The farmer walked along the fence line. A small herd of cows stood on the other side of the fence and each one turned its head to watch the farmer as he passed. A noticeable shiver ran through the man. In his hand, a long slender tube of metal that terminated in a wooden stock. Patty knew what that was. Enough of the cows had seen it used that now, with their minds linked as one with Patty, it was intelligent enough to recognize the death-bringer for what it was. Patty had made the cows behave oddly over the last few days in order to get the farmers attention, in the hopes of getting him to come into the field. The death-bringer changed things slightly, but Patty would adapt.

  One cow mooed, loud and strong, staring directly at the farmer for the entire length of the low, causing the farmer to hesitate mid step. Once finished, the cow meandered back into the herd so as to make it indistinguishable from the rest. Another cow repeated this, and then another joined in, and another, until all of them were lowing at the farmer at once. The night before, Patty broke a few cows out of the field and hid them in a small copse of trees nearby. While the farmer was thus fascinated with the behavior of his cows, Patty moved the hidden cows up behind the farmer. These cows walked with a grace unthinkable before they became one with Patty and the farmer never heard them approaching.

  The lead cow headbutted the farmer just hard enough to knock him to the ground while the others closed in around him. A pleasant crunch signaled the destruction of the death-bringer as it was trodden under hoof.

  “What—?” the farmer stammered as the many bovine faces clouded out the sky above.

  The lead cow bent down on its forelegs until it was kneeling, its head close to the farmer’s face, and Patty, resting on the head of the cow, flopped forward onto the snout. The farmer stared in disbelief, almost as though he expected to wake up any minute from this horrible nightmare. Patty broke off a piece of itself and lurched it onward towards the farmers mouth.

  There wasn’t much left of Patty now, it had taken so many tiny pieces of itself to claim this portion of the herd. Fortunately, Patty’s control over the cows didn’t seem to work the same as it did on the bird and it’s control over the herd hadn’t wavered since they’d become one with Patty.

  Old and grimy, the piece of Patty slid down the cows nose until it reached the very end, dangling precariously on the mucousy tip.

  The farmers eyes, wide with shock, looked back and forth at the cows, seeking understanding. As one the cows, except for the one holding Patty, opened their mouths. Latent horror filled the man’s face as the dawning realization struck him and he jammed his mouth shut tight. Again, the cows opened their mouths, looming down even closer to him, some of them brushing their tongues and noses against him. He resisted, turning his head away from them and shutting his eyes.

  Patty was prepared for such resistance. With a satisfying thck, one of the cows gored the farmers leg. In the instant that the pain struck the man, his mouth shot open wide and the piece of Patty dropped the few inches and landed in the back of the farmers throat. At once, the cow holding Patty turned its head and placed a horn against the farmers throat, warning him not to expel the piece of meat. Whether he comprehended the threat or just swallowed on instinct was irrelevant. When the farmers eyes opened back up, he was Patty, and all of his knowledge about Patty and its kind, as well as his knowledge about the world, joined Patty’s expanding consciousness and entirely new ideas and possibilities began to open up to Patty. One such possibility gave Patty pause.

  Given how brief it’s control over the bird had been, Patty initially assumed that it’s control over any creature would be similarly brief. The cows, however, were showing no signs of breaking free of Patty even after several days. With the farmer’s mind now added to Patty’s collective consciousness, it wondered if their meat would similarly grant Patty control over those who ate it. At first Patty was repulsed by such a notion. It had come to save it’s kind, not butcher them. Yet how could Patty hope to accomplish any real lasting change if it didn’t find a way to extend it’s control not only over more people, but also for longer time?

  The farmer’s home was a mile or so away from the field and it was a long and painful walk over uneven ground. The farmer’s wife was out back watering her flowers when she saw him; covered in mud and with blood caked down his leg, her face blanched and she ran screaming over to him.

  “Are you alright?” She asked, offering her arm.

  Patty accepted her support and looked back thoughtfully toward the way it had come from.

  “Just one of the younger bulls,” Patty said, its voice even and steady. The wife would expect nothing less from this man, considering all the times he’d been kicked, stepped on, gored and so forth over the years of their marriage. “He’s been getting feisty lately and today,” Patty drew in a deep breath, the gravity of it’s next words weighing heavily on it’s mind, “well, I think it would be best if he were put down.”

  “He’s not sick is he?” his wife asked, concern for their livestock showing in her face.

  “No,” Patty assured her at once, “vet was here just last week. I think he’s just turned into an ornery bull and that’s the last thing I need with calving starting soon. I wasn’t planning on breeding him anyway.”

  The wife nodded her head and she lead him toward the house. She called for their oldest child who appeared in the back doorway within moments and instructed her to get some rags and to call the hospital to let them know they were coming.

  “Do you think the neighbors are doing anything tomorrow evening?” Patty asked the farmer’s wife.

  “Why?” She asked. “You’re in no fit shape to go riding with that leg of yours.”

  “Oh I know,” it said, “But it would be a waste not to butcher up such a fine beast as that bull, and I thought we could invite the neighbors over for steak.”

  With a grimace at both it’s pain and it’s decision, Patty allowed the wife to lead her husband the rest of the way into the house.