The music of the insects rose as as the temperature slowly dropped and the breeze rustled gently through the grass growing around the fields of golden wheat. It would be time to start harvesting soon. The city was already making their demands known. All he could hope was that the crop would yield enough. The weather had not been the most favorable. Oh the feel was full, but the heads of the wheat just weren’t very full.

Not enough rain this year. The heat hadn’t been too bad, but the sun was seldom lost behind clouds and rain. Now that summer was approaching, the temperature was beginning to climb quickly during the day. The summer planting would be more strenuous for it.

There were plenty of strong, young hands and backs in the village though. They could set up a good rotation so no one would be forced to work too long in the heat or without a break for water.

The farmer would make sure of it. He was already calculating and had put some men to work to expand some of the fields and clear land for a couple of new ones a few miles down the road towards the city. With a little more effort it would all be ready in time for planting the next crops. He really hoped it would be. They all needed it to be.

His large shoulders lifted in a heaving sigh. He continued to stand at the edge of the porch on his modest home. The sun set was vivid and stark on the horizon. Gold shimmered and gave way into orange, then red. That read then faded into a magenta that gave into a deep bruise shade of indigo before giving into the oncoming night sky. Stars were not quite showing yet.

The smallest moon, Birris, however was glowing with proud glory high in the sky. The final glow from the sun seemed to make the dark spot in the lower left of the moon stand out brighter. Birris would would only just reach the western horizon when the sun returned to rise in the east on the morrow, the farmer reflected absently.

He turned his head enough to look at his front door over his shoulder. It was shut firmly and only silence filled the house. After childbirth took his wife, he hasn’t been able to look at another woman quite the same. Oh there were many and some lovelier than his sweet Irrett. He had loved many before her, and had not expected his love for her to last as it had.

The world was cruel indeed. He could admit it, if only to himself, that for all the considerations he gave to the well being of his workers, those were only given as he knew very well that the work would not get done if he made them work longer or harder without refreshment.

Deep down, all he wanted was a few harvests good enough to get the money he needed. Then he would pack up and leave. the bitterest corner of his heart wanted to build everything as he left as well. He might. He knew he might actually do it. The possibility grew with each harvest that he could couldn’t make a profit on.

His gaze shifted to the road several yards away to the right of the house. Then drifted along westward. The city lay that way. Noot any city, the capitol with the King and all the frivolities of noble wealth. It made the black emotions in him roil.

But he was just a humble farmer in living amongst a small group of homes and families all trying to live off the meager fruits of their labors. Sometimes he felt like Evreus herself, the goddess of farming, was cursing them and spoiling the crops. The last harvest had lost almost a third of the crop to a blight.

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If gods were real, he bet money that they were the ones causing so much trouble throughout the lands. The whole lot of them were probably petty and spiteful and cruel. Laughing at mortal suffering.

The sun finally fell completely beyond the horizon. The glow from another moon was creeping up from the west behind the house, and the farmer could finally see a few of the biggest and brightest stars pushing the the veil of the the sun’s final glowing rays. He turned to finally go inside, cook his own misely dinner, and go to bed.

He only took one step to turn when his eyes caught on the distance. He squinted, brows furrowed deeply. Something seemed off. There wasn’t anything he could see that was obvious. He tried to strain his hearing, but all he got was the incessant cries of insects. Noises he nevr paid any mind to normally, now seemed too loud for him to even think through. His nostrils flared as he inhaled slowly. The air breeze was a whisper over his skin and carried the same fragrances of grass and fertilizer as always.

Nothing was out of place, but something was. Something was off.

The darkness of the distant sky was encroaching as it did every night.

But that wasn’t the night. That was coming from the south, and fast. He could see it now by it’s absence. Even as his watched, the glittering of a star above vanished. The farmed swallowed. He couldn’t tell how far it was. He couldn’t even guess what it was. Everything was just fading into black, as if the world was being swallowed by a stormy, moonless night.

Then, there was a figure. It shimmered and swayed before it became a steady enough image for him to study.

It was a woman. A tall woman. Her golden hair almost seemed to glow against the darkness behind her, and she wore a simple dress of seafoam green. It had no sleeves, but a short train fluttered in the wind behind her.Her eyes were the color of a spring field of grass, and seemed to be flecked with sparks of gold.

She strolled leisurely towards him, as if she had no idea that something was following her.

A strong gust of wind sent strands of her loose hair drifting across her face. That hair. It was the same multitude of golden hues as the field of wheat in front of his house.

The farmer stepped back. No. No way.

The woman stopped a few feet infront of his porch. She smiled with full pink lips, “Out a little late, aren’t you, farmer?”

He swallowed, “Not really, ma’am. Can I be helpin’ you with something?” He forced himself to stand straight and look her in the eyes.

“Oh not at all,” her voice was light with laughter, “I was simply out to see the fields.” She gestured with a slim arms towards the wheat. It waved in the breeze and almost looked duller now.

There was silence for several moments before her gaze returned to his face. He felt bare. He felt like any thought or feeling he had was hers to read and judge.

“I should also like to know how you humans could be so pathetic and ignorant.”

he backed up until his back met with his front door. “I-i-i I don’t know what you-”

“Silence!” Her eyes narrowed sharply, “Fools, all of you. Your world is going to be stroyed by your own foolishness, and yet you all choose not to see it. We can only do so much to make you see. I have tried and tried. Foiled crop after crop that you yourself has planted. But deep in your heart, all you still wish to see is the suffering of others while you flee. I hope the darkness consumes your black soul.”

She turned and started walking away. The farmer began shaking, his body trembling. Was it anger? Fear?

“My lady, Evreus! Please-!” He was cut off as that darkness that he had thought was still so far away swept in on him and he wwas gone.

Evreus, the goddess of the land and food it produced, drew in a long and slow breath. A silent tear rolled down her cheek and she dropped her head down a few inches. But she did not look back even once before her figure wavered in the final shadows, and faded away.