The Hunt

Hunting in the forest was a silent affair, one wrong step or stopping for a chat could chase away the game. Her companion had sighted a deer up ahead, big game that would feed them for a while. Losing it now could cost them dinner. 

She had already taken her bow from her back, but had yet to pull out an arrow, she would do that when she had the deer in her own sight and a perfect vantage point. Her need for quiet meant her trek through the forest was slow-going, but she wanted to catch the deer and reined in her impatience.

She paused at the familiar rustling beside her and waited as her companion rejoined her. With a quick signal to convey his message, she changed her course, she did not want the deer to smell her coming.

After another quarter hour, she finally spotted the doe, grazing in a small clearing ahead of her. She crept forward as slowly and as carefully as possible, not wanting now to be the moment she ruins the hunt.

Carefully, she pulled out an arrow from her quiver, notched it on her bow and drew the arrow back to her ear. She waited for the perfect moment to loose it.

She took a deep breath and as the sound of a wolf howl ripped through the air, she released her arrow. The doe, frozen in fear at hearing the wolf, barely registered the arrow that pierced her skin. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Thankfully, her arrow had been true, this doe was already doing enough for her as her meal, the least she could do is make her end painless. 

She stood and stretched out her stiffening muscles, sore from the crouching she had been doing. Her bow back across her back, she moved over her catch to tie it in preparation to drag it home.

As she pulled the rope off her belt, the shuffling in the bushes could be heard and a moment later, her companion was by her side. 

"Good job," she tells the wolf, giving his head a pet. "As always, it makes it easier when you howl, they always freeze with their necks stretched out."

The wolf wagged his tail, happy to have helped her catch their dinner without ruining the animal. He knew the human needed the pelt of the deer intact. He understood little of why she needed it, only that she did.

Soon enough, they were ready to bring their catch back home to their little cabin in the woods.

Prompt: Write a story that takes place in a forest

I actually got a tickle seeing this prompt, the novel I'm working starts in a forest and the forest itself has significance to the story. This was fun.