It was close….so close I could hear it breathing, I could smell it's disgusting breath wafting past me. Quietly I crept closer, careful not to make a sound as I neared my quarry. A very fat moose with an attitude to match its size, glanced up from it's lunch.
It looked around and went back to feasting when it saw nothing of danger lurking, brushing off the apparent new smell in the air, this thing was either extremely full of itself or really dumb and if I know moose, they tend to be anything but dumb.
It was calm and even overjoyed at the prospect of no competition for the thick berry bush. Apparently being full of itself is not it's only issue, an anti-social moose…interesting.
Deeper in the forest I knew Edward and Alice were off hunting together, but I had been stalking this moose for ten minutes. It was mine, it was my treat for the soup I had to eat at the restaurant.
I knelt down a bit, slowly moving closer. I made no noise nor did I try to calm the beast; it was already in a state of bliss and certain that nothing would disrupt it's meal, if I tried to calm it anymore than it already was, I'd probably put it to sleep.
Taking a quick deep breath, I lunged at the moose.
It was more prepared for an attack than I had thought as it swung it's thick antlers sending me crashing into a tree, my granite like body taking out the tree with one echoing crack.
"Chris?" I heard Alice call, her voice full of concern, she and Edward must have finished already, and were moving towards us.
"I'm good!" I replied, taking a fighting stance, my eyes locked with the moose. "bloody nutter….You're mine. Here moose…I'm still standing," I taunted.
It snorted and pawed at the ground in frustration.
Instead of running away however it glared at me and rushed towards me, head down, antlers ready to try and impale me, instead of using it's antlers however, it lunged it's front hooves at me, trying to take me down that way…I ducked under the creature and darted away as it stampeded at me again.
I easily dodged the animal as it skidded to a stop. I usually don't get the chance to fight my food like Em does, normally because I really have no desire to do so and secondly deer don't tend to attack.
But a moose will and it will do so with pure nastiness. You tick off of a moose and it will not stop trying to get back at you until one of you is dead, they are one of the few deer species that understand and exact revenge.
As it came galloping towards me, I braced myself for the impact. I ducked the antlers and allowed my shoulder to connect with the moose's powerful chest.
I skidded through the dirt, but since I had braced myself I didn't go to far. However the impact actually sent a wave of pain through me, it wasn't my own, though I did feel the force as it hit me, but the pain was from the moose, he had just slammed into my stone hard body and felt it.
Of course this just pissed him off even more.
I saw Alice and Edward watching from the tree trunk I had just mowed over when the moose had thrown me.
I took a deep breath and resumed a defensive stance. The moose backed up again preparing for another attack. I could hear Alice giggling and sensed Edward trying not to laugh.
I tend to calmly take down my prey, I rarely instigate a fight with it, but unless I go up to Alaska, I rarely get my moose so I had to relish my rare treat.
It's generally out of character to find one around here, but I have a feeling this moose is anything but normal.
Suddenly, the moose charged again, but this time it wouldn't body slam me, it had learned that lesson and wouldn't make that mistake again.
Anticipating this I waited until the last second and jumped up just as the moose brushed past me. As I usually do when wrestling with my brothers, I wrapped my arms around the thick neck, I couldn't go all the way around, it was just to big.
I didn't let that stop me though, as I caught the moose off guard and though it took some work, threw it to the ground as we landed in a cloud of leaves and dust.
It struggled to get up and fought me as I held it down, it was tiring, but was still angry enough to refuse to give in.
I spilt my concentration between holding it down and calming the moose, it's neck was to thick to properly break, but I've taken on enough moose to know their weakness' and using half my strength I belted it in the nose.
Moose are extremely sensitive there and it literally paralyzes them. Giving me the chance I needed to begin to tear through the thick fur to the skin underneath…where my strong fingers and sharp teeth did the rest…allowing me to drink.
After I'd my fill, I looked over at my brother and sister who were both laughing and shaking their heads.
"Feel better?" Edward asked, jumping off the fallen tree, Alice walked over and handed me a scrap of wet cloth to wash off the blood stain I know I had on my face.
"Nothing like a good nasty moose to brighten the day," Edward rolled his eyes at me "so you just going to leave us here or are we all running home together 'fore you take off so Esme can at least see you?" I asked casually, contemplating on what to do with the moose carcass, it was huge and wouldn't be hidden easily.
