“Ok, so... how is this going to work?” Chris asked as he sat down on a chair in the main hall. I took a seat next to him to begin to explain how we were going to proceed with our hunt.
“Ok, listen carefully.” I was wondering if he actually would though “So first thing is first, we need to shift and have a spare change of clothes. We will shift in our cabins and leave our clothes on our beds. Second we head out to find the deer, if one of us picks up a scent from one of the Mule deer then we follow, we pick out a weak Mule deer, preferably female, and we stop to analyse. Once I say it’s ok to go, we go. We separate her from the herd and kill her, that’s going to be done by you biting down on her leg and me crushing her throat. Got it so far?”
“Yes sir.” He smiled almost laughing.
“OK.” I laughed as well, being called Sir was weird and no one had ever said that to me “Once it’s dead we DO NOT eat it, one of us, that means you, will stay behind whilst I go back to camp. Once at camp I will shift back, get changed and take a quad bike with something to bring the deer back, you need to stay so if I get lost you can howl to where I should go to. Once it’s back here then we can eat it. Is that ok?”
Chris shuffled in his seat and pulled a funny face “Yeah but...” he paused and rubbed his chin “Can’t we just eat as wolves?” I sat in thought for a moment “I mean, it is only our second day here, maybe we should leave the quads for something bigger, and we don’t even know if we have to stuff to bring a deer back, plus, why waste our time cooking it when we can just eat it, would be a ton easier and personally, a lot more fun.” He smiled at me again.
“Can’t say no to that can I.” I smiled back at him, to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to spend more time than I needed to eat, I mean, sure it might be nice to actually use the kitchen and cook, but it might be better if we just hunted and ate as wolves.
“Question...” Chris said fiddling with his fingers “What does Mule deer smell like?”
“Good question. I have no idea so I guess we will just find out.” I smiled at him having not thought of that myself. I knew that in the UK we had Roe and Red deer, and I presumed they would have a completely different sent to the Mule Deer and Elk here.
“So when do we leave?” Chris asked eagerly.
“How about right now?” I smiled as I got up out of my chair and turned round. Chris got up and followed me out of the main hall closing the door behind him. I walked past his cabin as he turned off to go inside and I headed for my own.
As soon as I got through the door of my cabin I took my shirt off and threw it on my bed. I was wearing shorts since it was nice and hot outside and I didn’t bother to take them off, I simply undid my belt relying on them slipping off when I was a wolf. I closed my eyes and concentrated on shifting and within a few seconds I shifted on the spot and as I opened my eyes I smiled and kicked off my shorts. I walked outside kicking the door shut since they opened outwards and then stood in the middle of the clearing.
Camp seemed so much different now; I could smell the forest, the trees, and every animal that had walked across here in the last few hours. As I looked around I thought I heard a deer call out from the direction of the lake. Really? Was our prey really that close? It seemed so easy and on the bright side it meant less running.
Chris padded up to my side after a few minutes of waiting. He closed his eyes as he lifted his head up high; he looked free, free from life, from worry, from everything, and happy, just, happy. It was like looking at a photograph of a classic wolf posing about to howl and letting the wind rush through his fur. I to closed my eyes and lifted my head, it felt so good, the breeze through your fur, the sounds of the forest and its smells.
I let out a howl purely out of joy and soon after I begun Chris joined in. I stopped howling and opened my eyes as I started to run forwards towards the path down to the lake. Chris was following closely behind and I couldn’t feel better right now.
As the wind rushed through my fur and the scent of Mule Deer filled my nostrils, at least I thought it was Mule deer, I could taste freedom, this was how it felt, to be free. To run as yourself, with no worry of being found, killed, or tracked by anyone. Freedom, freedom was what I had sought out my whole life and now that I had it, I had no intention of letting go. I felt stronger than before though, it was weird, it was as if being here gave me more strength than I ever had as a wolf.
I quickly looked back at Chris to check up on how he was, and from the expression on his face he was feeling the same thing I was feeling right now, a sudden rise in strength, speed and agility.
