Authors Note: This is my first time writing a story and so I have not had much experience with this sort of thing, because of this, I will gladly accept any criticism or notifications of any errors in my writing.

The evening sun glared through the branches of the autumn trees, sending piercing light into the shrubbery below. You could hear the leaves rustling against each other and the distant chirping of birds singing in the tops of the trees.

I loved being here - in the forest. It's eary silence helping me to relax and take a break from the loud, busy world. Freeing my from the world.

My father gave a signal for me to crouch. I did so without hesitation. We both knelt there as he scanned his surroundings, waiting for movement. He had taken me hunting, he wanted me to learn how to kill and hunt. He had said it would teach me how to be a man.

"I don't think there is anythi-"

He cut me off with a simple hush, and pointed towards a set of bushes. And as if by magic, a young male deer appeared from behind them. The deer was alone, it was a prime target for us to catch.

My father had taught me to stay as still as I could, he said that any sudden movement could scare the creature away, and cause us to lose our valuable prey.

I knelt there, carefully watching the fawn as it was heading towards a large acorn tree. My father started to show a small smile, as the deer started cautiously heading towards a small pile of acorns upon some fallen leaves. This was where he had previously laid a snare, perfectly designed for an adult deer. This deer was no adult but this would mean the trap would work even better than he planned.

The deer started to scan its surroundings, checking for any lurking predators. It looked directly at us but quickly averted its gaze, due to us being completely undistinguishable from our surroundings with our home made camouflage. Made of fallen leaves and dried mud. It dropped its head towards the pile of acorns sniffing them to make sure they were not harmful. Confident that they were fine, the fawn lay its mouth upon the acorns only to find a fine but also strong wire pulling tight around its neck and violently pulling it to the ground on its side.

My father looked at me then back at the struggling deer triumphantly. He dropped his rifle and backpack and headed toward the snared creature keeping a watchful eye on it. As he got close he pulled out his knife from its leather sheath and gripped it tightly in his right hand. He knelt down slowly next to the deer as it writhed and struggled, desperately trying to escape its imprisonment. He looked into the deers eyes as he quickly inserted his knife into the deers kneck causing the animal to die almost instantly.

He then started to release the now dead deer from the snare by cutting through the wire and placing the salvaged pieces of wire in his pockets. He then pulled the remaining parts of the snare from under the ground and he tossed them to the side.

I watched every move that my father made, knowing that one day he would force me to do it without his help. He wanted me to be a hunter, but it did not come natural to me. Nothing did really.

I was ripped from my thoughts by the nearby roar coming from the same bushes the deer had come from.

My father had also noticed this too as his gaze was quickly averted to the bushes once more.

The bushes shaked and snapped making my heart start to pound vigorously. I realised that now we were no longer the hunters, but instead the ones being hunted.

The bushes spread apart revealing a giant brown bear carefully watching my father. I watched in awe as the beast stared reluctantly at my father, both of them caught in each others gaze.

My father reached towards his back. He did not find what he was searching for. He had left his gun near me as he went to finish off the deer with his knife.

My father looked at me for a split second, then at the gun, and then back at the dark menace before him. I understood him clearly. I reached for the gun slowly while also watching the bear. The gun was ready and loaded.

My father had taught me how to shoot a gun before. But I had never killed anything.

The bear now had started its charge at my father. Its leaping sprint shaking the earth as it landed causing me to shake in fear.

I now had the rifle trained on the bear. But I could not shoot.

My father shouted at me to shoot while reaching for his knife. I stood there, shaking, with my gun trained on the bear, unable to move.