Note: The places mentioned in this Chapter are real places. I own nothing.
Please review. I desperately need to improve my skills so critique will be appreciated.
Silence. Nothing but soft breaks and the slight pitter patter of rain against the window filled the room. There wasn't much in the room, since it was newly decorated and still awaiting some furniture to be moved in to the room. So far there was just a double bed with light pink sheets and several pillows positioned against one of the walls, under the window. A table with a lamp was placed each side of the bed, and on the left side lay an plain silver alarm clock. Across the room, directly opposite the bed was a desk with a small pink stool in front of it and a laptop laying on the top. Then above the desk, hung on the wall was a rather large silver-rimmed mirror. On the wall to the left was an white wooden door, leading to a walk-in closet.
It was a fairly simple room, but it did belong to a fairly simple girl.
A high pitched buzzing sound filled the room as soon as the small hands on the alarm clock made it's way to say 7:00 Am. A small hand found its way out of the sheets spread over the bed, turning to alarm off before quickly throwing the sheets to the right side of the bed, revealing a petite but slightly rounded unnatural blonde wearing thick white cotton pajamas. A smile made it's way on to the girl's face as she realized what day it was. Saturday. No work today. She could spend the whole day with her dogs. Hunting in the woods then fishing in the sea. The girl quickly bounced out of bed, throwing the sheet back over the left side as well as the right so that it now looked somewhat neat.
She made her way around the bed, towards the white wooden door in the wall that led to her walk-in closet. Upon opening the doors, both sides of the closet were filled with clothes hung up out of the way and the back wall was a display dedicated to various colored snap back caps. Each was tagged with a different state name on the front, and the colors matched seemed to match with the sports teams associated with that state. The LA one was yellow and purple for the Lakers. The Chicago one was red and white for the Bulls. The New York one was purple and white with orange writing for the Knicks. And the Boston on was dark and light green for the Celtics. There were also several others, including a grey one with the Batman Symbol and a couple of black and white ones covered in paint splodges. The collection wasn't huge, but there were spaces for more to be added.
The girl smiled upon seeing her collection. She didn't miss her home much, but she missed the various basketball games she would go to but now she lived in a different country and she could still go to basketball games, but it wasn't the same as going with all of her old friends in her home country.
"Alright Dani, it's due to rain to something warm and waterproof," the girl muttered to herself before browsing through the clothes hung against the wall.
Danielle Hergo. Native to Boston, New York, USA and currently living in Kingswear, Dartmouth, England. She had figured that a new country was key for a new life, and England was the perfect fit. She had used her college funds to purchase a home and immediately got a job working at the Old Oak pub and restaurant. She spent the majority of weekdays working, but after work and on the weekends she enjoyed to trek through the hills of the small village where she lived and in to Kingswear Woods with her two Red Lacy Dogs, Blizzard and Dusty. She would spend hours in the woods after work and in the mornings of her weekends, just quietly tracking rabbits and squirrels before sending her dogs in for the kill. It wasn't much, but as well as the small vegetable patch she had in her garden it gave her a meal every day and gave her a bit of extra cash for treats whenever she would sell the extras to the local butchers. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Dani would also take out the small fishing boat she had purchased and head down river to the seas where she would then head towards a small rocky island known as the Mew Stone. It was impossible to her the boat close enough to get on to the island, but she was able to fish in peace for a few hours before returning to shore to sell her catch. Her life wasn't glamorous. But it was certainly better than what most people got. She was able to get her own food and she still had money to buy herself a few treats. In her eyes, she couldn't have a better life.
When Dani walked out of the closet roughly ten minutes later, she had gotten rid of the cotton pajamas and was now wearing waterproof pants, a thick white and red jacked and a pair of thick woolly socks. She never dressed up when she went in to the woods. There was no point since she tended to get soaked in rain, and if she happened to fall in the slippery hills on the way there, she would end up getting rather dirty.
She made her way out of the bedroom, stepping out in to a long hall. There were two doors on the same side, but further to the left and two doors on the opposite side further down the hall. To the right was an balcony overlooking the lounge with a staircase leading down to the main door, which was just next to the open arch into the lounge.
Dani skipped down the stairs, and instead of turning left in to the lounge, Dani turned in to an open arch doorway, out in to another small hall. Only two doors were shown, one of which was open. The one closest was the opened door, showing a smart looking kitchen with marble surfaces and a separate dining area with just a small wooden table and two seats. Dani carried on down the hall way, opening the last door. As she stepped in to the room and closed the door behind her, two small brown colored dogs raced up to her, barking and jumping up excitedly as they saw their master.
Dani crouched down so that she was level with her two Red Lacy Dogs, gently rubbing each of their heads as they affectionately licked her. Despite taking them hunting, Dani made sure to show them both love and affection and spend time playing with them so that they weren't left on their own.
After petting the dogs for a few minutes, Dani stood back up and headed over to the far side of the room, where there was a large pet basket filled with blankets and two food bowls at one side, and two half empty water bowls. She picked up the water bowls before opening up the back door, leading to the garden. She left the door open for the two dogs to run about the garden as she turned to the left and crouched down at the outdoor tap. She emptied the water bowls down the drain on the ground and filled them back up with fresh water. Dani then returned them to their place by the dogs' bed and picked up the empty food bowls. While the dogs were playing in the garden, Dani stepped out in to the hall way again, closing the door behind her. She headed in to the kitchen and opened up the small meat cooler by the fridge, taking out a bag of chopped up rabbit and squirrel she had caught a few days before. She then put a few chunks in each of the bowls, filling them up before re-sealing the bag and returning it to the cooler. Dani then picked up the bowls again and return to the other room, setting down the bowls and calling the dogs for their breakfast. Raw meat was a better diet than buying dog food, so Dani liked to give the dogs a bit of what they caught spread out over two meals a day.
