I breathed in and out very slowly, taking deep breaths to steady my shot. Not a hundred yards through the pine timbers stood tall a proud, ten point buck. It had taken me a full hour to make myself a find like this, not even talking about the fact that I had been camped out for three days, but it was all worth the wait. The buck was completely unaware of my presence, being that I was crouched low in the tall grass that surrounded me, keeping well hidden by my Zonz woodlands camouflage. I was wearing a Zonz under armour shirt and tights under my sweat shirt and pants. Yeah, I call them tights for the simple lack of better word. It was a little chilly, so I also had on my face mask and fingerless gloves to go with the rest of my outfit, keeping me completely unseen. The only thing that wasn't camo were the black Bogs that I wore on my feet. I personally rate Bogs as the best hunting boots, but that's just me. Keeping out of the eye's view, however, wouldn't cut it for deer hunting, so guess what I brought—spray-on, doe pee—gross, but effective.
Anyway, the oblivious deer was still just looking around with its head held high before putting its massive rack down to a salt block left on the ground as a special treat for it. It was considered illegal to bait deer because of the 'unfair advantage' compliant, but tree huggers will hug trees and hunters will hunt. For crying out loud—its my food, and I need it, so I decided to use the brain I was given to my greatest advantage, and today, that meant baiting. Fortunately, I was down wind as well, so the buck didn't get too weird about the whole doe pee thing.
I took one last deep breath as I made sure my arrow would make its mark. The arrow I had notched was of the very best—Toxic three-blade broadhead—made to burrow a gaping hole through any large prey animal, making it bleed out much quicker than any other typical broadhead. I always had six other arrows in my arrow holder on my bow. Two back up Toxic broadheads, two G5 Havoc two-blade expandable broadheads, a G5 small-game head, and a G5 Montec CS broadhead. It was a pretty reliable arrangement, though, I still had at least a hundred different kinds back at camp. The bow itself was a Diamond Archery Deploy SB R.A.K., mossy oak, seventy pound draw, compound bow.
With my shot to be sure, I let the arrow fly. It made a clean course through the buck's heart, making it leap to the air in fright. I let it skip along a bit before I stood from my hunkered down position. I watched as it ran among the bushes of the forest until it slowed to a walk, which slowed all the more to a lousy stumble until it finally fell over.
"Well, he didn't make it too far, now did he?" I mumbled to myself through my short and curly, scruffy, blonde beard in compliment to the maker of the Toxic broadheads.
Throughout my three day camp out, I had to take in small things like rabbits, coons, squirrels, and even porcupines. They weren't much, but they did just fine. But now, I could finally get back home with enough food to last me a few months if I was sparing with it. Fortunately, this buck was too weak to be running around after the first hit. Hunting between going to the store was actually a nice way to go for me, and considering the fact that I'm not a full-on survivalist man, in-town things are quite convenient.
I made my way through the brush to my new kill with a smile on my face after retrieving the arrow. "Goodness gracious, look at you," I said aloud as I took a better, close-up look of the buck. I was a nice, fat whitetail with a rack big enough to make a decorative coat hanger. I really wasn't in the mood to try and heave that big beast on my shoulders, so I opted to head back to the camp for my ATV. The forest was thin enough to drive it around and there was hardly any luck going for me if I chose to carry my kill or even drag it.
Making it a quarter mile back to the camp, I put my bow and it's arrows back in their case in my woodlands Stealth Hunter 4 ground blind. What I found odd though, was the fact that my tent was opened. I figured I accidentally left it open for one reason or another, and just didn't zip it back up. Not thinking much about it, since no one lived around where I did anyway, I went to go start up the ATV. Just as I was about to head back out on the ATV however, I heard a grunt from out behind the tent. I killed the engine of the ATV and quickly went to retrieve my Barnett Ghost 415 Revenant crossbow. Boy, oh boy, I'll tell you one thing right now—this Barnett Ghost is really expensive, not to mention that it's my bear killer. Yeah, I bought it just for that. I've never used it, but I always had it just in case. But at that moment, I needed it. There's only one animal that makes that kind of nasty, little grunt—grizzly bear.
With my crossbow out and a STK-3 broadhead bolt notched and locked, I scurried out of the tent and slowly peaked out behind it. Oddly enough, I didn't see anything. Hopefully, the bear decided my stuff wasn't interesting and left. With a sigh, I lowered my crossbow and turned around to head back to the ATV. It was then that I jumped back in fear. I was a little confused, but no less afraid that there was a massive, blue grizzly reared on it's hind paws. I didn't hear, smell, or see anything when the bear came up behind me, which didn't help to lessen my fright.
