Chapter 16: Hunting

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Chapter 16

Hunting

 

 

  

     The next morning I woke up to a surprise that was a little shocking. But when isn’t a surprise shocking? I sat up and stretched all the kinks out of my arms and back. I looked over at the couch where Derek was. He was sitting on the couch, um, naked. The blanket he had used the night before only covered him. “Do you sleep in the nude or something?” I asked him out of curiosity. “No, I don’t, and I didn’t lose my clothing.’ he said. “Yeah? Right. Then what did?” I asked.

     He pointed to the corner where Sheilla was. She was happily lying there, chewing on his clothes. I laughed. She really was a wild little wolf. “Sheilla!” I yelled, “drop those clothes right now!” She gave me a look of apology, then stood up and stretched. She brought the shirt over to me by the sleeve, dragging it on the floor. She dropped it at my feet and nudged my left leg. Then she went back over to the corner and lay down.

     I picked up his clothes and they were covered with slobber. So I handed them over to Derek. “No thanks! I’d rather go naked than wear those things.” He said. I just rolled my eyes and went to get dressed myself. Then I dug into my clothes pile and found something he could wear. “Here.” I said, throwing the shorts to him. He caught it and looked back up at me. “No shirt?” he asked. “I don’t really have another for you. You’ll just have to deal with out one for a while. You’ll have to go shirtless for today until we can figure something out.” I said.

     I really did have a shirt for him, but it was a hot day and I loved to see him in the sun like that. Besides, he was pale. The sun would do him some good. Anyways, I noticed that we needed some more firewood, so I grabbed the ax off the back wall and headed out the door.

     “Wait!” Derek yelled to me, “where are you going?” “We need more fire wood, so I’m going to get some.” I told him. “Why don’t I do it sweetie? I’m sure you’ve gotten sick of that chore by now.” He offered. “Well….. If you really want to then go right ahead.” I said. I had to think about it for a moment for some reason. “Ok then, I’ll see you in a little while then. Just give me the ax and I’ll be off.” He said as he stood up. He walked over to the door and I handed him the ax. He left and that was that. I was just glad I didn’t have to do it.

     “Since Derek’s chopping wood,” I said to myself, “then I think I’ll go hunting with the wolves.” I decided that. I grabbed all my equipment out of the pantry and got ready. I had a bow and arrows, and a canteen. That was about it. It would be enough. “Midnight! Come! And bring Sheilla too!” I called. They both came obediently, one behind the other. I was glad to see that Sheilla at least liked me a little. She seemed to hate Derek. Maybe it was because he was a guy.

     I walked out the door and the wolves followed. I headed towards the open field where Midnight was first injured before. It was a bit of a hike, but it was the best spot, so it was worth it.

     When I arrived at the spot, it was loaded with a pack of deer. But I was sweating and drenched already. It was in the mid eighties with no clouds in sight. That sucked. Anyways, all the deer were gazing on the tall greens grasses. They were unaware of me hiding behind a bush near them. I scouted around for the male. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Perfect, that would only make it easier.

     “Midnight! Attack them!” I yelled, and he sprung out from the bushes that we were hiding in. The deer frantically tried to escape, but Sheilla jumped out and helped wrangle them together. They had nowhere to go. Midnight went for one of their legs and flipped it over to the ground. Sheilla did it the gruesome way and went right for the neck.

     The deer tripped over each other, trying to escape from them. Only two of the original five escaped. I happened to have a stroke of luck and hit the eldest deer in the side. She fell over and didn’t get up. The fight and battle was over and the dogs sat down to eat what they wanted. I sat and waited for them to finish so I could go back home.

     They finished eating and they lay down to rest with their bulging stomachs. I grabbed an apple off a nearby tree and sat down to rest as well. I thought about random thoughts as I sat there next to my pets. Like about how the birds were around and singing, and how I could hear running water pretty clearly. I wasn’t that far from the river. Just all the natural sounds. I wondered how Derek was doing too. I hoped he was getting plenty of firewood. It was starting to get a bit cold at night.

     I stood up and stretched. I was ready to go then. I nudged Midnight with my foot. He didn’t open his eyes, but he sure growled at me for it though. I just shrugged my shoulders about it. I decided to leave him there. It wasn’t worth losing a foot over. I knew he’d come home sooner or later. He always did. And I was sure that Sheilla would follow him.

     I grabbed the two back legs of the deer I killed and swung him up and over my shoulder. I started walking to take my meal home. It was a good meaty deer, going to last a long while. My back was getting sore after weaving through the trees. It turned out that the deer was heavier than I originally thought it to be. I was really hurting by the time I got back to the cabin. I barged through the door and just dropped the dead animal onto the floor.

     I was exhausted by the trip and laid down on the couch to rest a little. I accidentally dozed off and slept peacefully. But I did inevitably wake up. I looked at my PDO for the time and saw it was already two PM! I thought about Derek. He should have been back by then. It didn’t take that long to gather firewood.

     I thought he might have gotten lost or something, and I knew I had to go and look for him in the forest. I left to find him and didn’t really know where to look. I wandered around aimlessly till I got tired of searching by foot. So I decided to climb a tree for a better view. I climbed a nearby maple tree. It didn’t have any low branches, so it was hard to get started. After that, I went right to the top. I could definitely see a lot more than before.

     I turned around in a complete circle and spotted him three-fourths the way around. He was also in a tree for some peculiar reason. “Hey Derek! Come home now!” I called. He merely nodded and made his way back down his tree. I did so too. I carefully made my way down, branch by branch, trying not to plummet to the ground. I made it back carefully and started to walk back to the cabin to wait for him to arrive.

     He showed up no more than a few minutes after I did. He came through the doorway and I couldn’t see his face! It was behind gigantic armfuls of chopped wood. “So that’s what took you so long, huh?” I said. “Y…yeah.” he said in a weak voice. Then he dropped all the wood he held where he stood. It made a very loud noise as it hit the floor and scattered everywhere on the floor. What a mess it made.

     His arms were red and scratched up and they were full of splinters, especially on his forearms. It looked pretty painful. “I’m going to the river to cool my arms off and pull out the splinters. I’ll be back in a while, in time for dinner. And yes, it is painful. Own.” he said. Then he walked out with his arms straight out in front of him.

     I felt bad for him. But even I knew better than to get that much. It was his own dumb fault. I guaranteed he learned something from that. Wood is heavy, so be careful when you haul it from like, a long ways from where it has to go. Oh-well.

     I did him a favor and cleaned up the wood. I took it load by load into the pantry and stacked it. After about the third trip up to the first floor, I saw Midnight and Sheilla trail in the door. They finally came back. They just went and sat in the corner together. There was no way to split them apart. They might kill you if you tried. Such a cute couple.

     I finished taking care of the wood and swept up the sawdust and bark. All done. Then I had to make dinner. I seemed to always have something to do. I just made the veil from the deer and nothing much more. Nothing special. I waited for him to come back.

     He came back in about a half an hour and was starved. I was too. And after dinner, we had to examine all three of the animals. But we were hungry first. So we ate and talked. Of course, I burned the meat, and it tasted terrible. But he was cool about it and lied through the face he was making as he quickly chewed it. We cleaned up and sat back down on the couch. We weren’t looking forward to this part.