Thanks again to Demonic Hope for reviewing. We'll be seeing him soon, though maybe not as one would expect.
I'm hoping to release a chapter with at least 1,000 words per weekday (M-F). With such a short goal it shouldn't be too hard, so there's that to look forward to. I may post on Saturday this weekend (3/24) to allow myself to get caught up for missing an upload Thursday.
Once more, I'd love to hear from those of you reading who haven't reviewed yet. What's going through your head?
"Fiona!" I heard my name called from the direction of the house followed by a loud, short whistle. Mom had been in one of her moods all week, which was why I'd gone out riding in the first place, and if I wasn't home in the ten minutes after she called my name I would be in deep trouble.
"Fiona," I mocked quietly as I rolled my eyes. It was the only day I'd been able to take Faline out on the trails; I'd had homework most nights that week, soccer practice two afternoons, and the parents decided my room had to be cleaned before I'd be allowed to do more than the necessary horse-care chores. So, of course, hardly an hour into my overdue ride she would come up with some reason to cut it short. I debated not going back, keeping on until I reached my grandparents place, but I turned Faline to the trail the would lead us home, and she gladly obliged since she was about ready to be back in the stables for the night. She'd been on edge since we'd reached the woods this ride, but I hadn't thought much past it just being in the air from Mom's foul temper; well, I hadn't thought more about it until a rather big dark figure bustled out of the brush and swung up to its hind feet. My muscles tensed and Faline turned and shuffled back as much as she dared, unsure of how I wanted us to get around this. My brain was stuck, I was fourteen, I had not seen a bear this close outside of the zoo, I had no idea how to deal. It roared and I realized that no movie could accurately recreate the fear that ran through me at the sound.
"Fiona?" There was fright that mirrored my own in the harmonized call that time. Faline tossed her head to the sides, buckled her front legs in a steady stance, and made an attempt at an intimidating sound, which brought the bear back to its four paws, but also encouraged it to advance on us. That was the point where I urged Faline on, making a hard u-turn and holding for dear life as Faline worked her strong thighs to put as much distance between us and danger as she could. I felt like we were almost flying.
"Help!" I called out as we deviated from the path to try throwing off our pursuer. We were going to have to go back that way at some point to return to the house, but that wasn't looking promising as the black bear kept up pretty well with our attempts to weave back. My heart dropped, I slumped forward gripping her shoulder firmly, and I felt bile rise in my throat when Faline stumbled on a tree root and gave a grunt of effort as she kept from falling flat. She was uneasy on her footing, and I encouraged her to keep moving as we arched further to the left. Leaves were crunching and branches snapped as the large beast continued behind us. Time was slowed by my racing heart, I felt we had to have been running for an hour and no one had come to help us. A loud BANG rang out, and Faline reared up nearly sending me to the ground; the only thing saving me from a painful fall was my iron-tight leg hold and death grip on the reins and saddle. Faline pranced about nervously trying to find the source of the noise and worrying about the creature that had been threatening our lives just a moment before. The woods were eerily silent after what I knew to be a gun shot, there were no sounds of the bumbling bear, the birds that had served as our ride's soundtrack had flown form the trees, and all I could hear was my ragged breathing, Faline's nervous tapping at the ground, and then the rustling of movement through the fallen leaves.
"Holy cow sis, did you see what a shot that was?" Liam exclaimed as he and Boromir came into sight. He had his hunting rifle balanced carefully in his arms as he steered them towards the still, fallen body of the bear. We didn't see too many bears near our home, but the ones we had seen hadn't been as big as that one. Both Liam and I lifted ourselves up and off the horses to examine the large black mass; Boromir ambled over to Faline, and they shared their own moment of checking the other's safety much like we did after admiring my brother's clean shot to the bear's head. He grabbed me into a bear hug –no pun intended. "You're ok, right? No scratches, not eaten?"
"I'm fine now, Liam. Just really shaken. I mean, look how big he is," I marveled kneeling to look more closely at the creature.
"Yeah, but no match for me. Dude, Dad's going to freak out when he sees this! His deer's nothing compared to this," Liam, ever the competitor, was already past the shock of seeing such a sight on our land, and found some way to turn it into a contest. He and Dad usually went on a weekend camping trip together at the start of deer season, a tradition since the year we had gotten our horses, and all Mom and I heard for weeks after was who took down the most or the best game. It made me a little ill that killing was sport for them but at least we put everything they brought home to good use.
"Yeah, this pretty well tops it all so far," I agreed before jumping at the sound of more leaves shuffling frantically.
"Fiona! Liam! Oh thank goodness. I thought someone was trying to snatch you, Fi," our Mom cried as she came to wrap us both in a hug. She jumped back with a yelp when she realized exactly what lay on the ground in front of us.
"Nah Mom, just a bear," Liam breezed as he finally got close enough to the body to touch the blank face.
That's how he always was, nonchalant and intrigued by everything. The first time we'd come across the dead that weren't acting like dead should I had had to take Boromir's reins and pull us away, because Liam was enthralled with watching the way they worked. He poked and prodded at the first loner we took down, which hadn't made too much of a difference to me since I was hunched over at the tree line emptying my system of the meager lunch I had choked down. That's the day we figured out you had to damage the brain. We'd run around this little clearing for a good half hour, me swinging my hatchet and Liam taking an old machete we found at the Anderson's house, and made no headway as we sliced at the chest, arms, and any major arteries. Finally, in a fit of frustration because this thing would not fall I blindly swung the hatchet above my head and down, connecting with a disgusting crunch-squish. That's when I took a run for the tree line, while Liam, Faline, and Boromir all approached the downed geek with caution.
"C'mon sis, you can't do that every time we get close to one of these things. They're everywhere, and I can't always save you from danger," Liam teased when he came over to rub a comforting hand on my back.
"I know Liam. How about this, I'll carry a barf bag with me so I can puke on the go," I joked wryly swiping my arm across my mouth and straightening back up. He gave the first real laugh I'd heard since we saw Mr. Anderson strangely hobble onto our property. I almost cried when I realized how much I had missed it in the week it had been. For someone like my brother who had always been making a joke or laughing wildly in the face of danger, even a day was a long time to go without feeling something humorous. I knew already didn't like this world full of deadly...dead folks, but that realization instantly made it even worse.
