Part 1

In a small remote village; there is a farm. A small farm in a beautiful valley full of green trees, and sweet smelling flowers. This small village lives only a handful of people. Most of them used to live in the city, but they are now miles away from the busy life. Even though everyone is far from luxuries and convenience, they are all happy.

In the farm, lives a small family and some animals cared for by the owner. The farm is relatively small, with only limited space for growing crops and raising animals. Times are usually tough, and money is sometimes tight. But the family is always happy and cheerful living in there.

Early in the morning, the alarm clock bell rings waking up the young farmer. Farms are usually kept by a man, and the wife cares for the children. But in this family, the roles are reversed. The farmer in this tale is a young lady; her name is Lillith. As she slams her hands on the alarm clock to silence it, she stands up to greet the early Summer morning. The first thing she does every morning is glance at her mirror and takes a good look at herself.

In the mirror, she takes a look into her light violet eyes. There are bags under them which shows that she had a rough evening the night before. She knows that the work is rough, but she still does her best every single day despite how tired she is. After all, the farm is a gift left behind by her late father. Lillith and her father were very close, so she believes that doing her best in the farm will make him happy in heaven.

She picks up a brush, and starts to comb her long brunette hair. Over the years that she has worked, she can notice some damage from dirt and sweat from the work she has put in. Her appearance is still important to her, even though she was called tomboyish ever since she was only a child.

As she combs her hair, her husband wakes up and takes a good look at his wife. He smiles as he watches her get ready for another day on the job. Countless times he offered to help, but Lillith knows how clumsy and irresponsible her husband is. Rather than work on the farm, he takes care of their only child that sleeps on it's own bed.

He gets up from the bed, and slowly walks toward Lillith trying to surprise her. It doesn't take long before she sees his medium-short blond hair from the Mirror. She giggles, but continues to brush her hair like if nothing is going to happen. She knows that he is coming to embrace her, and give her a kiss good morning. She just continues to brush her hair, and waits for it.

He quickly wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her behind the ear. Lillith is very ticklish, so she wriggles around as her husband shows some affection to his wife. This is probably his best quality that Lillith finds attractive about him. He may be an odd man, but Lillith appreciates a man that can make her laugh early in the morning to start her day. His young looking face, blond smooth hair, and light amber eyes are also features that Lillith likes about him.

Lillith pushes him away playfully before telling him, “Rock, come on, stop it! I have to get ready!”

Rock smiles as he looks deep in his wife's eyes. She blushes light pink on her cheeks. They have only been married a short time, but she still feels embarrassed when he looks at her that way. “Come on Lillie, why do I have to stop? You know you like it when I hug you from behind,” he reminds her.

Lillith smiles, then closes her eyes to receive her morning kiss. Rock shows little hesitation to hold her warm rosy cheeks, and press his lips against hers. They spend a good moment kissing in the middle of the bedroom, they are very close, but Rock tends to get a little greedy with his affection. Using the brush in her hand, she uses it to slap her husband's bare chest. Naturally, this is a sign for him to let go already.

After releasing her, she tell him, “Okay, that's enough buster! I need to take a nice shower now. Put on a shirt, then wake up Toby, and get him ready.” Rock smiles and walks over to their child's bed to wake him. Lillith may be a little bit bossy towards her family, but she means well. After all, she does work every day to earn the money with few days off every year. Rock happily follows any order shouted by his wife without asking questions or complaints.

Lillith heads over to the bathroom as Rock wakes up their son from his peaceful sleep. Little Toby grunts a bit before waking up, but he smiles cheerfully after seeing his father's face. Toby inherited many of his father's traits as opposed to his mother. He has blond hair and amber eyes just like Rock does. Toby also has a similar personality to his father, but that only means that Lillith laughs twice as many times while she is home.

Lillith walks into the bathroom, and takes off her night gown to take her morning bath. The water is cold, but she needs a refreshing cool shower to wake her up. Hot water is tough to get in the valley, but she has been able to get used to the changes. Her shampoo and soap are especially imported to keep her hair and skin as smooth and healthy as possible. She then steps out of the shower, and brushes her teeth. She knows that she needs to spend more time preparing herself, but she doesn't have much time to do much. After all, the animals and crops in the farm do not wait for her to get fully prepared in the morning.

