"You protected this forest from the cat from the mountain. I do not know how to thank you except for staying with you."
Man entered the forest other than to hunt. One such hunter, The Great Hunter, has a history in the forest. When he goes missi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The forest was still as the snow crunched. Small, scared animals from under bushes watched as a female human walked through the forest, crouching down every few minute to brush the top layer of snow away. They would see her narrow her eyes before continuing on as if she was following a certain path. A few of them recognized that path and bravely followed from the protection of the bushes. The others stayed away but watched curiously. The few that followed could hear strange, sniffling sounds coming from the human. The human shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Every few minutes she would take out a small, rectangular device and push a small button that lite up the front of it.
"Half a day more until dinner," she said. "I have plenty of time to find dad."
The animals quickly looked at each other, suddenly realizing who this was. Making haste, they hopped and ran as fast as they could to the one animal that needed to know this human was there. A few of them that knew the path, however, stayed with the human. They hoped that they would not be too late in finding them.
The human took out the rectangular object again once more, only this time, she placed it against the side of her head.
"Hello, this is Darby." She answered stopping so she didn't lose the trail her father had left behind days previous.
"When are you coming back?"
She rolled her eyes, "I need to find Dad."
"No, you are not! You let the Rangers find him!"
The human looked angry. "And you haven't even called them! I called them every day! They told me we have to wait two days to see if he will come back. If they won't find him, I will."
"Darby."
"Mom," The human looked deeply saddened and utterly desperate. "I have to do this."
"Why?"
"Why? He is my dad! Apparently, you forgot he was your husband! You already moved on!"
Darby, the human, moved it away from her ear and dropped it into the snow like it was the last thing she wanted to touch. Suddenly, she put her hands over her face and fell to her knees, sobs erupting from her in waves, unrelenting and chaotic. She stood after several minutes, bringing her hands to her sides, water rolling down her cheeks, and face red from the sorrow and cold. She cast a short glance down to the small rectangular object in the snow before closing her eyes and walking forward, going back to tracking her father's footsteps, ignoring the run of the voicemail behind her. This time nothing stopped her from her goal.
She adjusted the backpack straps on her back, zipped up her jacket, and pulled black gloves on. As the snow fell down again, she halted and placed her hand out to capture some of the flakes in the cloth of her glove. She closed her eyes as a gust of wind blew into her face making her dark bangs brush back, and her ponytail dance with it. She remembered the snowball fights her father and she had, the snow forts they made in the backyard as her mother made hot chocolate, and the Christmas days when she would play outside with their German Shepard, Brutus, while her father took pictures. She remembered when her father had taken her out to this forest to show her how to track and find edible plants to eat. She remembered the thundering of hooves upon the ground and her father's usual emotionless face turn into a small smile. She had never seen her father look so happy, not even when she came back from her first deployment.
