Legacy's leg bounced up and down in her chair as she looked up at the clock again for the 50th time and swore it was going backwards. The camping trip she had been planning for months was only an hour away but she felt as if time was all but coming to a stop. She could feel a mental breakdown creeping up on her from the heartbreak, anger and stress the last couple of weeks of her life had thrown at her. Her asshole of a fiancé had dumped her on her birthday three months ago and her life had pretty much gone downhill from there... her so called "friends" from the city had disappeared as soon as she got dumped, she didn't get the promotion at work she was sure she was going to get and now there was no way she could afford that new apartment she had been looking at... she had stupidly already started packing her little studio apartment up she was so sure of herself and now she had to unpack all of it again with a broken heart... On the bright side of all this, she had saved three weeks of vacation time off work for the honeymoon she thought she would be having but since that was a no go, she decided to use that time instead to go on a little vacation by herself and remind herself that she was strong and independent and capable of anything and didn't need any man in her life or so she hoped that's how it would go. What better way to do that than to go back to her roots and do what she used to Love doing before she moved to the city and go camping for three weeks all alone! She had picked an idyllic forest that had a serene lake where she could fish and go for swims just like she used to do. It wasn't a well known Forrest so she knew she would have it all to herself and she could hardly wait.
She had been all packed for two days and had loaded everything in her truck this morning so as soon as that clock hit 5 she could clock out and hit the road. Finally she only had ten minutes left and thought to herself "Fuck it... I'm leaving.." She shut down her computer, said a half assed goodbye to her colleagues and rushed to the bathroom to change out of her work clothes. She put on her newly bought khaki pants with about 168 pockets on them and equipped a couple pockets with her pocket knife, compass and lighter, she shimmied into her blank tank, put her favorite hiking boots on and threw on her daddy's old plaid jacket taking a second to inhale and think back to all the good times she had with him on their Montana farm. She felt right back at home in the comfortable outdoor clothes and felt herself already starting to feel much better. She left the stall and walked over to the sink turning on the warm water, cupping it and splashing it all over her face. She took the small makeup remover wipes out of her bag and scrubbed off her makeup. Once it was all off she lifted the bottom of her tank and dried her face off. Then she grabbed her favorite old ball cap, pulled her ponytail through the back and pulled it slightly to the left just like her daddy used to do. She looked up to see her natural olive skin again, her long dark hair untamed and her stormy gray eyes staring back at her in the mirror and started laughing aloud, if only her city friends could see her now they wouldn't even recognize her. When she moved to New York she wanted to shake the small town girl persona off and start fresh. None of her friends, including her fiancé, knew the small town outdoor side her. If they did they probably wouldn't wanted to give her the time of day let along be friends with her. She had tried to refine herself so much to fit in she had ended up losing most of who she really was. The night her ex fiancé took her camping was when she finally realized how much she had changed and how truly unhappy she was. The week after he broke up with her was a very dark time for her. She decided to return to her hometown of Laketown Montana and there she began to find herself again and build up her confidence with the help of those she loved and who actually loved her surrounding her. She realized she had really dodged a huge bullet by not marrying her billionaire ex fiancé because what truly made her happy was the small town girl life. She had wanted to stay in Montana forever, unfortunately she had to go back to her job in the city but she decided to plan an adventurous camping trip to test her skills and go back to that girl she once was who had taught many youngsters in Montana how to survive in the wilderness with what Mother Nature provided you with.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and took one last confident look at herself and said to the reflection in the mirror, "Let's go whoop some ass!" In her southern drawl and dashed out of the restroom, skipping the rest of the way out of the building.
When she got to her truck she opened the back door and grabbed her pistol and secured the holster inside her pants on her hip, then put on her belt that held her outdoors fixed blade knife in its leather sheath along with her flint. She hopped in the front seat and gave one last mental check to make sure she had everything then started the truck and finally got on the road. She put her favorite song on "Old Paint" by Chris LeDoux and cranked it up as loud as she could stand and sang her little heart out as she flew down the highway.
