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It's been four days since I told Jacob I would go with him. As I should have expected, it's all he can focus on. Moving on from our childhood home, making a better living for himself with his best friend at his side and all that crap. I don't regret changing my mind and telling him yes, at least I don't yet, my only worry is what I'm to do with myself when we arrive. Jacob might be able to familiarize me with the area seeing as he was born and lived there until he was five, provided his memory stretches out that far. As for settling down, I'll have to manage myself, somehow. Good thing I'm a quick thinker in tight situations. At least, I'd like to think I am. Only time will tell.

Today is the day that the other group leaders and I decided to scope out the field rich with game so they can see the spectacles for themselves. Unfortunately, the older, less capable leaders, such as Greg the bloodhound, were forced to stay behind while I lead the younger and more athletic ones, like Jeremy the Shepherd, through the trees.

"Alright, we're getting close," I hollered to the three other leaders slowly shifting through the branches behind me.

"Do you think you could slow down?," yelled Jeremy, hyperventilating from exhaustion. "Some of us aren't used to this ridiculous sense of travel!"

I stopped, turned around and squatted on the branch under my toes while I waited for the others to catch up. They made their way forward to my tree and stopped to breathe on their own branches. As they stand, leaning against the wood, I stood up and raised my arms. "Really?," I asked then dropped my arms to my sides.

"Clearly, you've been doing this much longer than the rest of us," said Adam the snow leopard.

"You're of the cat folk, right, Adam?", I asked rhetorically, pointing a finger to him. "Aren't your species supposed to be natural tree climbers?"

He laughed, but not out of humor, and said, "Yeah, back when they were uncivilized, mindless, blood thirsty animals."

"You mean before you grew thumbs?," I asked with a grin.

Jeremy and the other leader chuckled at my pun as they continued to catch their breath.

"Tell me Nathaniel," Jeremy began, "how is it you came to begin taking tree limbs as an optional route?"

"When Jacob and I were kids, we had a habit for climbing trees," I told him. "Over the years, I suppose, moving about them became a practiced skill."

"I see," he responds as he looked down to the pricker bushes below us. "Such an odd form of transportation."

"Odd?," repeated Tony, another maroon colored timber wolf with whom I have no relation. "It's bloody insane! How the devil did you not break your leg doing this?"

"Who says I haven't?," I asked, turning back towards our destination. "I'm going ahead. You three catch up when you can."

I gave them no chance to reply before I hopped from my tree branch to another, gliding through the air as I pressed forward. As it turns out, we were only minutes from the field. And to think if they had held their breath just a little longer, they'd be look upon this wild wonder as well.

The field proved to be no less wondrous than it was four days ago. The giant herd of deer continue to go about their business, rabbits bounce across the snow, even wild boar had shown their faces and squirrels had appeared all over the trees in view since my last visit.

A few yards from my current position, I noticed the still bloodied carcass of the doe I killed only days before. I had hoped it would still be here so I could pay my respects.

Not that it could have just gotten up and walked away. That would be fucking weird.

I jumped down to the ground and walked over to it where it sat in the snow under the trees. Opening my backpack, I rummaged around inside and pulled out a small tactical shovel. A gift my father had given me on my seventh birthday for playing in the dirt under the snow before he disappeared. I dug a reasonable size hole to fit the carcass inside and buried it. "Thanks again, madam," I said, nodding my head to the dirt mound that marked her grave.

After washing it off in the snow, I stowed my shovel back in the backpack and looked around in the trees for the others. Imagine my "surprise" when I caught sight of them walking out of the trees only feet away from me.

"Your feet started to buckle standing on those branches, didn't they?," I asked Jeremy as he walked up to me. "Don't worry, they'll adapt after a while."

"I think not," he replied crossing his arms. "The next time I come out here is with an army armed with hedge clippers. I'll be damned if you pull me up into those trees again."

"Really?," I questioned, placing my hands on my sides. "How do you plan to get home?"

He gave me a stare that said "very funny" and looked about the field in front of him.

"I must say," said Tony, "the next couple days of foot pain will be worth it. This is indeed a beautiful sight."

"You see beauty, Tony, all I see is dinner," Adam told him, staring at the game dancing about as he licked his lips.

"Provided we can managed to forge a path into this area, this would mean food on all our tables for quite a time to come," Jeremy stated as his eyes scouted the field.

"So, you've seen it," I said walking up to a tree before climbing into the limbs. I found my footing then cupped a hand around my snout, "Satisfied?"

"Hardly," Jeremy hollered back up to me. He pointed a finger out into the field, "I'd like to circle the field, see if I can't find a path through the bushes from the inside."

"I'll join you," said Adam, "enjoy my feet flat on the ground for a while."

Rolling my eyes, I turned and pushed through the treetops once more before Tony could say whether he wanted to stay or not. A couple hours later, I found myself back on the dirt road of my home, heading towards my house.

"Nate!," I hear Jacob's voice call out to me. He jogged up next to me and draped his arm over my shoulder. "What's up, buddy?," he asked. I easily sensed the joy in his voice. It's clear how eager he is to get out.

"To be frank, I just spent the past four hours pulling 'The Man's' dick out of my ass," I answered him, quoting my words with my fingers. "So to speak."

"The other group leaders riding you about that field again?," he asks me, putting his arm back at his side as we walked. "And _four_hours?"

"It's a four hour trip there and back and not ridding," I corrected him, "pestering. With all the attention I've been having to put into this whole situation, I haven't had the time to ask you when we're," I bit my tongue after the next word came out of my mouth, "Leaving."

"Soon," he answered.

"Right, and how soon is soon?"

"The day after tomorrow."

I stopped only a few feet from my front door and looked at him. "How do you figure?," I asked in all seriousness.

"Well," he started to explain as he went past me and opened the door, "I thought the time on the road might go by a little quicker if we hopped a supply buggy."

We both walked into my house where my mother was sitting on the sofa, knitting.

"Ironic. I had the same thought," I said to Jacob as we joined my mother.

"Well, I checked with the workers in the food pantry and, according to them, the next one is due to come through early Tuesday morning," Jacob informed me.

"Great," I complained, "That gives me little more than a day to prepare."

"Prepare?," Jacob repeated, "What the hell do you have to prepare for?"

"It's a move, not a road trip, Jake," I told him. "I'd rather have everything I need than just a sleeping bag, my weed, and a box of honey oats cereal."

He leaned forward from his spot on the love seat and pointed a finger at me. "And that's why I always have more fun than you," he teased.

I rolled my eyes.

"So you're leaving in two days?," my mother asked, setting her knitting project down in her lap.

"It would appear so," I answered her.

"Oh my, that's so soon," she said, placing her hand over her heart.

After she said that, I turned my head to Jacob and gave him a stare that said "see?". He simply shrugged and slipped his hand in his pocket to pull out and light a blunt he had rolled.

"I don't even know how to say goodbye," my mother pleaded as Jacob puffed the blunt and handed it to me.

I looked her in the eye, placed my hand not holding the blunt on her arm and said, "You don't. Goodbye is forever, and you will see me again."

She put her hand over mine and smiled before returning to her knitting. Jacob raised his arms with a questioned look on his face.

"What about me?," his cocky voice asked.

"Oh. Right. Yeah, I'll miss you too, honey," my mother told him, sounding quite unconvincing. A few seconds pass before she says, "What's your name again?" Even though we all knew she was picking on him, he dropped his jaw and looked right at me. I simply laughed and high-fived my mother.

I puffed the marijuana and passed it to her, she puffed and it returned to Jacob.

"Anyone else getting cold chills?," I asked as I stood up to build a fire.

"This coming from the man who spends every waking hour working in the snow," Jacob picks.

I threw a couple split pieces of wood into the fire place, poured a bit of oil over them and threw a lit match on top. The flame from the match slowly spread over the oiled wood and, within minutes, the wood was engulfed in a heart warming fire that began heating the house.

As the blunt continued to pass between all of our lips, there was a knock at the door. I puffed and passed then stood up and opened the front door.

"Jackass," said Tony before I could greet him.

I shook my head in confusion. "Uhhh," is all that came out of my mouth.

