CYOA Page 177
Sep. 12th, 2013 03:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You think it would be cruel to let the beast wander around wounded. And it should be easy enough to follow the blood trail. Joel agrees. And you can do it on horseback, so if you run into trouble or the horses freak out, you can just take off.
Joel signals to you, and you know he's seen something; he brings his horse alongside yours. "Two o'clock," he says in a low voice. "See her?"
You both pull up on the reins. "Her?"
He shrugs. "Looks female. Guess you were right."
"You can barely see it from here, though!" You can see it much better through the binoculars -- see her. Sure, why not. "She's just laying there... like, not all the way down... if she looks this way..."
"Come on. Let's take the horses back a little... and I'll see if I can sneak up on her on foot. Get a better shot if she don't see me comin'."
"We'll sneak up on her."
"I think it's better if you hang back an' keep the horses--"
"No fucking way!" You do turn your horse around -- but only because Joel's already backtracking on his.
"Ellie. It's a goddamn cat. Versus a rifle. What do you think is gonna happen?"
"You didn't see her up close. She's huge!"
"Last night, you thought she was small. Bloaters are huge. She as big as that?"
"Well, no..."
"See? It'll be fine. Just a huntin' expedition. Huntin' a wounded animal, at that."
You realize he's right. People go hunting all the time and don't get killed by animals. ...except the ones that go missing... then we don't KNOW... but that's rare.
"This is prob'ly far enough." He dismounts and hands you the reins. "You don't even have to get down. But here, lemme give you this -- just in case."
But you do get down, figuring you might as well stretch your legs before starting a longer ride in a few minutes. He hands over the shotgun. "Just in case?" you fret.
"I'll be right back." He gives you a hasty kiss, just barely brushing his lips across yours, then sets off to make the kill.
Your mind goes back to the people-going-missing thing. Usually if someone leaves town and then fails to return when expected, their body's out there, waiting to be found. Shot to death, or... fuck, if we ever see dead bodies that look... CHEWED-on, we think it's infected that killed the person. But what if it's not?
Except it is. Of course it is.
And Joel can sell this as regular old hunting, but that would be like... elk and rabbits and stuff. Not predators. So...
-No. It doesn't matter. Joel is smart, and he can fucking kill like dozens of men at once. Plus he's well-armed.
...But! WHAT IF! "Shit happens," after all...
...Ugh, you're being SO dumb right now, Ellie. Can't you let the man out of your sight for five minutes?
Apparently you can't, because you find yourself walking in that direction. Briskly.
Too briskly, because Joel hasn't moved all the way up yet, but your movements (or noises? ...Weren't you trying to be quiet?) get the cougar's attention. Joel sighs. "Ellie--"
"I know, I'm sorry! I just started thinking bad shit, and I-- hey wait... she's not running away..."
"Not runnin' towards us, either."
The cougar's just chilling there.
"Should we move in?" you wonder out loud.
"Sure. Be ready. They're pretty fast."
"I know. I saw it."
You both move forward... and the cougar has apparently decided she doesn't want any part of those metal things in your hands (because of last night's encounter?) -- she bolts.
"Damn! Maybe she can't run real fast--" Joel sprints after her...
...and you sprint after Joel. The cougar's getting away! There's no way you're going to catch up to it, or gain any ground on it at all.
Joel stops abruptly and takes a shot, but misses. Probably hits a tree, because they're getting thicker in here...
"I'll get her!" you declare. That would be so awesome if your shot did it--
...but yours misses, too. And now the cougar's bounded out of sight.
You stare after it forlornly, panting. "Fuck!" you cry, frustrated. "We both suck, Joel."
"Bah... those were Hail Mary shots."
You snort. "I know you thought it was a girl, but... now you're naming it?"
He chuckles. "Means we didn't really have a shot in hell of makin' it."
"Oh. Weird." ...What does that say about Mary? Old people sayings don't often make much sense, though.
"Well, it don't seem like she's hurt real bad... maybe we just let her go now, yeah?"
"Yeah, okay." You take his hand as you start walking back to the horses... and he lets you. You weren't sure he would, out here. "I'm sorry. I fucked that up. You would've had her."
"S'alright. Maybe it was meant to be: the beast lives."
"I guess. And I guess I can't call you the paranoid one anymore, huh?" He doesn't seem to know what you're referring to, so you spell it out for him. "I fucking followed you cuz I thought..."
"We can both be paranoid," he decides.
"Oh -- you'll share it with me?"
"I prob'ly gave it to you."
You gasp in mock horror. "Fuck! It's contagious!"
"Incurable, too. I gave it to you and I've still got it myself."
You tug him closer and give him a giggly little kiss. "You're so silly."
"No, that's you. And you can keep that label."
You dawdle a bit, getting back to the horses. You like being able to take a 'romantic stroll through the woods' with Joel. It's a luxury you don't have at home. You can get away with holding hands, but no kisses... no Looks... no flirting...
...We didn't dawdle THAT much, did we? You're starting to get a sick feeling in your stomach. A feeling like--
"Didn't we leave the horses... right about here?" Joel echoes your thoughts.
"Yeahhhh... I think? Unless... maybe we didn't take this straight line, exactly..." ...Lame, and not reassuring...
"Then we'd at least see 'em nearby. I know we didn't leave 'em in the clearing." He glances at you, and you stare resolutely at your shoes. "Ellie, did you... when you followed me... what did you--"
"No," you sigh. "I didn't hitch them to anything."
Joel groans. "Great. The gunshots spooked 'em an' they took off."
"They've heard way more shots than that before and not like... totally freaked..."
"Yeah -- when we're there to calm 'em down. Tell 'em what to do." Even then, they sometimes do what they want to do rather than what you try to communicate to them. "Good job, kiddo. Now we gotta find 'em."
"Well... if I had stuck them to a tree or something, and that cougar got past us somehow, they would've been trapped. So good thing that didn't happen, right?" He shoots you a look that advises you not to claim that that was the reason you did it. ...Yeah, okay, that doesn't make sense... if we didn't kill her, she'd just eat US, not chase horses she can't even see! "I wasn't thinking. I was worried about you. I'm sorry."
He just turns away from you. Whistles for the horses... calls their names... and you join him. Except your whistling sucks, so you stick to yelling their names. He ventures into the field past the tree line, and you follow him. He seems to have an idea of which they went after a sweeping look at the grasses in the area.
"Hey, remember how I taught myself to whistle on our trip? And you were like 'great, something else you can annoy me with.' Remember?"
He ignores you.
"Maybe you can teach me to do it loud, like you're doing. With your fingers. Cuz I try and I just... can't..." You make another lame attempt... and it resembles hissing more than whistling.
Joel does a nice loud one, as if taunting you.
"Where do you put your tongue? Is that the key? Haha... I just realized how dirty that sounded. And it's not even the--"
"Ellie, hush -- I just wanna find the goddamn horses," he scowls.
"Right. Sorry." You bite back a sarcastic remark; you really don't want to pick a fight with Joel right now.
Your spirits plummet... as low as Joel's mood has clearly sunk to. Man... we HAVE to find them... if we don't, Joel will never forgive me! And Joel being mad at you -- like, really mad -- and because you fucked something up so bad, not just something dumb, like leaving your shoes in the hallway or whatever -- is just about the worst thing ever.
Once you find the horses, his lousy mood won't last. You'll be able to ply him with kisses and stuff, earning his forgiveness in no time. He'll try to make you feel better by blaming himself for the whole thing.
But if you don't find them...
...You'd just better find them!
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
carlos
Date: 2021-06-27 11:55 am (UTC)Re: carlos
Date: 2021-06-27 08:23 pm (UTC)