Monsters by Cawdron Peter

Author:Cawdron, Peter [Cawdron, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Peter Cawdron at Smashwords
Published: 2013-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 02: Nightfall

Night had fallen by the time James made it back to the cliff face overlooking the girl in the snare. He was bruised, tired, torn and bloodied. His left hand had been impaled by a branch as he sought to break his fall through the snow down the inside of the pine tree. It had taken hours to work his way back to the surface of the drift. The bear had growled and groaned in the darkness beneath him as its life ebbed away.

The snow melted on his clothes, leaving him damp and cold.

Limping, James crossed the cliff. He gathered his bow and arrows, picked up his pack, and made his way down to the stream in the gully.

The girl lay still beneath the standing dead tree. He called out as he approached, but she didn't respond.

James dropped his pack on the snow and stepped over the twigs and dead branches littering the ground. The young woman stirred at the sound, rolling to one side. Her leg looked bad. It was broken. The steel jaws clamped on either side of her leg bit into the flesh below her knee, reaching the bone. James reached out and touched her hand, speaking softly.

“Hello, Sunshine.”

Her skin was cold to touch. The sun was setting, leaving them in the shadows as the temperature plummeted.

“Who?” she asked, her voice struggling, breaking up as that one word struggled past her lips. “Who are you?”

“Hey. It's OK. My name is James. I'm from a small farm to the north of Amersham. Relax, I'm going to get you out of here.”

“You,” she managed, her voice still croaky. “You're a bloody fool.”

“Hah,” James laughed. That was good. She was thinking, and, yes, she was right, he was a bloody fool taking on that bear alone.

James rummaged around in his pack, pulling out his sleeping bag and wrapping her in it, but he didn't open the sleeping bag, not until he removed the bear trap.

“You're shivering,” she managed, her teeth chattering together.

“You too,” he replied. “It's cold, and it's going to get colder. I've got to get a fire started.”

“What about my leg?” she asked, grimacing in pain as she moved slightly.

James glanced down at the bloody bear trap.

“At this point, it's better on your leg. Believe me, once I start removing it, you're going to beg me to stop anyway.”

The girl was quiet.

“As soon as I start to remove that trap your wounds are going to open up and bleed. I need to get a fire going so I can sterilize some water to clean your wound and keep you warm while I bind your leg.”

The look in her eyes was one that cried out for pity, but James had to be honest.

“I'm sorry, but with all you've been through, there's worse to come.”

James scouted around for some dry pine needles and set out his firewood in order of size, starting with the needles and slowly working up to twigs the size of his trembling fingers. He

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