Darkened Dreams

I sometimes longed for a simpler life. One of which I was a farmer caring for my rows of fruit bearing trees. Rows of trees shuffled for dominance in my mind but I always thought being a farmer was a pipe dream. Then the pandemic hit and my life was turned upside down. I lost my job and couldn't afford the rent for long. I looked at my savings and decided to hell with it, I was going to create the simple life I wanted. Naturally, I cashed in my savings, sold my belongings and bought a small farm in the southwest coroner of Colorado. Moving from California was difficult but the open fields and land was something of my dreams.

The day I pulled up to the farm I was excited and the pit of my stomach dropped from the reality of my decision. I had left my manager life and was going to grow fruit trees. When I pulled up in front of my rickety little shack of a house on my fifty acres of land, my beat up blue civic clunked along as I navigated the rocky driveway to the house. The land was desolate, isolated, and depressed. No one had loved it for years from what I could tell. By the looks of it, the land looked scorched beyond recognition from a controlled fire. I believed, at that time, a swarm of pests must have killed the crops. How terribly wrong I would be.

It took me seven years to get my pear tree farm up and running. My Luscious pears grew fervently in their little part of the world. Once they started to produce their sweet fruit I begun to think about growing more types like Gold Cherries and Chinese Apricots. I hadn't used the full fifty acres and begun to fantasize about planting more fruit trees to fill it out. My little shack I had renovated with whatever I could afford but I loved my simple life. Wake up, water the trees, check for pests, take an afternoon nap and find ways to sell the fruits of my labor. I rescued a black lab I named Plum and since she was a bit of a piglet, and she followed me everywhere in search for snacks. Her eyesight wasn't the best but what she lacked in sight she made up for in smell. She could smell a rodent miles away and would get rid of them for me. She became my heart and soul of the farm and so, I named my farm after her, Plum's Fields. We were inseparable.

After the frost on year seven Plum and I wandered around awing at the beauty of the flowering trees. Their white flowers dazzlingly bloomed making the rows of pear trees as beautiful in the morning sunlight as it twinkled on snow covered ground. The fresh and sweet smell of the blossoms reminded me why I made this change in my life. It made me whole. I headed toward the gazebo I had built years back. I knew this little oasis in my field would be where I could think, plan, and relax during stressful times. The gazebo was octagonal with a bench running along the circumference of the structure. In the middle was a small wrought iron table that could withstand the winter months. I had a retractable netting that could surround the open parts of the gazebo to protect me from the bugs that danced around the trees. The dog bed for Plum floated around the floor when she would drag it to be by where ever I was in the structure. Her water bowl was always half empty since she inevitably would step in it drenching the floor boards in water. The gazebo is our oasis in my field of dreams.

This one afternoon I drifted off on the bench. I was lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of creatures buzzing around my fields. Plum passed out dreaming of chasing something and ruffing here and there during that dream. I woke up to dusk settling in around the fields. I had my phone but, it ran low on battery. Rubbing my eyes as I lifted my head up and stretched, Plum yawned and grumbled a bit. Swinging my legs around to the side Plum stretched out her body ready to walk back home. Then a rustle came from behind us. There was no wind and I thought to myself it must be an animal. What I didn't expect was the kind of animal I would meet.

With cautious intention we walked down the steps of the gazebo and headed toward the main path to our little home. As the dusk settled in, I could hear rustling in the trees following us along our path. Plum was on high alert as we crept back as unexcited as possible which was heading toward an impossibility. The hairs on my arms stood up and my blood pressure beat heavier in my ears. The drum beat of my heart was becoming deafening. Plum's tail was pointed straight out behind her with ears back and teeth showing. She could smell and hear something I couldn't, trusting her instinct I picked up my pace. The thing behind us kept stride refusing to lose us. A low grumble began to stalk my ears. It sounded like a rabid animal but almost human. Before the sun set I gathered enough courage to turn around and look. There in the shadow of the day stood a gaunt looking humanoid figure. It's long spidery limbs crouched bent at the knees and the arms hovering over the dirt. It's piercing red eyes fixated on me like a wolf ready to pounce and I could see it bear it's sharp, yellow teeth. Plum began to circle around me growling into the trees letting me know there were more. Instinctively I turned and began to run as fast as I could home.

