They had always lived on the hillside, back as far as anyone could remember. Generation after generation had hunted, gathered, and trapped here. Now the rest of them were leaving, scared off by a few earthquakes and mudslides.
He harrumphed as he watched them load their packs and begin the walk to the plains. They had big ideas about making themselves gods. As though they could control how the flowers grew, or when the herds would foal. It was foolishness. Next, they’d think they could tell the sky when to rain.
‘Agriculture,’ they called it. It would never catch on.

“Barley Field” by enneafive is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2026 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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