The Vegan's Hunter

by P. S. Turner

  “You’re not an animal,” she screamed. “You’re a person. You should know better. You don’t need to murder them to survive. That’s a bullshit argument.”

  “People aren’t ever going to give up eating meat,” he said, raising his voice. “I recognize that and try to shift them to find their meat in the wild. In the end it’s better for the animals. Hunters also help stabilize the animal population. Without them they would overpopulate and could starve to death.”

  “Oh that’s mighty noble of you,” she said mockingly. “I didn’t realize that you’re trying to save them from starvation. What interesting way to save them though. By killing them.”

  “You think you know everything. I’ve done more for animals than-” He looked at the camera suddenly remembering that it was running. He rushed over and slammed his palm onto the power button. The camera wobbled on the tripod almost falling over. He unzipped his bag and jammed the camera in.

  “Thanks for the intro,” he said, throwing the bag over his shoulder and stomping off.

  At first he thought that he was alone. That she had turned back. Good riddance. Let them take the show. He’ll figure something out. But he knew that the show was the only way. Every other avenue had been taken.

  After a few minutes he heard footsteps behind him rushing to catch up.

  Tyler threw some sticks onto the campfire. They crackled as the fire fed on them. Kayley shifted back as the flames rose. They hadn’t spoken much since the outburst this afternoon. She sat by herself as Tyler set up the tents and built the campfire. They had arrived at the border of the park ahead of schedule. It was just starting to get dark.

  “I love the smell of campfires,” she said, staring at it.

  Tyler startled. “Huh?” he said.

  “The smell of burning wood,” she went on. “It reminds me of my childhood.”

  Tyler broke a branch over his knee and tossed it in. The flames swallowed it.

  “It reminds me of camping as a kid. My parents would argue all day. But at night they would cuddle around the campfire and tell us stories of when they first met,” she said smiling. “It was nice.”

  Tyler poked a burning log with a stick before tossing it in.

  “It’s funny how smells can bring back old memories. Do you have any nice childhood memories like that?” she asked looking up at him.

  He grabbed a thick branch and broke it over his knee with a crack. The smell of campfires reminded him of his uncle Harry. Tyler’s parents had died in a car crash when he was a teenager. The fourteen year old city kid went to live with his uncle, a professional hunter and trapper who lived in the woods. He taught Tyler how to live off of the land and instilled in him an appreciation for nature.

  He died of a heart attack a few years ago.

  He didn’t feel like telling her about uncle Harry. Those memories were his alone and he didn’t want to share them. “Not really,” he said.

  Tyler opened his bag and dug out two cans. “What’s for dinner?” she asked.

  “Yummy, delicious canned vegetarian chili,” he said, showing her the label. The picture on the can looked like a bowl of dog food. It probably would look even worse when he opened it.

  “Mmmmmm,” she said, sarcastically rubbing her belly. “I think I’ll stick to my granola bars.”

  “I think that’s a smart move,” he laughed.

  He opened the can and poured it into a small pot. The chili slid out in one disgusting, slimy piece and plopped into the pot. There was a thick layer of gelatin goo on top of the brown mush.

  “I don’t see any vegetables,” she laughed. “Here.” She threw him two granola bars.

  “Thanks,” he said. “That’s nice of you.” He placed the pot on the ground behind him.

  “It’s a selfish move,” she said smiling. “I don’t want my guide to get food poisoning and die out here.”

  He smiled back. Her smile was gorgeous in the orange glow of the fire. Her brown eyes sparkled as the flames lit them up. He wondered how he never noticed them before. She’s kind of pretty when she’s not yelling.

  “Oh yeah,” she said reaching into her bag. She pulled out a mini bottle of wine. “It would be a shame to go to bed without a glass of red.” She twisted off the cap and offered him the bottle. “Would you join me?”

  He grabbed the neck of the bottle, keeping it there so they were both holding it. “Does this mean we’re friends?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” she laughed. “But maybe it’s a start.”

