A/N: WOW! I never thought I'd get so many reviews for this story, especially as this is my first one. I might do a LotRs story next...anyway I have one in the making; I'm not sure if I'll post it or not. Thanks to everybody who has reviewed. This chapter is slightly longer than the others...hope you like it.
Chapter 10, Hunting (continued)
Morgan carefully made her way through a cocklebur thicket. She and Jade had decided to split up and take different directions. That was about four hours ago. Morgan had hunted all up and down a nearby creek, and a section of the river too, and was now coming back to the field where she had started. Morgan's luck was with her...she was hot on the trail of a buck that looked to be around two hundred and thirty pounds... 'A fair kill for anyone to boast about!' she thought to herself. Originally she had tried waiting for him to come into range, but eventually gave up on that because he kept going the other way. Morgan was not going to be outdone...this was too good a trophy. Therefore, she had started slow glassing and stalking him, and was now beginning to gain. 'Good thing too...I'm getting hungry. Must be getting on about lunch time by now.' She dug down in her pockets for some jerky that she had smuggled from the table that morning and silently ripped off a large chunk. Thankfully she was downwind of the deer, so he couldn't smell her. Morgan finished the jerky, then picked up her gun and continued on glassing for another fifteen minutes. The buck was circling the perimeter of the field. She was getting very close now and was beginning to grow excited. Up ahead the deer stopped and proceeded to leave a rub on one of the larger trees. Morgan saw that he had about a seventeen-point rack and realized that this was the one that had been evading her for the last five hunting seasons. She drew a breath and slowly raised the gun. 'This is it, you big lump of venison...finally!' She aimed just behind the shoulder and put her finger on the trigger. Suddenly a shot rang out, not fifty yards away, and Morgan's buck leaped into the air, then crumpled. Morgan started, and her finger slipped from the trigger as she dropped the gun, trembling. Once the shock had passed, and she regained control of herself, anger started to set in. She picked up her gun and walked over to the deer. "What kind of a tom-fool idiot shot my deer right out from under me?!" she seethed loudly. "Why, Morgan, that would be me!" Jade came bouncing through the woods toward her. "But please, pardon me; I didn't know that that was your deer...I was just ground hunting a ways back and saw this buck here..." she faltered under Morgan's death glare. She continued to glare for twenty seconds, and Jade started to feel a tad uncomfortable. Finally Morgan began to speak; or rather, hiss. "Didn't...I...Tell...You...Not...To...Shoot...Anything...That...Looked...Like...A...Sixteen-point?" Jade nodded, and swallowed. She could tell that Morgan was really P.Oed. She looked down at the deer's rack, and then glanced at Morgan. "Well, Morgan, now don't get mad, but...I actually didn't shoot anything like a sixteen point, so technically I did what you said!" Jade told her hopefully. Morgan narrowed her eyes, but Jade noticed that some of the anger had left them, to be replaced by curiosity. "Explain," commanded Morgan. Jade flipped her hair over her shoulder, trying to lighten the mood a little, then answered sheepishly: "Well, if you look closely, you'll see that this buck, in fact, has twenty points, not sixteen." Morgan stared, then looked down at the deer to confirm what Jade said. Sure enough, she counted twenty points. She looked back up at Jade. "WHY YOU YELLOW-BELLIED, DIRTY-LIVER, PUSCILLANIMUS, two-bit-ignoramus, son-of-a-one-eyed-horse-thief..." she trailed off, her voice fading from a shout to a whisper. Jade, whose face had been scrunched up against the tirade, opened one eye and peered at Morgan, who had finished yelling and was now staring at the deer. She gazed for a few moments, then all the anger left, and she began chuckling. Jade opened both eyes in surprise. Now Morgan was positively howling. "What's so funny?" Jade asked quizzically. "Nothing, nothing," replied Morgan, "Let's get this thing back to the truck."
When Jade and Morgan got to the truck, who should they find snoozing in the bed but Will! Morgan propped her elbow on the tailgate and shot Jade an exasperated look. Jade shook her head and poked Will in the ribs. "Huh, wha...whassamatter?" He asked, jerking awake. Morgan snorted. "Nothing, just come help us load Jade's buck." "She got one?" Will inquired. His eyes got big. "Well, I guess she did. I didn't see a blasted thing all day, so I decided to come back to the truck and catch a nap." Morgan nodded. "Well, let's go get Jack and call it quits," said Jade –
"Where the devil is he?" They were at Jack's stand, and no trace of him was to be found, except for a trail of flattened grass leading towards the river. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you...I heard a shot fired off over by the sandbar this morning. That wasn't any of you guys was it?" Jade asked. Morgan and Will shook their heads. "Maybe Jack got tired of stand hunting," Morgan suggested. Jade growled. "I'm gonna kill him when I find him. Let's go." They walked towards the river, eventually coming out on the sandbar. "Alright, spread out...if you find anything, holler," said Morgan. Will nodded and turned around, then let out a holler so loud that Morgan and Jade jumped. "What's the matter, Will?" Jade asked with wide eyes. "Well, you said to holler if we found anything, and there's a trail of blood leading that way." He pointed. Jade came over and looked, then a frown appeared on her face. "That's deer blood. I bet you anything that good-for-nothing pirate killed himself a deer. Come on." They trekked onward for about thirty minutes, all the while following the trail of blood, which criss-crossed every which direction. "Damn, he must've gotten himself lost," said Will. Finally, they came up on a particularly swampy area. "Can't go much farther...damn gators'll chase you as soon as look at'cha." "Agreed," said Jade. "But hell, the trail leads right into the plac.....wait a second! What's that?" She pointed at a body. Will squinted. "It's a deer, and that's Jack's hat beside it!" The trio needed no other persuasion...they bolted off toward the deer. When they got there, they stopped in their tracks. They stared. They looked at each other. They fell out laughing. There, stuck fast, was Jack, covered in mud and blood, and looking absolutely miserable. He glared at them. "Took ye' long enough!" He snapped. Jade was positively rolling; her face was red, and she was holding her sides. "You know what this reminds me of?" Morgan said between howls. "This reminds me of that Brer Rabbit episode where he got stuck to Brer Wolf's tar baby!" Jade let out a renewed shout of laughter, and Morgan proceeded to split her sides. When they finally got up, they were both wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. "OK, guys, let's get him out of there," said Will, who had also done his share of laughing. Jack looked disdainfully at them. "I don't see nothin' funny about the present situation," he said in a maddening tone. The girls and Will giggled again. Morgan told them, "Hold on for a little while, and I'll be back with the truck and some rope," and she went off, still chuckling.