Story told by the Hunter
"I have heard that one; I remember it a bit differently, but it is a good story," said the Shepherd.
"Yes," said the Wolf, "I am sure you do. No human will see the perspective of the Wolf."
The hunter also liked the story, but he decided not to show it.
"Now, my turn," he mumbled. "This one will make you appreciate the fire we have tonight. It is a story I heard below an Elder Tree."
The Tree
"That's not possible. Please, don't move," begged Will. He slowly took out the camera from his left pocket. Snowy owls are a rare bird to capture in the wild, and on top of that, they are almost invisible because of the snow camouflage they have developed. That much is clear to all bird watchers and photography enthusiasts.
Not moving his focus from it, Will slowly put the camera in front of his eye to take the shot. Strange, he could not see anything through the lenses. Is something wrong with the camera? Will looked at the camera and noticed that it was no camera at all but his squared water canister. He looked at the owl again. Now the bird was looking at him.
All of a sudden, it opened its beak and exploded with a familiar cringing sound. "That is not a sound from an owl," Will thought. The owl disappeared. What is that sound? Will started feeling attacked as the loud sound was not stopping.
Panic mode. What is going on? Will thought as he was pulled back from his dream into his bed with the loud old-fashioned clock ringing like it is the last day on earth right next to his head. Cursing the clock for breaking his dream and himself for setting it at 5 AM in the morning, he stopped the alarm and sat on the bed.
"Oh, that's right, not much to do today," his thoughts started to become clear. Mad at himself even more for not remembering to turn off. You see, yesterday was raining heavily, so Will already knew today he would not have work to do.
Will was a shepherd. His job required getting up early in the morning, doing chores around the animals, walking them to one of the familiar locations, and keeping them safe while they did their deeds. This, of course, gave him unrestricted access to the nature that the mountain region offered. And boy, oh boy, did he love nature.
After almost half an hour of hesitation about whether he should go back to sleep or not, he decided not to do it. "Sleep is for the weak," he smiled as he remembered the wisdom his friend Aaron said when they were out late-night drinking and almost felt like calling it for the night. But now he had a better motivation to wake up.
When Will was not a shepherd, he was a photographer of beautiful nature.
His hut was located in a very specific region where his view was a horizon of flat fields with very little hill bumps, as far as the human eye can see. That is if you were looking in the front of the hut. But Will was not going that way today. The hut was built at the start of the forest, which went way back, and because of this location, it contained wildlife from both the fields and the forest. He picked up the supplies that he prepared for himself, finished the coffee, and closed the door behind him. His companion that was lying in the barn sensed the commotion and barked cheerfully, joining him. Even after the coffee, this was a particularly hard morning to wake up. It is always when the weather is heavy, preparing to rain or snow, that his head was also heavy, for both thinking or for waking up. This is why the single bark from Max sounded like his eardrums were destroyed and his head split in half. "Shh," he threatened the dog as he started walking the trail to the forest. This was the first time this year he could stop thinking about his shepherd obligations and focus on his hobby, photography.
There was no point in letting the sheep out in the snow, so he fed them and filled the water for them. Should be enough until he comes back. After a short five-minute walk, he reached the first milestone, an old tree. We've all heard a story where there is a tree of wisdom somewhere in a forest; there is one even in the Bible. Well, if you imagined that tree, that is exactly what Will was looking at. An enormous towering oak tree with a thousand branches, roots that reached to the center of the earth. Ok, maybe it was not epic enormous like in the stories, but considering that three people would be needed if they wanted to surround it holding hands, Will could not say it is a regular one. They are saying under each elder tree rests a Hero, the bigger the tree, the bigger were the magnitude of the deeds that he did in his life. Anyway, that was the last place where Will could see his house from before he enters the forest, after he climbs on the first thick branch from it. The next milestone on the mountain from where he could do this was far up on the top, but from there it was only a small spot on the bottom of the forest. Will knew the branches by heart and enjoyed doing this when he was here. Then he continued the journey to the forest to see what has changed this season.
