There was a chill in the air as a Hydrena, a four-foot tall bird that looked like a cross between a condor and a pterodactyl, greeted the morning suns with an elk like call. It nested near the top of the trees in the orchard and called out each morning before it flew out to hunt its breakfast.
Like responding to a rooster's morning crow, Roy awoke and stowed his gear in the corner of the barn, like he had done every morning for the past week. He assumed the day would be like the others that preceded it, so he put on the picking apron and grabbing a ladder he headed out to the orchard. Yet no one was there.
"Where the heck is everyone?" he said to himself. Nothing looked disturbed or out of place. Everything seemed normal, just no one around. "This is damn odd," he said as he put th