I could see truck lights pulling up to my home and the horn began to blow. Whoever was honking the horn knew something was amiss. I ran as fast as I could not able to keep up with Plum who sprinted away. Focusing on my breathing was all I could do to keep my legs moving, and with every stride I could hear the creatures behind me speeding up. I landed in a small pothole and somehow didn't lose my full stride but instead giving myself a small limp. I could feel the pain in my ankle grow with every step on the dirt but I clenched my teeth and pushed through the pain. My heart raced louder and my breathing grew heavy and labored. I could hear the heavy thud of their feet chasing behind me as I heard the truck rev its engine when it backed up and aggressively drive toward me. I believed that Plum must have made it to the truck and got it to follow her and excitedly kept running toward the thudding of the wheels. The old Chevy pick up was flying down the dirt path swaying side to side with the speed. When the headlights became so blinding to me I couldn't run anymore, I curled up trembling on the dirt holding my knees as I waited to either be saved or attacked. The horn steadily roared as I heard the truck draw closer. To my relief Plum ran up licking my face and herded me to the truck. Blinded by the high beams I couldn't make out the man who stepped out of the truck. He had a long braid whipping around his rifle as he marched past me. He cocked it and fired into the trees scaring whatever birds and creatures were around us.

"Get in the truck" he ordered. I didn't hesitate sprinting to my feet and darting for the door.

I stared out the window of the truck as Plum laid at my feet. When the man jumped in I noticed he smelled like sage and sandalwood mixed with tobacco and gunpowder. His jaw line was so sharp it would cut glass and every time he moved his leather jacket sounded like a warm blanket wrapping around me.

"You almost died out there. Didn't anyone tell you not to be out after dark?" His voice raspy and deep made me feel like I was twelve again.

"No. The land was barren, and they told me to not to fall through the floor boards of the rotten house." I tried to make light of the situation. "I wasn't told about any creatures."

He leaned on the driver's side door holding his mouth in his hand staring straight ahead. We were almost home.

"How did you know to follow my dog?"

He cleared his throat and pulled up next to my home. He put the truck into park "We're here".

When he got out of the truck he held the rifle at the darkness ready to shoot, as I hopped out with Plum. I walked straight over to my front door and let myself in. I turned around in the door frame as Plum scurried in toward the fireplace as I looked toward the mystery man. "Are you coming in?"

He closed his truck door and I heard the beep as it locked. He hurried into the house closing the door behind him locking us both inside. The incense scented man checked all the windows and doors while I made tea. I rifled through the kitchen cabinets looking for something for us to eat. I wasn't terribly hungry now but I knew I needed to eat something. I found some Jaffa cakes on the top shelf but, while getting up on my toes to retrieve it I landed on my now swollen ankle. As the whistle of the kettle sang I winced in pain and limped to the freezer to grab out an ice pack to put on.

He leaned his rifle by the round kitchen table and sat down. I got a good look at his face now. Dark brown eyes, light brown skin with a reddish undertone, broad shoulders, full lips, and a brow line full of worry. His leather jacket was frayed and worn around his elbows with his jeans covered in dirt. But he had a regal air to him which could not be denied. His long black braided hair was flipped over his shoulder and appeared to be covered in blood. I grabbed a glass of water and an old towel and handed it to him.

"For your hair". He looked down and scoffed. He began to dab off the blood resting on his hair.

I put down the tea pot and cakes in the middle of the table and grabbed a large dog treat for Plum. I sat down lifting my ankle up onto another chair to ice and awaited him to answer my questions. We sat for a bit in silence before he spoke.

"How is your ankle?" He earnestly asked.

"Hurts, but I'll live" I giggled and then winced at the pain. I looked under the ice pack and saw the swelling wasn't too bad. "Do you know what is going on?" I demanded of him.

He inhaled deeply lifting his chest heavily up and down before he spoke. "Years ago this land belonged to the Cheyenne. My ancestors cared for her and treated her with respect. Over time colonizers arrived and took our world over as they did this everywhere. Eradicating us for their own personal gain. The land that would become Canada had our cousin tribes, that faced the same plight, had to flee to avoid persecution; some even lying about themselves to become other races," he put finger quotes over the word race, "Some grew hungry during the winters and struggled to find food. Over time, they changed into what we call the Wendigo. They ate their own kind to survive....you know, cannibals. They grow gaunt and have hearts of ice with razor sharp teeth and roam the land always craving the next meal. This is the legend that I was taught as a child. Over the last two decades I discovered turned out to be no legend." He took a sip of tea and stared deep into the cup looking for answers to questions that haunted him." It requires a witch to complete the transition, and they can control the ones they change. My guess is someone changed them and ordered them away from their ancestral land to protect their own but it's hard to know."