As soon as her teeth are brushed, she wraps her body with a towel, and walks out. Rock and their son waits outside the bathroom every morning for Lillith to get done her morning cleaning. As Lillith bursts out of the bathroom, she stops to say to Rock, “Be sure that Toby brushes his teeth, and clean behind his ears! Make sure that soap doesn't get in his eyes, and try not to play in there! Took me an hour to clean up yesterday morning!”

Rock nods, and carries their son into the bathroom for their morning bath. Lillith then runs over to the bedroom, and starts looking through the drawers for some clothing. Since it's Summer, she wears her marble colored shirt, white pants, and white sneakers. She then ties an apron around her waist for carrying seeds and small tools. On the dresser, she grabs her favorite gloves that she uses so that her delicate hands don't get too dirty. Then she grabs a scrunchie, and ties her hair back into a ponytail. She looks into the mirror again, and cheers lightly at herself, she is now ready to tackle the day head on!

In the kitchen, She starts to prepare breakfast for her family. She is not a very good cook, but she can handle simple items such as eggs and toast. Since Rock is from a family who runs an Inn, they eat out a lot. Lillith doesn't want to trouble Rock's parents too much, so she tries her best in the kitchen. As she is placing the food on the table, Rock and Toby rushes out of the bathroom shivering from the cold water. They quickly jet over to the bedroom where they can change into some comfortable clothing.

Lillith sits in the table, and waits for the family to finish changing. After a few minutes, Rock comes back into the kitchen carrying Toby in his arms. Unlike Lillith, Rock feels more comfortable wearing old fashioned clothing; roughly from the 1970's era. He wears a blue shirt with golden bands on the waist and wrist. Over his shirt, he has a sleeveless jacket, which Lillith always finds odd because it's far too warm for jackets. He also wears a pair of bleach white khakis, and over-sized brown platform shoes. Around his neck is a medallion made out of fake gold. Lillith laugh as his taste in clothing never changes.

Luckily, their son is dressed a bit more modern than his father. Even though the white hat with blue and green criss-cross stripes is a bit unusual, but customary for the village. He is also wearing a white shirt with cute paw prints, and overalls with star shaped cut-outs in the knee area. Matching light blue booties complete the set.

Everyone is seated on the table and Lillith says grace before eating their breakfast. This is usually the time where Lillith and Rock spend time talking about the daily activities of the day before. What they did, what has their son been doing, what can they do to better in the farm, and how can they better raise their son. Toby just sits and eats his breakfast.

After their meal, Lillith runs out of the house to start her daily work in the farm. But she stops to say, “bye bye Rock. Bye bye Toby. Love you! See you later this afternoon!”

“Bye mommy!” said Toby in his high pitched voice. Toby is four years old already, so he has already learned to speak some words. Rock does his best to teach his son, but he is not the greatest teacher either. Sometimes he needs help from his mother at the inn to properly teach and raise Toby. But as long as their son is happy, they both are happy as well.

The first place Lillith hits is the barn full of animals. Of all the places in the farm, this is the most difficult and time consuming area to work. After the years she owned the farm, Lillith already owns two cows, a bull, a horse, a sheep, and a goat. There is also a calf in the hutch outside in the pasture. Lillith wants to keep it, but sadly she has to sell it to make some extra money.

She begins by filling each bin full of fodder for the day. The cows eat more fodder than the other animals, so they need to be fed twice a day. As each animal is eating, Lillith takes the moment of tranquility to brush the coats of each animal. They all make happy sounds as they are brushed. After eating, Lillith then begins to milk the cows. One of the cows only gives mother's milk for the calf outside. This puts a strain in the profits, but she'll manage.

After the milking, she rushes over to the storage room to put the milk in the refrigerator. In the storage room, she collects her share of the profits left by her assistant Takakura. There isn't a lot of money in there, but surely enough to feed and clothe her family. She then takes some notes for Takakura to read, and jogs back to the barn to continue with her work.

