Picture Perfect Love

Chapter 2- Stumbling Into Trouble

Sometime during the middle of the night, Kennedy awoke to rustling outside her tent. Her senses went on high alert, scared a bear or cougar had come to eat her in the middle of the night. She clamped her eyes shut, willing the beast to go away but that proved useless. The sounds got closer, now mere inches from the tent and Kennedy trembled, afraid the papers would read of a gruesome discovery once her body was eventually found.

She grabbed a hold of her flashlight, the only decent weapon in her tent and ever so slowly began unzipping her tent. Turning her flashlight on, her hands shook as she shone the light in different directions for the noise. Walking to the back of the tent, the light revealed a small gaggle of turkeys.

She was surprised they would come this close to the campsite, and quietly crept back to get her camera, sleep temporarily forgotten. She focused in on the tom of the group, making sure to capture his beard dragging the wilderness floor. He was stunning. Even in the dark she could make out the browns, reds and tans in his plumage. There was a group of three smaller jakes which she photoed together and four jennies. While beautiful birds, they weren't the cause of the disappearances either. Kennedy decided it was safe to get a couple more hours of sleep before starting her day, and did just that.

It felt like she had just shut her eyes when the alarm on her phone went off. She stretched and yawned, trying to work out the kinks in her neck and pushed herself out of her sleeping bag and outside. There was barely enough light to see out, perfect to begin looking for animals. She looked around and bent forward to pull her boots on when she spotted wolf tracks circling around the tents. Those were definitely not there the night before! She took a few pictures and went to wake Mina.

"Mina! Mina wake up! Come see this," Kennedy exclaimed through the small hole in the tent.

Groaning, Mina replied, "Alright, I'm awake; be out in a second."

Shortly after Mina stepped outside and looked around for anything out of the ordinary.

"Is this some type of joke because I hate early mornings, Kenny? I swear if it is..." Mina let the sentence hang.

"Look at the ground, Specs," Kennedy explained. Specs was her nickname, short for the spectacles adorning a good portion of her face. She didn't mind and since her nickname made her sound like a man, Kenny, they both sucked it up and went with it.

Mina raked her eyes over the dirt, doing a double-take over the wolf tracks. "Kennedy, do you know what these are?! They weren't here last night! They appear to resemble the Canis lupus, or commonly known as Grey Wolf, but these tracks are much too large, definitely some form of wolf though. It's not any I'm familiar with though..." Mina's thoughts all seemed to scramble together at once, not making any sense.

"Well, this could be the problem we are looking for! These tracks are almost as big as dinner plates; whatever they belong to is probably more than capable of killing off some wild game," Kennedy squealed excitedly.

This could be it, the break they were looking for, and sadly they missed it. It walked right out from under their noses and left. But if that were the case, why are they still alive? Surely it would have came to eat them. She looked around for any more signs, sniffing, she smelt the distinct aroma of... pancakes? No, unless it raided a different camp earlier. That's the only reasonable explanation. The next time they came in contact with this strange creature, she would be ready.

-- --

This was going to be the longest six months of her life, Kennedy decided after they'd packed up camp and were well on their way up the mountainside. Her legs were burning, her butt was on fire and her lungs felt like they would burst out of her chest. She never realized just how out of shape she was, and promised herself that if she survived this she would get a membership to the local gym by her apartment.

Today was dragging on and she hadn't seen anything to photograph other than a couple birds and plants. This whole thing was probably just a rouse put on by the publicist to get her out of the man's hair for a while. The longer she walked the angrier she got until she felt like calling to give Mr. Jenks a piece of her mind. That jackass!

Not paying attention while growling under her breath and stomping her feet, she stumbled over something solid. Looking down she gasped, her hands flying over her mouth in a desperate attempt not to vomit. A dead wolf lay at her feet. Well, not so much her feet, as the animal nearly came up to her waist laying on its side. It was torn open at the throat and hind legs, but hadn't been dead for long. The blood was still thickening at a pool beneath her feet.

It was a horrible sight to see, such a powerful creature ripped to shreds before her very eyes. The male wolf was large, sinewy muscle covering the remnants of its body. Even in death, she could see this wolf was savage, if not feral. While most animals looked intelligent beyond reason, as if able to see into your very soul, she would compare this one to being almost rabid, crazy. What was going on in these woods?!

At one point the beast was probably beautiful, a light grey resembling storm clouds. While Mina furiously scribbled notes and babbled away at her recorder, Kennedy began taking pictures. All angles of the wolf were recorded, from its massive teeth to its dinner plate sized paws. Was this the animal from the campsite? If something out there could kill a wolf of this magnitude, how big was it? What was it? Was it still alive?

Thoughts raced through her mind a mile a minute, discombobulating all rational thought in Kennedy's head. She couldn't fathom something this massive being real. Things like this only existed in fables to scare children from running away. One thing was for sure, things just got a lot more interesting.

------*------*------

Another update! Sorry it's not as long as expected, but this seemed like a good place to end things for now. As always, vote/fan/comment for faster updates!

XO- Carly