Crash

9: Paws off

One month later...times up. 

David-

They gave up on me. My time looking for her was up, they said there was nothing I could do and that I should just let go. Hiring pilots and searching myself did nothing. They said they had better things to do than look for a lost cause. 

Feeling defeated, I went home and ignored work calls. It's not that I wanted to loose my job, I just didn't want to go. Not without my daughter. 

Traveling without my Lyra? I couldn't do it. Alexandra said she'd take care of everything. I could care less. I missed Lyra's rock music that once rattled the house. Now it was oddly quiet and only reminded me of her absence. 

Richard was around more, offering me booze to wash the feelings away. But I promised myself and Lyra that I would not be driven to drink myself away to forget. I sat at my desk, twirling a pen distractedly. 

I looked at a photo in a frame of a little Lyra holding up a large fish. That was the day I told her I'd teach her everything I knew.

A while after that, I never wanted to leave her by herself. I took her with me and together we were suddenly world travelers. 

The Amazon, South America, Canada, Africa, Europe, you name it and we've set foot on it. I took her with me everywhere. She tasted other cultures, felt handfuls of other countries soils, and heard hundreds of other languages. 

Alexandra squawked about bills not getting paid. She ignored the fact that my partner, Tony, was working for the both of us. The bills were getting paid. I just tuned her out. Tony understood and said he could take over until I got over this.

But how could I get over this? I had a dream last night that Lyra was alone. She wandered through a large pine forest for what seemed like a long time. I could never get close enough to hug her. 

I called out to her, shouting her name frantically, but she never turned around or said anything back.

She wasn't frightened but she was....missing something.

I refused to believe that she was dead. My daughter is not dead. She's too smart and stubborn to give up.

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Lyra-

I gave up on the rescue thing a long while ago. I know its sad to think of, but now my only purpose was to keep Baine and myself alive. 

Even though winter was still weeks, even months, off, I could never be too careful in the mountains. The climate fluctuated and confused my guessing on how much time I had before winter hit. 

I already had a cache of dried fruits and fish in my cave. It would also serve as a root cellar when it got cold enough. It took me forever to dig it out with my hands and rocks I used to chip away the hard dirt in the corner.

Baine had grown well over the short time. He looked almost like an adult wolf, believe it or not.

From his regular feedings of fresh cooked food, he had some fat on him and his fur had a glossy look from the fish oil he ate. He no longer needed his rope, he followed me around and stayed close.

Today was a special day for me. I was going to go for big game. Rabbits and fish were good, don't get me wrong but they weren't going to keep us fed all winter. My smoker was hopefully going to be put to some real use. 

I got up when the birds had only just begin to wake. 

It was a little while before dawn as grey light streaked around my valley. I snuck out quietly so I didn't disturb anything. I told Baine to stay and secured the door back in place, taking my bow and arrows with me. I couldn't risk my food sniffing him out.