Back in the barn, she opens the huge barn doors that lead into the pasture. She then pushes a red button outside the barn to ring a bell that calls all the animals outside. Even though they get fed inside, the animals need to be let outside for some fresh grass and sunlight. She takes advantage of the fact that the animals are outside to clean up the barn in the inside.

Inside the barn, Lillith uses a shovel to pick up droppings left by the animals. She is glad that she has a fertilizer maker installed into the barn to turn the useless animals waste into something useful. Afterwards, she steps out of the barn to collect the fertilizer bags made by the machine. It doesn't smell too good, but she uses it to make better harvests.

By now, the animals are done, and she can start with something easier. She heads over to the tool shed, and grabs her watering can so that she can water the crops. Since it's Summer, the crops can dry out very easily. If Lillith isn't careful, the crops can die. But Lillith is responsible enough to make sure that doesn't happen. She first checks the trees for any fruit; nothing ripe yet. She then moves on to the crops in the next field over. With her watering can full of water, she moistens the dirt at the bases of the plants. She smiles as the crops grow healthy and the fruit is close to ripening.

Just as she is finishing watering the crops, Takakura passes by the field looking for her. He waves his arm grabbing her attention. Lillith then places her watering can on the ground, and jogs over to Takakura to see what he wants. Takakura is an older man in his late 50's. Unlike Lillith, Takakura doesn't pay much attention to his appearance. His jet black hair is not combed, and his eyebrows are exaggeratedly huge. His shirt and pants are dirty, and his black working boots are old and worn. He had a back injury when he was younger, so he walks with a slouch. Despite his appearance, he is a hard worker. He delivers Lillith's crops and produce to the nearest town and builds anything that is needed in the farm.

“Pardon me Lillith, but your chicken yard is ready,” he said in his stern deep voice.

“Really? Wow, that was fast! Can I put my chickens out already?” Takakura nods at Lillith. She then thanks him for the hard work, and marches over to the chicken coop to move her hens over to the chicken yard.

Before going inside the chicken coop, she takes a look at the yard Takakura built for her. She nods seeing that the fences are well built and sturdy for years to come. She then continues inside the coop and checks out the chickens. Inside, she finds four of her best hens pecking at the dirt looking around for scraps of food. Usually, Lillith would feed them chicken feed. But since they will be in the yard eating worms, Lillith will no longer need to feed them as long as the weather is fair.

She grabs a hen and carries it out to the yard. As soon as she gently places it on the ground, she hears a loud crashing noise coming from nearby. Curious to know what happened, she ran to the source of the noise. Near the chicken coop, there was an old shed that was locked away and never used. It has now fallen apart, and crashed into the ground by it's own weight.

“Oh geez, looks like this old building finally came down!” she said. She then starts to inspect the wood pile looking for any traces of what might have been inside. But she finds nothing in the end. She places her hands on her hips as she says, “Well, nobody was using this place anyway. I might as well chop up the wood, and use it for firewood. This will heat the water, and I can have a warm shower for a while!” Happy to see a useless building go down, she runs to her tool shed where she looks for a something that she can use.

In the shed, she pulls out an ax from a metal box. Since chopping down trees in the valley is illegal, she never had a chance to use it. Now she feels that it's a perfect excuse to use the ax. She places it on her shoulder and carries it like a lumberjack towards the wreckage. She whistles a nice tune as she imagines herself in a warm shower tomorrow morning. But she gasps, and drops her ax as soon as she notices something unusual. The building that came down only moments ago is now standing again.

She runs over to check on the locked shed. She cannot find any signs that the old building ever falling down. She tries to push the walls, but the wood is strong enough to last many more years. She scratches her head trying to make sense out of the shed. A moment ago, it fell over. After she turned her back, it reconstructed itself.

“Is everything okay?” asked Takakura surprising her from behind.