He did not have to go far to notice the most resilient members of this snowy mountain, the “Snow Buntings.” This bird species is capable of breeding in an environment that often reaches subzero. Also, they mainly feed with seeds that are on the ground level so they are not hard to spot, being snowy white on the ground of which the snow has already melted. Taking pictures of them is not too big of a challenge. But people like Will knew that it is their breeding season, and during this time, they are known to be territorial. This meant that he will take epic pictures of the males attacking and fighting between them.
The sun reached the top of the sky; it was noon. Time to eat something, Will thought, as he took out the dry meat and a piece of bread stuffed in his bag with the other supplies this morning. He leaned on one tree and started his lunch, looking at the beautiful landscape of the hill. He was hoping to see something, and he did. He stuffed his lunch in the bag again and took out the camera. It was a “Rock Ptarmigan” – a goose-looking bird that has a particular skill to blend with its surroundings. This one looked exactly like the rock it was standing on. "I have to be careful and move slow," Will thought. They were not the ones to fly away at the first human sighting; however, in this area, they were not used to human presence. He started moving slowly toward the bird, as he was too far for a good picture even for a good camera. After finally getting a good picture of the troublesome bird, well, it was not one picture but a few thousand, Will moved up the mountain. After taking the more exhausting 20-minute walk, his eyes were seeing his next milestone. Naturally carved gaps in the mountain that collected water. They were small natural lakes that resembled eyes with their clear water. Will washed his hands and sat to rest there; he just noticed that the sun started its hiding ritual.
Damn, I am a bit late to the party he thought for himself. He knew that there will be at least some Common Eider there and he was right. They preferred the areas with water over the rocky terrain. But Will left his camera I the bag, the sun was already heading down and he already had a lot of pictures of these migrating ducks from their previous encounters, so without good sunlight he will just fill the camera capacity.
He sat there and enjoyed the water running into the lakes, thinking about calling it for today.
A howl coming from the top of the mountain, rushed his decision to move back. He took the bag soaked his hands one more time and started walking back.
When he was moving on the side of the rocky terrains, he heard the howl again but this time it was replied with another one coming from the threes from his right side.
Wolves! – he felt his blood freezing in his body -They are hunting in the night and the sun has already set,
Run! - Will thought as he started running.
He did not expect wolves to come this far down usually they are running from people.
There must be more than one.
Run!
He could see the branches of the elder three in the end of the trail, almost there….
Run, fast!
He could now hear a movement behind him, it is too late no time to reach the hut.
The Tree!
Quick thinking, moment after he climbed on the first unreachable branches two wolves appeared.
He would have never reached the hut.
One of them put their paws and stood up on the back legs trying to see if he can reach Will.
Will was breathing heavily from the run, or the fear at the time he could not say.
It took Will 10 minutes to calm himself down and for a rational thought to reach his brain.
Meanwhile three more wolfs joined the pack and all of them circled around trying to find a way to reach him, or to at least scare him off to fall from it.
That’s right they are hunting in packs – will started thinking
The hut is five minutes’ walk from the elder Tree that saved his life. If I run it might cut that to two, but what am I thinking I can’t outrun damn wolves – Will gave up on the that foolish idea.
In order for that to work they will need to be distracted by something.
He knew very well that there is no network coverage to call anyone up in the mountain, this was the reason why he loved this place, isolation and Inner peace.
No network no Wi-Fi, just him and the nature.
Every few days he was going for some supplies to the nearest village, today was the day he should have gone for supplies but decided to skip and go tomorrow.
Tomorrow, at most, Brian will come to check on me; he comes for my brandy mostly, but he will notice I am gone. Will was horrifically looking at the cold night waiting for him on the tree if the damn wolves don’t decide to leave.
In his hut, safely stashed below his bed was his gun, empty but cleaned and ready for this season. He almost never used it as wildlife typically runs away from humans, but the occasional hungry wolf or bear was known to come down the mountain in search of food. Usually, one shot in the air was enough to clear them out. If only I had it now, Will thought and made a gesture with his hand aiming at the wolves. The wolves were still circling around. I forgot they are not sleeping in the night, thought Will after watching the wolves on the move without resting for almost two hours. The moon was now fully visible in the sky; he could see the wolves anymore, only moving shadows.
