Duck Season
Eighteen miles outside of Vancouver
Home was more than just our rock, more than just our garden. We decided to expand a bit, see our horizons.
As it were, this bit of exploration got us caught up in a huge migration of Canadian Geese.
"Wow, there's so many!" cried Nudge, as we passed them by on our way to Vancouver.
"Yeah," said Gazzy. "And they're all talking at once, it's like being at an airport!"
A week before, we'd met some nice people who frequented Cabela's, Laura Sunning Bird and her husband, Richard. They were a trapping family of five, two sons and a daughter, who lived a few miles away from us, next to one of the many lakes that dotted the wilderness. We'd met on accident, when I'd wanted information on the archery equipment:
"An archer, huh? Humble newcomer?"
"You could say that," I said, a little wary.
"Yeah, you look it. New archers always begin down on that end," she'd pointed out, and I saw the smaller sets immediately. I wondered if it would be a good idea to bolt and go somewhere else.
"Your arms look strong, though. My kids specialize in archery, y'know. I'd reccommend maybe a sixty-pound puller for you."
She smiled disarmingly, and I thought, Oh, she's good. She knows I'm not an archer, and that I'll probably be using this to kill things after all. But she didn't look like one of Them. She had salt and pepper hair, pulled back in a loose ponytail that probably went to her butt, and a cheerful, tan face with fine contures of bone. Her brown eyes practically sparkled out of her head. A nametag said, "Hello, My Name Is Laura".
I conceded. As I picked up the sixty-pounder, I said casually, "Your kids hunt?"
"Yep. We work the southern area for beaver and such. We're a hunting and trapping family, you see."
I was interested. "Really? Do you live in the city?"
"Goodness, no. We live on our own." She rested her chin on her work-work knuckles. "We built our house, and our kids are home-schooled."
Ah. A veritable tap for information. The bow was harder to pull back than I thought. She said, "Stand with your legs farther apart, and with the string not so close to your face, dear."
"Ah, right." My stance was, of course, horrible. After watching me for a few moments, Laura said, "Would you like some lessons? I can tell just by looking at you that you probably don't live in the city, either."
Another good guess. She doesn't LOOK like a bad guy, but still... I figured that if she did indeed live on her own, then she wouldn't have an army waiting to kill us. Not to mention, those woods were pretty thick; we could disappear in moments. And another part of me liked the idea of a risk, especially an educational one.
But that was a whole lot of pride to swallow. Especially since when I released the string, it slapped against my arm so hard that I felt as though my skin were about to peel off.
"Lessons would be... great."
"Aaah..." said Angel, doing a loop-dee-loop. I myself tilted my body slightly so I could ride a thermal a little better. Fang rode next to me, arms crossed, staring straight ahead.
It had been a while since he'd last mentioned his mother. At the time, I'd had nothing to say that could console him, but lately, he seemed to be more immersed in his own thinking. I was worried, of course, but hoping that he'd come out of it soon.
"Feels home-y," he said suddenly, and I blinked. He looked at me with that piercing gaze of his, and I shook myself into realizing that he'd just cracked a joke. "Oh, yeah. The geese. Wait a minute. You feel like a goose?"
He shrugged. "Why not? We're flying with them."
"Geese are cool!" Gazzy shouted from above us, and he dove to come up on my other side. "Just really loud!"
"Fang kinda looks like a goose," said Nudge conversationally. Total and Iggy snickered in Angel's arms. "Yeah, with his hair all blown about like that..."
Fang scowled. "I'm not even gonna go there."
(What? All of us are hygienically-challenged, folks! It happens.)
"In the meantime, does anyone else remember what it was we were supposed to pick up at the store?"
"Matches?"
"Not on your life, kid."
"Yeah....hey! V-formation!" I cried, unable to help myself. I heard Fang groan. Nudge and Gazzy banked and rose up behind him, and Angel by me, Total wobbling unsteadily as he got used to flight. He'd come a long way in a very short time.
Now we looked like a flock of Canadian geese, heading south. Or a group of fighter jets. Either way, just like all the other birds up here with us, we didn't look so out of place. Our wings rose on the thermals, and it was like a skater riding a pipe, up, up into the open air.
Nudge and Gazzy started making honking noises. Angel took the form of half-a-goose. Total barked at a couple that came close to us. This was pretty fun.
"They say that there's a lake coming up," said Angel, looking so bizarre with a duck bill for lips and eye markings. "That way they can rest a bit and then -"
A wall hit me from below. The impact sent me tumbling through the air crazily, and I righted myself. "Iggy?" What did he do that for? It couldn't be because he was blind; the move had been too deliberate. Our formation had naturally scattered, but then, so had our neighboring geese. They were honking rapidly and moving away.
"Iggy!" Angel screamed, and our flock member in question trembled, dipped, and closed his eyes, falling at a frightening speed to earth.