She quickly turns a round gasping out of shock. After taking a few deep breaths, she answers, “nothing, everything is okay.” She knows for certain that the shed came crashing down a few minutes ago. She takes another glance at the sturdy unused shed, and then she asks Takakura, “hey, did you hear a loud crashing sound a few minutes ago? Like when a building collapsing?”

Takakura raised his right eyebrow unsure how to answer her question. “No, I don't think so. Did something happen?”

Lillith paused a moment before saying, “no, it was just my imagination I guess.”

Takakura then nods, and returns to his work seeing that everything is fine. Lillith spends a few minutes staring at the shed before leaving to feed the chickens. She wanted to move all the chickens outside, but she changed her mind. She wanted the chickens to be safe in case the shed breaks apart again.

After her work is done, she returns home to her family. After spending some quality time, she begins to cook dinner. During dinner, she asks Rock if he has heard anything unusual lately. Rock shakes his head no, and everything was quiet since she left. After dinner, she goes back to the barn to move all the animals back inside.

The next day, Lillith repeats her daily morning routine, and heads over to the barn for her work. After dealing with all the large animals, she grabs her watering can, and moves over to the plants for their daily watering. But as she walks to the crops, Takakura passes by her. He stops and tells Lillith, “hey, wait a second! I need to tell you that I just finished your chicken yard!”

Lillith suddenly stops. She then turns around slowly looking at Takakura. She thought he was kidding at first, but he has a very serious face. She looks hard at him while saying, “Takakura. . . Didn't you get finished with the chicken yard yesterday?”

Takakura raises an eyebrow to her question. He has no clue what she's talking about. “Um, no. I just finished the finishing touches today.”

“But you said that you were finished yesterday! I even asked if I could put the chickens out, and you nodded!” she yelled with a panicked tone.

“No, I don't remember anything like that.” Takakura's answer stuns her. She could have sworn that Takakura told her that the yard was already finished yesterday. Now he is telling her that it's finished today. He is not the type to play practical jokes, so Lillith begins to feel that he might be going senile.

After a moment, Takakura smirks believing that he may have understood why Lillith would ask him something so odd. He walks up to her, and places his hand on her shoulder saying, “I get it now. Rock put you up to this, right? After all, if the yard was completed yesterday, there would be chickens in the yard today.” Lillith shakes her head no, but he is not convinced. “I know that Rock feels that I should retire, but I'm alright. I still have plenty of years left in me, so you don't have to worry. Okay?”

“But. . . But. . .” Before allowing her to speak, Takakura turns around, and returns to his house which is within the farm. Lillith just stands there staring at him. She knows for certain that he finished yesterday, but he may just be acting odd. She then takes a deep breath, and heads to the chicken yard for a second inspection.

At the chicken yard, she doesn't notice any changes at all. She thought that maybe he painted the fence, or cleaned out some crab grass. But there is absolutely no changes at all. She places a hand on her hip, and she scratches her head with the other in utter confusion. Afterwards, she nods, and decides to talk to Takakura later about his actions. Now she needs to move all the chickens outside.

She walks over to the chicken coop, and opens the door to begin moving the hens. However, as soon as she opens the door, she sees that none of the chickens are in the coop. She gasps and takes a quick look around, but sees nothing. The food from yesterday is completely gone, so she thinks that they must have left the coop recently. She knows that she closed the door yesterday, so she has no idea how they got out. Rather than asking questions, she begins walking around the farm calling out the names of the hens hoping they will return if they hear her voice.

As this is happening, Rock walks out of the house taking in some fresh Summer air. After taking a deep breath, he hears Lillith's voice across the pasture calling out the names of her chickens. Curious to know what's going on, he follows her. He creeps up behind her, and says, “Lillie, is everything okay?”

She jumps in shock after hearing Rock's voice so suddenly. She then turns to face him saying, “oh Rock, you startled me.” Rock nods waiting for an answer to his question. Lillith then says, “It's the chickens! They are not in the coop! I don't know how they escaped, but they got out on their own!”

“Calm down. It's going to be okay. Do you need help looking for them?” Lillith nods, and then he joins her in the search for the missing hens.