Will started feeling the cold - how the hell will I survive the night, he thought – it will be freezing. He was always prepared for the cold weather in the mountain, wearing boots and a warm jacket. But at night, the temperature was going down fast, so even prepared, Will was looking at the coldest night of his life. He finished the food he prepared for lunch; he thought at one moment to throw it down as a distraction, but that would have been gambling. So instead, he fueled up for the freezing that awaited. It was the middle of the night already; Will could not feel his feet anymore. His boots were specifically made for extreme cold, and yet they were almost useless when his legs were not moving. Will reached out and stood up on the branch. He had done this a million times already; he knew it was strong enough to hold him. To get his blood pumping, he started moving his limbs while holding himself to the tree, and it worked, well partially… the feet were now less cold.
Will sat down; he was not sure if this was a good idea. Bears conserve energy when they sleep in the cold, so he might have made a mistake with his warm-up session, which in survival might be fatal. Well, at least I made you guys riled up, he thought, as he could hear the wolves growling and running around the tree in anticipation. Time is moving slow when waiting. Will started feeling tired; his hands were hugging his bag to keep his chest warmer, his legs still cold, curled with his knees bent in front of him.
All of a sudden, one of his legs involuntarily slipped down the branch, waking him up as he was not expecting to start losing control of his legs. Not good, he thought; at this rate, he will fall asleep and fall down. It won't matter if I am right or wrong for the bear theory if I can't stay awake. Time for one more exercise, he stood up, hanging his bag on one branch, and started moving his limbs again.
Another idea clicked in Will's mind. As an exercise, he will climb a bit higher on the tree and see the hut. As he looked up, he could not believe his eyes. A snowy owl was sitting on the branch above him. Was he here when I climbed, or did it fly here without me seeing it? Will was excited and amazed; all of a sudden, the cold feet were warm again. The owls are known for the fact that their wings don’t produce sound when they fly, so Will was not sure how long the rare bird observed him before he noticed it.
The moonlight was perfect, but these beautiful birds are rarely captured on camera; they don’t want to be seen. As soon as it noticed that Will is aware of him, it flew off. Not before Will took the most beautiful pictures ever taken of a snowy owl with the moon reflecting from its perfect feathers. But at the time, he was so excited that he was not checking them out. All he wanted is as fast as possible to make as many pictures as possible for a rare sight for any bird photographer. "Where are you going?" he addressed the owl as it flew off.
Will started climbing the familiar branches to see on the top in which direction it is flying. "HEY!" he screamed into the night. The snowy owl was nowhere to be seen. But all of a sudden, he heard an unexpected response to his scream. The very same bark that annoyed him in the morning when his head was exploding in pain was now coming to his rescue. "Good boy, I forgot about you," said Will to himself. The wolves were already after Max.
He climbed down the tree, grabbed the first rock he could find, and headed to the hut. As he ran on the familiar trail, he saw Max biting the neck of the first one as the others were circling and choosing an opening. He was a shepherd's dog; he had encountered wolves before and fended them off from the flock, but these are hungry ones, and there are five. He will need assistance.
Will ran to the hut, turned the bed over, and loaded the prepared gun. He shot one in the air, as he always did to scare them off, as soon as he went outside and kept running to assist Max. Max was covered in blood, breathing hard and heavy. A grasp colder than the night tightened Will's heart; he could hardly breathe at the sight. The wolves escaped when they heard the shot, but not before they managed to leave Max in that bloody state.
Will took off his jacket, wrapped up his friend; he noticed a large amount of blood coming from his belly. No time to waste or to check, he put pressure on it and picked him up. Rushing to the car, he put Max in the back seat and headed to Brian; he will know what to do. "Faster, faster," Will kept repeating, with tears in his eyes as he felt the blood sticking to his palm when he reached his back seat.
They say under each elder tree lies a hero…
Don’t take the ones that love you for granted; one day might be too late.
If you let your desire distract you from your surroundings, you might end up trapped by wolves.
But when life gives you a chance to capture a rare snowy owl, always take the shot.