"You took off before I got a chance to say I was going to come back with you," Tony explained, arms crossed. "I had to jump through those bloody trees by myself. Do you know how many times I almost fell and broke my neck?"

"Oh," I said, trying to summon up an apology. "Uh. My bad, T-dog."

Nailed it.

He raised an eyebrow and a few moments passed.

"Is that all?," I asked him, sensing an awkward tension.

"No," he began to speak again, "Jeremy wants me to let you know he didn't find the path he was hoping for. Or at least he didn't before I decided to leave."

"I might have guessed," I replied.

"He did, however, discover that the pricker bushes do not circle only the field, but a large section of woods on the northeastern side as well," he explained to me.

"Mkay, that's news to me," I said, pondering the information.

"Since you took off without me, I stayed for a while and got a look for myself," Tony told me. "We found numerous fox dens and were confronted by a pack of wolves higher up the mountain."

"Is everyone alright?," I asked, regretting that I left them behind.

"We were lucky enough to take a lesson from you for climbing trees," he answered which made me laugh.

"Jeremy also asked me to let you know that we'll be calling for a meeting tomorrow. All group leaders are required to show," he said.

"Fantastic," I said, sarcastically as I rubbed my temple. "More work to add to my schedule. Alright, I'll be there."

"There's one other thing," Tony said, raising a finger, "on a personal note."

"Mkay."

"I heard a rumor that you and your blooming idiot of a friend over there," Tony pointed to Jacob, "are fixing to make for castle walls."

"Haters gonna hate, Tony!," Jacob hollers from the background.

I chuckled then looked back at red brawny timber wolf. "It wasn't a rumor, it's true," I assured him. "We leave Tuesday morning."

"Ah, well," he replies, "In which case, I thought I'd let you know, as I'm sure it will be for your lovely mother, it'll be hard seeing you go."

"You're actually gonna miss me?," I questioned with a smile, leaning against the doorway and crossing my arms. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Tony chuckled and said, "Jokes aside, yeah, a little. I've watched you grow up and I taught you how to hunt. We may not have spent all that much time together over the years but I stood by your father through thick and thin since he and I were children. I just thought you should know, if he were here today, if he could see the man you grew up to be, I have no doubt he'd be proud."

I stood back on both feet and felt my expression go flat. "Thank you, Tony. That means much more than you think," I said to him, finding a new sense of respect for him.

"To both of us," my mother said as she walked up behind me. "Nathaniel, why are you making this poor man stand out here in the cold?," she asked me, holding up a hand to him in question.

I gathered my thoughts but could come up with no answer. "I have no idea, please come in, Tony," I quickly blurted out, stepping aside to open up the doorway.

"No, thank you, but I have other things on my list today," he told us.

"What kind of excuse is that?," Jacob asks from his seat in the living room. "At least let us catch you a buzz, man."

Tony chuckled again. "Thanks," Tony replies, poking his head in to catch the sight of Jacob, "But they're family related matters, among much more. I'm on a tight time frame today so I really gotta go."

"Well then, you'll just have to stop by before the boys leave," my mother tells him, poking him in the chest with her claw.

"Definitely," Tony nodded to her. I shook his hand, he smiled at my mom and I both, then turned and walked off.

My mother took her place on the sofa with her knitting project in hand. I closed the door, walked over to Jacob and plucked the blunt from his fingers then fell down in my seat next to my mother.

"Thank you," I said with a fake over appreciative tone as he stared at me. I took a puff, exhaled, then asked, "So. What to do for the rest of the day?"

My mother shrugged as she took the blunt from my hand. Jacob simply said, "You got me."

"Awesome," I declared out of boredom. I've been so busy the last few days, I almost don't know what to do with myself now that I have some free time.

I began to wonder what we would discuss at the meeting tomorrow. No doubt, it's about the field I found, but I wonder how the other group leaders want to approach the matter. I wondered if Jeremy would bring up his army of hedge clippers idea. If he didn't, I might have to, just for shits and giggles. I looked through the window out to the snow covered ground outside. I saw no dancing fireballs as I did before, the clouds in the sky blocked all sun light from bestowing its beauty across the land. I looked over to the fireplace where the wood fire still burned bright. My leg began to bounce and I started to feel anxious to move. It's still too early in the day for me to be sitting here with nothing to do. My mind raced, searching for an activity when I looked towards Jacob and had an idea.

"Hey Jake," I said as I stood, "Wanna learn how to hunt?," I asked him.

He laid across the love seat, legs hanging over the armrest, blunt floating in the air between his fingers. As smoke rolled out his nostrils, he looked at me, blankly. "What?," he asked, shaking his head slightly.

"Come on," I replied, motioning him to come with me as I picked up my backpack. "I think it's about time you learned how to find your own food."

"You're not serious," he suggested as he passed me the blunt. "I know where my food is. There's an entire fucking ice box filled with it at my house."

I puffed and passed to my mother once more. "I'm completely serious," I told him, holding in the smoke. I exhaled then Indian gripped his arm and pulled him to his feet. "Let's go. I'm gonna teach you the fundamentals."

"Do you even remember the last time I held a bow?," he asked me.

"How could I not?," I asked rhetorically, pinching the missing chunk of my left ear where Jacob's arrow had clipped me years ago. "Don't worry, you can use the crossbow," I said, handing him the backpack then turning to head upstairs to my room. "If you manage to blow a chunk out of my ear with that, then I'll consider it a lost cause."

I walked through my bedroom door and proceeded to take my father's recurve bow and the quiver full of arrows that hung above my bed. My dad hand-crafted this bow for perfect precision in the right hands. Its fine wood finish glimmered with a blue tint with the light shining through the window. This bow was the last thing my father ever gave me.

I waved the quiver over my head and tightened the strap across my chest, then I did the same with the bow and crossed its string with the strap of the quiver. Jolting down the stairs and turning the corner into the living room, I took what remained of the blunt from Jacob, puffed and passed to my mother one last time and told her, "You can finish that," then I turned towards Jacob and said, "Let's go." He groaned and followed behind me out the door.

Most of the walk out of the village, Jacob complained and tried to find ways to talk me out of it. Sooner or later, he realized I wasn't going to budge so he just pouted and mumbled to himself until we stepped into the trees. After that, we both kept mostly to ourselves as we made our way towards the field. As soon as Jacob realized we weren't going to get any further on foot, his jaw dropped and he did nothing but gawk at the pricker bushes blocking our path.

"Holy shit," Jacob said as we walked up to the wall of thorns.

"Wait 'till you see it from a bird's eye view," I told him.

We both climbed into the trees and pushed through the limbs towards the field.

"How did you find this again?," Jacob asked, hollering over the wind and distance between us.

"Buck tracks," I hollered back. "Leading right through the bushes."

"Crazy bastards," he stated, looking down as he hopped from one limb to the next. "My coat is thicker than theirs and there's nothing you could say to get me to walk into that stuff."

"I guess safety meant that much to them," I told him.

Twenty minutes later, the bushes below receded and the treeline came to a halt. I took a seat on a branch and got comfortable as Jacob looked about the wildlife scattered throughout the field.

"That's," Jacob paused for a brief moment, "A lot of venison."

I chuckled at his comment. "You ready?," I asked him.

He looked at me then back into the field. "So do I just try to peg one from here?," he asked as he pulled the crossbow and a bolt out of the backpack.

"No," I answered him as I watched him struggle to figure out the weapon. I stood up and walked onto his branch. "You do that and you'll scare everything off." I took the crossbow from him and set the bolt in place. "It's self-cocking," I told him as I handed the loaded weapon back to him. "There's a deer call in that bag. Pull it out and blow into it a few times."

Jacob placed the crossbow on a limb next to him and searched through the backpack for the deer call. He pulled it out and blew into the mouthpiece. On the other end came out the loud, whining cry of a doe, ear piercing yet exotic in sound. A few moments passed as we watched the herd, waiting for a reaction.

Jacob crossed his arms and grunted in disappointment.

"Do it again," I told him, pointing to the call in his hand.

He raised the mouthpiece to his lips and blew once more. The cry came out much louder this time and echoed into the mountains.

I looked upon the herd and spotted a buck looking in our direction. "There!," I exclaimed, pointing at the curious animal. "One more time."

