Have you ever seen the evening, on a cold and snowy muskeg,
where the tamarack and the raven scream against the setting sun
where the wind blows on forever and makes the pine start singing
it is a place that I remember it is north saskatchewan!
When does a story begin? Well at the beginning I guess, but how does one know the beginning? Now that's a question We will have to answer together! Now are you ready? Let us see where to begin...
The sun was low on the horizon. The clouds caught the light. Purple so deep you felt royalty was coming from beyond the mountain range! orange so pure you felt unworthy to look upon it! And red! oh red so brilliant you can feel the elements melting, and your own emotions surface until you weep where you stand!
The trees, tamarack! a brilliant display or orange, yellow, and green. Needles lay on the clean white snow a stark contrast to the black ravens that circle in the sky or sit in the branches. Laughing, crying, screaming, as though they know something that only they can know
The wind brushes your face, blowing, changing, flowing! Like the powerful tide it grips the objects in its path, trying to drag you, and them along! But all refuse to go. The Giant Jack Pine sway, speak, groan! Like a choir following the direction of the conductor, oh mighty wind!
In all of this beauty and peace I lay. On my stomach in the snow. While not deep it makes the perfect blind. Noting can see me except birds, and they are not interested.
The muskeg was not large only about 2 kilometers across and maybe twice as wide. my vantage point, high on a hillside overlooking the small depression, and 425 meters from a moose carcass, Is almost perfect, but as the light fades from the sky I realize just how cold it is going to be. This is not my first such stake out. I never once thought it would be my last. I lay silent shivering lightly I know I am not too cold yet for I have come prepared. I have heat packs that are activated by the cold! My mom would not let me do this without them. She thinks it's too dangerous as it is for a fifteen year old to spend the night like this, so I try to keep her happy. I love the challenge of stalking creatures that are more intelligent than me! wolves are very intelligent! I have been studying their movements within the area for about three weeks now. originally it was more for curiosity than anything. It turns out that was to good to last!
I have always had a fond liking towards the cold, the wilderness and anything that could thrive in this harsh environment! Sadly tonight I was not out to just be a spectator. The reason I am here is to end a problem our small community has been experiencing, with as few casualties as possible!
You see for just over a month now there has been a wolf pack around town. Now at first that was not a problem as they were to timid to really come right into town. Sure they were killing and eating the stray dogs, but that was more humane than letting the strays starve to death! Over the course of the month the wolves had become less timid and had started taking dogs that were looked after but had wandered away from the safety of their yard. Then two days ago we had a pup taken from on our porch! Some of our friends also had a dog taken but she had just been let out if the house! The owner had watched, sadly there was nothing he could do.
That brings us back to me laying in the snow weighting. I have watched this pack several times and I know very well who the matriarch is! Tonight if she shows herself I will not hesitate to kill her! That is the only option we have. if you kill the alpha male another will quickly take his place, and the alpha female chooses what and where to eat. Take the alpha female and they will be months choosing a new one. taking the matriarch will convince the pack to move on.
The moon is starting to rise behind me. It floods the Valley with a strange sort of light. A light that is more like liquid silver, with how it shimmers, and shifts. The moon rises higher into the sky and fills the small valley with light, that seems incapable of producing color. Light that is content with filling every corner, and edge in such a way that it is hard to tell where one ends, and another begins!
Now I see it. A shadow amongst the light, a shape moving, and then detaching itself from the tees. Slowly making its way across the clearing. I can already tell, this is just a scout. Most likely a young male, but could also be A recently usurped alpha. The pack has yet to arrive.
I check my gun to be sure she is ready! Tekah and I have been through alot together. I purchased her the first year I had my license and what a magnificent beast she is! Tekah is my 300 Winchester magnum ruger number one, falling block leaver action! Capable of taking down a moose at 400 yards with a 200 grain bullet traveling just under three thousand feet per second! But tonight I have made a special loud for Tekah as accuracy is going to be very important! I will be firing a 308 caliber 110 grain ballistic tipped boat-tail bullet at almost 4 thousand feet per second! What can I say she likes them hot! On a target I can make a clover leaf out of a box of these at 500 yards. That is twenty shots to a half inch space (outside diameter). That is accuracy!
Another shadow now separated from the trees followed by a string of about 7 all trotting toward the moose carcass they had killed two nights before. The first shadow, that had already been here for over an hour departed before the others got too close.
Now I shifted, slowly bringing Teka out so she could see. I looked through the scope and was immediately transfixed by their sheer beauty. These were not plains wolves they were timberwolves! At over a meter and a half in length from nose to rump and easily a meter in height, to the top of the shoulder. These were beautiful in full prime fur, with white underbellies and black markings over the shoulders and spider webbing across their backs! The matriarch was eating on the far side of the carcass. I could not take a shot so I watched patiently, and time flew! While the matriarch ate with her mate. The pups played and the other mature adults slept,or tussled about with the pups! All without a care in the world happy, healthy, beautiful!
I felt the heat pack trigger and knew I was cold silently.I silently thanked mom for insisting on me having the heat pack. my task was almost complete. Only the hard part left, only the killing. I continued to watch waiting for the moment to be right. Then it came, the matriarch had finished eating and walked around the carcass letting the others begin to eat. She was just so beautiful In a powerful, deadly, and amazing sort of way. I hate killing, always have, hope I always will, but sometimes it is best for one to die that others may live. As I placed the crosshairs upon her chest, I comforted myself in that it would be quick. Not much comfort but that's all I have. I squeezed the trigger ever so lightly.
Teka bucked and let out a bark that shattered the calm of the night! All the shadows quickly scatter, dissolving from view amongst the trees. All but one that is. Laying motionless is the once proud alpha female I watch closely through my scope for any movement, while thumbing in another round. I then wait, watching for movement ten minutes pass there is no movement. she is dead. My task complete I stretched to try and ease my cramped muscles and stiff joints. I checked my watch, just after five, sunset had been around three the previous day fourteen hours not bad. I stood donned my snowshoes, and slowly started to descend into the valley.
It sickened me to think of what I had done, but I was very good at it. Reaching the bottom of the slope I strode out onto the frozen moss covered slew hole, carefully watching for soft spots. Sometimes the muskeg never froze even at -35 celsius like tonight. As I approached the lifeless body of the once proud matriarch I could not help but shed a tear. I knelt beside her and stroked her beautiful fur for a few minutes. thinking about the light that I had just extinguished. The life that now was over. In the past week I had grown fond of watching her. She had been so full of life and now lay limp before me. then I brought out my knife to begin skinning. I was not about to let such a beautiful skin go to waste!
Now I think we have come to the beginning...
Well that was my first attempt at writing. Any criticism is welcome, As is positive feedback! let me know what you think.
anyhoo till next time
Floreloyx