He appeared to hesitate for a few seconds, or at least to Harrison it seemed that way. Perhaps he hadn’t anticipated Rob’s challenge. Finally, though, he said, “The truth is, my people have many names for the hairy men of the woods. Most are difficult to pronounce, but they all speak of the same thing: a forest spirit made flesh – a creature that protects the land and those who live in harmony with it. However, this spirit can be wrathful to those who would seek to defile the balance. My great grandfather used to tell of one such defiler as we sat around the fire, much like we all do today.”
Harrison looked around at the collective faces. All of the women, Paula included, were giving Wild Feather their rapt attention. Rob was listening, too, although probably for another chance to jump in and question his authority on this subject. As for Greg, judging by the glazed look in his eyes as he peered into the fire, he was in his happy place.
“What happened?” Paula asked as Wild Feather continued with his dramatic pause.
“Once, long ago, before the coming of the white man, when the buffalo were still plentiful on the plain,” he began, “there was a man in the tribe. He was a powerful warrior, one of their fiercest braves, but he was also prideful. After many victories in battle and countless successful hunts, this man began to boast that he had no equal. He could defeat any man and take his wives and horses. He could kill any beast and claim its flesh and hide. He laughed that the spirits were but smoke to him, and he had made far too many fires to be fearful of smoke.”
“I know what you mean, brother,” Greg chuckled, taking another toke.
“The elders of the tribe chastised the warrior. They said his pride would be his downfall, that he should give offerings to the spirit world so they might forgive his arrogance. But the man just laughed at their entreaties. He told them that he had earned all of his possessions by the strength of his own arms, so why should he owe the spirits anything?”
“After the shaman’s warning, his pride grew, and he decided that perhaps the spirits owed him. Thus, he set out to take what was theirs. He began to chop more wood than his fire needed. When he hunted, he would kill more than his family could eat, then leave the rest for the birds. In all things, he grew wasteful. The elders, seeing what he was becoming, began to pray for him behind his back. They knew that the spirits were getting angry at the man’s umbrage.”
Wild Feather paused again, making eye contact with all three girls, one after the other.
“Finally, the Great Spirit sent one of the hairy men down from the mountains. The beast was already fearsome, but the spirits imbued it further. They made it swift so that not even the deer could outrun it. They made it strong so that not even the bear could stand against it. They made it powerful so that no arrow could pierce its hide. Its cries could be heard in the village when it was still many moons away. The tribe grew fearful as the beast approached, its howls of vengeance growing louder with every passing day.
“Finally, the elders came to the prideful man and pointed at him. ‘This is your fault,’ they said. ‘The spirits are punishing us all for your wickedness.’ But the man laughed and told them, ‘It is just another animal. I have slain the buffalo. I have slain the bear. I will take my bow and arrow and slay, too, this beast so that I might bring back its fur to warm me by the fire.’ The next day, the prideful man packed up his weapons and set off into the woods to meet the creature face to face.” At that, he stopped telling the story and just stared into the fire.
After a few moments of this, the girls chimed in with squeals of, “What happened next?”
Finally, after another pause – overly dramatic, in Harrison’s opinion – he continued. “None know. Some say the creature overtook him and carried him off to Hell, where the spirits continue to punish him for his arrogance. Others claim the man slew the beast, then set off to challenge the spirits themselves. They say that he still walks the woods to this very day, such is his wrath. It was never truly known. All anyone in the tribe knew was that the beast’s screams ceased and the prideful man never returned.”
“And then Jason and Michael Myers walked out and slaughtered the campers,” Greg added, laughing at his own joke.
Paula, ignoring him, gave Wild Feather a wide-eyed look. “So, do you believe the story?”
Before answering, he fed another branch into the fire, causing embers to rise up in the air. “My people have a great many stories. Some are told to frighten children, but others serve as a warning to men. When I became a man, I went on a vision quest, as all of my ancestors did. In it, I saw many things. Things that give me reason to not doubt my elders.”
“What kind of things?” Harrison asked.
“They are not meant to be spoken of. Each vision quest is for the brave who sees it, and him alone.” He then turned back to Paula and spoke in a low voice. “But I have seen enough to believe. I think the hairy men are out there. I can sense them. They watch us. Perhaps they watch us even now.”
Paula shivered. Rob put his arm around her, most likely as much a defensive gesture as to keep her warm. As he did so, Harrison could have sworn he saw her pull away from him ever so slightly. Rob seemed to notice it, too, no doubt beginning to question the wisdom of coming along on this trip.