Jacob blew into the deer call once more. The buck began a slow trot in our direction and stopped only thirty yards from the treeline.

"Alright, raise the crossbow and put him in your sights," I directed him. He lifted the weapon and aimed, his arms unsteady and precision clearly lacking.

"Relax," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Take your time. Consider the distance and wind resistance. Steady your aim and, when you're ready, breathe out and squeeze the trigger, don't pull."

He did as I ordered and the bolt flew. It struck the ground only feet from the buck, startling the creature, sending him cowering in the opposite direction. I quickly stood up, pulled out the recurve bow and an arrow, drew back and released. My arrow flew fast and straight, cutting the buck off from his path, striking him in the throat and severing his jugular. He sprinted harder, aimlessly turning here and there and smashed head first into a tree. After that, he dropped to the ground, began to twitch and convulse but ultimately bled out within the minute.

"You've been doing this too long," Jacob proclaims as his way of congratulating my kill. "Show off."

"Practice," I told him then jumped down from my tree. "Lure another one over and keep trying. Get closer if you have to."

He waved his hand at me and began to search in the backpack for another bolt. I walked the treeline as I listened to Jacob blow through the call, attempting to summon another target. The buck I killed lay in the snow, his head sitting in a pool of his own blood and my arrow sticking out each side of his neck. I pulled on the head side and the shaft of the arrow slid through the dead animal's flesh and popped out the other side. I wiped the blood from the arrowhead, cleaned the tail in the snow then put it back in its rightful place in the quiver and grabbed the buck's legs to drag him back to Jacob.

I noticed a small doe run past me as if she hadn't even seen me and her dead kin at my feet. She stopped, standing a couple yards from the treeline, and what seemed like a mile from Jacob. I heard him use the call once more and the doe trotted in his direction again. She stopped and I focused in on the treetops to find Jacob. He sat what I estimated to be maybe fifteen yards from the girl, aiming the crossbow.

"If you miss this one, Jake, I'm going to have to hit you," I said to myself as I watched.

Moments passed and the doe turned to walk back to her herd. Just then, when I thought he had missed his chance, the animal dropped.

"Yes!," I heard Jacob holler as I watched him thrust his fist into the air.

I looked at the herd on the other side of the field to make sure he hadn't startled them. A few raised their heads while a couple others walked away from the source of the noise. I then shook my head, smiling proudly, and continued to drag the buck I struck down back to Jacob's position. I stopped next to a tree where my crossbow and backpack sat underneath. Jacob approached me, dragging his kill, and wearing a proud smile of his own.

"That was awesome," he stated, dropping the legs of the doe next to my buck. "Now what?," he asked.

"You'll love this part," I told him, hiding the sarcasm as I rummaged through the backpack. I pulled out a skinning knife and handed it to him. "The dirty work," I answered. He looked at the knife then at me. I grinned and waved the knife for him to take it.

He did so and asked, "What do I do?"

I traced up and down the doe's underbelly with my index finger. "Cut her open, gut her, skin her, then sever the meat."

He wore a disgusted frown as he stared at the animal. I laughed softly, "Go on, get started," I ordered him as I searched through the backpack for a second skinning knife. I found it and walked over to the buck sitting feet away from Jacob. "Do as I do," I told him.

Over the next hour and a half, Jacob and I sat side by side cleaning our kills, something I never thought I'd see him do. Even though he consistently complained of the smell, washed his hands in the snow a hysterical amount of times and puked when the bowels released into his lap, I feel as though he enjoyed learning first hand where his dinner comes from. Even though the entire time, I was the one laughing my ass off.

The meat carved and safely stored in two separate leather bags in the backpack, the carcasses buried and the day slowly slipping away, Jacob and I sat in the trees, smoking a bowl as we watched the herd of deer disappear one by one into the trees. The clouds faded upon the horizon and once more, the dusk sun embedded her beauty across Canniban's snowy mountains.

"So, why did we bury the bodies?," Jacob asked before he lit the bowl.

"Its a sign of respect," I answered, examining the variety of colors in the sky. "The native Indians would treat their prey as a gift back in the day. Before they began cleaning the meat, they would utter the words, 'Niá:wen', which means 'thank you' in their language."

"How do you know that?," he asked as he handed me the bowl.

I looked down to the weed sitting in my pipe and reached for a match. "My dad told me that when he took me hunting with him," I told him, then light the match and hit the bowl.

"I thought Tony taught you how to hunt?" he questioned, taking the pipe from my hands.

I held in the smoke for a few moments before exhaling. "He did," I assured him, "This was way before I even learned how to hold a bow."

"Ah," he responded, then lit his own match. "This is beat," he informed me, blowing through the mouthpiece to release the ash into the air.

I looked at him while he stowed the bowl back into the backpack and stood up. "Ready to head back?," he asked, his arm extended to me. "I need to wash this shit out of my fur."

I laughed then nodded and grabbed his hand, he pulled me to my feet, I retrieved my bow and quiver and we took off into the treetops once more.

Once we were home, the sun was long gone, and a full moon had taking its place among the stars. Jacob handed me my backpack then walked through his own front door to show off the food he brought home to his father and clean himself off. I walked through mine, dropped my backpack at the door, removed my bow and quiver and sat down on the sofa next to my mother.

"I still remember the night your father finished that bow," she told me. "He was so eager to test it. He couldn't find anything to shoot so he drew a target on a tree out back."

My eyes were stuck on the bow in my lap. "I almost forgot how much I loved this thing," I said.

"You know he made that for you," said my mother, looking at me. I looked back at her and I knew she saw the curiosity in my eyes. "He used it all the time, until the day he gave it to you," she lowered her head, "then disappeared later that night," she slipped her hand into mine and rested her head on my shoulder. "He always said it was yours. He always called it yours. I don't know if you ever knew that."

"I didn't," I said to her, looking back at the bow. "I miss him."

"I do too, dear," my mother told me.

Minutes passed by as we both sat there and reminisced our memories of my father. After a while, she returned to a book she had been reading and I stood up to store the buck meat in the ice box in the kitchen. I gathered my things, said goodnight to my mother and headed up to my room.

I lie in bed, eyes wide open, thinking a mile a minute. My father's bow - my bow, rather - and the quiver hung from a nail above my head. My gaze was firmly fixed on it.

Attempting to ease my mind of all thoughts, I closed my eyes, and waited to fall asleep.

The next day, I woke up to the sound of Tony yelling my name from the foot of my bed. My eyes slowly opened, I lazily rose from my slumber and looked at him, eyes half open.

"What the fuck, Tony?," I complained, rubbing my eyes. "Why are you in my room?"

"Why aren't you in the community house?," he countered me, crossing his arms.

"Come again?," I asked, feeling my body go limp as I looked at him.

"You have a meeting you're supposed to be at right now!," he reminded me.

My eyes opened wide as I hoped he was only pulling my leg. I jumped up and looked out the window. The skies were clear and the sun sat high in the sky. I slept straight through most of the morning.

"Oh, shit!," I exclaimed, rushing out of my bedroom and halfway down the stairs before Tony called out to me.

"Nathaniel!," he yelled, leaning over the railing of the staircase.

"What?," I questioned, stopping in my tracks to look up at him.

"Put some cloths on," he told me.

I looked down and realized I was that close to bolting into the community building in my boxers.

"Fuck!," I exclaimed, running back up the stairs into my room. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" I scavenged around my floor, found some pants and a long-sleeve shirt, probably dirty, put my hoody on and rushed through tying my boots. Once I was ready, I walked past Tony as he followed behind me then we both headed out my front door to make way for the community house.

Inside sat several hunters, but not all. The room was half as filled as it was when I called a meeting to tell of the field. In the back were nine chairs sitting side by side against the back wall. In front of seven of them, stood Greg, Jeremy, Adam, and the other four group leaders. Tony and I walked up to the chairs meant for us. I felt several pairs of eyes watching me, no doubt their owners were criticizing me in their heads.

"Very well," said Greg, "Now that all leaders are present, we can begin."

We all sat and I waited for the first person to speak.

"As some of you already know," Jeremy began, "Yesterday, Nathaniel lead Adam and Tony, as well as myself, to the field he spoke of. Needless to say, his claims were true. Including the seemingly endless wall of thorns blocking any route to it. We're here to discuss how we might create a passageway through the bushes into the area."

