(no subject)

[alostranger]

There is a legend that says that a man who hunts alone in the cold and the snow does so at his own peril, for mother nature cannot forgive or forget anyone who challenges her will...

The wind blows through the trees and the cold deepens and it is a warning that the world ends and man has no place in the darker places. It is a warning, and a lingering one. Do not track game into the deep woods. Do not leave the beaten trails that is for other creatures to walk their paths.

Not all men listen to this however. Not all men or women walk their paths - man is made to explore. Man is an abnormality. Nature has made a thing it cannot control and it consistently tries to teach man lessons that he refuses to learn...

No matter what the consequences to the tribes when he returns.

He'd been walking for hours. Days. A few miles a day, crawling across snowbanks and down into lush green valleys. Why he keeps going he doesn't know. He's quite sure that he's been given up for dead.

Over into the spring, into the grass, smelling the verdant earth and dreaming of getting back to the ranger station until he heard it. You slip into survival, you fall into the trap of being less then human so when the noise hit him he knew bear.

A big one.

He'd conserved his bullets, trying to. Early on, into his captivity before the green had vanished and the snows had set he had feared the bears and his colleague (Brian, his name was Brian.) had insisted they just stay out of the way of the bigger creatures in the forest.

So when he was ready - he was ready and he slid between the woman and the bear, gun drawn and firing. Man versus nature as nature roared in anger and he was taken. Taken deep.
----

Paul Jones was one of six rangers sent out just before the snows melted looking for Lucy Yu, a hiker who had become injured in the forest. Trapped by a snow storm, he spent two months in the cold with his colleagues as they died one by one. He found his way out just in time to save a woman from a bear attack - dragging the two of them mutually to the nearest ranger station where she was hailed as a hero, and he was sent off for rehabilitation.

Because Paul had been injured- living off a broken leg. His colleagues kept him alive, one after the other until Michael confessed that the crow they'd been living off of was the remains of the other men. Paul accepted it - until he dreamed of the stag - the stag with wolf paws who told him to leave the cave and so he left - but all meat tastes foul now and he can sense...changes.

Something else has crawled out. And it is up to the woman who's life he saved to solve the mystery.

Comments

Lemme know if something doesn't mesh.

[badcampingtrip]

It was supposed to have just been a short walk away from camp, the stream that Reggie had found the day before. She had intended to refill her canteen before heading out on a long hike, had chosen her campsite close to the river for just that purpose.

She had just cleared the treeline when she saw it. Bear When it roared at her she froze, praying that it would go on its way. When it starts charging at her, brown eyes go wide as she stumbles back.

"Oh god." The man with the gun slid in from nowhere making Reggie jump and squeak out a weak yelp of surprise as he fires.

This looks fantastic.

[alostranger]

The yelp distracted him - first rule of all of this protect all wildlife.

He knew he'd been gone too long when he wanted the bear dead, it's blood on his hands, it's...

"Stay down, and don't move. If it gets close just hug the dirt. That's submission to a bear."

Underneath the layers of dirt and grime she might be able to see forest ranger green, and a gold patch.

His tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth, "...You'll be all right."

[badcampingtrip]

Never argue with the guy holding the gun. Even if he did just save her.

She presses her lips together tightly and nods as she laid down. Thankfully, she's smart enough to know that running from wild animals only gave them a reason to chase you.

The green looks just like the ranger jackets and while Reggie couldn't make out the star right now, her instincts told her he wasn't a threat. Her hand flexed on the rough nylon strap of her canteen as she watches.

[alostranger]

The bear's gone - There's a look of regret on his face before he stumbles back to her, running a hand through his longer hair . If I were her I would think that I was a psychopath.

There's a look of very real regret in his eyes as he approaches back, raising his hands. The lost rangers and lost hiker would have been national news (he hopes). At least I look like a ghost.

Still, the last woman he'd seen had been Melinda - and Melinda had been attacked by a coyote and then...

He shook his head violently, scratching at his head with his makeshift gloves before stripping them off, "I mean you no harm.

It's gone. The bear. Not me, I'm not gone."