"How did you know to follow my dog?"

He looked up at me and locked gazes, "Her eyes" he sorrowfully responded.

I breathed in deep and my hands begun to shake. My dream of a simpler life was now getting complicated.

"If you don't mind I will spend the night here. It's not safe for me to drive away." I looked out the kitchen window and saw tons of the creatures in and around his truck studying it.

I nodded feeling relived someone would be here with me. "Why did you come here?" I wondered.

He refilled his cup of tea and topped mine off as well. He placed the pot back down and looked out the window checking on his truck.

"I heard of a new farm here- that some workers at the bar said was haunted at dusk. They described dark figures lurking around the trees that were hunched over and would stalk them if it got too late in the day. I came to see for myself."

I thought for a moment remembering how the workers always finished up an hour before sunset on the dot. They never set foot here without the sun. One man got severely injured on his leg had said someone tried to attack him and displayed deep bight marks on his shin. He never returned. But, that was months ago. It had been quiet here without incident.

He looked at me and relaxed his shoulders. "It's late, we should rest and sleep. We have much to discuss in the morning." With that he got up and walked over to the couch. I removed my ice pack and hobbled after him.

"I have a spare room all made up. You don't have to sleep here." I offered.

"No thank you. I want to be by Betsy, the windows and doors." He patted his shotgun and laid down on the couch fluffing a throw pillow before resting his hands on his chest.

I cleaned up and took his lead by putting myself to bed. I slept well that night feeling safe for the first time in years.

The next morning Plum woke me up with a barrage of kisses on my face. I could smell bacon being cooked and sizzle informing me to get out of bed.

I walked around the corner to find Plum sprinting over to the man in the kitchen and beg for bacon. He laughed and handed a slice to her. He looked over at me, "Coffee is ready."

Those were probably the three sexiest words anyone has ever uttered to me and I smiled when I got a cup. He had already set the table with a display of food. I sat and dug right in. He sat down and filled up his plate. Before he begun to eat, he spoke, "I am sorry I scared you yesterday showing up here unannounced. I'm sure you didn't mind after the fact, but I never introduced myself. I am Hohanonivah, but my friends call me Han."

Chocking on a little laugh, "Han? That's what they came up with?"

He smiled, "Yeah, my colonizer friends couldn't figure out my name and one of them proclaimed he would call me Han. He said I reminded him of Han Solo."

We laughed together. "What does the name mean?"

"Shield" he replied. He smiled at me and I grew a tad flushed. "What's yours?"

"You won't believe it, Leigh-Anne. I was called Leia a times myself."

He laughed for a bit and then went back to eating our food. We joked and laughed into the afternoon getting to know one another, it's easy with him. We both agreed that Star Wars nicknames had ruined our actual names, but we accepted it. There was no use in protesting that. He told me he had a dog for the last fifteen years he called Wolf, a mix between a Rottweiler and a Pit-bull which explained how Plum trusted Han; It also could have been because he saved us and fed her bacon in the morning. Either way she brought him toys and wanted attention which he gave happily .

Around four, he got some items from his truck. I followed out wrapped in my comfiest oversized sweater attempting to stay warm on an abnormally chilly evening.

"What are you getting out?" I asked as he dragged out bloody black trash bags, tobacco, and a drum.

He turned to me and became stoic. "For the Wendigo . I am going to attempt to appease them and with any luck drive them out. But, I don't know if it will work. I have uncooked, raw flesh in this bag and if they eat it, legend tells us they may return to their original form. Tobacco is an offering for the ancestors to protect you and the drum is for a small ceremony I have to do alone in the fields. I want to help you; my duty is to help you."

"Why? I appreciate it but why do you feel drawn to help me?"

He took out some rotten flesh dripping down the side of his truck and tied bits to his hitch. Plum ran over to smell the severed foot and growled. He paused gently reassuring her before he looked at me, "Because my ancestors once lived on this land. I have a duty to protect them and the people living here. The land was burned down to the ground when I was a child to purify and rid the land of the Wendigo. Now that they have returned I want to try something else in the hopes they will disappear again. Otherwise, I fear, they will continue."

