[b]Spring 4. Crescent Town.[/b]

 The sun broke the horizon and its light spilled over the mountain peaks, painting the fields in a gentle, warming glow. Shade Lumina took in the fresh air of the early morning and whistled for one of his sister's hounds. He wasn't overly fond of her business of breeding farm pets but he had to admit, Skye was good at what she did. The large husky came barrelling through the talk grasses of the field. It took its place at Shade's side and followed him at his heel as he made his way towards the large, wooden barn, pressing its green doors wide open. Inside the large structure was a collection of animals; half the barn was dedicated to Skye's work horses, which she bred and trained, the rest was home to Shade's precious herds of dairy cattle and alpacas. There was a single sheep, black as coal and about as loyal as a house pet. Cinder, was what Shade had named it long ago when he took it in as a lamb. He never viewed it as a part of his trade, but more as a soft, baa-ing reminder of his childhood and his fond memories of his parents. His brown eyes fell onto each animal as he went to the back of the barn, checking each stall to ensure all the livestock was generally well. As he made his way around the last of the stalls he suddenly tripped over a bucket of shoeing nails and tumbled to the dirt. Cursing under his breath, he looked up to see his twin sister, a quiet grin on her face as she sat amused at her brother's spill.

"You had best look where you're going Shade, this is a farm, not a playground. You could get hurt." Her attention was back to the chestnut mare that stood before her, and continued shoeing the horse. In the steeds stall just behind them, there was a litter of collie pups playing in the fresh hay as their mother relaxed and nursed a few of the small creatures. Picking himself up off the barn floor, Shade brushed the dust from his work clothing. 

"Well maybe if you didn't leave buckets of nails lying in the walkways I wouldn't have to be so careful." He paused, observing the scene before him. Already, each of the stalls of his sister's herd had been mucked and the steeds had been fed and watered. He knew he hadn't slept in, the sun had just hardly risen. "Skye... how long have you been up?" He scratched his head in concern. His sister often struggled with insomnia and took the sleepless hours as time to tend to her precious horses and pup or kitten litters. He had to admit, he respected her talent with the animals, and more so her work drive, but worried about her health. 

She continued on with her work, speaking in a hushed tone as she knew her brother was beginning to worry. "Only since 4. Nothing to worry about. I had to get these gals shoed for their training today. They need to learn to function with or without shoes. And I wanted to check on Luna's litter, they can be handful for the poor girl." Shade simply shook his head; same old Skye. 

"Well," he said, motioning for the husky at his side to prepare for work. "I best get to grazing the cattle. I'll see you for breakfast later. Although I think we're out of eggs." Both twins assumed a rather concerned look. No eggs. That could only mean on thing. 

"Not it!"

"Not it! Awe.. Shade do I have to? I have so much work to do." She shuttered at the thought of having to head to the Peck farm to purchase eggs. Not because it was the Peck farm, and not because she had too much work to do, but because collecting eggs meant facing the chickens. And neither were fond of chickens. Not one bit. To be truthful, neither of them liked eggs very much. But their mother always made them eat them on week days, saying the protein was good for growing children. And as a bit of a memoire to their travelling parents, they continued to get their protein from eggs each and every week day.

"Rules are rules dear sister and you lost. Now finish up and off you go. I'm hungry. And say hello to Vivienne for me, would you?" Shade grinned as he skipped away, shouting for the husky to start off the herd movement. And away they went, cows mooing, alpacas bleating, and Cinder lolling lazily behind.

---
It was eight am when Skye left the Lumina ranch to head south on the road to reach the nearby Peck Ranch. She took Dagger along on the trip, a pure black shepherd; her [i]personal pet[/i] as she called him. For he wasn't involved in any breeding and was her go to companion for herding and training the other hounds. She walked slowly up the road, an empty basket in her hand, cursing her mother for making her do this. Skye knew very well that if mother was there she'd be strolling along at a brisk pace beside her talking about the great nutritional value of eggs, and trying to convince her to raise a flock of hens herself. But Skye just couldn't stand the birds. They were evil, angry creatures, which meant alot coming from a woman who cherished animals above all else. She recalled her childhood and the evil hen that would chase her and her brother around whenever they went to gather eggs. It's razor sharp beak pecking and clucking angrily as it tried to shoo them away from her flock's precious horde of yolky treasure. No siree, she would not be raising a flock of her own any time soon. Cattle and horses were just fine to her.

As she rounded the bend in the wooded path that opened up to the walkway to the Peck Ranch, she took in a deep breath and tried to ignore the growing sound of clucking in the distance. Hopefully Vivienne would have eggs in her house for sale and not have to go gather them from the chickens. As she approached the front door, Skye paused and collected herself; she was never very good at talking to people, let alone asking for things. And even though she was coming to [i]purchase[/i] eggs, she still felt like she was a hassle more than anything. She shook her head from the thought and lifted her hand to knock on the deep red door, admiring the color as she did so.