droves, until Elize counted them all.

She proudly called herself Farmer Elize again. The invisible shed was still intact and Elize insisted that nothing be built in that spot. She thought dad would look at her funny and ignore her, but he scraped the back of his head and wondered if that shed had always been there.

Sometimes, late at night, she thought she still heard Hess’ powerful bark. From the heavens, it sounded, as if he’d defeated those stupid creatures and came back, steering the rocket himself.

But he didn’t come back. It took a while to overcome her grief for Hess. Only then she picked out a new watchdog.

Kuku ran circles around everyone and helped where possible. She slowly grew too large to keep as a pet, or even pick up. No matter how badly Elize wanted to take her inside, she had to leave Kuku with the other cows in the barn, or sleeping in the grass during the summer.

Kuku persevered for a few months. She experienced most of the renovations. Still, the feeling remained that she was done with cages, barns and fences. Completely done.

Freedom. A new field of grass every day. That was the dream.

She tried to communicate this to Elize, but it was useless. Especially now that she was in high school and spent most days playing with her friends.

Because Harry could hier other people now, Elize only needed to help when she wanted. She used the opportunity to invite everyone and repeat she was Farmer Elize! all the time. The heroine that survived by hiding in a cold refrigerator! How the outside became searing hot, but the inside stayed ice cold! How she’d seen aliens and defeated them!

She dressed it up a bit, making a terrifying story sound heroic. But just the passion in her eyes, the cheerful whistling as she jumped on her bike and went to school, made Kuku’s days that much better.

New trucks arrived with new orders. That part never changed—or did it?

Harry shoved a contract in their faces. The eyes of the business men bulged.

“Two Soliduri per liter!? Are you insane?”

“If you want to pay three, I’m fine with that too.”

“Nobody will pay that. You’re digging your own grave.”

Harry shrugged. “That’s the price. That’s needed to give these animals a proper life.”

The business men narrowed their eyes. “Yes. I have heard of your mysterious pile of gold.”

Harry turned around. “Go on then. Go to the other farm that was cheaper.”

The man sprinted past him, snatched the contract from his hands, and signed it.

“That one went bankrupt. The other had to shut down after the last inspection. Congratulations, Harry, we’re buying your goods at the insane price of two Soliduri. And the meat?”

“We only slaughter when needed. I think humans can survive just fine on a bit of meat, some of the time. Instead of five times a day, every day. Ask again in half a year.”

The trucks were loaded with an air of irritation, but they always returned.

A large part of the gold didn’t need to be spent. At the next inspection, the farm passed all criteria and was even dubbed the best farm in the country.

Everyone wanted to work there. Tourists swung by to take pictures of the beautiful nature, as if it was a zoo.

They received permission to expand even further—they declined. They’d rather stay the small Nightingale Farm, renamed to Chef’s Pride. The events they experienced were written down in the history books about their own family. All the remaining gold was kept in treasure chests, hidden in a safe location.

“We must come up with an excuse for the gold,” Harry said repeatedly. Eventually, they started selling random objects. Even a few animals, as long as they knew the recipient would take good care of them.

And so it happened that they also sold their famous refrigerator. Two strong men carried it over the gravel path, while puffing and complaining under the hot sun.

“Is it supposed to be this heavy?”

“I heard they survived an explosion in this thing,” the other said. “Must be good material.”

“Good or not, I need a break.”

Elize noticed the door refused to close fully. She realized what was going on.

Kuku had drawn grass, sun, and hopping freely, again and again. Maybe she understood what Kuku wanted to say months ago, but refused to believe or admit it.

She walked to the fridge and placed her hand on top. She cried loudly, as her fingers caressed the refrigerator.

“Why don’t you … place this one in that meadow over there, just outside the fence.”

The men frowned. “So that, erm, you can … say your goodbyes … to a refrigerator?”

Elize nodded and pushed away the tears.

“I hope your happier out there,” she mumbled. The door opened slightly further. She reached inside and felt a soft, warm ball of fur.

“Come back sometimes, okay?”

The men carried the refrigerator further, awkwardly now, feeling like it was some holy object of great significance. They smiled at Elize and tried to be careful.

The next morning, the refrigerator lay on its side, door wide open, with nothing held inside.

And so it was that life continued …