I hurried inside and dug out my old walkie-talkies I had charging in a cabinet. I grabbed one for him and for me. Hustling back outside to give him one dread was looming above me, "Here, we can keep tabs on one another while you're out. If anything goes wrong you can call and I can come and get you."

He seemed endeared by this gesture and clipped it to his belt. He nodded and hopped in his truck heading toward my gazebo.

I patiently waited for hours with the walkie-talkie. Trying to keep my mind busy I watched t v, cleaned, and cooked. When those activities didn't work I tried sitting down and reading but found I studied the same sentence for twenty minutes. My mind drifted in and out of the moment while fidgeting with my sweatshirt ties staring blankly at the walls. It started with making the end knot bigger and then before I knew it, I had rows of knots heading toward my hoodie. My anxiety ridden fingers nervously fidgeted looking for purpose as it grew late.

Around eleven at night with no word from Han I was drifting off to sleep counting the bricks that laid around my fireplace. Han bursted through the door panicked. He was covered in blood, dirt, and sweat. Panting and noticeably exhausted he collapsed after entering. With hast I jumped up to help him inside locking the front door as Plum stood guard. She shifted focus to Han laying on the floor licking him profusely in an attempt to help. I helped him up and over to the couch in front of the fireplace. After settling him I ran into the kitchen to get whatever I needed to clean and cover his wounds; as Belle did tending to her Beast. He could barely open his eyes as I studied the markings on his skin with the worst one starting on his right hand leading up to his bicep. The thick cotton blue shirt was ripped and bloodied from the attack and a small river of blood trickled out drying on his arm hairs around it. I cleaned it as best I could as he winced and twisted. He was filthy.

"I'll draw you a bath," he didn't respond to my words.

After some finagling with the taps I got the claw foot tub full and filled it with Epsom salts for cleansing and some eucalyptus and rosemary essential to calm him. I went out to get him, and he was snoring like a freight train. I shrugged my shoulders and figured I shouldn't waste a good bath and treated myself to it.

As I sunk into my bath my thoughts drifted to an idyllic world where I was harvesting fruit trees and had a herd of dogs running around the property. It felt like heaven. Han's voice echoed in my dreams. He appeared heading toward me with his hair flowing in the wind smiling as the butterflies circled him. I smiled knowing this was going to be a lovely dream. I snuggled down into the tub more fixing the towel behind my head ready to see where this was going to take me. Back in my dream he approached me smiling and held out his hand. I gave it to him, and he pulled me into his arms and chest. He leaned toward my face like a and began to tenderly whisper into my ear-

"GET OUT, THEY'RE HERE"

My eyes flew open as Han stood panicked in the doorway of the bathroom. He locked our eye contact never breaking "HURRY!" With that he spun around and seconds later I could hear him firing the shotgun. I hustled up and dried off grabbing whatever clothing I had in the room. I ran out hair dripping with every step and Plum slipping and sliding on the floor behind me. As I entered into the living room, Han handed me his rifle.

"You ever shot one before?"

"Yes, once at a shooting-range before I moved out here."

He didn't seem impressed with that answer, "Remember not to close both eyes, keep them open." He checked the rifle to make sure the clip was fully loaded then gave it back to me. The sounds of the rifle burned in my ears as my blood pressure warmed my whole body.

Full of sadness he spoke, "I found Junior and Antonio in the fields mutilated." He shook his head and teared up. "I had a bucket of beers with them at the bar earlier in the week."

I stood staring at him hearing news of the men and froze. Then I heard the stomping on the patio boards outside of the house.

"There's at least ten of them if not more, this isn't normal. They don't travel in packs. They must have all ran out of access to food up north and traveled here." Han was visually shaken but determined to fight them off.

"Why not stop in a city and feed there?" genuinely wondering how they got down so far.

"I'm not sure. Maybe, the noise of the city scared them off?" He paused, "One version of the Wendigo legend is that when a man gets greedy he will turn dark, develop an insatiable appetite, and eventually change into one. This came about when colonizers came to our lands. It is possible they come from the city itself."

"What else should I know?" I was looking for any information I could use at this point.

