Aurora closed the hatch as she stepped out of her back door. It was a dreary, nippy-aired day today, or at least, it was so far, being as it was only around 5 in the morning. Aurora yawned and rubbed her face to get a little warmth on her reddened cheeks. No matter the weather, she did have duties to attend to. Basket in hand, she walked down the steps of her small cabin and headed for her garden, just a dozen or so meters away, behind the shed and the henhouse.

She was just nearing the coop when her ears picked up a sound above the click-clack chattering of the chickens.

A shuffling in her garden. At first she thought, a fox perhaps, come after the chickens. But no, the henhouse was well protected, she had made sure of it, and the garden well fenced off. Besides, whatever it was was clearly more interested in her winter harvest, what with all the noise they were making rustling in the leaves of the foliage.

"Rabbits." She sighed, and walked through the narrow gateway between the shed, closing the gate behind her. Directly in front of her, she saw nothing unusual, but she stepped forward, lightfooted, the wood from the shed and chicken house no longer blocking her vision. She gasped and stopped in place. She was hoping the creature had not heard her, or at least, did not mind Aurora's presence there.

For although this was Aurora's garden and property, and she had every right to be there, this lean, pale, and...ahem, naked figure in her garden made her tremble in fear. And maybe a little bit of excitement.

As Aurora watched on in horror and amazement, the creature suddenly turned around and shifted from its previous position which had given Aurora a posterior view. Now, it was clearly facing her, hands filled with dirt and carrots. It seemed to sense someone watching it. After a few glimpses behind-whilst still chewing the mouthful of god knows what produce (carrots, by the look of the leaves peeking out from its lips, Aurora noted), its eyes finally landed on Aurora. Almost instantaneously it froze and stood stock still.

It was a woman, Aurora could clearly see that. A beautiful woman, Aurora instinctively thought, almost disturbed by her uninhibited thoughts. She was gaping after all, gaping at this creature. Looking closer, Aurora corrected herself: Yes, it was a female, but it wasn't a woman, no. It couldn't be. At least not a human one. It had horns!

Before, while the creature had had it's back turned and it's head down, Aurora could only see the strange formations from behind. She had thought perhaps they were some strange goggles or head piece but now, with a full frontal view, Aurora could see that her suspicions had been confirmed- it had horns! Yes,it had horns...

And breasts.

And lovely,lovely thighs,

now that she looked.

Why was she staring?!

She'd seen a woman bare before-for heaven's sake she was a woman!-but she had never seen a woman with horns before. She had never seen a woman like this before. She had never seen anyone this beautiful before. Terrifying and strange, she meant. And, yes, beautiful, she decided, horrified.

"Eh…" Aurora squeaked out, scrambling for something to say, something to do. They had been staring at each other for what seemed like eons now (it had been less than two minutes). The beast had begun chewing again, albeit while maintaining impressive and unrelenting eye-contact.

With the one pathetic sound, however, Aurora seemed to have startled the beast. For its eyes opened wide, and it seemed ready to take off, falling backwards and scrambling to get up in its fear.

"It's fear?" Aurora thought, " No that can't be right. In it's shock perhaps. It's not afraid of me." She felt a peculiar sinking feeling in her stomach at the thought of the creature leaving so soon.

Whether it was fear or shock, or simply being incredibly eager to digest its meal in peace , the animal was scrambling to get up- a feat that should not have been of much difficulty except for the fact that this horned beast would not give up on its own affinity for staring. Eyes wide, and, yes, decidedly fearful, it attempted to crawl backwards, while simultaneously staring at Aurora's face, as if it couldn't tear its eyes away. As if it's preoccupation and interest at this new sight was overpowering its will to flee.

Baffled and somehow less afraid of this creature at this show of extremely confusing and admittedly endearing clumsiness, Aurora finally yelped "Wait!"

The creature, however , seemed only more terrified at Aurora's shouting and actually gave up its awkward struggle to gain freedom. the She beast froze in place again, this time in an awkward position with knees bent forward and arms thrust behind, as if the girl was trying to take the shape of a table, with her belly as the table top.

