Desperate for Hope

Haze

The morning is warm, and the light is shining illuminating the inside of my tent. Taking a moment I relax into my covers a let out a deep sign. The events of last night still fresh in my head.

I can't stop thinking about the way Arthur was dancing with her. Honestly I never thought of them as a couple or even having romantic interest in each other. A couple of days ago Mary-Beth seemed to express an interest in Kieran. And Arthur always seems so distracted for women. Maybe they just have a good friendship, maybe it's not that. I'm over thinking this. Look at me I'm like a damned school girl! Beginning to get angry I decide it's better to just forget all of this and try to move on. Move on from Arthur, clearly is causin' me nothin' but heartache and distracting me.

After a few moments I get dressed in my pants, a dark blue top and tall hunting boots. I place my knifed in my holster on my thigh and leave the tent.

Searching the camp I spy Charles by the fire with a cup of coffee in hand.

"Hey, sorry if I kept you waitin'" I apologize feeling slightly guilty for sitting around in bed.

"Don't worry about it, I haven't been up for long." He responds in his usual low voice. He gets up. " You ready to go?"

"Course"

Together we make our way toward the horses, each mounting up.

"Have you every hunted with a bow before" he asks.

Shaking my head I respond. "No, never really got the hang of it."

"Well I'm going to show you. We are going to be hunting some elk and they usually travel in a herd. We don't wanna use a gun or the rest will scatter." He pulls off a bow from his horse and hands it to me.

"Here take this, I have a spare in my horse. You can keep this one. I'm going to teach you how to use it." He says as he hands over the bow to me.

"Thanks Charles. I appreciate it" not really knowing what else to say. Just grateful he was kind enough to give me one. I've always wanted to try to shoot with a bow, I hear you get a cleaner kill with them.

We ride off up the Dakota river in search of tracks. Suddenly Charles dismounts, he crouches and studies the ground. Dismounting next to him I join him by the river back. Knowing a thing or two about hunting I quickly recognize the hoof prints on the ground.

"These tracks are fresh" Charles begins. Standing up he looks toward the west. "Id say they went that way across the river."

"How far do you think they gotten?"

"Not far, the other side of the river has the prints still there. They haven't dried up yet."

"Great, lets follow them."

"Before you go put this on" He hands me a canister of cover scent.

"Thanks" I say as I rub the lotion into my skin.

"Alright let's go, but slowly"

We both make our across the river and don't the tracks on the other side.

We spot a group of elk in a clearing. Hidden behind the cover of the bushes and trees. Charles begins to show me the basics of the bow. How to hold it, placing the arrow and how to aim.

"Look down the length of the arrow an find your mark. Arch it a little higher than where you want to hit." He explains

As I do so, I let out a soft sigh hand releasing my grip on the sting sending the arrow flying. The arrow finds its target and I cannot help but feel a seance of pride at my accomplishment. Looking at Charles with a smile