No one else spoke. The room was silent as each man and woman inside looked to one another for an answer.

"What about that idea you had, Jeremy?," asked Adam who sat two seats away from me. "Something about hedge clippers?"

Dammit, Adam beat me to it. I had a good line set up, too.

"That was a joke," he answered.

"It would solve the problem," said one of the leaders whose name I didn't know. He's a black lab with grey hairs covering his body. "Sadly, the bushes would just grow back and re-cover the path we cut out."

"We could trim it on a usual basis," said a voice in the crowd of hunters.

"No thanks," Tony said sitting next to me, "I'd rather not have to add onto the chore list."

"It may be our only option," said another leader, a brown pit bull, who I didn't recognize.

I zoned out and focused on my own thoughts. Just because I have to be here doesn't mean I have to participate. Jacob and I leave tomorrow morning, so it's not like it matters if I was here or not.

To be honest, I'm kind of excited to go now. I didn't think for a second that I'd ever be anxious to leave, but I am. I'm tired of working all the time. Always putting chores and assignments before anything else. It'll be nice to relax and enjoy life for a while, even if its only for a few weeks until I can find myself a new line of work. But even then, I'm gonna loosen up a little. There's a lesson here that took me far too long to learn from.

I wonder what the castle looks like. Or the city beneath it. I've heard stories that described them both but I was always left wondering if I'd get a chance to see it for myself. And now I will. I smiled at that thought.

I looked over to the other group leaders but continued to cancel everything out. I heard something about a "wire tunnel". Maybe I heard it wrong. I looked about the crowd and the interested faces they wore. They all seemed sucked into the conversation we were here to discuss. I'm glad they all seem to give a damn about all this, because I sure as hell don't anymore.

The only thing I'm going to miss about this place is my mother. Maybe someday I'd be able to move her out of here, too, and somewhere close by me where I can visit her. I'll miss Tony, too. I never realized it until yesterday, but he did play an important roll in my life. It does sadden me a little knowing I may not get the chance to repay him for all that he's done for me over the years. I chuckled as I thought about moving him out of this village, too. I looked at him.

He'd never go for it. Stubborn bastard.

I leaned back in my chair, stretched my legs out and laid my head back, staring at the ceiling. My head rolled to the side and I looked sideways out the window. I saw the dark brown of tree bark and the glowing white of the snow. A figure moved through the scenery and I lifted my head to get a better view. It was a doe, brave enough to wander into the village. She stood at the window, motionless, as if she was staring right at me. As if she knew what I had done to her family. Like she knew that I uncovered her home. As I laid my head back down, I felt a bit of remorse as I looked her in the eye. Then felt a small amount of relief knowing I won't have to kill for a living after tomorrow. Something out of view startled her and she took off.

"Nathaniel?," Greg called me.

"Huh?," I mumbled, popping my head up in question, "What?"

"Are you in favor?," he asked me.

Completely oblivious to what he was talking about, I said, "Yeah."

"Alright," Jeremy stated. "I'll get on it and let the rest of you know."

Greg looked about the crowd and dismissed them then Tony turned towards me as everyone in the room stood up to leave.

"You didn't hear a single word, did you?," he asked me.

"Not a single one," I told him.

"That's not like you," he responds.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm leaving," I stated, "Moving on. Making a change. Why does my opinion matter if I'm not going to be involved the next time it comes up?"

"I'll give you that," he replied. "You work harder than most of the bloody buffoons here anyway. I'd say you've earned a break."

"You're damn right, I have," I said, pointing a finger. "Anyway, I got packing to do. I'll catch you later, Tony."

He waved me off and I headed out the double doors. I walked home where my mother was nowhere to be found. I went up to my room, pulled a single strap travel bag out of my closet and started to mentally make a list of the things I'd need to take with me. My bow and the quiver, obviously. Anything can happen outside the mountains, never know when I might need them. I hung them on the doorknob.

What else? Clothes. I packed a weeks worth. Several pairs of pants and a variety of short and long sleeve shirts. I also packed a blue sweatshirt with a black strip across the abdomen. My mother knitted this for me earlier in the year.

Mkay, now what? There's a map in my desk. Wouldn't be a bad idea to take that. I pulled it out and slipped it into one of the bag's side pockets.

I went back downstairs to grab the backpack with all my hunting equipment and leaned it against my door. I then ventured into the kitchen and made myself a couple sandwiches. Storing them in sandwich bags, I then grabbed a bag of sour cream and onion chips, a couple bottles of water, some granola bars, put it all in a lunch pail and put the pail in the ice box.

I went back up to my room and rummaged around for anything else of importance. I found my old butterfly knife under my bed and slipped it in my pocket. I grabbed the sleeping bag from the top shelf of my closet and stowed it in the travel bag with a pillow and zipped it up. Finally, I picked up my coin bag and tied it to a belt loop of the jeans I planned to wear in the morning.

Mkay, so preparing to leave didn't take as long as I assumed it would. Still, I'm more prepared than Jacob will be. Maybe I should pack some extra munchies seeing as I expect him to mooch off me.

"What's up, buddy?," Jacob asks as he walks through my bedroom door.

Speak of the devil.

"Now?," I questioned as I dropped the travel bag next to my door. "Nothing. You?"

"Just came from the community house," he tells me. "Did you know your mother's preparing a going away party for us?"

"No shit?," I asked, "I was wondering where she was. I must have just missed her."

"Yeah, she's in there putting up decorations with some of the other women," Jacob informs me.

Well, we'll get a good meal in before we take off. Maybe I won't have to pack extra munchies after all.

"Since you're not busy, she asked me to drag you down there," Jacob says, pointing his thumb behind his back.

"Did she say what for?," I asked as I walked downstairs.

"No," he answers, following behind me, "I'm guessing it's just to show off her hard work, knowing her."

"Sounds right," I stated. "Alright. Let's have a look."

Jacob and I walked down the dirt road and into the double doors of the community house. The very same doors I came out of barely an hour ago. Decorations filled every nook and cranny, every corner and wall. Streamers hung across almost every inch of the ceiling, twisting and turning in every direction in several different colors. Balloons hung from them, in multiple colors as well. Against the side walls stood long tables with beautifully weaved table covers stretching across their lengths. I see she's expecting to have a lot of variety of food. For some reason, confetti covered the floor, sparkling like stars. It seemed odd for her to create such a mess like that but it did electrify the atmosphere somehow.

I'm glad I'm not the one whose going to have to clean this up.

My mother stood on a ladder, hanging a banner on the back wall. It read "Good Luck, Nate & Jake!" in a gorgeous blend of bright hues.

"Why is your name first?," Jacob jokingly asked.

"Because you touch yourself at night," I teased as I walked towards my mother.

"You can't prove that!," He yelled to me, catching up and pointing a finger.

I laughed and greeted my mom as she climbed down from the ladder. "Well, whatdoya think?," she asked, clapping her hands together and smiling wide.

"Its awesome, ma," I said sincerely. "You did a great job." I pecked her on the check and smiled.

"Oh, God, look at you," my mother said, then looked at Jacob, "Both of you. It feels like yesterday when I started to have to look up to yell at you two. You've gotten so damn big. And now, here you are, hours away from going off on your own."

No words could come out of my mouth before she gripped Jacob and I both and smothered us in a tight, heartwarming hug.

"Okay, alright, elbow room," Jacob pleaded, wiggling for freedom.

"Don't pretend like you won't miss me," my mother told him, releasing me and covering his face in kisses.

I chuckled as I watched him struggle to get free in a display of phoney disgust. When she was done torturing Jacob, she turned to me and hugged me tightly once more. I hugged her back and rested my chin on her head.

"I'm gonna miss you," my mother said as she squeezed tighter.

"I shouldn't have to say I'll miss you, too," I told her. I loosened her grip and brought her eyes up to meet mine. "I'll get you out of here. In time, I'll bring you to me," I assured her. "I promise."

She smiled wide with tears in her eyes. "Don't take too long.", she said to me, squeezing me tightly again.

"Come on, Ms. Hart, it's still too early for this emotional crap," Jacob said, prying me from her grip. "We still have the rest of the day to spend together."