[badcampingtrip]

God, he looked like hell. She carefully pushes back and up, into a crouching position. Now that he's closer and she doesn't have adrenaline turning her focus, she sees the patch of gold. "You're a ranger."

Standing, she took a step forward warily. "Oh, thank you so much, I-" Her brain finally gets around to recognizing just how bad he looked, his face echoing in a memory in her head.

News 11. Six rangers were announced missing today.. But that was months ago. Her eyes widen.

"You're a ranger." It's said with more conviction and understanding this time.

[alostranger]

Paul! -

Here! I'm here!

There's no way we're going to get out of this for now. We've got to hole up and hope they see our signals...

Stupid kid, breaking his leg like that...

Just leave me here!

His blue eyes fill with tears, "...I'm Paul.

My name is Paul. Where...where's the ranger's station. The snow melted, I have to go find them. I...your campsite?

I should take you back. To them."

[badcampingtrip]

The tears in his eyes makes him look as desperate as Reggie can only guess he feels. She felt horrible for him, but now that he was in front of her, she could help.

"Yeah, my campsite isn't far away. I've got a radio that we can call the station with." She slips an arm around his waist to help him take some pressure off his leg.

"My name is Reggie. We're only a few hours away, so it shouldn't take them long to come get us."

[alostranger]

Despite the look - he's only slightly lean, beard across his features. He hesitates before clinging to her, arm falling across her shoulders, "I must look like shit."

He swallows, "What day is it?"

[badcampingtrip]

She's a petite woman, standing only at five foot six but she's determined as she pats his side reassuringly before slowly guiding them back into the tree line.

"You smell worse." She crinkles her nose delicately before continuing. "It's a Monday. Figures this would be the beginning of my week. Bear attacks sound like a monday thing."

She's rambling and she knows it, but it helps keep her calm. Her campsite comes into view in the distance, it won't take more then 5 minutes to get there.

[alostranger]

"...No that. That's...manly. Right there. Rugged manliness..." How the hell are you even joking Paul?

When he spots their campsite however he lets out a sob, "Oh god. Oh god..."

He nearly stumbles then, hugging her as tightly as he can, "...Thank you."

[badcampingtrip]

She quirks a smile up at him before mmpfhing as he squeezes her. After a second, she pats at him to loosen his grip, pulling her head away.

"Very manly. Come on, don't thank me until we're back in civilisation." Once they get to the site, she carefully helps him sit down, pulling off the canteen and setting it next to him.

"Ok, I just have to get the radio. I'll be right back." Reggie ruffles through a hiking pack until she's found the two way radio. Clicking it on, she dials into the frequency of the Emergency Ranger station.

Click "Hello?" Click Reggie glances over at Paul before trying again. Please let someone be sitting at the speaker. Click "This is Regina Derrickson. I found.. I found a man, one of the lost Rangers and he's injured."Click

[alostranger]

[Regina Derrekson? State again. missing rangers?] The voice sounds shocked, [Ma'am they were declared dead...]

Forget protocol. At the rangers station the radio operator was staring in shock.

Paul for his part had scrambled to her cooler - heedless of anyone else before reaching for crackers and spitting them out. He gasped, (forget it) before abandoning it and going looking for her.

At least a month of living in the wild had left his senses attuned to things like body heat. Like smell. He told himself that before peering around before finding her and the radio.

Staring in shock. I'm dead?

[badcampingtrip]

"You know declaring something dead doesn't actually kill it? Yes. I found a man who says his name is Paul, he's wearing a ranger jacket and I think his leg is broken. S.O.S. Coordinates are.."

She fumbles a map open, laying it on the ground and squatting next to it as she traces where she is. She rambles off the coordinates before continuing. "Repeat, we need rescue."

[alostranger]

The radio operator hesitated, [Ma'am...can you put this supposed ranger on-]

Paul didn't hesitate. He grabbed for the radio in her hands, "...David! David you- It's me! It's Paul I-" He let out a growl of pain as he fell forward, practically sprawling, "David listen to her. I'm not dead. I'm not."

Silence. Almost ten, fifteen minutes of silence before.

[...I have a chopper in route. Stay put. Paul...it's good to hear from you man.]

click.

[We missed you.]

another click.