Aurora could actually see the poor thing trembling, and she found herself suddenly gripped with a similar terror at the prospect of losing the creature and scaring it away forever. Desperately, Aurora tried to think of a way to show her new guest that she meant no harm. Hurriedly, she looked all around her, eyes settling on the patch of beets growing near her feet. She rapidly bent down, pulled one up by the root, and took careful aim.

Not exactly careful enough. The beet hit the poor woman on the knee and left a small purple splatter. After a moment, the beast looked down at her stained knee, as if to note how much (or how little) damage she had taken on. Aurora had taken these few seconds to bend down and collect a few more beets in her hand.

The beast looked down to observe the offending vegetable, then quickly looked upwards to bring her eyes back to her assailant. Aurora held her hand out, displaying the purplish prizes held inside. Trying her best to look nonthreatening, she lowered her head and kept her hand outstretched. She heard noise; leaves rustling, dirt moving. Perhaps the beast was making its way upright from its position between the cabbage and the carrots.

Just as Aurora completed that thought, the rustling stopped. After a few moments of silence, Aurora looked up, hoping to see the beast. Perhaps it would be walking towards her, intensely looking her deep in the eyes again, maybe.

Soon she saw that that was not the case. Instead, Aurora's eyes were met with the scene of an empty garden, her own purple stained fingers, and the sun just peeking over the distant hill.

Disappointed, she surveyed her garden and tried to collect her thoughts. After a few moments, Aurora decided it was too soon to process any of what had just happened. She was too frazzled to think clearly, not to mention sort through her own confounded feelings of the moment. Soon, the familiar weight of exhaustion settled heavy into her bones as the rush of her encounter wore off. Her breathing seemed to deepen of its own accord, and a strange yet comforting mix of defeat and determination grounded her, drawing her mind back to the rather dull reality before her.

Blinking, she refocused her gaze, took in the now unassuming scene of the disheveled garden. Well, she still had to finish picking her harvest.

She set the beets down on bit of hay beside the fence. Just in case , she supposed. Just in case what?

Just in case the strange woman came back and needed something to eat? This was a strange thought, she chastised herself, she hardly knew that woman after all. She could be dangerous, deluded, predatory for all she knew. Aurora had to steel herself for that possibility. Yet she could not bring herself to move the produce from its perch.

Perhaps, Aurora rationalized, the beet could serve as a distraction as she ran away. So she was justified in leaving them there. Barely satisfied with this thin excuse for her softness, she quickly turned her attention to her next task. As she surveyed her garden once again, she realized an even larger portion of carrots had been uprooted, and the first beet she threw had disappeared as well.

So. The beast had not been making all that noise simply getting up, it had taken time to take supplies. Aurora sighed. At least the woman had left her plenty to pick. She bent down to collect her cultivated produce and was suddenly met with the vision of the naked woman's body, thrusting up into the air in an attempt to attain an upright position.

Taken aback by the strength of the memory, Aurora blushed and cleared her throat. It was funny, she decided, that was why she had thought of it! Of course.

Although, Aurora noticed, looking down, her own hand was just high enough in the air that if that woman had been struggling underneath her…they might have touched...skin to skin...

Suddenly light headed and off balance, Aurora caught herself before she had completely keeled over, staggering forward a step. For a moment she could feel her heart beating fast again, body tense and alert. There was no reason for the thought to have affected her so. At least, no reason she was currently willing to acknowledge.

Steadying her breath and shaking her head, she focused on simpler things."Carrots!" Aurora stated boldly, trying to free it from its formerly murky state. Rigidly, she bent the rest of the way down and pulled a bunch of orange and yellow triangularly shaped vegetables from the earth."Carrots!" She shouted melodramatically, attempting to drown out all thoughts, however tempting, that threatened to distract her from her task.

Somewhere beyond the back gate of the garden, a set of green brown eyes and particularly sharp ears, attuned to the scene.

"Carrots." The woman said, looking at a piece of the treasure she had made off with.

"Carrots." she repeated as a small smile graced her otherwise placid face. Slowly yet inevitably, her gaze drawn back to the yellow haired girl in distance. The woman sighed, licked her lips, and took a bite.