I bleed red.
I always thought it as something curious, after all I was reborn. The 18th of March of 1980 Canes Rowan was born in the middle of Wyoming, USA.
"Start preparing yourself, you better bring something tasty"- grumbled my dad from the kitchen, distracting me from my rumbling. -'' You know that days are getting shorter and I don't want you to sleep outside again or worst, wake up your mother"
"Yeah, whatever Dad"- I responded to the usual pre-hunting speech. -"There is still some boar in the fridge, I am pretty sure we didn't sell all of it. Even if I sleep in the forest you won't pass hunger."
Honestly, what would my father do without me now that he has a broken leg now that mother spends all her days working in the local cantina without a rest just because he tripped on a root. We used to hunt together, father would shoot and I would corral the prey, and afterwards we would sell our game to the local butcher, but now it's only me. It would be fine, I get to shoot and do everything I want, were it not for the fact that for us to make ends meet I need to hunt for longer periods of time, sometimes even at night. You see, if you don't have a dog or someone to corral your prey, you have to stay quiet and still for a long time until your prey appears and hope it's not a bear or a mountain lion because if you fail the first shot, you will have a very aggressive problem trying to kill you. Or maybe not, it really depends on your position and luck.
With this new life I have learned to enjoy hunting. All the green around you, the smell, that accelerated heart beat before you pull the trigger and the joy of seeing your prey fall. This is not my first time hunting and it certainly won't be my last.- I thought while climbing up to my habitual cave on the mountain side, from there I could see all the clearing divided by a creek. It is a prime position for hunting because animals from this zone of the forest will not climb the mountain for water or go down to the lake at the expense of lots of energy, even less now that autumn is ending.
It was after five hard hours that all my waiting paid off, finally a deer approached the creek to drink. Being extra careful, I positioned my rifle onto my shoulder and aligned the sight with the deer's heart. I controlled my breath while my heartbeat started going crazy. Inhale and exhale, Inhale and…
Boom
The satisfaction was immediate,It has been a long while since I have failed a shot and that is not going to change as long as I have a say. Seeing that the sun was setting, I decided to sleep in the cave. It is not my first time sleeping here and honestly, It's pretty comfy. Some people have tree houses, others have summer houses and I have a cave. My cave.
After some intense thirty minutes of pulling and being very careful not to damage my bounty I was safely inside my cave ready to make dinner and going to sleep, for making the fire I used some branches I stored two weeks ago and some matches I had lying around my bag, great now I only need something to eat. Lucky me I still have to clean the deer, now that it's cold I could wait until tomorrow but I am hungry, the meat I need to sell it but the organs I can eat.
As soon as I had started the fire I started opening the deer's belly, being very careful not to break them, I took out the intestines and everything I couldn't eat and threw them outside my cave while the heart and all those organs I could easily prepare were quickly shoved into my father's old stewpot. Add salt and water and you have boiled dinner.
Honestly, I would have preferred to eat the meat but beggars can't be choosers. Well, at least I am no longer hungry, now I can get inside my camping bag next to the fire and sleep a bit. Just as soon as I started taking off my boots a deep growling sound came from the outside, it was a sound like no other I have ever heard, a sound which seemed to make myself vibrate and my heart beat like crazy.
I silently took my rifle while moving myself into a better position for observing, or shooting. At a first glance all you could see was the inky black night only coloured by the full moon but if you were to focus your sight on where I previously threw the deer guts you would see the reflection of the moonlight onto a black shape the size of a bear. I once killed a bear and this animal isn't one, for starters it looks more like a dog, not a chihuahua one but more like an enormous doberman taken from hell.
Doubt plagued myself but before I could choose whether or not to shoot it the dog looked at me and started trying to reach me, almost automatically the rhythm of my heartbeat went in crescendo while I quickly shooted. The rhythm didn't stop and neither did the dogs frantic tries to reach me. I haven't missed, it is like the bullet simply passed through the dog's head.
At the moment I didn't even wondered why the dog was immune to bullets or what the fuck it was. My heartbeat didn't allow me to hear my own thoughts, I only had the certainty that I had to kill it. I rapidly wondered how to kill it before deciding to simply jump down there. The dog was so surprised that he didn't even move until I was on top of it. No matter how much he moved or trashed about, I didn't stop trying to punch it into submission. Only did I stop when I realized that I wasn't doing anything, so I threw all my weight into the dog's neck while at the same time I crushed its eyeballs with my fingers.
The consequent howl of fury and agony only made me smile and move my fingers within its eye sockets, searching to cause more pain. This time, the dog's trashing was successful in throwing me from his back. My back crashed against hard rock, I was against the wall and the dog knew it. The dog jumped forward with intent of ending my life, only its blindness saved me as the dog was incapable of reacting quickly enough thus allowing me to roll away. Taking advantage of its disorientation I once again jumped to its back, this time throttling it with all my strength.
The hunt is ending, the dog's thrashing became more frantic only to stop when the melody of my heartbeat reached its peak note. Suddenly all my strength left me and I was left deadbeat with only the thought of sleep. I rolled from the dog's body and as soon as I crashed against the rocky ground all became black.