"They are incredibly strong, tall, and nimble, but always gaunt and ash gray in color making them hard to see at night. Gun shots scare them off but I have no success in killing them with firearms- beheading is best. They will always be the personification of greed, gluttony, and excess with a voracious, unwavering hunger. They crave blood and flesh." He stopped and looked down at the ground. "I studied anthropology at school to solve some of these mysteries." He paused and appeared downtrodden while he peered out the window, "Some have no answers."

As I prepared for a battle beyond these walls, Plum readied her self at the door with teeth bared and ears pointed back. They began banging on the doors and windows like a scene out of The Walking Dead and I began to tremble. I tried to stay tough but looking at Han, he was trembling as well. Then I remembered my neighbor had a cattle farm behind us.

"What if we shot a cattle and used the blood as bait to appease them?"

Han paused and thought for a moment, "That might work for tonight. My meat may have not been fresh enough."

I grabbed my keys, and we ran out the back door. There behind the building was my old beat up civic that I prayed would turn on. The three of us piled inside and hoped for the best. As I tried to turn over the engine it sputtered and stopped. I fed the car gas and kept trying with the key to turn over the engine. We saw them creeping around the corner to see what the noise was. As they began to creep closer the car turned over and I dropped it into drive. We drove off and I hoped I wouldn't encounter anything the car couldn't handle. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw them following behind us. The field was uneven and rough but speed was giving us some advantage. As the car bumped left and right bottoming out from the small mounds we got closer to the Old man Robert's cattle farm.

"THERE!" Han pointed to the left and a lone cow was wandering the field seemingly lost. My stomach twisted and turned at the thought of sacrificing this poor cow minding its own business. I rationalized that either it's us or her. We drove up right next to her and let the creatures approach us. We wanted the blood to be fresh when they got close. Han pulled out his knife and put his hand on the cow's head. He whispered some sort of prayer as he ceremoniously raised the knife to the heifer's neck. She lowered her head and leaned her forehead into his with complete understanding and submission. My heart sunk into the ground as I saw him cut her throat open along her black patches with blood gushing everywhere onto the ground. She collapsed and Han followed suit. He closed her eyes taking a moment with her when I turned around to see the creatures nearly upon us.

"We have to go" I urgently snapped. "She sacrificed herself for us to live one more day. Come." I kept looking back to see them approaching at a record pace.

He got up, and we rushed into the car as they got to the cow while some banged on the side of the car as they approached. Their bodies were so heavy they dented the car as they hit it scrambling to get a good angle on the cow. My side mirror broke off with a kick and the passenger mirror was hanging on by a wire. The roof was dented in from one jumping and walking across the top. When they finished assaulting my car I drove around the field to face the heifer, and we could see them grotesquely feasting. We counted eight of them, but we didn't know where the rest were. I drove away refusing to look back in the review mirror and see the carnage.

We parked back up behind the door and got back inside. We checked the whole house to see if any creature got in and once we were sure, Han locked all the doors while I secured the windows. Both of us sat in the living room with Plum by the fire holding our guns ready for another battle. Han settled into the couch with the pillow folded under his head and I curled up in my oversized, circular reading chair. Staring at the fire hypnotically I drifted off to sleep.

When morning came, it shown aggressively through the windows demanding we wake up. The sun was so bright it hit my eyes and at once gave me a pre-coffee headache. My stomach was a mess and the kink in my neck didn't help matters. I rubbed my neck and pushed myself out of the chair.

"Coffee?" I groggily asked.

Han nodded with his eyes closed.

I went to make the coffee. I pulled out the milk and sugar solely working on auto pilot rubbing my eyes often trying to wake up. As I put the filter and ground coffee into its basket I heard the front door creak open.

"You better come see this" Han yelled over to me. I let the coffee drip away and wandered over to the front door. He was stopped in his tracks. There on the patio were baskets full of pears covering every inch of the boards. Han stood amongst them as I stood in the door shocked at what I was looking at. He spun around where he was and looked down the staircase intent on retrieving something.

"They left a calling card" Han held up a cow leg and ear tag to show me. I clasped my hands over my mouth and couldn't believe it. The Wendigo picked all the fruit as thanks?! That would have been beyond what I could have imagined. Han looked at the fruit and the body parts in astonishment. He was not sure what to make of it.

"I have never heard of them giving thank you gifts." He paused and looked at the limb he held in his hand then winced and dropped the leg. I saw him trace the cut wounds with his left hand over the dried and coagulated blood. He drifted into a trance seemingly remembering what had happened. As his fingers glided over the skin my stomach dropped.