  They ate and talked about their shows and made fun of their boss Al. Kayley went to relieve herself at a nearby tree and sat next to him when she came back to the fire. Tyler couldn’t remember the last time that he spent a night like this with someone, let alone a girl. It was nice. He was sad when it ended and she went off to sleep in her tent.

  He regretfully retired to his tent as well leaving the glowing embers that was the campfire and the empty bottle of wine.

  Kayley

  Kayley woke up in her tent with a sore back. She could hear movement outside her tent. She stretched her arms and legs and arched her back.

  A clang came from outside. What was Tyler cooking for breakfast? She had enjoyed getting to know him last night and was actually excited for the hike today. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and ran her hands through her hair a few times.

  She smelt coffee brewing as she got out of the tent. Tyler was facing her, cooking something over the fire. His brow was wrinkled in concentration as he stirred something in the pot. He looked funny with such a serious face on for something so simple. Kayley giggled to herself. He’s cute.

  “What are you making?” she asked, walking up to the fire.

  He looked up startled. “Quinoa,” he said pronouncing it wrong. “I found it on a vegan website and thought that you would like it.”

  She stood there shocked. It was rare that men did thoughtful things for her.

  “Do you?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Do you like quinoa?” he said, butchering it even worse this time.

  “I love it.”

  She sat down on the same log that she sat on last night. He handed her a bowl of quinoa with fresh strawberries on top. “Thank you,” she said.

  He poured some coffee into a mug with a rose painted on it. It looked brand new. “What do you take in your coffee?”

  “I’ll just take it black.”

  “Really?” he asked surprised, handing her the mug. “I brought you some almond milk if you want some.”

  She smiled and handed the mug back. “I’d love some.”

  He added a splash of almond milk from a thermos and handed it back. “It looks like it’s going to be nice today.”

  Kayley looked up at the sky. The sun was rising over the tall trees into a bright blue sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight.

  She scarfed down the quinoa and got seconds from the pot. It was nice sitting with Tyler in contented silence. She hated how most guys would spew out meaningless conversation just to fill each second, terrified of awkward silence. It was comfortable with Tyler. They were just there enjoying the outdoors. And each other.

  “Thanks for the quinoa,” she said, handing him the bowl back.

  “So that’s how you say it. I was wondering.” He headed off towards the stream in the distance.

  “Tyler,” she called out. He stopped and turned around. “I’m sorry that I’ve been a bitch to you.”

  He laughed. “You haven’t been that bad.” He winked.

  “Yeah I have,” she looked down at her hands. “You’re a nice guy and just because we have different beliefs doesn’t mean that we can’t be civil to each other.” She looked up at him. “And it doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”

  “I’d like that,” he said. They both smiled. He left to wash the dishes in the river. He did seem like a really sweet guy. Better than anyone she had met in a long time. Maybe they could be friends. Maybe even more. She watched
him as he walked to the river admiring his broad shoulders. Her mind started to drift even more.

  “Whoa,” she said, aloud to herself laughing. “Don’t get any crazy ideas.”

  She got up to get her things in order and her stomach dropped when she looked at Tyler’s tent. His bow and arrow was leaning against his tent like a bomb waiting to detonate.

  Tyler was a nice guy and she wanted him to succeed but there was no way that she was going to let him murder an animal today.

  Tyler stopped and looked at Kayley with sadness, as if he knew all of their friendliness from this morning was about to end. “I have to make a cow call,” he said.

  “A what?”

  He pulled a whistle from out of his shirt. “I have to try to call an elk over.”

  Kayley felt her heart speed up.

  Tyler set up the three cameras behind them, each of them filming a different angle. They crouched down behind a large bush. Tyler talked to the cameras and said that they were facing an old elk trail and told the viewers how to spot one. Kayley was too nervous to listen. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She looked down, expecting it to burst through her shirt any second.

