Night had fallen on the last week of the month, the mystical omen in its final wax phase as light shone brightly within the dead of the forest. It was quiet, hardly a night creature out to stalk wandering prey, as if they too knew the dangers that were rising in the coming future. It would be a fool's errand for a villager to venture out, as well.
However, Peter Crispage was no fool. A stubborn ox, a beguiled hunter, a determined trapper, but not a fool. Though, he too could not ignore the warning signs of the midnight forest surrounding him, with or without his lantern light shining his path. He was cautious, though not nervous; for a nervous hand meant an unprecedented accident, and he was looking to keep his report clean at all costs.
Besides, he had a job to do. They may have the bait prepared, however bait was useless without the workings of a trap.
He suddenly whirled around, his rifle held at the ready only to stop shortly with a guttural sigh. "Are you looking for a whole where your heart should be, O'Neil?" He growled out to the lean man that quietly approached him, the blonde man's hands raised on the defense, though his features were as placid as ever.
"As if our greatest hunter could have ever mistaken the stalking of a human to that of a wild beast." He grinned in retaliation with the back-handed compliment. The tension between the two lessened as both lowered themselves from the offense. Jesse's features staled as he calmly approached the broader man.
"Have you heard the rumors?" He gently asked.
"Hm." Peter gruffly answered in the positive before turning back to continue stalking his paces. Jesse making sure to follow in his exact footsteps.
"If they bare any truth, I'm beginning to wonder if this trap will indeed work." Jesse muttered under his breath, stopping a few paces behind the grumbling hunter a he knelt to a random patch of earth. He curiously tilted his head as he watched the hunter lift a good chunk of land as if it were a latch to the underground; and sure enough, it was. The grizzly hands of the hunter began to produce many instruments that could prepare fine traps from the opened earth. It was a secret safe-way, hidden within the trails of the forest. Jesse had to silently admit that the hunter impressed him with this bit of discovery.
"Here," Peter stated as he held out an extra weapon that resembled a sawed shot gun, "Since you're here you can make yourself useful."
Jesse took the weapon without question and checked for prepared ammo as Peter continued with his rummaging of the earth. Satisfied, he clicked it closed and held the given weapon down his side, "You wouldn't happen to have a plan B, now would you?"
Peter paused while pulling out a heavy-weight chain before turning a scrutinizing gaze to his lean companion. "You're that nervous this won't work?"
"If it is indeed the Doctor, yes. Ethel will possess no effect toward her." Jesse countered logically.
"Just as Sarah didn't, or at least she'd like to pretend. The two were practically competitors in their field, only behaving civilly for the sake of the village." Peter grunted as he finished pulling the chain out, slapping it down with the rest of the implements for the trap.
"Hm," Jesse let his mind linger on that thought as Peter gathered his treasures. He knew the two women held a strain toward each other since they were both herbalists, professionals at that, however he never knew they held such disdain for each other that mere propriety was keeping them in check.
"Seeing the situation in that light, if Robin were the beast then it wouldn't make sense for the doctor to target those that testified against Sarah." Jesse admitted, now not sure how to take this unnerving twist.
YOU ARE READING
The Wolf and The Fox
Short Story**FIRST DRAFT** With the death of the Wolf-Witch, the residents of the forest village thought they were finally freed from the beast's wrath. By the following of the next moon cycle, they find they were miserably wrong; the beast was savagely more v...