I remembered that when we took the path back up from the lake to camp the path went in one direction before then making a right angle turn to the right towards the lake, so theoretically if we cut through the forest it would be a lot quicker and save us some running.
I made my decision and veered off the path and through the forest. The trees were nicely spaced out and the ground was soft dirt with a thin layer of pine needles and some pine cones here and there. As I ran forwards I tried to visualise where I would end up, and whereabouts at the lake we would come to, but most importantly when the forest would end and where the clearing would start.
As I leapt over a fallen down pine I heard the call of a female Mule Deer, wait, how did I know it was female? It was strange, telling an animal by the sound it made, as a human I had never been able to do so, probably because I had no experience but as a wolf it was like listening to someone talk and from their voice being able to know if it was a man or a woman talking. Ahead of us the line of trees seemed to stop so I slowed down in order not to make too much noise in case the Mule Deer were near the lake; last thing I wanted was the deer to know we were here before we had a chance to pick one.
That was a dumb thought because I already knew the deer would be near the lake, I could smell them, and hear them for that matter of fact now we had stopped running. I lowered my body into a stalking position as I crept towards the edge of the clearing with Chris following behind me like he always did, mimicking my movements precisely to make sure he wasn’t detected.
In my sights were a small herd of Mule Deer. I did a quick headcount and counted two males, five females, and four younger ones, a total of eleven deer. I scanned the herd and to my disappointment they were all nice and healthy. Fortunately for us, there was an older female who seemed like an ok prey to go take down, not that we couldn’t take down any of them because we could, I managed to take down a male Red deer back in the UK and he weighed a ton, so how hard could Mule Deer be.
I took on step forwards out into the open and made a break for it. I still worked in metric sometimes and I guessed they were only about 100 meters away. The doe I wanted to take down was at the side of the lake and I didn’t really see any trouble with hunting her down.
To my surprise the deer all started to run for their lives before were even 75 meters away, how did they know? In the UK they ran when you got close...
Then it all clicked into place, this was Idaho, the prey here knew about wolves unlike in the UK, these were smarter than the dumb deer we had back home. Why did I just call the UK home? It wasn’t my home anymore. I growled slightly, angry at the fact I called the UK home and for the fact that now they were running away. Chris and I were now side by side, it must have looked pretty cool, two wolves running towards some deer, like the sort of thing you saw on documentaries.
The doe I had my eyes one was lagging behind and I managed to catch up to her. As I levelled with her on her left side, I snapped my jaws making her take a sharp turn right, splitting her from the rest of the herd. Now we had more of a chance.
Chris lingered back and kept level with its back leg so when the time came he could bite down on it. His position wasn’t very well thought out though, and it was proved when the doe kicked him in the shoulder, he rolled on the ground and got back up and infuriated sprinted towards us. I got around to her right side and waited for Chris so I could give him the go and we could take it down.
As Chris caught up I could tell he wanted to kill it here and now but instead he resisted the urge and waited, I was surprised, I was almost sure he would try to take it down, but I was proud he didn’t.
I nodded and gave him the go.
Chris jumped up and bit down onto its thigh and slowed it down as I leapt up for her throat. I always did this, it was my personal favourite way to kill deer, jump and get the throat. She let out a cry of pain as Chris’ teeth sunk into her flesh and another even louder as I landed on her.
As I landed on her I sunk my teeth deep into her neck piercing her wind pipe and digging my claws as best as I could into her thigh in order to keep grip, she tried to scream out again but this time it sounded weaker and faint. Thankfully she lost her balance and started to tip over. I had done this a lot and being weak I knew it was ok to let go. I opened my jaws in order to release her as she fell onto the ground. Chris however didn’t, he kept holding on the whole way through and flipped over on the ground a little shaken up. Chris got up, growled and bit down on her side keeping her down as I lunged forwards and bit her neck again, this time crushing her windpipe making her unable to breath. I started to shake her neck and her brittle bones in her neck cracked as her neck broke and her head flopped down onto the ground.
