PART 1
It was a bitterly cold drizzly evening in eastern Texas, water dripped from the boughs of the large tree onto the cams of the compound bow the hunter held loosely in his left hand. He watched the drops run together into rivulets and stream down onto the bed liner coated metal bars of the stand, chained to the tree on which he stood, wrapped in warm clothes of a criss cross striped pattern. The hunter had found that the camouflage that many found outdated and antiquated worked quite well in different colors in any environment, so he had a set of heavily insulated clothing made custom for him, not that it mattered the cold wouldnt do anything to him in the long run but he hated the cold. The wind blowing in from the field to his front chilled him to his core, but wind mixed with the cool rain would kill any trace of his scent that could be wafting through the air.
It had been 4 hours since the hunter had ascended the ladder into the tree stand but he wasn't bothered by the wait, patience was his greatest virtue, but as it crept into the 5th hour of his hunt with the sun already peeking out below the smokey cloud layer about to dip below the horizon, he saw what he came for, a large whitetail buck not 50 yards away a ridiculously easy shot for someone of his ability. The hunter counted the tines on the big bucks rack 5 on the left side and 6 on the other with one growing downward, He estimated the deer at weighing ~200 lbs, big for a Texas whitetail but that was why he was here, that was why he had chosen this animal to harvest.
The last flickers of the setting sun caught the grey coat of the old deer which seemed to reflect the similarly colored clouds above as the hunter slowly drew the bow easily overcoming the 70 pound draw, as he settled the fiber optic dot of the sight behind the line of the bucks shoulder he clicked his tongue and the deer froze. The hunter released.
PART 2
Jessica Galatas was lost, hopelessly lost, which as much as she hated to admit it was fairly normal for her. she had been hiking in the White oak creek wildlife management area in north eastern Texas with her friend Will when she got separated after leaving the path to relieve herself, despite the fact that she was sure Will batted for the other team but she still felt self concious and went just a little too far from the trail. Now she had been wandering for about an hour through the undergrowth and felt the beginnings of panic setting in with the setting of the sun.
Soon she was shivering from the cold, exacerbated by the damp underbrush that had been tugging at her jeans drenching them in the remnants of the rain that clung to their leaves. A wildlife management student at Texas A&M university, the 24 year old Dallas native was no stranger to the surprising cold and rain of the Texas late fall, but that doesn't mean she enjoyed it, and now that the rain had died off she began to smell the coppery scent of fresh blood wafting in on the breeze which unnerved her to no end.
'Am I about to be murdered and dismembered on a fucking hiking trip?'
Taking a dozen more steps she stopped, hearing rustling to her left, slowly she turned her head but saw nothing.
'Yup death and dismemberment is my fate.'
After a few more steps she heard it again, before she could look she smelled it, the rank pungent smell she had come to know only too well after visiting dozens of farms and ranches ravaged by the animals, looking left again she could see the creature. The barrel shaped body bristling with brown hair that she knew has thwarted many a hunters bullet. The wild hog glared at her from the edge of a group of bushes only 15 feet away, its cutters protruding from its lower jaw, hate filling its eyes.
fallen leaves crunched as the big boar launched itself at her squeeling in fury and covering the short distance in no time at all. Before she could react the animal had gored her lower leg with its tusk opening a 6 inch gash in her leg all the way to the bone. White light flashed in her eyes as she screamed and Jessica fell back and tried pushing herself away while fumbling for something to defend herself with, the feral pig wheeled and came in for another run at her. Blood was already seeping down her calf soaking her socks and dripping into her shoe, she closed her hand around a 3 foot stick approximately 2 inches in diameter, she swung her makeshift club at the hog catching it in side of its huge head and stunning it for a second, but a second was all it turned out she needed.
Vision dimming due to blood loss, Jessica couldnt comprehend when a carbon fiber grey arrow with a glowing orange nock seemed to appeared in the pigs flank with a thud. The creature screamed in pain and was knocked on its side for a moment as its feet fought to stand back up kicking wildly in every direction before a powerful arm reached in from behind avoiding the cutters and grabbed the flailing animal under its neck and hauled it over on its back before another plunged a long straight bladed knife through the matted brown bristles and thick hide into the lungs and heart that lay below and twisted the blade widening the wound killing the creature instantly.
The last thing Jessica saw and heard before passing out was deep blue eyes with an almost star burst of brown around the pupil, olive skin, and a voice in an accent she couldn't quite place saying
"Stay with me."