Hunting the Wolf (An Original Story – Part 2)
Part Two
Charging through the brush, Jason feels droplets of melting snow splash his face.
Poplar-like trees dot the hillside, their small, round leaves fluttering in the quiet breeze. He remembers this scrubland, where patches of grass and violet shrubs sit beside bare basalt rock. His father taught him guns here, many of their targets rocks painted with symbols.
A pang throbs in his side from running too hard in the snow. Or maybe it’s from the memory of his mother. His eyes drop back to the ground, the blood trail lost. With a mumbled curse, he slows to a walk.
Help guide me, he thinks to his mother. He jumps from grass green to snow patch, avoiding the slippery rock wherever possible. At the top of the ridge, he walks carefully, observing the ground, looking for any trace of blood.
A call sounds, a familiar one from his days spent bird watching. Above, an eagle floats upon drafts of air, its wings barely moving.
“My eyes, yours,” he murmurs to the eagle with clouded breath. But no image appears when he tightly shuts his own.
On the other side of the ridge below, a dirt trail leads between two hillsides. He jumps down to it. Snow clumps in the shade provided by the trail’s walls.
The Remington feels heavy in his grasp, as if a large magnet within the Martian ground is pulling down the lead. Jason stops and sits on a rock to catch his breath, hoarse from the balmy air. He can hear Owlfeather speak to him between noisy gasps. Breathe through your nose, or your prey will be alerted.
Jason forces himself to breathe through his nose, but without the trail of blood to guide him, he feels lost. He hits the butt of the rifle against the ground, then points it into the air. “The wolves know to avoid the ranch! We taught them not to cross the property line.”
Shooting guns in the air will not cure their hunger, Owlfeather’s voice echoes throughout the trail’s walls.
Jason reluctantly listens to the breathless reminder, and walks down the path.
Upon giving up, the blood trail is found again, in spots, much lighter than before.
Read the next chapter:
Part Three
Start at the beginning:
Part One
"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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Thank you all for your support and encouragement.
Image Credits: Clker-Free-Vector-Images | NatureWorks | Pixabay - 955169
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