I let go and took a step back, her empty eyes staring at the sky as a pool of blood started to grow around her neck. Being shape shifters we still had human emotions as our wolves and so I tried to make the kill as quick and painless as I possibly could as a wolf, I'm not saying wolves don’t have emotions because they do, but wolves probably didn’t feel sorry for the prey they ate alive at times. Chris walked up next to me and smiled, obviously he was proud but a slight trace of guilt crossed his face, he never did like killing things.
I stepped forwards and started to eat; I began by tearing some flesh from her shoulder. I liked the shoulder for some reason, tasted nice. Once I felt full I stepped to the side where Chris was already waiting, he had started to eat the belly area and quickly filled himself up.
Blood stained my fur and I didn’t like it much so I started to walk down to the lake with Chris to wash off the blood that tainted our fur. I dipped my paw into the lake and shook it under the cool water to get rid of as much blood as possible. As the sun hammered down onto my back I began to feel the heat of the chase and the warmth of the afternoon. I let myself go and jumped into the lake. Realising I might not be able to swim I felt foolish and dumb so I doggy paddled to somewhere I could stand upright whilst still having most of my body covered in water. Chris was looking at me almost saying “What the heck are you doing?” but I ignored it and carried on relaxing in the water.
It took me a while to realise Chris had already finished washing and was now laying down on the grass waiting for me to stop day dreaming so I decided to hurry up and finish washing off the blood. I breathed in and held my breath as I sank my muzzle underwater shaking it violently to get rid of the blood. When I lifted my head back up Chris was almost laughing at me, I could tell he found it funny and to be very honest, who wouldn’t? I mean how many times do you see a wolf do that?
I grinned as I walked out of the lake and shook off the water to dry myself a bit. Chris whimpered as I did so and when I finished I realised I had soaked him slightly. He had his eyes closed and I guessed I may have gotten some water in his eyes.
He opened up his eyes again and stood up nudging me as he smiled. I smiled back and we walked back to camp cutting through the forest. It was nice, walking through the forest as wolves. My mind trailed off to the first shifts I had. I remembered that one afternoon I had spent about an hour walking around, it was during an earlier shift were pain and time influenced my shifting a lot, I could only spend about an hour as a wolf. Suddenly the idea of Chris having been kicked in the shoulder and time invaded my thoughts.
I span round to see Chris was dragging behind, his eyes screamed dizziness and I could tell he would black out soon. If you stayed as a wolf longer than you could a few things could happen to you, either you shift back and be in a very bad position depending on where you are, or in some cases you began to feel dizzy and then you black out or faint and it could take about an hour or so to regain consciousness, I should know this happened to me once in early May, I woke up an hour and a half later realising the sun was about to set.
Chris staggered closer and he seemed completely out of it. He reminded me of a drunk who was high on weed or something. I started to panic; I really didn’t want to drag his unconscious body back to camp. I quickly walked next to him and tried to keep him up as much as I could; I let out a small growl to tell him to shift back. I didn’t know if he could still hear me or not, or even if he would understand what I was trying to tell him.
After a few seconds I decided to shift back knowing it was the easiest way to get him to shift back. I closed my eyes and a split second later I found myself on all fours on the floor. I grabbed Chris’s head and lifted it up to face mine.
“SHIFT BACK, NOW.” I shouted at him, hoping he could still hear me, when you start to black out your senses dull dramatically before you pass out and shift back. Chris shook his head weakly and closed his eyes. I squinted and after several torturing seconds of waiting he jerked back and shifted back to his human form.
Chris lay on the ground and groaned he was about ready to fall asleep if you asked me.
“I’ll be right back promise.” I said, turning round as I shifted back into a wolf to sprint back to camp. This wasn’t exactly how I had planned the hunt to go, how long had we spent? Half an hour?