She looked at him with a small sense of realization. "You're right," she announced, pointing a finger at him. She turned him towards the doors and pushed lightly, "Go get your father, where ever he is, and bring him to the house.", Jacob walked out and my mother turned me towards the door as well. "The four of us are having one last dinner together," she told me as we both headed out.

My mother dragged me home, all the while she's literally pulling me by my tail as if I wasn't moving fast enough for her. I struggled not to trip when she tugged, pulling my ass forward like she expected my feet to work with her. I said nothing, instead I caught up to her side. Even then, she held a firm grip on the end of my tail. Although she wasn't facing me, I could see the emotions in her eyes. She would rather die before she loosened her grip.

We arrived to the house and my mother immediately put me to work, moving about the kitchen, preparing a gourmet of delicacies. While she fixed up a bowl of mashed potatoes, I cooked some of the venison from the last two deer I killed. The meat sizzled and popped in the pan on our coal stove. My mother walked by me as she sprinkled some kind of seasoning on top. Soon after the meat was finished, Jacob and Albert walked in the door. Albert took my place in the kitchen and I walked into the living room where Jacob sat on the sofa, rolling a joint. I sat down next to him.

"So," he says as he sprinkles the weed into the rolling paper. "Excited? You know, to see colors other than white."

"I'm not a prostitute," I joked. "To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm feeling right now."

"What do you mean?," he asked, not lifting his gaze from the unfinished marijuana cigarette.

"I don't know, I'm not feeling anything," I answered as I stared into the fire burning in the fireplace.

"Ha, I got the cure for that right here," Jacob said.

"When you first asked me to go with you, I couldn't reject the offer enough," I told him, crossing my arms. "After I changed my mind, I was anxious. I wanted out, to drop the weight I carry on my shoulders everyday."

A few moments passed. Jacob finished the joint, lit and hit it and passed it to me. I let it sit in between my fingers as I got lost in my thoughts.

"Now, I got nothing," I continued. "I'm just...," I paused to think of a proper word. "Neutral. Docile. No feeling, no expectations. I don't think I know how I should feel."

"It's a big change in life," he told me. "If you want to expect anything, expect the confusion going on in your head now," he poked me in the side of my temple. "Of course, it doesn't phase me. I've lived all over the kingdom, moving is nothing new to me. But you? You've lived here all your life."

I said nothing, only continued to stare into the fire.

"Don't worry," he said, setting his hand on my shoulder. "I'll watch after your helpless ass."

"Dick," I said to him as we both snickered.

"You going to hit that or just waste my weed?," he asked, pointing at the joint in my fingers.

"I dunno," I said, raising it towards my mouth. "What about all the weed I waste smoking you up?"

"Please," he said with a cocky attitude, "you love me too much to smoke without me."

"Don't be so sure," I said as I grinned at him.

He rolled his eyes as he took his hit. Silence filled the room as we puffed the joint. All that could be heard was the sound of casual conversation between Albert and my mother cooking in the kitchen. I overheard something about green beans (nasty) and something else involving my mom and hot cocoa. Then I heard the sound of breaking glass. Jacob and I looked at each other then immediately jumped up and rushed in the kitchen. We saw nothing unusual, my mother and Albert standing in front of the sink, except for the thousands of pieces of a dinner plate scattered over the floor.

"What happened?," I asked, walking up behind them.

My mother said nothing, as if she was frozen. Albert said nothing as well, instead he raised a finger and pointed out the window above the sink. Jake and I looked out in the distance, and found something horrifying. A figure walking up the dirt road, limping and grasping his or her right shoulder. A closer look revealed HIS bloodied coat along the length of his arm and across his face. His jacket and jeans are ripped and torn releasing the cotton into the air as he stumbled in our direction.

"Jesus," Jacob said, starring in astonishment.

I turned and began heading for my front door then stopped and turned back around. I smacked Jacob in the arm and he looked at me.

"Come on!," I told him.

We both rushed out the door and ran up to the butchered man limping in the snow. Shock overwhelmed me when I came to find it was Tony, soaked in blood that blended in with his fur and covered in deep wounds. From what I could tell, he was bitten and mauled by something ferocious.

"Oh my God, Tony, what the fuck happened?!," I questioned with fear in my voice. Jacob and I grabbed his arms, wrapped them around our necks, lifted his weight off of his limp leg and helped him walk inside.

"Me and Adam," he cried, barely able to speak, "We went back to the field...... Into the mountains..... We were hoping.... to drop the pack of wolves."

"Are you fucking insane?", Jacob scolded him. "Why the hell would you do that by yourselves?"

"We wanted to clear them out of the area," he took long pauses between his sentences to catch his breath, "Leave more game for us, you know?"

Tony clenched up and fell to his knees on the porch, hollering in pain. We helped him back to his feet and carefully but quickly carried him inside. My mother stood in the living room, Albert stood next to her with a large medkit in one hand. The coffee table had been cleared and dragged out into the center of the room.

"Set him down here," Albert told us as he slipped a pair of those thin, white rubber gloves on.

"What happened to him?," my mother pleaded in horror.

"He and Adam picked a fight with a pack of wolves," Jacob informed her as we set him down.

Oh, shit.

"Tony, where's Adam?," I asked, bringing his focus to me as Albert began cleaning his wounds and preparing to sew him up.

"Outside that wall of thorns," he slowly answered. "We were in the trees.... He lost his footing and fell... The bastards jumped him and I tried to help." He took a few moments to briefly screech as Albert poured alcohol over the torn flesh. Tony then caught his breath and spoke again, "We managed to get away but we only got so far."

"You just left him out there?," Jacob questioned harshly.

"I came to get help, you bloody idiot," Tony told him. "Adam collapsed shortly after we got clear of those pricker bushes."

"Mom, help Mr. Holland," I told her then looked at my friend, "Jake, let's go get Adam."

Jacob and I rushed out the door once more then sprinted down the road and into the woods towards the field. We didn't bother to climb to the treetops, at least I didn't, we simply ran as fast as we could. I started panting but I didn't slow down. Adrenaline flowed through my veins like it had been injected into my heart. Jacob fell behind, seeing as I'm much faster than he is.

"Keep going, I'll catch up!," I heard him yell in the background.

You actually thought I was gonna stop?

Only being able to pray Adam was okay, or will be, I put all my energy into getting to him as fast as possible. The trees always seemed to go on forever, but given the circumstances, I felt as though I was soaring through the woods at breakneck speed.

Time passed and I arrived to the wall of thorns. I stopped and looked around but Adam was nowhere to be found. I overlapped the area several times before I spotted a small trail of blood curving around a tree. Bolting towards the blood, I turned around the trunk of the tree to find Adam sitting underneath. He sat, arms clenching his stomach where all the blood that thickened his white fur seemed to be draining from. He looked at me and I literally felt the pain in his eyes. He was in much worse condition than Tony.

"Jesus, Adam!," I hollered as I knelt down to him. "Lemme see." I removed one of his hands from his gut. His jacket and shirt had been torn to pieces over his stomach and the sight underneath looked no better. Where there should have been fur was only chomped flesh. Meat hung by strands from the rest of his body, muscle tissue showed clear as day and blood pooled in the missing chunk of his stomach. The fuckers ripped him open.

"Jesus Christ!," I cried, quickly putting his hand, as well as my own, back over the wide open wound. I stood up, pulled off my hoody and began to tear the sleeves off my long sleeved shirt. As fast as I could manage, I wrapped Adam up with the sleeves and tried to bring him to his feet.

"Come on, big guy, you're not taking a dive on me," I said as I struggled to support his weight.

He only screamed in pain and fell back to the ground. "Stop, Nathaniel!," he yelled at me with cracks in his weakened voice.

"Oh, hell no, you are NOT going to die!," I assured him, attempting to pull him to his feet once more. I put a lot more effort into it this time only to put Adam through more pain. He cried out in misery.

"Dammit, boy, stop!," he pleaded clenching over his makeshift bandages.

I softly sat him back down where he leaned back against the tree. He looked at me, hyperventilating as his breath shortened little by little. "It's a fucking miracle I didn't bleed out before you got here."

"Fuck that!," I yelled in anger. "I'm not going to let you sit here waiting for the reaper and you're a fucking idiot if you think I would!"

