Not far down the mountain, Laura was busy sizing up the prey she had been following for days now, a large black bear. As she watched it, a small metal blade flipped between her fingers. She knew three different places to hit that would drop the beast almost immediately. She had been hunting in these woods for six years now, if she was not mistaken. She was thirteen when she learned to hunt, and she was nineteen now.
With no hesitation, the blade flew from her hands towards the animal. She watched with anticipation as the shiny blade spun through the air. She had, had no luck getting any animals of decent size in two weeks, and was getting very tired of the taste of squirrel. She needed something with more meat on its bones if she intended to have anything stored up for the winter that had recently started.
The beast jerked its head just a split second before contact was made. The blade continued on its path up the mountain, followed by Laura's voice, echoing "Shit!" out to the surrounding peaks.
By the time the bear noticed her, and made haste down towards the base of the mountain and out of sight, Laura had taken another knife from her belt and was watching the tree line for another animal unlucky enough to wander into her field of view.
* * *
After sometime of trying, and failing, to find another bear, or another animal large enough to sustain her appetite, Laura was forced to return to her cabin with only two fair sized rabbits hanging from her belt. Small snowflakes began to fall around her as she walked through the woods. She was not going to enjoy this winter. She had to create some sort of stockpile before the larger snows set in. Luckily, it had only started snowing. She still had an estimated month and a half before any real snow fell.
Once her rabbits were cooking over her fireplace, she sat herself down at the table in the middle of the one room home, to work on her current project, a small flute that she was carving from a fallen cherry branch. It was still rather ugly, but she had high hopes of making a real pretty work of it.
As she was working, a knock came at the door, and she was forced to abandon her project to go and see who was visiting at such an hour. As she was opening the door, it occurred to her that no one ever visited all the way out here, in the middle of nowhere. Opening the door, she found that the doorway and the entire area around the cabin were completely empty of life. Staring out into the darkness, she heard a knife being unsheathed behind her, and turned to find herself face to face with her visitor, a tall man cloaked entirely in black, standing in the middle of her cabin with a knife pointed right at her throat.
“Who in the hells are you then?” She knew it probably wasn’t smart to irritate him, but she could not stop herself. She spoke before she had a chance to think about what she was saying.
“That is not important. Where is Sharla Meridon?”
“And who in the hells is Sharla Meridon?” She thought she knew the name, but could not place exactly why. “I’ve never met anyone by the name.”
“You are a liar.” He uncovered his face, and underneath was a young man, no older that twenty two, if her guess was correct, with long jet black hair, and dark blue eyes. Though he looked physically young, Laura knew that he had seen a lot. His eyes were heavy, and he looked as though he had seen an entire lifetime’s worth of experiences. He looked much wiser than most men of that age. “Your mouth says one thing while your hands say another. The way you cross your arms behind your back tells me that you are trying to avoid incriminating hand gestures. Also, you will not meet my eyes.”
She brought her hands in front of her, and forced herself to look into his eyes. They were like pools full of knowledge, of all the things he had seen. “I promise you, I have never met anyone by the name of Sharla Meridon.” She tried to sound as sincere as possible, though she truthfully was not sure.
“You refuse to tell me the truth. If you will not tell me where she is, I will be forced to remove you from my way.”
“I am not lying to you, I promise you.” Sharla. She thought. Where have I… The realization suddenly swept over her like a giant wave. She knew where she had seen that name before, but how had she forgotten about that?
He saw her face contort when she realized it. “So,” He sounded angry. “That is the way you are going to be. Okay.” He picked up a log from her fire, and threw it onto the table in the middle of her cabin. He then backed into the shadows, and disappeared from sight.
The cabin was quickly going up in flames. She grabbed her belt, her knives, and the flute she was carving, and quickly made for the door. As she approached the door, she heard a large cracking sound. Just as she threw herself out of the door, the entire cabin collapsed behind her, and was completely engulfed in the flames.
Five minutes, Laura thought, everything I have worked for just went up in flames in less than five minutes.
She walked off into the trees, orange and brown leaves rustling underfoot, no longer having anywhere to go.