They both check near and inside every building in the farm looking hard for the chickens. No matter how hard they look, they can’t find any traces of them. They don’t find any evidence that the chickens had even left the coop, not even tracks left behind. After an hour, Lillith starts to worry that they may have left the farm. So she starts to walks out the farm to ask the locals if they have seen any stray chickens around.

Just before she leaves, Rock decides to look in the coop himself. “Lillie! Come here a second!” he called gaining her attention.

She walks back over to the coop saying, “yes Rock? What's going on?” Rock points into the open door of the coop. She walks over, and takes a look inside. In the coop, all of the chickens are there pecking at the dirt waiting to be fed. She then hugs rock saying, “Oh, thank you Rock, you found them! I knew I could trust in you!”

Rock scratches his head and answers, “but I didn't find them. They were already here.”

“What?” asked Lillith giving Rock a worrisome face. “They were already here? But that can't be, they were not here an hour ago!”

“Well, they’re here now.” answered Rock. Lilith then runs into the coop to check for any cracks or openings in case they came back in on their own. But she finds nothing. Rock worries about her, but he smiles and gives her a kiss on the cheek. He then tells her, “Don't worry about it so much. As long as the chickens are back, that's all that matters.”

Lillith looks at her smiling husband’s face and starts to feel more relaxed. She nods, believing in the words spoken by him. He kisses her on the cheek again, and returns home to check on Toby. Since the chickens are back in the coop, Lillith begins to move them outside.

She grabs the first hen and takes it outside into the chicken yard. Watching the hen peck at the dirt looking for worms makes her feel good about herself. After sighing, she goes back to the coop to get the other hens. But as soon as she opens the door, the chickens are gone once again.

She looks around in utter confusion. She feels that they might be hiding somewhere in the coop, which would explain why did she think they were missing earlier. She looks around, but she doesn't find them, she cannot even hear their clucking. Thinking they might have escaped again, she walks outside to look for them. As soon as she does, she hears them clucking.

She looks over to the chicken yard, and sees that they are all now there. She jumps back in panic, she is sure that she only put one chicken out. Now they are all out without any logical explanation. It's not possible for the chickens to escape, and enter the yard on their own. The fence is too tall to jump.

She looks back into the coop, and finds it empty. She stands there trying to make sense out of the odd things that has happened. First, the shed collapses, then rebuilds itself. Now the chickens are vanishing, and reappearing. After a while, she just pretends that those events never happened, so she leaves the coop. But then, she finds something else unusual. Lillith has two ducks that always swim in the pond that she had built in the pasture. Now they have vanished, she knows she saw them earlier while she was caring for the larger animals.

She stood there for a long minute thinking about where they might have gone. But as she was thinking, she hears something unusual coming from the inside of the coop. She can hear some quacking, but the thing that worries her is the abnormal amount of quacking she is hearing. She only owns two ducks, but she is hearing the quacks of over a dozen different ducks coming from inside the coop.

Worried about what she may find inside, she slowly grabs onto the handle, and opens carefully. She takes a look inside which causes her eyes to widen and her pupils to dilate. Inside the coop, she sees not a dozen ducks, but over a hundred ducks fighting each other over space. Her eye and cheek twitches as she witnesses the illogical event that defies even the laws of physics.

She slowly closes the door and stands still like a statue. She wants to call for help, but she doesn't know who to call. She doesn't even know where so many ducks came from, but all she knows that they are in there now.

“Is something the matter?” asked Takakura. His sudden voice shocks her enough to scream. She quickly turns around, and looks at him. She is breathing heavily, and there is a look on her face that gives Takakura the impression that she has seen a ghost. “What's wrong? Are you feeling well?”

Lillith wants to say something, but she notices that the quacking has completely ceased. She takes another look into the coop, and sees nothing inside. The unusual flock of ducks has now vanished into thin air. She turns around to look at her pond, and finds the two ducks swimming around like nothing unusual happened.

“No, everything is okay.” she answered. She had to say something, Takakura was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. She never mentioned that the chickens had vanished earlier, or that the ducks had multiplied earlier in seconds. Neither did she bring up the falling of the shed yesterday.

