Courage (5 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Next morning Lucas was the first one up again. He crawled out of the tent and looked around for the trap.

“Dad, mom the trap is gone!”

The others crawled from the tent and Jim said, “We have to look for it, it was set up just over there and it couldn't have just disappeared, could it?”

They walked over to where the trap had been set up and realized that somehow the trap had been dragged into the bushes. Lucas ran around a small spruce tree shouting, “Dad it's still moving!”

“Don't touch it!” Mary warned Lucas.

They surrounded the trap and looking between the woven branches saw, much to their surprise, a rabbit staring back at them.

“Dad it works, you caught a rabbit!” Jill exclaimed.

“This will be so awesome, no fish tonight!” Lucas said.

“I never would have believed it, my husband, the hunter,” Mary said proudly.

For the next four days the trap remained empty, so fish and berries were back on the menu.

They tried to dry some fish since they were so plentiful, but that didn't work; by the time the fish dried, they had spoiled. The kids were also getting pretty tired of eating fish. They were losing weight and had lost some of the spunk they had shown earlier. Jill became more and more homesick and was crying most days now. Mary was much better, but she too felt the strain of the unknown and was worried. The weather was changing, becoming more fall-like and a very cold rain lasting three days dampened their spirits even more. It was late September now and while the fish were still plentiful, they just didn't feel like eating them anymore. They would toss ten fish to the wolf. It was becoming quite friendly; one morning when they woke up, they found him sleeping, curled up at the front of the tent.

“Dad, there is that plane again.”

“It's probably another commercial flight, but they are at least thirty-forty thousand feet up, they can't possibly see us.”

That day they all went to pick the last of the berries. When they got there, they came face to face with a large black bear that was also foraging for berries. Jim quietly told them to just back up slowly and not make eye contact. Luckily the bear was intent on eating berries and didn't pay too much attention to the family.

“You know, I remember reading someplace that there's a berry called Bearberry. I wonder if that's what we have here?” Jim explained.

“Dad, are you just saying that because of the bear?” Lucas asked.

“No, no I'm serious, I'll bet you that's what these berries are called.”

“Why are the bears so vicious?” Alicia asked.

“Again, honey it's not that they are vicious, they protect their food source and their cubs. If a human walks toward a bear and the bear has a cub, the bear will likely attack him because she thinks its cub is in danger. If a bear is feeding and another bear, wolf or a human is approaching his food source, it will probably attack.”

Early one morning they were woken by a loud commotion with sounds of grunting and sniffing outside the tent. Jill immediately started to cry, while the rest were terrified too. The sound changed from one of grunting to one of half barking and growling. After a while the commotion died down a little and they peeked out to see the wolf growling menacingly at the large black bear just yards away from the tent. Jim picked up the pole with the knife and ventured out of the tent, the wolf didn't move as Jim patted it on the head. He approached the bear, yelling and brandishing the pole and knife. At the same time the wolf attacked the bear as well and the bear backed up, got down on all fours and lumbered away.

Jim went to the wolf wanting to pat him again, but it also ran away.

“It's still skittish, he still doesn't trust us.”

“Then why is he here?”

“I think because we feed it. Maybe he feels he owes us something, but I don't know. Anyway, he saved us from the bear.”

“Jim, will that bear come back? I'm really afraid for the children,” Mary said quietly as she didn't want the children to hear her concern.

“We may see the bear again, but it should soon be going off by itself to hibernate till spring. In the meantime, though, it will be foraging for food. We'll just have to be very careful.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The weather was getting much colder and winter was definitely drawing near. It was the end of September, they had been stranded on this mountain for seven weeks and they were sick of it. One day as Jim and Jill went to the stream in the early morning to get water and catch more fish, they spotted some deer drinking at the stream. Jim thought if he could trap one somehow, they would have meat for a long time. They held a family meeting to discuss this; everyone needed to understand that they had to kill the deer for meat and for the hide as winter was fast approaching.

Jill said, “Yuk, I don't want to see you do it, I'll eat the meat, but I don't want to watch you do it.”

“You're just being silly, do you think the meat you buy in the grocery store wasn't killed by someone?” Mary asked.

“I still don't want to see it happen.”

“Dad, you and I'll go tomorrow morning and see if we can catch one,” Lucas said.

“It's not going to be easy, we may not be able to get close enough to them.”

Early the following day Jim and Lucas set out for the stream.

“I feel like the big white hunter, without a gun,” Jim joked.

“But at least you have the pole with the knife, I have nothing.”

“I don't know if this is going to be enough, the deer have a keen sense of hearing and smell. They can detect us before we see them.”

When they got to the stream, there were no animals of any kind to be seen.

“We need to be upwind of the stream,” Jim said.

“How do you know where upwind is, dad?”

“You're supposed to lick your finger, then lift your hand in the air. The finger should be cooler from the wind direction because the wind makes the moisture evaporate.”

He demonstrated to Lucas as he described the maneuver.

