"What is it Chia?" Abe prodded patiently watching the sunset breeze sway the pine needles behind his sister either which way.
Chiaki inhaled excessively her little chest nearly touching her chin.
Abrem grabbed her other arm and twisted her body to face him as her small frame began to swivel wildly.
"Simple talk Chia, ain't no need to sound smart." Chia had a tendency to lose her speech if ever overwhelmed, Abe had come up with the clever idea of caveman talk in which she or anyone else in the family if for whatever reason found themselves inable to form coherent sentences would be allowed to speak like a caveman without having to face judgment for their improper speech (as otherwise Athol was incredibly adamant about the children in her care being educated)
Chia grimaced for a moment before finally managing to express her words.
"U-ushi no yūr-"
"English Chia, ain't nobody here know japanese cept you."
"C-cow in, ghosts in cows, cow ghost." she sputtered.
Abrem breathed deeply, standing to his feet he grabbed his little sister by the arm and dragged her to the coop, leaning over the wire he slapped the tin roof of the shelter section of the coop, creating a vibration in order to get Angel's attention, as well as Clyde's. Clyde and Angel both whipped around to face Abrem and Chia, their faces riddled with confusion.
"They got to the cows, Clyde, take Angel and Chia inside and kept the doors locked, no matter what." his hands flew at the speed of light as he rattled off his order to Clyde, his fingers swiftly signing the words so Angel wouldn't be left in the dark, Abrem still believed he deserved to understand what was going on even if him knowing didn't affect what he wanted him to do.
Clyde and Angel shuffled out the gate as fast as possible, Angel being careful not to drop the basket as he let the gate to the coop slam shut behind him nearly smashing a speckled hen in between the door and the frame, Clyde grabbed Chia by the hand pulling her tiny fingers away from her hair which she was now pulling out in chunks in her panicked state.
Clyde turned back to his older brother who was now jogging into the forest towards the pasture.
"Are you sure ya don-"
"Inside now." Abrem's bellowing interruption seemed to ring throughout the entire forest. Clyde gulped before shoving his siblings inside and slamming the creaky backdoor of the shed behind them.
Abrem took off running.
"I should have known they would've pulled somethin the moment I left. Good for nothin ghosts."
He shook his head as he ran, leaf after leaf after twig snapped and crunched beneath his bare feet as he raced through the wood, there wasn't much terrain between the pasture and the house, but even still it felt like years before he arrived. Finally he passed the storage shed Chia had likely been when she saw the possessed cows.
He halted in his tracks, nearly falling forward into the creek that divided the pasture from the wood.
He could see the outside dome from here, that had always been an unsettling sight, it wasn't deceivingly beautiful as the inner wall, there was no soft periwinkle bubble that rang with a delicately sweet buzzing noise, only a dismal heather lense which cast what was visible of the outside world as some sort of undesirable gray illusion, every shadow seemed to be deepened, the red on the apple trees on the other side was deeper and darker more similar to the color of blood whilst the apple trees on the inside were cherry red, bright and inviting, he could taste a saccharine hue on the tip of his tongue just looking at them.
He shook himself from his thoughts just as the one and only Mungo appeared in his peripherals charging at him with great speed, something that was quite scary paired with a twenty one thousand pound bull
He had noticed the cows in the pasture moaning as if in pain but he had been too captivated by the apple trees to notice what really mattered.
Mungo wasn't normally like this, it's true all bulls have a temper and as a general rule of thumb they are all rather aggressive and most importantly unpredictable.
However Mungo wasn't a human bull, in fact he wasn't even a full blood himself.
It wasn't thought of much since domesticated beasts don't generally choose their own mates or who their kept with to breed and wild animals for the most part stay in their own habitats and don't have the same desire to mix as humans and fae do however it is quite possible for halfling animals to exist.
Mungo was half human realm texas longhorn and half fae realm boobrie in the form of a highland water bull, he had the same famous sturdy dangerous horns of his human half and the shapeshifting abilities of his faerie half. However his main form was incredibly similar to any regular human realm longhorn, the only difference was the shaggieness in his platinum offwhite fur and the intense emerald glow in his luminescent verdant irises, and of course the large skull branding seared into his right hock, the same as the rather paltry version Abrem bore on his adams apple.
The bull charged Abrem anger in his intelligent jaded green eyes, however Abe could see the disconnect, the emotion didn't seem to be locked in place the same way real emotions were, they didn't clutch the iris in the same grasp of severity, the anger in Mungo's eyes was an illusion it wasn't being felt by him but by someone separate who happened to be hosting themselves inside his skull.
Abrem had played this game before, although it wasn't his favorite mostly due to the fatal painstaking nature of it, so far he was on a continuous winning streak. He braced himself puffing his scrawny chest out he brushed his chin length locks into a sloppy wad on the back of his head just before the hot air of Mungo's enormous nostril's came within two feet of him, a gust of grassy scented heat blasted him in the face, struggling to keep his eyes open in the milliseconds that determined life from death Mungo's racing seemed to move in slow motion as Abrem cupped both hands together, he could feel the tingly cold of the spell his mother had taught him as a toddler swirling against his palms before he opened them releasing the icey heat of the sapphire smoke straight into the bull's face causing him to immediately swerve past Abrem bolting into the other direction his wiry tail flapping vigorously behind him as he raced towards the sunset nearing the malevolent barrier.
Despite being a simple redirection spell that anyone could learn it had proved to be mighty efficient tool in many points of Abrem's nineteen years of life, however Mungo was still a danger and most likely in a great deal of pain due to his possessed state. Abe couldn't leave him like that just because he was running in the other direction, no that was just a stepping stone into his next move, it was time for a more dynamic spell. He took a shaky breath before jogging towards the bull, on his way he passed many panicked cows stumbling in circles groaning into the sky their once sweet honey brown eyes now a vacant emotionless obsidian
"Just a second darlins I'll be right there." his promise to the herd seemed to ring louder than any other thought in his mind, louder than the doubt, louder than the fear. He picked up speed allowing his elven half to rise above his humanity, he gripped one of the crystals through the ragged fabric of his many pant pockets. His bare feet hit the ground with the fleeting agility only he could manage as he cast a minor speed enchantment onto his own limbs, with this he was nearing his favorite domesticated farm animal now mere feet away from the barrier.
"Mama don't be wrong about my magic, mama please" he pleaded to Jane, he did his best to push the what ifs out, so what if this time happened to be closer to tragedy than the others, fear wouldn't save Mungo.
"Mind over matter, mind over matter, mind over matter." he rambled, his verbal mantras seemed to seep into his own mind ringing next to the promise which continued to vibrate with hope. He bit his lip, reaching one spindly arm ahead of himself he pushed every bit of his energy into his thoughts.
Magic is nothing but the manipulation of energy, it all starts in your head
Clutching his own fingers into a fist just as the energy reached his palms he strained the intention through his mind into his flesh and bones, a fuchsia rose swirl of mist began to rise around his fist forming an orb, he then sprung his fingers open causing the mist to shift into a fire, a saturated blushed roseate of lighting and flame exploded off of his own palm encapsulating the bull who then froze as if dead and fell into the grass with resounding thud.