I reacted by flicking my crossbow up to take a shot at the underside of the bear's head, but the beast moved with unbelievable speed as it brought it right paw down on my left cheek. I didn't have the chance to pull the trigger, nor did I hardly even have time to register the fact that the bear hit me, but once it did, I blacked out immediately.
Now there's one way to go out.
Author's Note
Alright, so this is a side story I'll be working on it when I need a little break from my main story, Brothers. I hope you enjoy this one as well, and I'll also be taking suggestions from commentators on how this story should go since there is really no foreseeable end to this story...or...I guess until the main character dies or whatever, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon. Oh yeah, short prologue as well, but chapters will certainly be longer.
I awoke to a soft, blue light in my left eye. It seemed to get brighter until my eyes fluttered open and then the light was suddenly gone. I sat up and put my head in my palm to clear away the blurriness in my vision. Suddenly, I sprang up and looked around wildly for the bear that had attacked me. Seeing nothing around, I put a hand up to the left side of my face where I was struck. There was nothing there so signify any impact of any sort. No soreness, no cuts, bruises, broken bones, not ever so much as a scratch on my face.
I shook my head in confusion as I mounted my ATV again and then looked up at the sun. It hadn't moved much since I last saw it which meant I wasn't out for very long. Either that or I was out for a whole day, but that was unlikely since I would have frozen to death over night. I revved the engine to the ATV and headed out back to where I had made my kill.
The farther I went into the forest, the less familiar it looked, which I thought to be rather odd, because I knew these woods like the back of my own hand. I could find the dear anywhere, which most likely meant that the bear had found it and taken it away before I came to, or I was lost, which was highly unlikely, since, as I said, I knew these woods and I also knew what direction my hunting grounds where. Suffice it to say, I was a little disturbed, but then decided to attribute the unfamiliarity with my own forest with a head injury. So I then turned around and headed back to came to pack everything up and head home.
"Ugh, that's aggravating," I grumbled through clenched teeth as I dismounted the ATV to pack up my equipment.
I made it home with my bow, crossbow, and many arrows in my prestige, frame pack. It looked like I would have to move to tree blind to the west of the house. Losing track of the buck also meant I had lost my only salt block. I guess it serves me right for not taking it back with me when I went for the ATV.
With a sigh, I headed inside my house. I always had the dream of living in a massive, log made mansion with extravagant windows from top to bottom, but there was no way I could afford something like that, nor did I have the time and patients for that kind of thing, so I went with a nice, cozy, log cabin crafted by my own hands. Of course, it wasn't just timbers, because I still used a bit of drywall in places, but it was quite a house from the outside and inside alike.
I decided to resort to my refrigerator for lunch and dinner before I headed back out tomorrow to the west. Before digging through my store bought goodies, I put my bows and arrows under the little shelf I had with my clothes rolled up in nice, neat, triangular stacks. I was going to get myself a dresser, but at the moment, it didn't matter that much to me. I hung my sweatshirt up on a coat hanger in my closet, put my mask and gloves on the second shelf of my dresser/shelf, and went to the bathroom to wash myself up. My hunting clothes would have to be washed later, but I was too hungry to dwell on that at the moment.
I turned on the faucet, only to receive a few sputters in return until it stopped pumping water all together. I scowled as I got my boots back on and headed out to the lakeside behind my house. As I expected, the intake filter was nice and gummed up. I reached down into the cold water and unscrewed the culprit of my sink problem. I thrashed it in the water until the algae had been taken away, and re-screwed the filter to the pump.
Taking little time as possible, I jogged back to the front door of my cabin and went inside, taking my boots off at the mat as I did so. Returning to my bathroom, I turned the sink back on. Nothing.
I sighed as I flipped the light switch to the bathroom. Nothing. I looked at myself in the mirror for a bit with a forced smile before going down to the basement to start the generator. Suffice it to say, I've had to use the generator more times that I would like. The machine revved up quickly and several lights about the house fluttered on.
Satisfied that the water would work now, I went back upstairs to clean up. I turned that faucet back on and it sputtered for a few seconds before it ran out a bit of murky water. I let it run the dirt out until I got good, clean water to wash my hands and face. I took a look in the mirror after splashing my face. Recalling the memory of me being pawed by a bear, I noticed there was no swelling, blood, or bruise marking my face. I shook my head as I pushed it of once again.
