Crash

44: Makin' faces

Lyra-

I held back a giggle as Nathan made a face at me. I pinched my nose, crossed my eyes, and puffed out my cheeks. He just about lost it as he cupped a hand over his mouth to keep from making noise. I stopped making the face and laughed as silently as I could manage.

I nearly died as Nathan pulled both of his ears and stuck out his tongue. He looked like a monkey with oversized ears. See, this is the kind of entertainment that we have. Isn't it nice?

I stopped laughing when I heard a gobble. My boredom disappeared as I tried to shush Nathan. Peering through the bush we were hiding behind, I saw the flock of turkeys bobbing their way through the edge of the clearing.

"Show time," I whispered and pulled the compound bow off my back.

This was going to be quick and easy. Turkeys were stupid birds but they were very paranoid. They spooked easy and once there was danger in the area, they didn't come back for a long time

We crawled around the edge of the brush, skirting to the side of the turkeys. We didn't need a big one, we just needed one. I picked a large hen (female) and notched an arrow. I drew the bow and aimed through a clear spot in the bush.

Kissing the fletching for luck, I released it. It nailed the hen in the head. Her wings flailed erratically and scared the other turkeys. They squabbled and took off in a massive flurry of feathers. 

The hen was out in less than a minute. Nathan and I jumped out of our hiding place and jogged over to our prize. I grabbed the feet and held up the bird.

"Not bad yeah?"

"As long as it tastes good, I'm fine with it," Nathan chuckled, taking the bow and slinging it over his left shoulder

I let him take the bird and stuff it into his hunting backpack. We started to walk home, talking about this and that. It was starting to look like the beginning for spring now. The ground was becoming dotted with green.

I was so busy admiring the start of spring that I smacked straight into Nathan's back.

"Hey! Why'd you stop?" I rubbed my nose.

Nathan was silent as his eyes flickered around anxiously.

"What?" I asked, my nerves tensing and pushing me into another gear.

He looked down at the ground in front of him. I peaked around him and followed his gaze. Nathan grabbed my hand as we looked at the image in front of us.  I gasped as I scanned over the ghastly sight. A mountain lion, or what was left of it, lay ripped open. It was absolutely shredded. Pieces of it were everywhere, blood pooled on the ground and it was all fresh.

We had only been through here about three hours ago to get a place to hide. There was no doubt that this was the mountain lion we had seen near the ravine. I looked at its wide, lightless eyes and its face. It jaw was twisted at an angle of agony.

"C'mon, we're leaving," Nathan said gruffly, pulling me away.

"Wait! I want to see what did that," I yanked back until he stopped walking.

"I can see that something big did that and I don't need to know anything else. We need to go before it comes back," he said hastily, his eyes scanning around us.