Harrison decided that enough was enough for now. “Well then, let them watch us sleep. I’m tired, and we have a lot of walking to do tomorrow.” He stood and stretched. “Unless anyone else has any tales they’d like to freak us out with, I’d suggest we all try getting some rest.”
Danni stood up as well. “Harrison’s right. Things will be easier with the camp set up, but we still have a lot of hiking ahead of us this week. We can save the hangovers for another day.”
One by one, the group acknowledged their logic. They all cleaned up – even Greg, despite being a bit wobbly on his feet – then retired to their respective tents. Little did they know, Wild Feather was not too far off the mark.
They were being watched.
Chapter 7
Greg was asleep almost instantly. He climbed into his sleeping bag, giggled for a few moments, then started snoring. Harrison smiled when he saw how quickly his friend had passed out. Greg liked his weed, but the dude had no tolerance whatsoever.
Harrison bedded down on one side of him while Wild Feather did the same on the opposite end. In the dark, Harrison couldn’t help but smirk. Wild Feather’s sleeping bag was definitely not what one would expect. It was brand new and heavily insulated. He might talk a good game, but he wasn’t exactly roughing it out here.
Still, Harrison considered, he had done a lot of assuming in the past several hours about the guy. Now that they had a moment away from the girls, he figured he should at least try to talk to him. Who knows? Wild Feather might turn out to be less of an asshole than he seemed to be.
“You awake, Feather?”
“Wild Feather. And yes, I am still awake.”
No shit. “So, how do you know Danni?”
“I met the fawn at the beginning of this semester in an ecology class.”
“Yeah, about that. What’s up with the whole ‘fawn’ thing?”
“Your sister has both the grace and purity of one,” Wild Feather stated.
The purity thing is the part that bothers me. “So ... how long have you guys been dating?”
There was a pause before Wild Feather replied. “Danni, Allison, and I are just friends. We are kindred spirits.”
Harrison couldn’t help but notice that he dropped the little pet names this time. Wild Feather definitely wasn’t stupid. He apparently realized that treading lightly was probably the smart thing to do around Harrison with regards to his sister.
“That’s good to know. That’s the way we should keep things out here ... nice and friendly.” He hadn’t meant it to come out as a threat, but he realized it probably sounded that way to Wild Feather. Oh well, he thought as he drifted to sleep, a smile slowly playing out across his face.
♦ ♦ ♦
“You know, th
ere’s plenty of room in here for two,” Rob said. He held open the flap of his sleeping bag and gave it a pat.
“We’ve already discussed this, Robert. You know how I feel,” Paula replied, climbing into her own bedroll and proceeding to zip it shut.
“Jeez. I just figured we could cuddle for a while.”
“I’m not in the mood. I’m tired, and Harrison was right: it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. We should get some sleep.” She quickly turned over and began making exaggerated breathing noises.
Rob didn’t buy it for a second, but he could tell she was in a mood. He just hoped it would pass. Although, considering the eyes she seemed to have for Danni’s friend, he had a bad feeling about it all.
Sleep was a long time coming for them both. Thoughts of Wild Feather ran through their heads. For Rob, it was an amusing fantasy involving him being eaten by a bear. For Paula, it was thoughts of him running through the fields, tomahawk in hand. She pictured him wearing nothing but a loincloth which, in turn, caused a small shiver in her own loins.
♦ ♦ ♦
“I don’t think your brother likes Wild Feather much,” Allison said, lying across the tent from Danni.
“Nah! He’s just overprotective. Not that there’s anything to be overprotective about.”
“Of course not. We’re all just friends.”
Allison and Danni had been fast friends ever since they met. Even so, there had been some strain as of late. They both had their sights set on Wild Feather, and each was aware of the other’s interest. They had discussed it and had outwardly taken a “may the best girl win” attitude with each other. Inwardly, though, they were both attempting to vie for an edge in his affections.
Wild Feather, for his part, had been maddeningly neutral. At times, Danni wondered if he might not be stringing them along, enjoying the attention. However, those were fleeting thoughts as she was genuinely convinced of his good intentions.
Still, she considered, it was never a bad idea to try and stack the deck. “Speaking of my brother, I caught him checking you out a couple of times.”
“Oh? I hadn’t noticed,” Allison lied. The truth was, she thought Harrison might make a pretty good consolation prize if things came down to it. She had considered that it might be fun to have a tryst in the woods with a guy she didn’t have to compete for. Still, she had her eyes set on Wild Feather, and until such time as he made his decision, she wasn’t about to be distracted.
