To the best of My reckoning, I don't know when the world shifted, or when life changed, or when whatever had happened, had happened. I recollected it to the best of My ability, in as far as I had the power to reckon things, that I had been busy with the farm that particular day. Somewhat more accurately however, was the plain and simple truth that I had had the same excuse for My ignorance of the matter, for the last several years.
Sometimes, but no more often than absolutely necessary, if it all, were it not capable of being avoided, I talked to people. I wasn't a people person, I never had been. Early on in life I had learned, a fact which is evidenced clearly among My earliest memories, that people were simply troublesome and annoying animals. Yes, recently they had become fewer and far between, but they were still just as damned troublesome and annoying with their questions, and theories, and superstitious beliefs. Who was alive and accounted for, who was dead, how they died, who was missing, where they had gone, when they were coming back. I had heard these exact same conversations almost daily, for such was the usual manner of small talk among men, and scandalous gossip among women. This was customary, it was a habit, a simple fact of life in a small town, and one which I had known from the time I learned to speak, and more importantly to speak when spoken to, or otherwise to be quiet, to watch and to listen, and to think before doing anything.
It was an absolute certainty that there were less of us around, but damned if I knew where the others went. I supposed they too had gone wherever and however the countless others before them went. Some died, some were taken, some by other people, some others by beasts. Some moved away, some sailed away, some flew away. I didn't know where anyone was anymore, except for amari. I always knew where she was, two steps behind on My left, where she belonged. Other people? I had no damned idea, and I honestly didn't care. Other peoples comings and goings were none of My business. They were, I supposed, wherever it was they belonged. It was a perfectly simple and honest solution to a circumstance of life that I had never considered to be a problem. Know where you belong, and be there. It really wasn't a hard concept to grasp, as far as I knew..
I had, for years, tuned the rest of the world out, I was a farmer, and belonged on My farm. Amari, My slave, belonged at My heels. Life was simple, and good, and as it should be. All was well, so why would I pay attention to the rest of that nonsense called the civilization? As far as I knew, there was no such thing as this fabled civilization people spoke of, people were not civilized animals. As far as I could tell we were pack animals, just like sleen. Also just like sleen, we were dangerous and unpredictable animals individually, so naturally we were especially dangerous and unpredictable animals when in packs. I avoided such things, packs of familiar humans, and unfamiliar packs of sleen, both with equal caution.
It was odd. Odd in a way that made a person think on it, and having thought on it some folk would panic, while others of us would sigh with relief. The realization that it meant less trouble and annoyance was rather comforting, and in all truth, how was I to miss people whom I had never known? It would simply be quieter while having a relaxing drink at the end of a long day, or when propping ourselves up against a warm, dry log along a sun-clad pebbled wash-out in a curve of the stream which murmured softly of long hidden, and secret fishing holes, for a little well deserved nap on a mild and sunny afternoon.
