Alaskan Mountains✔️

"The winters coming sooner than we'd like it too huh Duke?" Jamie glanced at his five year old husky, who seemed to agree as he avoided ice patches on the frozen trail. 

It was late November and although they were in Alaska - Jamie wished the extreme winter would hold off a little longer. As not only bears would go in hibernation, but other animals would become scarce and he would have to rely more on the small town at the bottom of his mountain.

To make things worse Jamie had the suspicion that poachers had ventured up onto the mountain in search of the last minute food supply before everything froze over. 
Not only were traps broken, Jamie had found small reminisce of fires scattered around the outskirts of his homestead.

Ahead of Jamie, Duke barked at the box on the ground signifying that something, hopefully something good, was trapped. As Jamie got closer he could see the faint outline of a small animal in the box. 
The hare was of fair size "enough for tonight," he placed the hare in his belt loop, "hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow." he clicked his tongue at Duke and together they headed back to the homestead. 

He'd lived in isolation on this mountain for a year now and still hadn't been back to the original homestead to collect tools. 

Jamie lived in a rugged cabin about five miles from town. The original homestead was closer to town and had been better location geographically but he couldn't bother to look at the
charred remains of the original much less rebuild and awaken memories.
But who was he kidding his mind replayed that dreadful night over and over again on a daily loop that haunted his dreams. 

He'd chose to live by himself  a long time ago, that way he couldn't be hurt by anyone else when they eventually left him. 

~ ❀ ~

The next day after his morning coffee and eggs, Jamie headed out to set his traps for the day. Duke trailed after his feet darting ahead every now and again to chase birds or the occasional squirrel. Suddenly, Duke darted ahead of him into the thick underbrush barking like a mad dog. 

What he found next chilled him to the bone. 

A girl lay in the snow face down small drops of blood surrounding the halo of ink that was her hair.

Without thinking Jamie picked her up and started the trek back to the cabin. 

Her face was pale, but Jamie could see the small puffs of air leaving her pale blue lips and a small sense of relief flooded him. Looking down at the girl he realized that she wasn't a girl at all, but rather a woman, maybe a few years younger than himself. 

The cabin was warm as he bursts through the door and Jamie thanked God he'd thought to put another log in the wood stove before he left. 

He realized that he'd have to take off her wet clothes so her body could heat itself. He took a deep breath and started the invasive task.

As he started to remove her shirt rage flowed through his body, dark purple bruises littered the surface of her milky skin. A sudden protective urge washed over Jamie, he didn't want anyone to ever hurt her again. He removed the rest of her outer garments keeping his eyes away from the skin of the abused woman and wrapped her in the blanket. 

Jamie noticed that her lips had regained color and her body was starting to warm. The small body started to quiver and small murmurs left her lips. He wanted to find the sick man that dared lay his hands on a lady. A haunting thought replaced his murderous ones, how did she get up here anyway? Just as his mind started to wander to endless possibilities of the woman trekking her wat up the snow laden mountain, a small mewl reached his ears and his gaze automatically returned to the woman that had consumed his thoughts. Her eyelids twitched before her eyes fluttered opened to reveal ocean blue orbs so dark and hurt that he felt like he was trespassing into her thoughts.