  When Tyler was ready he put the whistle to his lips and blew. The high pitched squeaking sound sent chills down Kayley’s back. He repeated the calls a few times and then waited, staring at the path with the bow and arrow in his hand. An arrow was cocked ready to fly into any helpless creature unfortunate enough to wander up the path.

  An elk answered in the distance. Tyler turned to the camera and gave a thumbs up. He put the caller back to his lips and called again. This time the answer was closer.

  The elk was coming towards them. She could see movement along the path. Branches were moving as the poor animal approached, oblivious to the horrible death that lay before him.

  Kayley held her breath as the elk came into view. His head hung low under the weight of his massive antlers. She had never seen such a large wild animal before that wasn’t lying as a prisoner in a zoo or tortured in a circus. He was free and happy, living in the wild. He’s beautiful. She felt her eyes well up, touched by the moment.

  The elk opened his mouth and let out a grunt. He seemed frustrated. He swung his massive head from side to side looking for the booty call that he just heard and cried out a low guttural rumbling. Kayley smiled.

  The movement of Tyler’s arm caught her eye and she suddenly remembered why they were there. Tyler was aiming right at him. The arrow was pulled back ready to fly any moment.

  “Get out of here,” she screamed, jumping out of the bush and flailing her arms. “Go!”

  The elk flew off running in the opposite direction before he even registered what happened. He was gone in a flash.

  Tyler threw down his bow and shot up to his feet. “What the hell was that?”

  “How could you kill him? He was beautiful?”

  “He’s probably half way up to Canada now.” He squeezed his hands into fists.

  “Good. I can’t believe that you were going to murder him. What kind of person are you?”

  “There goes my show,” he said, shaking his head. “There goes the park. All those animals without a home now. Because of you. You don’t know what you just did.”

  What was he talking about? She looked at him confused.

  “You think you know everything?” he continued, raising his voice. “Nobody can respect a bull elk more than me. You don’t get it. You just don’t get it.”

  Kayley’s heart was racing. “No you don’t get it,” she yelled back. “You have no right to murder an innocent animal. They’re living, breathing beings. They deserve our love and respect. Not an arrow through their neck.”

  He opened his mouth to retort when his face suddenly froze. His skin was white. She felt as if there was a ghost behind her, ready to attack. Shivers ran up her arms and neck. The hairs on her body stood straight up. There was definitely something there. She didn’t move.

  “Don’t move,” he whispered, crouching down to the ground. His eyes were fixed on something behind her. He slowly picked up the bow.

  A branch cracked behind her. She ran.

  Something was chasing her. Kayley pumped her legs as fast as she could. A low hanging branch scraped her face. She tripped on a root and fell to the ground with a thud. She spun onto her back.

  A mountain lion was chasing her down. It took two steps toward her and pounced. It sailed at her through the air with its sharp claws extended. Kayley could see down his throat, past the deadly fangs. She closed her eyes waiting for the hard impact.

  A thud and a whine. But nothing hit her. She opened her eyes and the large cat was lying on the ground beside her. Dead. Blood was pumping out of the hole in his side, staining his silvery coat, red. An arrow stuck out of a tree beside him.

  “Are you okay?” Tyler asked, rushing beside her.

  She hugged him and dug her face into his shoulder. Her eyes welled up with tears. “Thank you,” she stuttered, thankful to be alive.

  She wiped her eyes. “I don’t know what happened. I just started running.”

  He rubbed her back. “Instinct. It’s the fight or flight response.”

  “I always thought I was a fighter.”

  “Oh you are. Trust me.”

  He helped her up. She brushed the dirt off of her pants and walked over to the body. It looked peaceful lying there with his mouth slightly open and his eyes closed. She felt bad for it. She wanted to stroke its face but her body wouldn’t allow her to get any closer.

  “It was either him or you,” Tyler said, walking up beside her. “I didn’t get any pleasure from it. No matter what you think.”