Not even half an hour later and Dani had already consumed her breakfast, consisting of a bowl of porridge and a mug of coffee. So now, the girl was retrieving her waterproof coat from the hooks by the front door and pushing her feet in to purple colored wellies, tucking her waterproof pants in to the edge of them. Ready to go, Dani made her way back down the small hallway past the right arch way and down the hall to the dogs room. She picked up the collars and double leash from the hooks on her way, and as soon as she got in to the room, she called the dogs.
"Blizzard! Dusty! Here boys!" Upon calling the dogs, both of them came running in to the room to their master.
Dani hooked the collar with the name tag "Blizzard" attached to it around the larger of the dogs, and the other collar with the name tag "Dusty" attached to it around the smaller of the dogs. She then picked up the leash from the ground where she had placed it to fasten the collars around her dogs. It was a fairly simple leash, black and quite strong. It appeared to just be a single leash, but half way down it split in to two separate leashes and clipped on to each dog separately. Dani clipped one hook around Blizzard's collar and then the other hook around Dusty's collar. And then to stop the two dogs from heading in different directions while still on a leash, Dani clipped another short tug to Blizzard's collar then the other side to Dusty's collar.
Once set to go, Dani began to lead the dogs out of the side gate. She tried to avoid walking through the village as much as possible due to her dogs not doing well with stranger dogs. Heading through the side gate of her house, and walking straight through the hilly fields on the edge of Kingswear was the quickest way to get to the woods so Dani often took that route.
It was only a half hour walk so it wasn't even half past eight by the time Dani reached the large trees marking Kingswear Woods. If she turned around, it would be easy to see the River Dart and Kingswear village from below. But now, Dani only concentrated on what lay before her. She took in a deep breath, reveling in the fresh scents that surrounded her. This is where she was most at ease. Surrounded by wildlife.
Dani took a moment before she crouched down beside Blizzard and Dusty, smiling as the dogs eagerly wagged their tails. They knew the drill. They knew what came next. They knew of the freedom they would get for the next three hours and they couldn't be more excited.
"Alright boys, ready to go?" Dani whispered, as if she was trying not to disturb the peace.
After gently petting the two dogs, she un-clipped the tug from the two dogs and then took the leash of each of their collars, rolling them both up and pushing them in to her pocket. It didn't take long for the three of them to be on their way, quietly making their way through the woods. Only about two minutes in to the trek and the dogs had picked up the scent of a rabbit. The dogs were silently following the scent, their noses pressed in to the ground with Dani following carefully behind them. A moment later and Blizzard shot off, Dusty soon following. Dani smiled, knowing that the dogs had found the rabbit.
At times, Dani was so proud of the two dogs. She had bought them as eleven week old brothers. The strongest of the litter and the runt of the litter. From then, she had raised them herself, trained them herself and done everything with them. They were four years old now, and to say that they were her first hunting dogs, she wouldn't dare say she could have done a better job.
Dani followed quickly behind the dogs, making sure that she didn't loose them in the chase. She stopped at the edge of a clearing as Blizzard and Dusty attacked the rabbit. She needed to watch in order to pull the dogs off the rabbit once the job was done, but her strong stomach meant that she didn't mind watching anyway.
"Alright boys, heel!" She called out, instantly making Blizzard release the freshly caught rabbit and both dogs turn to look in her direction.
Dani quickly trotted over to the rabbit and picked up the carcass, stuffing it in to her duffel bag she used whenever she went hunting. As she was putting the carcass away, she couldn't help but notice how big it was. Much bigger than they had been the past season. But then again, summer was approaching and although it was still raining, it was beginning to get warmer, so the game would start getting bigger and more plenty around this time of year.
"Good job boys," Dani praised as she zipped up the duffel bag again, still smiling softly at her dogs, "Alright then, go!" She then commanded, watching as the dogs trot on their way again, continuing to track the game.
After three very successful hours of hunting in the woods, Dani stuffed the last squirrel in the the game bag and took out the tug and leash from her pocket, clipping the leash to each dog respectively and then attaching the tug. Dani would have stayed out for an hour or two longer, but she was getting hungry and it had begun to rain so she wanted to get indoors for a few hours before going fishing. But she was pretty satisfied with the hunt, so she wouldn't mind lounging around for a while.
Dani was beginning the trek back down the hills to her home, careful to avoid the slippery wet mud caused by the rain bouncing down on the hillside. She did occasionally slip, but she was used to the hills by now so she rarely fell. However, she wasn't used to seeing other people taking hikes up these hills. But today was an exception. On her way back down the path on the hillside, she saw another person making their way up towards the woods where Dani had just come from. It looked to be a woman, around Dani's age, but Dani didn't pay much attention to her. She focused on not slipping in the mud.
Only a moment after, Dani jumped slightly as she heard a thud followed by an 'oof'. Dani turned around to find that the woman who was making her way up the hill had slipped and was now laying on her stomach in the mud. Dani couldn't help but laugh a little, but she turned around and headed to where the woman was in order to help her up.
As the stranger turned around to face Dani, unaware that she was actually there, Dani held out her free hand to help her up.
"Let me help you," she offered with a small smile.
"Thanks," the girl replied as she took Dani's hand and was pulled up out of the mud.
"No problem," Dani grinned as she now came face to face with a beautiful, dark haired, dark eyes Latina. "I'm Dani,"
The girl also smiled upon seeing Dani's grin, but took a moment to contemplate whether or not to also tell Dani her name. After a while she just shrugged before replying, "I'm Santana."