Hunting the Wolf (An Original Story – Part 1)
Part One
A teardrop falls into the snow.
Jason lifts his head, wiping his reddened face with a frosty mitten. His eyes dart past the blood trail and set of footprints leading into the Martian woods.
Little Darling lets out a murmur, foggy tendrils of breath disappearing from her nostrils in a final, soft snort. Jason holds her head in his lap like he did when she was an orphaned foal, always sick, always fed with a baby’s bottle, always weak in the thin air of the red planet.
Jason lets her go gently and stands, looking down at his big hands. A few days shy of his sixteenth, he feels much older and stronger than his age: his dark skin and hair, combined with his stocky German and Cherokee stature, protect him well in this cragged land. These and other background features helped his family secure seats on the third ark that brought life to this place.
Life that gives, and life that takes away.
Jason clenches his jaw, returning to the barn.
He opens a drawer in the long worktable and finds his grandfather’s old Colt .45 – the one for emergencies – and the Remington rifle. He checks the chambers. Oiled and clean. His hand shovels bullets deep into his coat pocket. He carries the rifle outside into the early morning air. Dawn arrives. The dark windows of the ranch house reveal that Grandfather Owlfeather is still asleep. When Owlfeather sees Little Darling’s body and discovers the missing guns, he’ll understand what happened.
Beneath the misty nightgown of the Phobos moon, a howl severs the air, stirring red crows into the dark, morning sky.
Jason follows the creature’s song into the woods. The sound is meant as a warning, but he is emboldened.
Read the Next chapter:
Part Two
"Hunting the Wolf" is a 6-part speculative science fiction story about a young man enacting revenge on an alien planet. Who do we become when we fight our enemy? I welcome feedback on this story about Man vs. Nature. Stay tuned, as I also will be publishing my 300,000 word epic novel "The Messiah" on Steemit in 2017.
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