“Well, if everything is fine, then I'm worrying for nothing. But I still think you should take it easy kid.” He pats her on the head, then returns to his house. Lillith never found out why did Takakura leave his house in the first place, but she knows that she has more important things to worry about. She takes another look into the coop, but she finds nothing unusual again.

Lillith continues to do her work normally. But as she worked, she keeps looking hard at the coop and shed seeing if anything has changed. He also looks at the chickens and ducks, and they have not changed either. Since nothing else has happened, she goes home after everything is done. Rather than worry Rock about the events of the day, she doesn't say anything about it to him. She only hopes that nothing else odd happens.

The next day, Lillith does her daily morning routine, and goes of to work. She walks calmly to the barn, and opens the door to greet the animals for the day. But after opening the door, the expression of her face changes, and her eyes dilates once again. A moment later, she screams. A scream so loud that even the most distant neighbors from all around the valley wakes up from it. A loud ear piercing scream that lasts more than 20 seconds long. After she no longer has any air in her lungs, she slams the door shut, and presses her back against it like if she is blocking something from coming out.

Rock rushes out of the house after hearing Lillith scream. He finds her pressed against the door breathing heavily, and skin as pale as the milk she drinks. He runs up to her yelling, “Lillie! Lillie! What's wrong!? Why did you scream!?”

Hearing her husband gives her a quick feeling of relief. She runs to him, and crashes into his arms yelling, “Rock! Rock! I was so scared! It's the animals! Something happened to them!”

“Something happened? What?”

“It was so freaky! Bess the cow was walking on the walls! Laura the other cow was walking on the ceiling! Koni the horse was walking in mid air! Ben the bull was over 10 feet tall! Sean the sheep was only 10 inches tall! and Barbara the goat was lying dead on the floor! What's happening to the farm?!”

Rock could not believe what he is hearing, but Lillith is very upset about what she saw. So he bravely walks over to the barn and take a look inside for himself. Lillith walks behind him cringing in fear. She knows that the animals themselves are no threat. But something happened to the animals, and the force that is doing it is what's scaring her. She fears that whatever it is, it has to do with the strange events of the past two days.

Rock grabs the handle of the door, and opens it quickly. Lillith closes her eyes in fear. But she opens them slowly taking a quick peek at what is inside. In the barn, all the animals has returned to normal. All the cows and the horse are on the ground like normal. The bull and sheep are normal size again. And the goat is alive and healthy.

“I don't see anything wrong with the animals,” said Rock.

“But, but, but, but! But they were like I said only a moment ago! You have to believe me! It was like aliens were here or something like that!” screamed Lillith in a serious tone. Rock takes another look at Lillith. By the look on her face, she isn't lying. He knows that she did see something. But he feels that she may be exhausted, and only imagined what she saw.

Rock takes a deep breath, and tells her, “Lillie, have you ever thought of taking a few days off of work? I think you're pushing yourself too hard.”

Lillith crosses her arms and pouts. “You think I'm crazy, do you?”

“No! I would never think that! But try to remember that working in a ranch is not as easy as it looks. I just think you're tired.” Lillith looks at him with a sad look in her eyes. She knows that Rock may be right, but she doesn't want to stop working just because she thinks she saw something unusual. Rock then kisses her in the lips to make her feel a bit more secure. He then says, “Lillie, please understand that you are my wife, and I love you. I need you to take some time off because I'm worried about you. I know how important this farm is to you. But please, just for a few days. Okay?”

Lillith looks at her husband for a while. She then looks down, and answers, “Okay. I'll take some time off.”

Rock kisses her again, then says, “I'll talk to Takakura when he gets back from his deliveries. Why don't you just go home, and take a nap. We'll talk about this when you wake up.”

Lillith nods, and returns home. After kissing her son on the forehead, she lies in her bed, and falls asleep quickly. Takakura returns to the farm at noon, and Rock explains to him what happened. Takakura agreed to take over the daily chores until Lillith has shown signs of recovery. But, is what Lillith sees only an illusion? Or is something else happening that only she can notice?