It only took us about five to ten minutes to locate the deer, another five to kill it, ten to eat, and... How long did I spend relaxing in the lake? The thought annoyed me; it was my fault because I had wasted time in the lake whilst I knew Chris only had a limited amount of time to shift, and being kicked in the shoulder didn’t help him at all.
As I got to camp I shifted back into my human form still running which wasn’t a good idea since I nearly tripped and fell over. I threw open the door to my cabin and quickly got dressed back into my Black shirt, shorts and trainers before running into Chris’ cabin to grab his clothes.
The run back to Chris seemed to be a lot longer than when I was a wolf. I ran as fast as my human legs could take me worried that he might have still blacked out and when I did get to him he was crouching down next to a tree, thank gosh he was still conscious.
“Heys, you ok?” I asked quickly as I threw his clothes at him and turned round to give him some privacy.
“Yeah, I'm good... what happened to me?” he sounded confused and distressed.
“Get changed, and you nearly blacked out. You can only stay as a wolf so long in the first shifts but you also took a blow to the shoulder. That didn’t help, and I think we went over time, so we need to train you up a lot more in order for you to stay as a wolf for longer.”
“It wasn’t your fault Tilyer... it was mine as well, if I hadn’t gotten so close, and if I had asked to leave you know...” he smiled at me, hitting me on the back as he walked in front of me.
“Thanks...” I smiled back; I had always liked the way he forgave me.
“No problem, no how about we get back.”
“Sure.” I said as I started to walk forwards back towards camp.
When we finally reached camp Chris stopped and scratched his head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked curiously
“How do we wash our clothes?” I had never realised it before but Matt never said anything about a washing machine or anything. I was also slightly shocked that Chris thought of this now but then again it hadn’t crossed my mind either.
“I have no idea...” I replied as I made my way for the main hall “Never realised before.”
“Me neither.” Chris said as he jogged up to me making me break into a jog all the way to the main hall.
“Must be something here.” Chris said as he opened the door and looked around inside.
“Check the kitchen...” I said slowly after a moment’s pause.
“What?” Chris looked surprised by what I had said.
“I told you, the kitchen.”
Chris unwillingly made his way into the kitchen and after a few seconds walked back out.
“How the heck did you know there was a washing machine in there?” he asked surprised
“I didn’t... just a guess; where else would there be one if there was one.”
“Good point.” He said as he walked back over to me and sat down.
After a long moment of nothing I decided to break the silence.
“Nice hunting by the way.” I said slowly trying to find something to say.
“Are you kidding, you were the hunter in that, I did nothing. You’re the one who killed it, you did crush her throat and stuff.” He said excitedly.
“You were the one who stopped it so I could kill it, it was teamwork.”
“True.” He replied proudly, I could tell he liked the compliment.
I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the territory and playing around with my knife. Whenever I get bored I usually spend my time flicking my knife open and closed to pass a few minutes, lucky for me I managed to get my knife into the USA, I really had no idea how since security was so tight but Matt managed to get it in so either way it didn’t matter, I had it here and I didn’t care how I did I just did, important thing was I had it.
Chris had also brought a deck of cards so we spent the evening playing cards and talking about the days to come. Whilst it was still middle June I wanted to train Chris up as much as I possibly could so he could stay a wolf for as long as possible without any problems, and best way to do so was to practise shifting.
We finished the night off with a campfire after gathering some stones, sticks and logs in the forest; I had found some matches in the kitchen. It was the first time Chris and I had ever had a camp fire and we stayed up till it went out before we actually headed to bed, I had no idea or concept of time anymore because I didn’t have my phone to tell me, Chris however had taken a watch with him and informed me it was about 2:25AM when we actually decided to go to bed, the good thing was we could do whatever we want, no parents to tell us when to go to bed, and no school to wake up for meaning a nice lay-in the next day.
I waved goodnight as I went into my cabin and thought back to the hunt of today, even if it hadn’t gone exactly as I had planned, it had still gone well enough for us to eat and fill ourselves up.
We were wolves, we were predators, and we were hunters.