"What choice do you have?," he asked, his voice even weaker and barely audible.

"No. No, no, no, you hold on, God dammit!," I ordered him.

"Nate!," Jacob yells as he sprints toward me.

I stood up and waved him off. "Go back!," I hollered to him. "Get your father, he's not going to make it back to the village!"

Jacob instantly turned around and took off back towards our home. I knelt back down to Adam. Barely breathing, he looked me in the eye as I watched the life slowly slip away from his. He was looking right at me, but at the same time he wasn't. I slapped him.

"Wake up, dammit!," I yelled in his face.

He vigorously blinked in confusion and focused his sight back on me.

"Just kill those bastards for me," he whispered. I barely heard the words roll out of his mouth. All I could do was sit there, jaw dropped, enraged that there was no way to save him.

"Adam?," I called to him. He was completely unresponsive. "Adam!," I yelled in his face. I looked into his eyes where his rugged, tough personality used to show. I saw nothing but grey.

I fell down on both knees and starred at the fresh corpse before me. For minutes, I sat there, speechless, emotionless, completely free of any thought. All my brain could comprehend was the blood pouring out of Adam's gut between his fingers.

They killed him. The mother fuckers ate him alive.

I slowly stood up, cradled his body and picked him up. He was heavy, I could barely hold him but I refused to put him down. I spent the next hour walking back to the village with this poor man in my arms. Jacob and his father intercepted me before I made it back. Nothing was said. We only walked the last thirty minutes together, deep in our own thoughts. I didn't know what to think.

Arriving back in the village, we walked up to my front door and went inside. Tony sat on the sofa, shirtless with his shoulder wrapped up in athletic tape, next to my mother. When they laid eyes on the lifeless man that was once our friend, my mother dropped the coffee mug of cocoa in her hands, which busted and fell into pieces when it hit the floor, breaking yet another piece of kitchenware and covered her mouth with both hands. Tony gave no reaction. He just looked but I could read the guilt in his eyes.

I turned to Jacob and handed Adam's body to him then ran upstairs and headed to my room.

"Nathaniel?," I hear my mother call out as I turned the corner at the top of the stairs.

I didn't answer. I walked down the hallway and retrieved my bow and quiver from where it hung on my doorknob.

Heading back downstairs, I noticed Jacob setting Adam down on the table Albert used to sew Tony up. I walked straight passed the living room and out the front door.

"Nathaniel!," my mother called again, and again, I didn't answer. I took off back down the road until I came up to the treeline, climbed to the limbs and pressed my way forward to the field.

The full two hours later, I sat in the trees within the area boarded off by the pricker bushes, high up the mountains, squatting on a tree limb. My grasp tight on my bow in my right hand and an arrow perched on the string in my left, ready to fly. Minutes passed and nothing happened. I heard bushes rustle when there was no wind. Twigs cracked under pressure in the background. Sitting up here was getting me nowhere. As bad of an idea as I knew it was, I sheathed the arrow and bow then dropped to the ground below. I was too pissed to care for safety. More bushes rattled, more twigs snapped and I began to hear a hostile growl. I pulled out my butterfly knife form my pocket and flipped it open. Out of what I'm assuming to be dormant animal instinct, I bared my fangs and growled in response.

The bushes behind me rustled louder. I turned around just as one of the wolves flew out and knocked me on my back. He stood on my chest, snapping at my face as I held him back by his throat. I gripped his snout tightly when he shut his chops enough to give me the opportunity, lifted his head up and forced the blade of my knife into his neck and ripped his throat open. He whined loud as his blood poured over me and went limp. At that point, I began to hear more growls, more ferocious, more hostile, more threatening.

Kicking the dead one off of me, I quickly rose to my feet and prepared to spill more blood. Another pounced out from hiding, jaws wide open as he lunged for my throat. I raised my arm and brought the butterfly knife down onto the top of his skull. He almost made no sound at all before hitting the ground with a thump and crunching the snow. Two more sprung out, flying at me from opposite directions. I side stepped, grabbed one at the throat as the other flew past, threw the one I had hold of to the ground and shoved the blade into his eye. I heard the other launch at me again. I turned around fast enough to shove the blade up through his bottom jaw. He went limp same as the others.

Another came up through my blind spot and knocked me back on my ass. He snapped and caught my arm when I brought it up to punch him in the face and latched on for dear life. Struggling to free myself, I stabbed him behind his shoulder, he whined and let his grip go long enough for me to push him off and kick him on his side. He slowly tried to stand but could barely move on the limb I damaged. Still, that didn't lower his hostility. Or mine. I pulled out my bow, drew an arrow back and let it fly at nearly point blank. It struck him between the eyes and what little he had pulled himself up fell back to the snow.

As I stood, covered in blood, I waited for the next attack. Growls continued to be heard, as well as the rustling of bushes and cracking of twigs. I caught a few glimmers of their eyes in numerous places but none would make a move. Time passed but nothing more happened.

"Come on!," I screamed into the wild, still baring my teeth and snarling in anger. "What are you afraid of?!"

Growls turned to snarling barks. I guess I pissed them off.

More time passed as I stood, waiting. Eventually, the hostile noises faded and all went silent.

"Where do you think you're going?! Get back here, God dammit!," I screamed into the night.

The night?

I looked up. I hadn't realized the sun went down.

I looked around and found myself alone with the dead wolves I slaughtered. If this was any other hunt, any other animal that I killed, I would have stripped it of its meat and buried the carcass. But I didn't feel they deserved it. Instead I yanked my arrow from the skull of the last one I killed then turned and left them there as a reminder to the remaining of them of what will happen if they attacked anyone else in my home. Not that I expected them to take the hint, but if they don't, I'll cut their throats open, too.

I went home, the blood from the dead wolves dried into my cloths and hair. I felt weak. I was out of breath and I was dragging my feet as I walked through my front door. Jacob and my mother sat in the living room, waiting for me to return. I stood in the large door frame of the living room with my bow still in hand.

"Oh my God," my mother said, covering her mouth when she saw my appearance.

"Fuck, Nate, what did you do?," Jacob asked as he stood up to guide me to a seat.

I looked at him as I sat down in my mothers rocking chair. "Fulfilled Adam's dying wish," I said lightly.

"Dying wish?," he repeated, "You're soaked in blood! What did you do?"

"I killed the bastards that killed him, Jake, what do you think I did?," I answered as I looked away from both of them.

"You did what?!," my mother hollered in fear. "Are you hurt?," she asked as she jumped up and began searching me for wounds. She pulled up the sleeve of my hoody and revealed the mauled flesh and fur on my arm where one of the wolves had bit me. She covered her mouth again as Jacob shook his head as if this is something he'd expect from me.

"I'll get my dad," he said as he walked out the door.

When he closed the door behind him, my mother slapped me hard across the face.

"What the hell?," I questioned raising my hands.

"I can't believe you'd do something so damn reckless and dangerous!," she bitched at me.

"You can't?", I talked back, "Really?"

"Excuse me?," she questioned me, "Why would I?"

"I'm not just your son," I told her as I looked her in the eye. "I'm my father's son, too. If it were him in my position, you know better than anyone that he would have done the same."

"And it's that same impulsive attitude he had that got him killed, Nathaniel!," she scolded me as she turned her back to me.

He didn't die, he walked out on us!," I yelled at her back. "But that doesn't make me any less like him! What did you expect me to do?"

"I didn't expect you to do anything," she told me, not turning around. "At least, not by yourself. But you did the one thing I hoped you wouldn't do."

"I'm sorry, mom," I said to her as I stood and held her arms. "I only did what I thought was right. Before Adam died, the last words out of his mouth were, 'kill those fuckers for me'. I wasn't going to let him die in vane."

"So that was enough to give you a reason to risk your own life?," she turned around and continued to chew me out. "For what? Revenge? When there were several other ways you could have solved the problem with a group!"

"What's done is done, ma!," I argued, "I can't take back what I did and I don't want to! I have half a mind to go back and finish off the rest of them!"

"And what if it hadn't gone the way it did?," she questioned, throwing her hands at me. "What if you hadn't been so lucky?"

