A dusting of snow turned into a shallow couple of inches overnight. By morning light, a hunting party burst from the confines of wood pillars and ramparts of a stockade with men on foot and horseback with hounds eager for the hunt yanking and pulling upon their chains and tethers. Yowls and deep barks of hellish sounds resounded as naked trees of a late winter barely dusted with snow only stood vigil while the dogs and men spread out searching for a clue.
"HERE!" As dogs yowled with great intensity and yanked hard on their tethers. "We found footprints!"
A man on a grand gray mare ducked under a branch as he approached with the horse's nostrils flaring and it snorted with ears pinned back as it came to an antsy halt. The ears upon the gray mare flicked forwards as it watched the eager hounds and the men doing their best to restrain them while gripping desperately to the chains and tethers.
A man holding a fine long rifle engraved and well embellished, pointed out as he knelt and looked up at the man upon horse back, "Aye! Tis him!" He turned and reached for the blood bay gelding that jerked a moment when the reins were grabbed and he hurriedly mounted with a heave and a swing while rifle was still in his hands.
"Release the hounds! We'll get this bloody bastard," barked the man on the gray mare. And within a couple seconds later as the handlers struggled to hold the dogs they unleashed the tethers and chains and off the dogs ran!
The man on the gray mare took off first as the horse reared high then broke into a dead gallop following the chasing hounds. Those who were on foot were given atsy horses and they mounted in haste with a few already at a gallop while in mid mount. The rifleman on the blood bay was behind the man on the gray mare even though there was some distance between them and the hunting party behind the man on the blood bay.
The sound of yowling hounds and thundering hooves echoed through the barren winter trees as birds and wildlife scattered out of the way to hide from the mad group of men and dogs.
From high above on the raised but level backroad the man on the gray mare gazed down upon the dogs as they sniffed all around. He took in the sight of noticeable footprints. The man upon the blood bay caught up as the gelding came to a skitterish hault with a squeal and tossed it's head. He nearly asked the other man what he was gawking at when he turned his head and noticed the hounds and the footprints. Within a second he flung himself off the horse and slid down the embankment to the ditch to study the footprints. "Aye! Tis his!"
"Onward! Follow them!" bellowed the man on the gray mare as the rest of the hunting party caught up. They gawked at the footprints below while two men dismounted swiftly to join the rifleman handing their horses off to other riders who in turn followed the man on the gray mare. One man took hold of the blood bay's reins as the gelding jerked and joined the party as they road high upon the backroad while the rifleman and two other men followed the footprints with the hounds.
It seemed like they followed the footprints for miles as they remained in the ditch until the ditch crossed the little creek then a larger creek and the footprints crisscrossed the creeks from one side to the other then later back to the previous side. The hounds ran on ahead of the hunting party as they howled and yowled but soon their yowls grew softer. The man behind the rifleman stiffened. "Hounds have gone silent." They continued to follow the footprints with the man on the gray mare and the others still on the raised back road watching the footprints as they rode on at anxious walks and trots with their horses eager to run as the men were barely able to restrain their mounts.
The man upon the gray mare glanced ahead and noticed the footprints moved up the shallow embankment as the ditch disappeared and the road leveled off. The barren winter trees thinned out drastically to reveal a clearing and straight ahead one could see a cross roads. He took off at a canter and didn't take long for him to notice the hounds whimpering and sniffing in scattered circles occasionally lifting their heads to look around in absolute confusion.
The rifleman, followed by the two men who were following the footprints and the hounds, came stumbling up to the crossroads clearing as did the men on horseback. "The scent has been lost," said one man. Most of the men dismounted and scanned the snowy ground intently for the footprints they had been tracking as the hounds branched out desperate for the scent. Smaller search circles became wider circles that led some of the men and hounds back into the barren winter trees while they continued their search a good two hundred yards but it was hopeless. "Find the scent! Find the trail! DAMNATION! Find him! FIND HIM!" boomed the man on the gray mare who was livid beyond measure.