After an 8 hour drive with a couple stops along the way she finally reached the turn off to the forest she had chosen. It was a small dirt road with a sign that said "Lycan Forest" along with a little sign to the left that said "Keep Out". She pulled off and thought to herself
That's weird, I swore this forest was open to the public.
She pulled her phone out and looked it up and sure enough it said it said open to the public,
Hmm it's probably just the locals trying to keep it all to themselves and scare tourists away, but it won't work on me.
She grinned and threw her truck in drive turning and continuing down the little dirt road that was surrounded with thick trees and bush. She was transported back to her childhood when her grandpa would take her hunting rabbits in the forest
"Papa, why do we kill little bunny rabbits?" she had asked her grandpa when she was 5 years old.
"We kill them for their meat, that we eat, for their hide, that we make your boots and gloves out of and for their lucky feet!" He had told her with a chuckle. When we got home that day he taught me how to make each one of those thing so as not to waste the life of an animal.
Her mother hated everything outdoors and her father was too busy working most days so her beloved grandpa had taught her almost everything she knew about the outdoors, especially about hunting. He practically raised her out in the forest behind his house teaching her new all kinds of different things. But the most important thing he taught her was to respect everything living and to always thank whatever animal you killed for the bounties and sacrifice they gave to us. That's where she got her respect of nature and animals from. She missed him dearly.
She was suddenly jerked out of her thoughts when a little red fox ran in front of her and sat smack dab in the middle road. She slammed on her breaks, stopping right in front of it. She leaned up and looked out her windshield and saw the furry little critter still sitting there staring, no wait... glaring, right at her.
That's odd, foxes usually aren't that bold, quite the opposite actually, they are usually shy and skittish and are smart enough to stay away from loud trucks... And they definitely don't usually glare into your soul....
She laid on her horn but that didn't phase it at all. She tried to see if she could get around it but the road was too narrow. She inched closer to it to see if it would move but the closer she got to it the meaner it's glare got. Finally she hesitantly got out and came to the front of her truck and tried to shoo the animal away but it just sat there with a death glare from hell. This damn fox was starting to freak her out a bit but she was not going to have a little fox deter her so she went and grabbed a pair of leather gloves out of the bed of her truck so she could grab it and move it off the road hopefully without getting bit. She put the gloves on and started to reach down to grab the little thing but it loudly hissed and her dodged her hands and finally ran onto the side of the road. Then it did the strangest thing, it turned back to her narrowed its eyes and started glaring at her again! She turned and high tailed it back into her truck and threw it in drive to put some distance between her and this devil fox. She tried to make look straight forward but she finally took a glimpsed into her rear view mirror and saw this fox sitting in the middle of the road with its beady eyes looking Straight at her through the mirror! Then this devilish bitch finally looked down and Shook it's head and walked off the road...
I've gone batshit crazy!
She drove like a bat out of hell for a bit but finally managed to calm down but she never could get the little red fox out of her head. She had never seen a any animal act that bold and look at her square in the eyes... it's was uncanny! And she sure as hell had never seen one shake their head at her! She hoped she was close to the pull off that led to her campsite because she was afraid that mental breakdown was closer than she expected and she had lost her damn mind and was seeing things.
Thankfully she soon spotted the pullout and pulled her truck in and parked right in front of a sign she was too preoccupied to read. She hopped out and began to gather her equipment when she suddenly got an uneasy feeling and felt like she was being watched. She instantly looked down the road for the fox but it wasn't there so she looked around her but there wasn't any sign of human life she could detect so she tried to laugh and shrugged it off chalking it up to her being paranoid about the fox. She texted her coordinates and her camping plans to her parents, a colleague and her boss and said if they didn't hear from her in three weeks to send rescue teams. She swung her huge camping backpack onto her back and clipped it into place, put her sunglasses on and set out on the little trail with the crisp clean mountain air filling her lungs and clearing her mind. She was determined to make this trip unforgettable and she decided that the fox incident was just something to add to the list that made it unique and she would laugh about it later. With her new found determination she began vigorously hiking up the trail towards her destination by the lake. She didn't want to admit to herself she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that someone was watching her every step of the way..