X-Ray

The Trout's Skeleton

The Trout's Skeleton

Hunter was the smallest of his brothers and sisters. Which was of little consequence, as they had perished along with his mother when he was but a year old. He was on the brink of death when he was found and adopted by an old hunter. The man was tall and impossibly wiry, with warm copper eyes and a comforting Australian accent. He lived inside a mountain at the outskirts of the forest, outside of which a pot warmed over a log fire and an array of animal furs dried on a washing line. He named Hunter after his own occupation, and trained the youngster to hunt and bring him back game from the forest. In return he gave Hunter a place to stay and treated him like the son he never had.

Lunar. Hunter had always kept a shy eye on Lunar. Her almond- shaped eyes, subdued by a heavy brow, were tawny and bright. They burned through the cold, a flame to melt your wits and reflect the snow. They tore through him, accused him, electrocuted him whenever she found his gaze. As a child he'd watch her during hunts, keen to fathom her ruthless smarts, to comprehend her stormy brow, to learn her calculating approach and her graceful execution. It was by accident that he simultaneously memorised her beauty, that he fell in love with an exquisite entity far beyond his reach.

Those who knew Hunter's mother felt obligated to allow him into their hunting circles, but most of the children were forbidden to play with the orphan. Hunter at first suspected this was simply because they disapproved of the hunter to which he owed his life. They were highly suspicious of the old man, and never came near his dwelling. But Hunter began to discover that his status as a bastard and his deprivation of connection were also prominent contributing factors to his lack of social success.

Hunter was teased for his many faults and excluded from games all through his childhood. He eventually chose a solitary existence. He learned to hunt alone, and his independence increased the difficulty of his quests, hence improving his abilities. Soon he was making as many kills in a day as the average hunting party. Three winters passed, and he had matured handsomely, acquiring a studied grace and an intimidating bearing. The jeering ceased and he came to be quietly respected by the whole community of hunters.

Lunar watched Hunter's evolution with unbiased fascination. She had known that his still waters ran deep. If her family had a particularly fruitless day in the woods, there would always be one or two kills added discreetly to their accumulation of meat as they slept. Lunar's siblings disputed the mysterious gains with confusion, but Lunar had been awake too many times to miss Hunter's distinct shadow as he dropped the offerings by their sleeping bodies. Only he could think to nourish his own tormentors.

She thought it probable that Hunter's impartiality would amount to nothing, and whatever her own temper of passion, such would be unwise to act upon. For he was friends with a hunter. A different kind of hunter.

After being suffocated by a thick dressing of snowdrift and petrified by the frosts of Winter for so long a coarse, it seems unreal that the floors should now be basking in spring sunshine. Mere weeks ago, there was no telling between the floor and the sky, for both were bleak and infinite. The latter had been pallid, pregnant with smog and mist. Snow flurry had flown every which way like white streamers on the wind, hurried by a howling draft. The former had been smothered by a dense cover of snow, robbed of life without mercy or warning.

With the recent revival of the soil, the fruits of spring rise from the dead. The oppressive, pearly material melts into a glittery iridescence which weeps into the lakes and rivers, unveiling a promising beard of grass that adorns the face of the continent. Vivid forget-me-nots, scarlet paintbrushes and Scottish bluebells spring among these meadows in rapid succession. Spring is a time of hope, of revival, of mourning for the losses of Winter. It is not a time for revenge.