The Uktena

2. Oh, Why Me? (Ro)

"We shouldn't be out here guys! Our uncle has been seeing mountain lion tracks all over the place, and it's freaking snake season!"

"Calm down, Ro, we won't get hurt. I've been through these woods hundreds of times. There's nothing out here to be afraid of." Inola stepped over a fallen log before turning back to me. "You're not scared, are you? We're close enough to the house that you can walk back on your own if you want, but the rest of us want to have fun and live a little. Who knows, if you get that stick out of your ass, you may actually enjoy this adventure."

With that, her point was made. I wasn't about to go walk back alone, especially not with the sightings that had been going on. Sighing in resignation, I followed the insistent and arrogant person I called my sister.

As the four of us made our way deeper into the woods, I noticed that we were taking an unfamiliar path. Sighting the map in Inola's hand, I began to feel even more uneasy than when we had left the house. I tightened the straps on my bag before carefully stepping up into the nearest Y-branching of a tree to try and get a better vantage point. Inola's friends, Mika and Emmet, stopped to figure out what I was trying to do. Oh no. This is very not good.

"Nola? Uh, I really don't think we should go that way. You remember when mom told us not to go wandering in this part of the forest without an actual adult with us? Yeah, I think we should follow that rule. There is something really weird about 20-ish yards to our left." The concern in my voice was, hopefully, very evident. I jumped down from the tree, grabbing my sister's shoulder once I caught up to her, "We need to go, now!"

"Quit being a baby, I set that up a few days ago to discourage anyone on our property and prevent them from sticking around too long." The joking lilt in her voice sounded out of place, and with that, any concern I had was dismissed by her. "We just need to go about 2 more miles, and then we can set up the tents and hang the food up so nothing is attracted to us.," was the definitive answer to my concerns.

There was nothing that I could say to sway her resolve to do whatever she wants to, whenever she wants. It's bad enough that she's everyone's favorite in our family, that she gets all the attention she could ever ask for, and that she's set to be the first person to go from graduating from our school to starting a PhD program within 4 years. Why can't she just LISTEN when I tell her something is wrong with where we're at? I'm the one of us that is always out here in these woods. I know what spots to avoid for safety reasons, and she just blows me off like she's the smartest person in the room. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck began to raise, and I grabbed Inola and pulled her back as hard as I could, narrowly avoiding her stepping into the bear trap that I had set a few days ago.

"I told you, we shouldn't be going this way! Why don't you take what I say seriously? You need to be careful around here. We have traps set up all around here to prevent any serious predators from getting close to the house, and you know that! You're going to get everyone hurt, or worse, because you can't be bothered to listen to anyone." With that, I tore the map from her hands and disarmed the bear trap before picking it up.

"Why are you bringing that?" Pulling the bear trap from my hands, Mika started in on another one of her PETA-esque animal cruelty rants regarding the trap, "-what if an animal steps on it? Won't you fee-"

"Oh, just shut up. I'm having to put up with all of you having a collective half brain cell, and I don't want to have to deal with any of it. I'm only here because, evidently, if I'm not keeping an eye on all of you, like a babysitter, you'll just get yourselves badly hurt. And yes, the plan is for an animal to step on it, if it's big enough to set off the trap, we want it to get hurt. Now, either shut up and follow me, or you can go home. I don't care which one you do, but I don't want to be the one considered responsible if you guys get hurt. So make a choice and stick with it." I snatched the bear trap away from Mika as I turned around, positioning it so that I held it securely under one arm.