I finished up with washing and made my way to the kitchen to make myself a simple ham sandwich. Tomorrow was Sunday, but it didn't look like I had time for church that day. It was a good thing Pastor Merkle recorded his sermons. Unfortunately as well, Monday I had to get back to work, so Sunday was the last day I had until Saturday next week. I lived in the forest just north of Deary and east of Bovill, which made Moscow only twenty more minutes away than it was in my hometown where I grew up if I went by truck. I mostly used my ATV to get to either nearby town, but getting to Moscow was a different thing, Moscow being the place I went to church at. I sighed as my frustration built. I didn't like missing church, but I especially didn't like going hungry. With my mind made up, and a plan set for my Sunday, I decided to go chop some wood for a while.
I had only been out chopping logs for about ten minutes before I heard something out in the trees I always hated. Rustling bushes and low growling is what had my attention. With hardly a moment's hesitation, I quickly whipped out my .45 ACP and quietly ran behind the corner of my house. Coyote packs had been frequently visiting my cabin recently, and I could understand why, but it had begun to be a weekly routine.
I peeked out from the corner of my house and looked to where I heard the growling. I was ready for an easy wolf killing. What I wasn't ready for was to see several wolves either covered in wood and foliage or made of wood and foliage. I really couldn't tell. Either way, it was disturbing.
I realized that my mind was drifting and I wasn't paying attention to the wolves anymore as I was thinking about the impossibility of them being there in the first place. I was the kind of person to think about weird things and ideas at the most inappropriate times.
Coming back to my senses, I quickly lifted my sidearm to peer down the sight only to realize that there wasn't anything there anymore.
"Curious," I said to myself as I furrowed my eyebrows. "I could have sworn I saw...wooden wolves...well, I was obviously just seeing things."
Deciding to shake the odd sighting from my head, I went back to chopping logs. It wouldn't have been the first time I thought I saw something that wasn't there. After all, my far sight vision wasn't all that great. Yeah, that must have been it...or was it?
Twilight stood on her balcony from her crystal castle that was equally as lavender as her own coat of fur. The little alicorn looked out over the tops of the trees of the nearby Everfree forest, searching with a scrutinizing eye.
"Great. Well, that was a fail," she said disappointingly.
Pinkie Pie bounced over to her purple friend and replied, "Practice makes perfect! Maybe if you tried it with something a little smaller. After all, an ursa minor is pretty big to just teleport back into the Everfree."
"That's true," Twilight thought allowed, feeling quite weary from the task.
Just five minutes previous an ursa minor had waddled out of the Everfree. However, it wasn't quite so much of a threat. It was actually injured; it's belly had been torn up quite badly and it was looking for a place to lay down. The townsfolk were not too keen on a giant bear coming to town, of course, so it certainly cause quite the uproar. However, before it came within the city limits, the massive beast lay down, just outside the forest. For hours it lay there, not moving one bit. When Fluttershy, Pinkie and Twilight went to go investigate the matter, they soon realized that the ursa was getting ready to die right there outside of town. Twilight then took it upon herself to remove the bear from the sight (but not before Fluttershy dispensed a good amount of tears for the poor creature), and tried to teleport the beast back into the Everfree. The thing is, she did manage to teleport it, but not back into the Everfree, as far as she could tell anyhow. Actually, no pony really knew where it had gone, which was the problem.
Twilight sighed and entered back into her castle, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie accompanying her. Closing the doors to the balcony behind her with her magic, she decided that if the ursa minor was gone and if it wasn't going to come back and still be a problem, it wasn't something worth worrying about.
There was a sudden quake that shook the ground. It was quiet and gentle, but it reverberated through the earth, making the castle quiver ever so slightly. The three ponies stood very still for a moment, but nothing happened.
"What was that?" Twilight asked, being quite confused.
"Perhaps a far off earthquake?" Fluttershy suggested.
"I don't think so. If that-" Twilight was cut off by another tremor.
They waited again, and a third time the ground trembled, but on barely. After that, it stopped. Twilight looked to her two friends with concern etched into her countenance, "That can't be good. We should probably get out of here in case there actually is an earthquake."
Pinkie and Fluttershy hastily agreed as they followed her out of the giant, crystal castle and out into the streets of Ponyville. Once outside, they saw that they weren't the only ones worried. There were ponies all about the streets and markets, but not a single one of the dared to move. The entire town was utterly silent. Even the birds stopped chirping.
Something wasn't right. In fact, something was terribly wrong.
