Troy followed the hunter like a dog follows its master. Once through the heavy woods and partial glade, Troy spotted the log. It turned out to be a fallen tree, with heavy roots and appeared to be cutting off and redirection the stream. The stream having been cut off was creating a water loss, resulting in a puddle. Troy realized with crushing thought that it would be impossible for him to lift of even move this grand tree. The hunter pointed out and end that was within 5 feet of troy. The hunter made a lifting motion and troy followed suit to make sure he understood the man smiled.
"I want you to lift it like this…" said Earl making a swift motion like a lumberjack. Earl got down into a squat and came up again, showing troy how to move weight from the front to the back.
"Alright" said troy without any hesitation to what was he was about to do. His thoughts flew to Gabby as he stepped around the giant puddle to the other side of the tree. The end that he was now approaching appeared to be lighter looking, then the base. The hunter counted to three. Troy gripped his side of the log and lifted with all his strength. The log was not light but just heavy enough for troy to manage. Troy got the end of the log off the ground about a foot and swung it a little more to the right and out of the way. Earl was not able to lift his side more then a few inches. Earl and Troy took turns moving the log a little at a time until it was almost completely back to normal. Troy walked around to the other side and both Earl and he worked together. They managed to lift the log just enough to allow the stream to pass. Troy was about to lower the log half when out of nowhere he was brought out of his trance by a sound. a slight " hissss…" could be heard from somewhere on the ground.
"Snake" said earl. "Get away from there" pointing at the ground just inches from Troy's feet. Troy looked around wildly for something to kill it with. The boots Troy was wearing only came up to his low ankles. Although the snake was near Troy's feet it had its mind set on attacking the hunter, which was fine by Troy. The snake was annoyed, and came up to full height and prepared to strike the hunter's leg. Earl out of haste dropped his half of the log quickly creating a whirlwind of events in succession. Troy now bearing all of the weight and unable to sustain himself lost his grip on the log along with his balance and went tumbling to the ground. The tree trunk came down into the mud as did troy, and the last thing troy heard was a sickening crack. The last thing troy thought of was Gabby.