"Let me look at that again"

Breaking the trance he came back inside still staring at the claw track marks sitting on his arm. I looked at his arm seeing the dirt, blood, and cow hairs globing onto his skin. Looking at the rest of him I saw the events of the earlier days still clinging to his body. "You should probably shower" I suggested.

He nodded and I got him set up. Plum was outside inspecting the limb and tag laying on the ground while Han was inside getting a much-needed cleaning, and I was outside still taking inventory of the harvest on my porch. I needed to sell them before they turned and hadn't planned on a haul like this. Pulling out my phone I dialed the local grocery store and begun pitching my pears to people. After about forty-five minutes I had most of them off-loaded to the local grocers, pharmacies, bakers, and restaurants. I pulled up my truck, grabbed my straw hat, and began loading them into the bed to get them delivered when Han walked out. His hair twisted up into a wet bun but I could smell my shampoo on him. I began to flush again. It had been so long since I had been in any relationship of any kind I felt flustered and tried my hardest to keep myself composed.

"Need help?" He sweetly asked.

As matter-of-factly as I could speak, "Yeah, loading up half of the haul to sell around town. Need to move it before it goes bad." I was hoping to get the red out of my face before he got closer but tilted my hat down a bit more on my face.

He smiled and begun lifting baskets in the back. "Thanks for the shower." Plum ran circles around his feet excited to help and my body fluttered at the thought of him in the shower.

Composing myself, "How is your arm?"

"It's okay. Best to keep an eye on it.

I worried if he was contaminated in any way and with every basket loaded I got more and more concerned. What if him getting scratched would start the change? He had never mentioned that possibility before. Without looking at him placing a pear basket down I asked, "Will you be okay? Is there a chance-"

"Maybe" His voice was somber and monotone.

I turned to look at the man who stood before me worried he would be unrecognizable. My heart filled with grief as he looked consumed by that question.

"I will do my best to treat it the way my ancestors have. With any luck I can reduce any changes. My grandmother was a healer and passed down generations of knowledge that I hope to draw upon." He turned and grabbed the last basket and loaded it up closing the tail gate behind it. Then he turned to me so close I could smell my soap on his skin. "I will help you get this under control and then figure myself out. Let's go." He double patted the truck and went around to the passenger door helping Plum into the back seat. I stood frozen in my body for a long moment before I loaded myself up into the drivers seat, and we headed off together to sell the fruits of their labor.

We returned hours later exhausted as the sun was setting in the late afternoon, and we were famished from the work. With more baskets still left on the porch, I looked at it all knowing I needed to call around the neighboring towns tomorrow to move them. I had ten more bushels of pears to get rid of but I needed to relax first. We headed inside and Han wandered into the kitchen and begun shuffling through the cupboards. I filled up Plum's food bowl and turned around to see Han making PB&J's for us. I giggled to myself and he turned around.

"What?"

"Very adult of you making these sandwiches." He locked eyes with me and put one in his mouth while handing me the other. It tasted so good I couldn't help by being absorbed in the texture of the peanut butter as it stuck to the roof of my mouth as the jelly attempted to aid in its removal. He went over to the fridge and pulled out the milk and poured us both a glass. It felt nice to have someone in the house with me. I didn't feel so alone.

Breaking the silence, "Do we need to kill another cow tonight?"

"I doubt it; last night's should suffice for them tonight. But soon we will need something with more..." he paused looking for the right word, "piquancy. They don't typically eat cattle." I dreaded the innuendo .

I wandered outside and sat down on the porch looking out on my harvested fields. Wondering how they even knew how to pick fruit I drifted into my own overthinking. Han came out with a couple glasses of whiskey and handed me one snapping me out of it.

"To take the edge off." He sat down next to me in my old squeaky, wooden Adirondack chairs letting his hair down to finish drying. "How's your ankle?"

"I had forgotten about it," rotating my foot in circles checking to see if I could feel anything. "Nope, still hurts but nothing I can't handle." I took a sip of my whiskey to numb the forgotten pain. He gazed at me and smirked.

We sat outside chatting for hours about where he came from, his life, how he mixed his ancestry with his life now. Plum laid at our feet fast asleep and feeling content with the day, and we could see she was chasing something in her dreams. We chatted till the sun began to set and the cool air settled in. Han got up and grabbed the guns and a blanket for me before he sat back down on the porch with the half full bottle of whiskey. He gave me the blanket with a sweet smile before he refilled our glasses.

