The Hunt

I trudged through the knee deep snow. My quarry was somewhere ahead of me, and the biting wind was to my back. The light from the full moon lit up the horrible tracks in front of me. My fingers that gripped my rife were numb and blue. Icicles hung from the scraggly beard that adorned my face.

For weeks I had been walking in the wilderness. The trail of the monster bringing me further into the cold north each day. My only companion was the rifle I held in my hands. I ate what food I could find along the way. My wife had surely given me up for by dead at this point. None of that mattered though, the only thing that mattered was the pursuit.

I looked ahead and saw a rabbit cross the trail. The though of fresh meat to eat was tempting, but I couldn't risk alerting him to my presence with a gunshot. I simply kept on walking. The tracks in the snow wouldn't last long in this wind, so I knew he couldn't be far ahead of me. The rabbit sat as still as a rock when I passed it not knowing that I already knew it was there. I kept my eyes on it as I walked forward studying it's details.

I started this hunt after it came to me in a dream while visiting the north lands with my wife. I saw the monster then, I saw what it would do if he wasn't stopped, and I saw that it was me who must stop him. I left that same day. I knew that my wife wouldn't understand that I was doing what had to be done, so I left without saying anything to her.

I wasn't watching where I was going, and I fell into a trap laid for me by the monster. Some tree branches were buried in the snow cleverly placed there to trip me up. I fell face first into the snow. As my rifle hit the ground a shot rang out which caused the rabbit to take off. I scrambled back to my feet and looked around I saw nothing but the maddening white landscape around me. I looked down to pick up the trail, but the monster must have erased his tracks after setting the trap, as I no longer could see them.

He was clever, but not clever enough. I knew which way I came from, I knew which way was north. I put the trail I made behind me, and continued walking forward. I kept trudging through the snow.