Weekly Prompt: Poppy Fields.

Emma stared out the window of her room as she often did. Her window had a view of the vast fields and hills surrounding her tiny village. Atop the farthest hill away she could see a massive poppy field. It was the most beautiful and brilliant red she had ever seen. She desperately wanted to visit but father had always been dismissive of the idea. He would always say he never had the time to take her there and apparently walking there on her own was out of the question.
    She had begun to loathe the man. Always grumpy and no imagination to speak of. She wondered how on earth she could even share DNA with someone so different.
    Emma weighed the pros and cons of sneaking out and making her own way there. After ten or so minutes of pondering, she concluded that there were in fact no cons whatsoever beyond the cons that come from living in father's house in the first place. It seemed like anything she did would result in father getting angry and this would be no different. She had no idea why she hadn't thought of this before really.
    'Come along, Crumpet. We're going for a walk,' she whispered to her Jack Russell. He stared at her and wagged his tail stupidly. She picked him up and stuffed him into her backpack with only his head sticking out. Over the years he had become accustomed to this and made no protest. She opened the window as wide as she could and barely got through the gap.
    Conveniently, there was a pipe adjacent to the window which could just about hold her weight. She left her window only a fraction open as she climbed down. Father almost certainly wouldn't notice her absence for hours to come. For a busy man he sure did spend a lot of time sleeping. Once she felt she was a safe enough distance from the house, Emma let Crumpet out of the bag. He, in keeping with his canine urges, dashed off into the distance and circled back to the girl.
    She realised she had no idea how long it would take to reach her intended destination. Maybe minutes, maybe hours.

As it turned out, it took about two hours. She finally reached the poppy field. It was even more beautiful than from her room. Emma twirled in circles as she took it all in. She laughed as Crumpet started to chase his own tail. From the dizziness she fell onto the soft ground. The sky was so blue and the contrast was pleasing to her eyes. She lay there for a while, enjoying the sights and the smells. She watched the birds fly past.
    'That's a strange bird,' she remarked as she saw a dot appear in the sky. It must have flown so high that only now could she see it. It seemed to be rapidly descending. Getting larger and larger. She wondered what kind of bird could be so large and so white. Her aviary knowledge was sadly limited. It seemed to be moving too fast. She could have hazarded a guess but it was too late.
    Crumpet howled and sniffed at the burnt poppies around the crater.