After charming idle hours of chit chat and story telling we decided that nothing was happening and went inside. We locked up as safe as we did the night before, and we both went to bed. Tonight, Han at least used the spare room. Plum insisted she laid down in the hallway between the to the rooms in her effort to protect us both. That night I slept deeply without disturbance.

The following morning I got up to the smell of coffee brewing and grabbed my robe to wander out to the kitchen. I saw Han with his hair flowing about mulling around the kitchen. He turned around and I noticed his skin color was beginning to change. Loosing its red undertones his skin was replacing it with ashy blues and grays. I noticed his height had begun to change as well, he was taller now by a couple inches and his fingers had become elongated. I gasped and began to tear with fear and sadness.

"You're changing" I quietly uttered.

"I know" he despondently agreed. He gestured to the kitchen table and I walked over trying to hide my tears. He cooked steak and eggs. My steak cooked a perfect medium rare but his was seared sitting in its own pool of blood with the runniest egg I had ever seen. He scarfed it down following by drinking the blood left on the plate. I watched in morbid curiosity. He wiped his mouth with the side of his hand and looked at me. He licked his lips and tried to collect himself hiding the animal he now had inside. There was nothing to say at this point as I collected the plates and put them in the sink for wash.

Han got up and walked over to me. He stood towering next to me and I could still smell my soap perfuming off his skin. He looked down into my eyes and I lost myself in his. In a gentle moment he leaned in and kissed me. His lips slightly chapped and his breath smelled of peppered blood but, I didn't care, I wanted to live in this moment enveloped by my senses. When Han pulled away he kept his eyes closed for a moment longer than myself and I could study his face without hindrance.

"I wanted to do that before---" He stopped himself unable to finish his sentence. I put my hand on his cheek and smiled pulling him back in for another kiss. We stood there in our dream moment taking in the smell of steak floating in the air, the cool breeze chilling the room, the birds chirping outside celebrating the sun, and warmth of the sun streaming in through the window. Then Plum started to bark at the front door braking our moment of heaven. I headed over and opened it to find all my farm hands standing stupefied holding up a human arm and handed it to me.

"This is Riggo's. That's three in four days plus that cow carcass outback. What's going on?" They stood there stoically looking for answers. Han came up behind me from the other side of the door with his skin tone at little more red now after his steak. The blood drew out of their faces at the statuesque frame of Han. They looked at the arm and looked at him studying his hands, height, and appearance.

"WENDIGO!!!!" The Native American farm hand, Jack, yelled out causing the rest to scream. They ran away to their old pick-up truck and piled in. Jack screamed back, "We are not coming back to this haunted place, and we'll spread the word." Francisco, a short puerto rican man was the last one to jump in. He looked back at me with apologetic eyes and mouth sorry. He shed a tear before hopping into the passenger side of the truck. I watched as all my farm hands drove away.

"Shit!" I blurted out.

I walked back into the kitchen furiously looking for the whiskey to add to my coffee. I was furious and scared at the prospect that I wouldn't be able to tend to my trees the way they needed to be cared for. Slamming the cabinet doors harder every time it didn't offer my whiskey didn't feel as satisfying as I had hoped.

Meanwhile, Han stood in the doorway unmoved. I slammed the last cabinet door closed frustrated that I couldn't find what I wanted.

"Are you going to help?" I barked at him on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Han calmly walked into the kitchen where I sat on the floor protesting life like a four-year-old. "Well... There might be a solution staring us right in the face." He reached his hand down to help me up and I obliged. He led me to the porch where Riggo's arm lay unapologetic. I walked over and stood next to poor Riggo with his torn red flannel shirt dripping in blood. Yet another limb dropped on my porch and I had no idea how to fix this. At this rate I would need a cemetery out back on the fields to keep up with the carnage.

Han bent down, picked up the arm and studied it while sitting on the porch steps with his increasingly long legs jutting out in front of him. He then abruptly got up and went around the side of the house. I followed him wondering what he might be seeing or thinking. There he focused in on the empty plot of land. "You have unused field that would be perfect for a herd of cattle. What do you think?"