Well, all right, maybe an hour of distraction would be okay. After all, nobody had to know, and she was fairly sure Harrison wouldn’t go bragging to his sister about a little dalliance in the woods. No, that would be weird. Best not to let Danni know any of that, though. “So, what did you think of Wild Feather’s story?”
Danni couldn’t have cared less about the story itself. She no more believed in bigfoot than she did trolls or fairies. It was the story teller who was important to her, as well as the way he told it. There was such passion and conviction in his voice that Danni couldn’t help but get goose bumps during his telling of it. However, she answered with a casual, “It was okay.”
“Yeah, I thought so, too,” Allison said before turning over.
They both drifted off, thinking the other was a bad liar.
♦ ♦ ♦
Several pairs of curious eyeballs viewed the campsite from just outside of the clearing. They continued to watch as the conversation in the tents died down and the fire outside slowly gave way to cooling embers.
Chapter 8
“Slow down, Danni!” Rob yelled. Despite the coolness of the morning, he was already sweating hard. She hadn’t been kidding last night. Even with most of their gear back at camp, the pace was quickly getting to the less athletically-inclined amongst them.
“Seconded!” cried Greg. He was in better shape than Rob, but was still suffering the after effects of his indulgence the night before. “This is supposed to be a vacation, you know. Not boot camp.”
“Fine!” Danni called out from ten yards ahead. “Be a bunch of wusses.” She, Harrison, and Allison stopped and waited for the rest to catch up. While they did, Danni uncorked her canteen and took a sip of water. Even she was a little winded, although she wasn’t about to admit it.
She had woken early, light barely peeking over the horizon, and had roused the rest of the group. She couldn’t help it. This was their first full day out in the woods, and she had no intention of wasting a second of it. To her surprise, Allison, normally an early riser, had been the first to grouse about it, complaining of sleeping like crap.
“I felt like we were being watched all night,” she had said.
“Well, yeah. We do have four boys along with us,” Danni had joked as she packed up her sleeping bag.
“It’s not that. Things just didn’t feel right. Who knows, maybe Wild Feather’s story freaked me out more than I thought.”
That’s a bit odd, Danni had thought. Allison was no stranger to camping. Being creeped out wasn’t her usual forte. Still, between her sighting of those poachers and the story, maybe she had been spooked. The generous tokes she’d taken the previous night had probably not helped in the paranoia department either.
Despite that, within the hour she had somehow gotten them all ready. They had a quick breakfast, secured some supplies, then marked the coordinates of their camp on both GPS and map. Following that, Danni had led them in the direction of the old ranger station she meant to explore.
Five miles later, they neared the coordinates her friend had given her. Unfortunately, some of them were starting to lag badly.
“Relax,” Harrison said, bringing Danni out of her reverie. “If this place is still standing, I doubt it’s gonna pick right now to crumble into dust. Besides, if I have to carry Rob back because you destroyed him on our first day out, I’m gonna be pissed.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she replied offhandedly as the others caught up and unshouldered their packs.
Paula sat down on hers and took a sip from a water bottle. After a few seconds, her breathing had slowed enough for her to say, “It’s so peaceful out here.”
“Yes,” replied Wild Feather, leaning against a tree next to her. “In the silence, you can almost hear the forest spirits whispering to you.”
Danni was about to chide Harrison for the look he gave Wild Feather when a thought struck her. It was quiet. In fact, other than their breathing, she couldn’t hear another sound. That wasn’t right.
Her eyes caught Allison’s. They were showing the same questioning look.
“You’re noticing it, too?” Allison asked.
“Noticing what?” Harrison replied.
“Listen.”
“I don’t hear anything,” Greg wheezed.
“I think that’s the point,” said Harrison after a moment. “We should be. There’s probably an army of squirrels alone right above our heads. There are lots of things that should be making noise right now, but they’re not.”
“Do you think it’s us?” Allison asked, purposely looking toward Greg and Rob as she did so. “We haven’t exactly been subtle.”
“Maybe,” Danni replied warily. “Let’s keep still for a few and see. If so, things should start up again fairly quickly.” She grabbed her pack and started rooting through it. “But just in case...” She pulled out a can of bear spray.
Both Paula’s and Wild Feather’s eyes went wide, and they immediately began rummaging through their own packs. While they did so, Harrison bent down and picked up a sturdy stick.
“What are you gonna do with that?” Rob asked.
Bigfoot Hunters (Tales of the Crypto-Hunter Book 1) Page 6