"Does it matter?", I asked, "I was that lucky. And to hell with luck, that was the exact kind of thing dad trained me for in the first place. Most of the pack is dead, Tony is safe and thanks to me, Adam died with honor! Dad would have done no different!"

"You are not your father!," she screamed at me, pushing me back down into my seat.

Just then, Jacob and Albert came through the door, seeming skeptical if they should have walked inside.

"Are we interrupting?," Albert asked, holding the same medkit from before.

"No," my mother asked, walking out of the living room without paying me another glance. "Please, tend to my son." She went upstairs and a few seconds later, we heard a door slam.

"Smooth," Jacob said.

"Bite me," I replied.

"I dunno, bro, if you tenderized the things that did that to you", he said, pointing at the torn flesh on my arm Albert began to aid to, "I don't wanna know what you'd do to me."

"This is pretty deep, Nathaniel," Albert began but was cut short by his son.

"That's what she said," he joked with a big smile.

We both looked at him, blankly.

"Fuck you guys, that was funny," he told us, waving his arm and sitting down on the sofa.

Adam's dead and you're making jokes?

"Uh, right," Albert continued, "Anyway, Nathaniel, you're lucky the bite didn't dig any deeper. You could have done some serious permanent damage to your biceps."

"They were lucky they touched me at all," I bragged. Not too sure why I was bragging.

"So much for dinner, huh?," Albert asked searching through the medkit. He poured alcohol over my open wound without ever warning me that it was going to hurt. "AAAAHHHHH, FUCK YOU!," I yelled, jumping out of my chair.

"Don't be a bitch, son," he told me, pushing me back down.

"Give me a warning next time!," I said, "That shit fucking hurts."

"Well if you would be more careful, I wouldn't have to warn you," Albert responded, tying a knot to the sewing needle. "Now stay still," he said, using one hand to hold the tear in my arm together.

"Great," I complained, turning my head as I began to feel noxious. "A needle."

"Here, buddy," Jacob said, sticking a lit joint in my mouth. I hadn't even realized he was rolling one. "This will make you feel better."

I puffed as he held it to my lips. I made sure to take a long inhale to catch as much smoke as possible.

Albert looked at me and asked, "Ready?"

I nodded as I held my breath. Albert shoved the needle through one side of the rip in my arm. The instant sting of the pain boosted my buzz in an unpleasant way. The high was nice, but the pain from the needle piercing the muscle and tissue under my skin was amplified. I started to trip. My vision pixelated and scrambled and my comprehension of what was happening faded for a short time. I could still feel the pain from Jacob's father stitching me up, but at that point, I was perfectly capable of ignoring it. In what felt like moments to me, Albert finished his stitches and patched up my arm.

I exhaled. "And thus, the cure for all passes through my lips," I said, passing it to Jacob and looking down at the ground. "I just wish it could have saved Adam."

"He'll be missed," Albert told meas he worked. "I've already taken his body to the funeral home. They'll take good care of him."

I looked at my arm where the bite from the wolf had ripped my flesh and fur wide open. Instead of the previous blood and gore, I found a clean, white, oversized bandage held tight to my wound by athletic tape.

"There," Albert stated as he began to pack his medkit, "That'll do it. I'll head home and prepare something to ease the pain."

"Oh, God, please Mr. Holland, don't do that," I begged him, "It's not necessary."

He laughed as he stood next to Jacob. "Tony begged me not to, as well," he informed me. "My remedies don't taste that bad."

"How often do you taste them?," Jacob asked, poking his father in the arm.

We all chuckled but the moment quickly passed as the realization of a dead friend soaked back into the air.

"Well, we should head home," Albert said. "It's been an eventful night and you two have a big day ahead of you. Best you get some sleep."

"I'll head home when we finish this stick," Jacob told his father, passing the joint to me.

Albert nodded, waved to me and walked out as he closed the door behind himself.

"So what happened there?," Jacob asked as he pointed to me then upstairs towards my mother's room.

I hit the joint and absorbed some smoke before exhaling. "I don't think I can go, Jake," I said, ignoring his question and handing him the piece.

He looked at me in shock. "What? Are you kidding?," he asked me. He didn't give me time to respond or take the joint from my hand. "You're yanking my tail, right?"

"I'm serious," I assured him. "After what happened today, I can't leave."

"Why the hell not?," he questioned, sounding pissed.

"Because I didn't kill them all," I answered as I stared into his enraged eyes, "the rest of those wolves are going to be more pissed than ever. I didn't tell my mom this 'cause I didn't want to scare her more than she already was but they're more likely to hunt us down now."

"After you sawed their numbers in half?," he pointed out, "They should still be running in the other direction with their tails between their legs!"

"They're very vengeful animals, Jake," I told him, crossing my arms with the joint still between my fingers. "If anyone goes back out there for a hunt, I guarantee you, they'll be there, hiding, waiting to draw blood. I'm not going to let that happen."

"Since when did the responsibility fall on you?," he asked me, raising his arms in question. "There are others here that are perfectly able to handle it themselves."

"Are you my mother?," I smarted off to him. "Tony taught me everything I know about hunting and even with Adam, he didn't get nearly as far as I did."

"That's 'cause they were jumped, Nate!," he yelled at me as he threw his arm at the door. "They didn't have time to react like you did!"

"And look what happened!," I yelled back, "Adam's dead and my missing father's best friend barely got home alive!"

"So what if the circumstances were turned on you?," he asked. "What if it was you lying under a tree, bleeding out as your mom and I sat here waiting for you to come home?"

"It didn't happen, did it?," I asked, rhetorically. "I did what had to be done and I'm still alive to finish them off!"

Nothing else was said. Jacob stood there giving me a mean look. I stuck my hand out once more to pass him the quarter of a joint that was left as I stared him in the eye.

"Finish it," he told me then turned around and stormed out my front door.

"God dammit," I said to myself as I shook my head. "God dammit!"

I violently put the joint out in an ashtray next to me and stood up to head to my room. I went up the stairs, turned the corner, walked down the hall and stepped through my bedroom door. I got undressed and crawled under my blankets.

Too many thoughts were flowing through my mind for me to fall asleep. I looked about my room as my mind raced. My travel bag and hunting backpack remained leaning up against the door where I left them. I forgot my bow and the quiver downstairs. Oh well. My desk drawer was still open from when I pulled the map out. I got up out of bed to close it and froze when I found something inside I had completely forgotten about. In the corner of the drawer, where the map laid on top, sat a pack of cigarettes I never finished. I quit smoking months ago, this was the last pack I ever touched. With all the recent stress, a smoke sounded soothing, as much as I knew I shouldn't. I removed the pack and my old black ashtray. It had several skulls carved into it with a spiked detail. I closed the drawer, laid in bed, lit a cigarette with the small matchbook inside the pack and let my head fall back as I exhaled. Smoke rolled out as I enjoyed the flavor and felt the nicotine flow through my bloodstream.

I still remember when I started smoking. I was twelve, Jacob was sixteen. He told me he wanted to try it and said he wouldn't do it without me. To be honest, I was curious, too. My dad smoked all the time and my mother took up the habit when he walked out. Jacob managed to convince me to sneak into my mother's room and steal a pack from the carton in her dresser. We snuck out into the woods behind the house and tried our first puffs. Of tobacco, anyway. Days later, Jacob and I got caught with them. I knew he would get the worst end of the punishment, being the older one of us and how he supposed to be a good influence and what not. So I took the blame. Told both our parents that it was my idea and I convinced Jake to try it. Of course, he still got himself in deep shit, but I stole the aggro to save his ass. Ever since then, him and I were smokers. My mother and his father didn't like it, but overtime, they accepted it. It wasn't until just earlier this year that Jacob, my mother and I quit altogether. We swore we would never touch another cigarette after that, but things change as time goes by, I suppose.

I smoked the cigarette down to the butt and put it out in the ashtray. Feeling quite mellow, I laid back down and closed my eyes. It took quite a while, I tossed and turned for an hour before I became mentally exhausted, but in time, I fell asleep.

"Wake up, Nathaniel Ray!," my mother yelled from my bedside.

"Jesus!," I cried as I jumped from my bed and fell to the floor. I picked myself up off the hard wood floor and looked around before spotting her standing over me with her hands on her hips. "What the fuck?," I bitched as I laid there, rubbing my patched up arm I landed on. "Can't I get one night of sleep without being rudely woken up?"