Recognizing what he meant my hopeless feelings began to shift,"I guess I don't have much of a choice anymore." I stared down at the arm in Han's hands, and he wrapped his free arm around me leaning his head on mine.

"I can control them and myself as well. I can make this work, but I will need help. Give me a little time."

Putting my hands around his now higher waistline I still felt safe with him even though he was shifting into some different version human; I had to try, I was in too deep now. He kissed the top of my head, and we dejectedly walked back into the house. I knew the cattle wouldn't be enough all the time but there wasn't much more I could do at the moment.

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A year later I rested my hand on my growing belly feeling for the baby's kick on the porch while I sipped my lemonade splashed with O negative blood. I wondered what kind of child it would be and had to deal with a savage craving for blood as well as pickles and onions. I sipped on my mock-tail and saw Plum training our new black and white cattle dog in the back. Plum and Ronnie kept the cattle sequestered, and he had a good nose for finding the animals that were on death's door. I had begun buying the rejected or abandoned cattle, horses, or any farm animal that were not purchased at the end of an auction. The town thought I was a good Samaritan saving animals from slaughter houses and euthanasia. We never corrected them. In reality, we were feeding them to our little growing pack of rabid humanoids.

Han had found a way to control his full transition through herbal teas, eating raw meats, and with the aid of Nadie. From time to time he would feast with the fully transformed Wendigos that now lived on our farm as rescues. Since some no longer were filled with gluttony and greed they begun to slightly revert to a personality resembling a human and able to help direct the other more primal beings. Han had ventured to the Cree territory in Canada and found the woman, Nadie, well versed in native magic. We offered to move her onto our land and built the house of her dreams, in exchange she prevented Han's full transformation and helped to control our rabid workers. Once a month Han would go out of town and find some poor homeless people and bring them back to the farm to 'work' for the week. They were that month's treat for the workers.

My pears flourished and my business became more and more profitable. I bought more land and planted plum, cherry, peach, and nectarine trees. The permanent night crew knew every night there was a pen where an animal or two would tantalizingly await them. Then every morning the trucks would be filled with fresh picked fruit, and they would rest.

"Atim Plum is wise. She teaches with honor and kindness," said to me as we sipped lemonade on the porch.

"Atim? What does that mean?"

"Dog. I can teach you Algonquin if you'd like. It may aide in your communication with the workers."

"I'd like that" I looked out onto the fields and saw Han walking toward me. He was a sight to behold now. Han had grown a foot taller during his travels to find Nadie, now standing over seven feet tall. She agreed to stop his transformation in its tracks when she saw how hard he clung to his humanity and the story he told her. She turned his teeth back to normal after they begun to yellow and sharpen. His nails had to be trimmed almost every day since they grow into claws overnight and his tongue grew long and dexterous. His eyesight had grown sharp at night and thankfully they didn't glow and his complexion stayed mostly ashy with hints of pink. Yet, I still found myself entranced by him and his determination to stay as human as possible. He read voraciously to keep his mind sharp but his new hunting instincts were hard to hold back. That simpler life I had dreamed of had gotten complicated but at least this time I didn't want to run away.

As I gazed on my dreamy man another truck pulled up with his mother shrouded in an ornatley beaded cloak and a medicine woman of their local tribe. I was due any day now and needed all the help I could get. He greeted her warmly, and they began to walk toward the freshly painted house that Han had been renovating far better than myself.

I took another sip of my lemonade and began to stand up when I felt a sharp contraction. Buckling over in pain I looked down to find my water broken pouring out on the wooden beams washing some of the old blood stains away. I looked at Nadie who was already at her feet heading inside to get her tools as Han, his mother, and the medicine woman began to rush to my side. I head Han's heavy boots as he stomped up the stairs quickly followed by his hands on my back helping me up. Without hearing a sound his mother and medicine woman's feet appeared in my view point. They helped me to keep me standing straight as the next contraction began to set in.

"They're too close" the Medicine woman declared.

"Get her inside, the tub is ready" Nadie beckoned from inside.

"I've got you" Han said comforting taking over for the ladies. One of us had to keep our head cool; I was about to push out something wholly unknown. Behind us I could hear his mother chanting a song I couldn't understand, but I was thankful for any blessing or luck. Behind her the Wendigo begun to gather around the house curious to witness the birth. His mother kept them standing on the perimeter as I was ushered inside.

Stumbling inside I realized it was time to meet our little rascal, whatever it would be.