Long ago when I was young. My days consisted of this exact order of events wake up get ready eat and go off into the woods for an adventure we lived in a rural area with neighbors few and far between. This lead me to an isolated childhood with only my brother really there for me to play with. We fought like wild cats every day but only when my mother wasn't in ear shot. But this is not the beginning of this journey not even close but it is key point in my life.
Growing up in a rural area was hard on most people the isolation and for some worst of all no internet connection not even dail up.
School was no different just a bunch of low paid teachers with some students that would end up as mechanics roughnecks or house wives not a lot of intelligence was needed for those jobs I had learned working for both. Some time in middle school I met my first long time friend his name was drake a lanky looking fellow with course dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. His little brother no different just a lot shorter. Me and drake became like brothers our homes just half a mile from each others we met a lot of times at cat claw creek. A year had past and I was now in seventh grade summer with Drake was one of the best I ever had mine and his brothers got along greatly so did our parents. That year another new kid came into the mix his name was Chris short for Christopher this man was a character tall and hefty with native American styled hair Italian looking and always wore pants. Need I remind you it can be like Satans armpit in the summer here in texas. I didn't bond as much with Chris as I did drake but all the less we had fun together. I can recall one time when we were swimming in the clear fork of the Brazos when a catfish latched onto my arm at the time we were noodling. Heed that I was thirteen in eight grade only one hundred pounds with slight tone ment in my muscle when a catfish half my body lenght grabbed my arm in a hole underwater they had to rip my hand from the fishs mouth and I still have scars to this day of the drag marks left by its needle like teeth. We progressed on through ninth tenth grade but eleventh grade drake moved I gave him a scrap book of us and Chris through our years we said good bye and shared a brotherly love moment all three of us together I didn't see him until I was twenty five.
I finished high school passing and by age twenty one had my own carpentry company Chris as my lead mapper and Ramiro my lead carpenter he was a young guy only nineteen or twenty like me and Chris we stuck out like a sore thumb in my workers crowd of mostly thirty year olds with the exception of me Chris and Ramiro. It was easy going job we had good pay and any accident that happened we covered in full from nail through a hand to a broken bone from a fall. when the stock market crashes in 2008 the company went bankrupt so I shut it down and took fifty thousand for myself and giving the crew the rest. Chris found a job working for a cattle barn and Ramiro found work in a restaurant as a chef both well paid I with my set of skills was limited. That was until I found an ad for a dude ranch they needed someone to watch it during winter non working months or bad weather aka snow storm in colorado. I left and went for it two thousand a day fourteen a week and all I had to do was feed animAls and watch for predators simple and great for me.
I arrives at this twenty acre ranch with a fence surrounding it cliff to the south woods then mountains to the north and west only accessible way up was from the east and the road could jolt a man to death food and provisions were supplied for at least two months in the cellar everyone packed up and left. A week into the job I noticed something was off about,the animals behavior it was like the were waiting for something to happen and always face to the north when doing so I passed it off as like cows do they face north to eat always just there thing to do. Only by week two I started smelling it a musky oder like a piece of chopped onion and spoiled lettuce smell. As usual my rational brain side said it was just from the smog from the city then on Thursday of week two I heard the horses raising nine kinds of hell to the west stood what I could only describe half wolf sheep deer and bear creature standing hunched over a dead coyote in the snow I took aim with the ranch issued who and fired it it the creature dead in the back if fell over slouched in the snow un-moving dead like I snuck up to the hay loft in the barn with a window cut to the west I watched for about thirty minutes when another came out grabbed its fallen brother and drug it back to the woods that night I slept windows and doors locked and gun loaded in the bed with me I never felt more scared in my life that night and barley slept I woke up the next day to find a horse slaughtered and its head posted on a stake in the field. They were smart and capable of thoughts emotions and elaborate plans there taktic scare me worked but I didn't run instead I hatched my own idea.
I left the carcass of the horse in the field for two days let my scent come off of it went outside as minimal as possible and started stockpiling things in the hay loft the third day as dusk settled I got into position rifle fully loaded and camoflaughed food water and heat I waited and waited and waited finally I can guess close to midnight in a full moon plenty of light they came two more of them I was guessing the males since a larger build they started feasting on the corpse I lined up my shot and fired direct hit,to the head I emptied the chamber and loaded another bullet aimed fired hit in the thigh repeated and hit in the head this time dead I slept,in the loft no other horse was killed I called,the Forman and quit due to fear of the creatures only the horse body and coyote body were found and just a few drops of blood where I shot the crearures to this day I never visit Colorado I told Chris and Ramiro and eventually drake when I four him they all believe me do you