The moon was peeking through the trees, casting a silvery light upon the backs of the two children as they sat upon the bluff. As it rose higher and higher it became clear how exceptionally bright it was this evening, making the valley below seemingly more vivid than the prior cloud covered day. Once the moon was clear of its arboretum obstructions, the boy spoke.
“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”
The girl, almost entirely unaware of the question, realized that he was waiting for her to answer.
“What do you mean?”
Growing slightly impatient, the boy pulled up a handful of grass and tossed it into the air as he replied,
“Why are we here? Who decided that me and my family had to move here?”
“The cervants did.” The girl’s reply came almost automatically. The general curriculum included making sure each and every child knew what the Civilian-Servants did and why they should trust these “Cervants.”
“No, the cervants just made sure we did. Someone else told them to do it. The cervants boss us around. Who bosses the cervants around?”
At that moment, a passing cervant searching for something in the timber overheard the discussion between the children. The bright yellow band around his left arm seemed immune to the color-altering moonlight as he swiftly moved from the tree-line to the children, casting a long, ominous shadow across their backs and into their view.
The girl quickly snapped around out of fear, only to see her worries confirmed. This cervant most certainly knew they were not allowed out this far from the city this late at night. The boy remained still. He knew it was a cervant simply because no one else would be outside the city.
The cervant simply bellowed, “This is not allowed!”
The boy watched as another shadow quickly grew beside the cervant’s. His eyes grew wide as the two shadows briefly connected with an accompanying crack that echoed slightly off the trees behind them.
The boy twisted around to see the cervant collapse to the ground. Standing nearly in his place was a man with a large, broken stick in his hands.
“Get home. Don’t let another one see you.”
The girl hadn’t moved, even blinked, since the cervant had arrived, but the boy jumped to his feet.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the guy whose going to kick you down the bluff if you don’t leave right now. ”
The man pivoted on one foot and began walking towards the tree line.
Both children finally realized how lucky they were and decided to stop questioning their fate. As they both scrambled for home, the man disappeared into the timber.
“I really need to quit doing that.”
The trees did not reply.
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