Lucas tried it. “I don't feel anything on my finger.”

“It's supposed to work.”

Lucas tried it again. “I got it dad, we have to go left!”

“That's the sense I get too, we should hide behind those bushes.”

The settled in and waited, hoping the deer would show.

The wait was short, three appeared, one buck and two does, cautiously looking left then right, they walked toward the stream. Out of nowhere, their gray wolf attacked the deer, driving them toward the waiting hunters. As the deer bolted directly toward them, Jim lifted the pole with the knife, and like a javelin, hurled it toward one of the does. It connected, just above the doe's right front leg. The doe was able to shake it loose and ran after the other two deer. The wolf, ignoring Jim and Lucas, took off after the deer. Jim picked up the pole and shouted.

“Follow the trail of blood!”

“Okay, dad.”

The two hunters ran as fast as they could, following the wounded deer, it was loosing blood and slowing down. Just then they heard a crash and saw the wolf knock the deer down and hold it by its throat.

“Let's get it dad!”

But Jim was concerned; he didn't know how the wolf would react. Would it protect its kill, or would it allow Jim to take the deer?

“Let's wait for a few minutes to see what the wolf will do.”

It took the wolf five or so minutes to suffocate the deer. He then released its grip on the deer's throat and glancing at Jim and Lucas, he slowly slinked away.

“Wow, dad did you see that?” Lucas exclaimed.

“I think he's reciprocating for all the fish dinners we gave him.”

They went to the fallen deer, “It weighs about 70-80 pounds I guess,” Jim said. “You grab the hind legs while I take the front legs and,” he looked around, “We'll take it over to that tree,” he motioned with his head.

“We need to hang the deer, head down and drain the blood, I saw that on a hunting show once. You see dad, sometimes I watch stuff on TV other than junk,” Lucas said.

They found a sturdy branch and while Jim held up the deer, Lucas securely tied the hind legs of the slain doe to the branch with some nearby vines.

“This will be gross, but I have to cut the throat so the blood can drain out.”

“At least Jill doesn't have to see this.”

“
I sure wouldn't want to see that either,” Alicia remarked.

It took them almost all morning to skin the deer and cut it into pieces. As they worked, they saw a pair of yellow eyes peering at them. Jim threw a few pieces of deer meat toward the eyes and watched as the wolf devoured them.

“Dad, let's give him some more, he looks hungry.”

As they cut and portioned the meat, they tossed chunks to the wolf, which by that time was only ten feet from them, and getting closer, but not in a menacing way.

They made a sleigh out of branches and cedar boughs, loaded the meat onto the sleigh and started back to camp. The wolf followed them, but stayed back about fifty feet. When they arrived at camp, Mary was ecstatic when she saw the meat. Jill muttered “Yuk,” but looked on with interest.

They immediately started to roast the meat and it wasn't long before the aroma was driving everyone nuts, including Jill.

That evening as they sat around the fire, Jim and Lucas told the story of how they had killed the deer or more correctly how they had help from the wolf to kill the deer.

“The wolf seemed to understand that we were waiting for the deer, don't ask me how, but I'm sure it knew what we were trying to do.”

“That wolf is becoming a really good friend to us,” Mary said.

“Yeah, and that's a blessing,” Jim replied.

There was a loud howling noise off in the distance and their wolf that had been sitting close by, stood up and howled back.

There were a few more howls from the wolf in the distance, and then answering howls and yelps from nearby. Then all was quiet.

“What was that all about dad?” Lucas questioned.

“That's how wolves communicate with each other and that was our wolf replying.”

Later the wolf cautiously moved toward the campfire and when it was only ten feet away, Jim held out his hand holding a chunk of roasted deer meat and the wolf slowly approached his hand and snatched it. He ran twenty feet or so away then lay down and began munching on it.

They all had a good feeling about the wolf and for that matter the entire day had been a huge success.

“You know the wolf really behaves like a dog, it even looks a bit like a large German shepherd,” Jim said.

“But it still seems to be afraid of us,” Lucas replied.

They cleaned up from their feast and Jim said,

“We need to raise the meat at least twenty feet above the ground to keep it safe from any predators.”

They fashioned a sling from two t-shirts and the mosquito netting and placed the meat in it. Jim climbed the cedar tree and securely tied the meat on one of the branches. After climbing down he called for a family meeting.

“I've been thinking, we may not be found before the real winter starts and we need to make a decision as a family regarding what we should do. Should we leave the camp and head down to the valley or stay here? I read somewhere that you should never leave the crash site, but this has to be a family decision. Winter will be rough, it will be cold and long and even then there is no guarantee that we'll be found. We should think about this for a few days before we decide, it will need to be a majority decision.” Jim stopped talking and looked at his family with tears in his eyes.

“Dad can we go to the crash site and see if we can find something like a mirror, maybe we can signal with it?” Jill asked.

“That's a great idea,” Mary responded.

“Tomorrow morning we'll go to the crash site, there has to be something reflective, even if it's only the windshield.”