But mainly I was trying to appear uninterested with whatever my brother planned on doing, but Edward knows me…even without access to my mind he knows my personality and knows that appearing uninterested is one of my defense mechanisms and when I act like I don't care, I actually do.
Edward walked over to me shaking his head. In my head I apologized, but refused to do so out-loud as he helped me dispose of the moose's body.
We were deep enough in the woods that this isn't a well traveled area and there are enough predators and scavengers in this forest that the body would be gone soon.
I looked over at Edward, waiting for him to retort to my comment
"Guess I deserved that," Edward admitted, looking at both Alice and I. We exchanged a look and nodded a bit.
"We just hardly see you anymore." I admitted sitting down on the fallen tree. "it's like you've become a different person, a phantom that haunts our house every once in a great while just to remind us that it's there 'fore disappearing again."
"I know, and I apologize for that."
"My profile cant keep up with you 'cause I never see you and you're always changing your mind so Alice cant keep up with you either." I looked over at Alice who nodded, agreeing with me "and your emotions have been so erratic that your driving poor Jaz nuts." I finished "and just to warn you, Dr. Doolittle has stopped for a while…there's a new nickname floating around and I'm not the one it's geared towards..."
Edward raised an eyebrow, before his eyes went wide as he read my mind.
"The Phantom!" he exclaimed "who came up with that bright idea?"
"Emmett." I replied
"Should've guessed that one" Edward sighed
"And that's just one of many, Phantom, Ghostie, Vampire of the Corn, Edward Bates, Creature from the black lagoon" I named off a few. "Personally I like Vampire of the Corn, Emmett's getting much more creative in his old age."
"Guess I deserved that as well." He paused and looked at me again "wait…Creature from the black lagoon?"
"Oh wait, sorry, that's mine for Em after he accidentally spilt an entire canister of oil I had out for the ATV, all over himself."
Edward looked down at his feet for a moment, obviously regretting missing the fun he had missed over the past few months since his obsession entered the scene.
Of course he can review all the things he's missed by reading my mind, but it's not the same as experiencing it for yourself.
No memory can replace how hilarious it was when Emmett tried to hide all my gas cans as a practical joke and had ended up accidentally spilling about a gallon of oil all over himself and Rosalie's BMW. I'm still not even sure how he managed it and he refuses to give details.
Which is fine, the deal was I would wash and detail the Beemer so Rosalie would never know what happened (it helped that her and Alice were gone hunting for a few days) nor would I tell her 'bout the incident and Emmett wouldn't spill that Chaplin and Charlie had gotten loose again and had literally shredded three of Rosalie's favorite mechanic magazines making a nest and gnawed on the binding of one of her two $100 dollar fashion books.
I managed to replace the book and she was none the wiser, but the magazines were a lost cause we weren't sure how to handle it, despite my profile.
My only idea was to go on a hunt to find and replace the exact issues that had been destroyed. Emmett thankfully was keeping Rose from realizing that her magazines were MIA, which was the other part of our agreement.
Edward sighed and held out his hand to me
"I'm sorry Chris," he said giving me a half smile, I profiled the sincerity and returned the grin, my brother was coming back; slowly, painfully slowly, but he was coming back.
"Me too." I replied "for everything I've said" or thought
Edward grinned I shook his hand.
"I also wanted to tel-" he started, I put a hand up to stop him.
"I know…" I profiled "I cant say that I'm completely ready, but I'm willing to give it a chance, though I wont object to being allowed to lock myself in my room for the duration got it?"
Edward patted my back, trying to reassure me.
"It'll be fine," he replied. "trust me Chris, trust me."
Alice darted forward, jumping in between us and hugging us both one at a time, before pulling us closer to her.
"Aw my brothers are speaking again!" she giggled happily, planting kisses on both our cheeks.
"Argh Alice geoff!" I scowled and she whapped my nose
"Be nice!" she scolded "you are a brat sometimes."
"Sometimes? Edward repeated,
"You cant talk." I replied, I saw Alice back away out of the corner of my eye and knew what was coming. I braced myself as Edward tried to tackle me, Alice rolled her eyes at us and sat back down on the tree, laughing at us.