  She stared at the cat and remained silent. He was a gorgeous animal. So wild. So vicious.

  Tyler knelt over the body and whispered in its ear. He stroked the animal’s head and spoke softly to it as if saying a prayer. Kayley leaned in to hear and then backed away, feeling like an intruder in this private moment. Tyler kissed his forehead and got up. He wrenched the arrow from the tree and walked back to the cameras.

  “We should head back,” he said.

  “Can we bury him?” Kayley looked at the lion lying on the ground. She didn’t want to leave him exposed like that.

  Tyler shook his head taking the camera out of the tree. “We should leave him as is. The animals of the forest will take care of him. His spirit will live and remain in the forest through them. It’s the natural way.”

  She had never heard him speak like that before. Maybe she was wrong about him. Maybe he did have a respect for nature and the animals. She glanced at the open wound in the cat’s side. Or maybe he just didn’t want the bother of digging a grave.

  Tyler

  “Another five minutes and we’re there,” Tyler said to Kayley as they hiked back to the camp. It was late afternoon and Tyler was done with the day. He finally had the chance to get a large bull elk kill on camera and she ruined it. At least he got the mountain lion kill on tape. Al should be happy about that. It may even be better than an ordinary elk kill. At least he wasn’t going home empty handed. And Kayley had definitely warmed up to him since the incident. Having someone save your life tends to have that effect on them.

  He started the fire while Kayley went into her tent to change her clothes. He looked at the cans in his bag. Beans, chick peas and lentils. He was starving and could go for a big steak right now. He would’ve carved up a piece of the mountain lion for dinner if Kayley wasn’t there.

  “What did you mean when you said that ‘all of those animals wouldn’t have a home now?’” she asked, grabbing a seat on the log beside the fire.

  “I run a conservation center for animals rescued from abusive homes, companies and factory farms.”

  Tyler stifled a laugh as her mouth dropped. She wouldn’t have been more surprised if he told her that he ran a ballet school.

  He explained how he took his inheritance that his uncle Harry left him and opened up a conservation center in h
is uncle’s name. The park started with a few animals but quickly grew as more and more people dumped their problems onto him. Cute, little, tiger cub Christmas presents quickly grew up into dangerous, unwieldy adults. They were dropped off on his door step without a second thought.

  “If my show gets canceled I’ll have to close the park.”

  “You should pitch a show about the conservation center to Al,” Kayley said. “He might go for it. People love that kind of thing these days. I know I would watch it.”

  “Maybe,” he said, thinking about it. I wonder what he would say.

  “It’s cold out,” Kayley said, snuggling up next to him. Tyler smiled. It was actually pretty warm out. She leaned her head on his shoulder and gazed into the fire. Her hair smelled like coconuts.

  She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “Thank you for saving me,” she said. Her face was close to his. Her chin lifting up slightly, as if reaching in for a kiss. “My hero.” She smiled.

  His mouth attracted hers like a magnet and they kissed. She moaned softly and pushed her breasts against him. He pulled away after a few seconds even though he wanted the moment to last longer. She smiled and licked her lips. He kissed her again, deeper this time.

  “What have we got here?” a voice said, hidden in the darkness. Too close. Tyler jumped up.

  Four hunters emerged from the darkness into their camp. Tyler smelt whiskey and beer on them. The guy in front had red hair and a goatee and was holding an almost empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and a semi-automatic rifle in the other. Their guns were illegal to hunt with in the state of Colorado.

  “Look at this one,” the fat one said, pointing to Kayley. “Best looking deer we’ve seen all day.” They all laughed. Kayley pulled the blanket around herself. She looked at Tyler with fear in her eyes.

  Tyler clenched his jaw and glanced at his bow. It was leaning against his tent behind the hunter with the red hair. He did have a small pocket knife on him. No match for four guys armed with military grade assault weapons.