"Do you realize what time of day it is?," she asked me.

I looked out my window. Sun rays shone down through clouds and lit up the snow bright enough to nearly blind me.

"It's morning," I answered, getting up off the floor and crawling back to bed. "Too early, in fact."

"The hell it is!," she said as she ripped my blankets off me. "Get your ass up, get dressed, and get to the damn community house!"

"Why?," I asked, sitting up, trying to snatch my blanket back from her hands.

"Because there's a party going on for you and your best friend that you aren't there for!," she answered, pointing at me. "The supply buggy will be here any minute and everybody is waiting to see you off."

"I'm not going," I told her, finally re-obtaining my blanket. "I told Jake I was staying."

"Oh, I know," she informed me. "I heard every word of your conversation with him last night."

"How?," I questioned, raising my head over the blanket to look at her.

"These walls are thin, Nathaniel," she said as she pointed at the walls.

"Your room is above the living room, not next to it," I stated.

"Floors are thin, too. It's an old house, honey," she explained. "Regardless of what you think you have to do here, I'm telling you, as your mother, to get ready to go, NOW."

"No," I replied, lying my head back down and covering it.

She ripped the blankets off me once more, grabbed the bent tip of my right ear and pulled me out of bed.

As I hit the floor (again) with a loud 'thump', I yelled, "Aaahh, are you crazy?!" I rose to my knees and started rubbing my ear. "They're both already fucked up, what else are you trying to put me through?"

"Get dressed, Nathaniel," my mother ordered with a straight face. "Now. Grab your things and get to the community house. Now. Or I will reign hell down on you for the rest of your life." Then she turned around and walked out.

"Dammit mom," I complained to myself as I rose to my feet.

The outfit I set out to wear the night before still sat on top of my dresser. I walked over, slipped on the jeans that still had my coin bag tied to it and zipped the zipper. I grabbed the short sleeved T-shirt, pulled it over my head, slipped my arms through the proper holes and put on my boots. Snatching my hoody off the door knob, I proceeded to walk down the stairs and stopped. Turning back around, I looked at my door and saw that both bags I prepared to take with me no longer sat where I left them.

Must be mom took them downstairs.

I headed down as I slipped on my black pullover hoody. As I guessed, the bags, the lunch pail, and my bow and quiver sat in front of the front door with my mother standing next to them.

"I told you, ma, I'm not going," I told her as I walked up to her. "I'll go down to the community house to see Jacob off but I'm staying here until those wolves are dead."

"Why would you do that to him?," she asked me, crossing her arms.

"Pardon?," I questioned, stopping halfway out the door.

"That boy is the only brother you'll ever have," she tells me, "you never did anything without him since the day you two met, and he did no different! You can't just pull out at the last possible second. You, of all people, should know how much that would crush him!"

"I have no choice," I said to her. "I know I told Jake I would go, I know he is probably going to hate me for the longest time, but I need to be here, to protect you and to finish off those fucking animals."

"Says who?," she asked, loosing her patience. "You aren't the only capable person here, Nathaniel!"

"Whose going to watch after you? Whose going to take care of the things you can't? You can't do everything yourself," I argued.

"Neither can you!," she argued back, "You try so hard to fill your father's shoes as well as your own. You can't expect everything to fall on you! Tony would be more than happy to help out while your gone, as well as Albert. Stop trying to take care of everything yourself and go start your own life with your brother!"

I crossed my arms. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd push me out your door," I said.

"Please," she said, "It's not easy for any mother to let her child go, but you have to do this. You know it as well as I do."

"Why do I have to do this?," I questioned.

"You want to know why I think you need to?," she questioned in response.

I shrugged.

"You're father would want you to," she says.

I stared at her, still standing in the doorway, slightly annoyed that she would use him to shoo me off.

"Do you really think if he saw what you put not only yourself, but me and Jacob as well through in the past fifteen hours, that he would still back you up?," she asked. "He'd be furious! He'd kick your ass out! Literally! So feel lucky I'm doing it verbally."

"Why is it so hard for you to let me make my own choice?," I complained.

"It's only hard when I know you're making the wrong one," she answered. "Do you think abandoning your future, your best friend and the opportunities in front of you is the best possible decision? Honestly?"

I didn't answer, I only looked at her.

"You don't need to worry about me," she assured me. "I'll be fine. I'm a grown woman, I can manage. And the other hunters can take care of the wolves and every other related problem. Right now, Jacob needs you. And you need to listen to me."

She picked up my bow and extended it to me.

I stood for a few moments, thinking. No words were said, only the silence of the wind blowing outside could be heard. My thoughts ran wild, my mother remained with my bow in hand, starring me in the eye with a sympathetic look.

"God dammit, I hate it when your right," I bitched, snatching my bow from her. "Fine," I said, picking up the rest of my things.

"Thank you," my mother smiled.

Before we walked out the door, I went in the living room and plucked the small roach from the ashtray. My mother and I then headed to the community building and walked through the double doors. All the decorations still hung from the ceiling and walls, the confetti still spread about the floor, tossed around from the feet of a crowd. I looked around to find that most of the food had been eating or wrapped up. Everyone that had been here had already left. All who remained was Tony.

"Oh no, did they leave already?," my mother asked.

"Not five minutes ago," Tony answered after burping and throwing away a paper plate. "I was just about to head out myself. If you hurry down to the pantry, you can still catch the buggy."

"Nathaniel, go," my mother told me. "I'll slow you down."

She pulled me to her and squeezed tight. "I love you, honey," she said.

"I love you, too, mom," I said, squeezing back. "Even though you're a pain in my ass most of the time."

That was a joke and a lie.

She released and smiled wide with heavy tears in her eyes. She turned me towards the doors and pushed lightly, "Go!," she said, "Be safe!"

I waved to her as I jogged out. "See you around, Tony!," I yelled as I sped out.

"You're damn right you will, you little punk!," I hear him holler back.

I grinned as I ran down the dirt road towards the food pantry. It's located right next to the main road that takes you out of the mountains so if I didn't hurry, I'd miss my chance. I ran as fast as I could carrying my luggage. I sprinted passed the old folks homes, where they sat in their rocking chairs on their porches. They waved as I ran passed and I waved back. I turned a corner, a block away from the food pantry. I turned the next and caught the sight of Jacob sitting down in the back of the empty buggy as the horses pulling it trotted off. I ran fast, hoping to catch up. When it was within distance, I threw my bags into the buggy. My hands free and the only things weighing me down being my bow and quiver across my back, I blasted into full speed. I reached out to grab the back of the buggy to pull myself in but I came up only inches short. The thought of calling out to the driver to stop went through my head just as Jacob grabs my hand and pulls me into the back.

"They always come running at the last second!," he said as he pulled me in.

"You didn't think I was serious last night, did you?," I asked, taking a seat.

"I've known you a long time, you were serious," he tells me. "But it doesn't matter. I'm glad you changed your mind. Again."

He set his hand on my shoulder and smiled. I smiled back and began digging through my pockets.

"Wanna hit this now?," I asked, handing him the quarter joint from the night before.

He chuckled and took it from me. As he pulled out matches from his single backpack he brought along, I pulled the pack of cigarettes out and lit one. Jacob just looked at me as he held his breath. He exhaled then said, "Your mom's gonna kill you."

"I'm surprised she didn't see the ashtray on my nightstand when she screamed me awake earlier," I responded as I blew out the smoke.

"Gimme one," he ordered, holding out his hand.

I looked at him, then started to pull one out for him, "You're serious?," I questioned.

"We never do anything alone," he tells me. "Why break that code now?"

He took the cigarette from my hands and lit it.

For the next few hours we rode about the buggy. The temperature began to rise after a while and I was forced to strip off my thickhoody. Even though snow still covered the area. We passedthrew the mountains on a thin dirt road, time passed and it got warmer. The white ground turned to white covering patches of green and brown. Mud and grass began to show in the area, even a few trees with dried leafs in a variety of colors. More time passedand after what seemed like an eternity, the snow faded, the area lit up with color, and I looked back onto the snow covered mountains on the other side, the mountains that I once called home.