He fell halfway across her map, "...You saved my life." His gaze meets hers, "...Thank you. You saved my life."

[badcampingtrip]

She had started handing to him when it was snatched away and wraps her arms around her bent knees as she listens, breathing out a sigh of relief when she hears the chopper is coming. She was worried that they wouldn't send one out just on account that they had declared him dead.

"Well you saved my life, so I owed you one. Now we're even, right?" Reggie smiles softly at him.

"It'll be ok Paul. They'll get you home."

[alostranger]

He pauses, looking around, "...You're going to be all right here?"

The ranger reaches of her shoulder and his face goes dark and slack and gray. He reaches for her shoulder and swallows, "...go home."

[badcampingtrip]

"After almost getting mauled by a bear and finding a guy who's been 'dead' for two months, I think my trip can be rescheduled." Reggie crooks her fingers with air quotes before catching his hand and wrapping her smaller ones around it.

"I live in town. I can come back out for my tent tomorrow. It'll still be here. Plus, I have to make sure you get to the hospital." Oh yes. She'll be riding with him until they get there, when she can be sure that he'll be ok.

She didn't like catching her chickens before they hatched.

[alostranger]

There's the sound of something flying across the campsite, he instinctively tries to step in front of her - to greet them before he falls back to his knees with a wince. This was supposed to be better. Brian swore...

Brian. He raised a hand and peered at the figures approaching. Medvac. A pair of Rangers...

In the distance, he heard a sound of a humvee - a jeep approaching and he could have cried. Down there on his knees in the dirt and the mud.

Something however - some sense, some creation drew his gaze away from the men towards the woods. The deep, dark, calming woods. Even though the sun was high in the sky the creatures would be moving about. The bodies - the remains of his friends would be in the graves he'd dug for them and the foxes and the deer...

He licked his lips tempted to crawl off back towards the darkness, out of the setting sun and the loud thrum of the helicopters. He reached for her hand and took it - fingers and palm thick with callous as he needs something - anyone to tether him back to the land of humanity...

If regina were to look she might see something looking back out of the forest in the opposite direction from where the humvees are coming from. Large and dark with the vague shadow of horns - if she looks, if she sees she might see it and then she might see it move back into the shadows of the trees as he collapses into the arms of the EMTs and lets go of her hand.

A ranger approaches her, "...Did he hurt you? Does he seem sick?"

[badcampingtrip]

Reggie puts a hand on his back as he moves in front of her, a largely ignored attempt to get him to stay still, the other casting a shadow over her eyes as she watches the cavalry arrive. Breaking into a grin, she waves eagerly at them.

Behind the bliss sits a chill on her soul and human instinct insisted she look behind her, something felt like it was leaning against her mind. Her eyes narrow to see... whatever is/was/has faded into the darkness.

Her fingers stretch towards his til he falls away, her mind focusing and snapping back to the situation at hand. Reggie takes a few steps towards the approaching ranger, her forehead creased with a distractive worry for Paul.

"Did he what?" Her mind catches up, telling her that she'd already heard. "No." Instant and ridiculous. "No, uh, he saved my life. A bear charged at me and he slid down from somewhere and shot it... Can I go to the hospital with him?"

[alostranger]

"Ask the chopper pilots. Did you say he shot a bear? A bear?" The man laughed and patted Paul's shoulder as he was being hoisted onto a stretcher, "...Hell lady you're a hero. He's a hero. This is a hell of a day you..."

He paused, leaning over to speak with one of the pilot's as Paul reached for her hand, "Ride along! We're taking him to the city."

His hand continued to grope for hers as the they started to move him toward the medevac.

In his mind he felt like he was being tugged, no - pulled away from something. He needed something to hold onto.

The dreams came back to him, the monster in the darkness. The words that were whispered. He yelled ,struggling for a moment and continuing to reach for her hand.

[badcampingtrip]

She stares at the chopper pilot and smiled when she was given permission to come,(she would have raised hell and come anyway if she had been told no)and immediately started a light jog to catch up with the EMT's.

A quick wave of thanks was given to the ranger as she is handed the mandatory headphones. After fitting them around her head, Reggie slips her hand into his, her thumb stroking back and forth reassuringly as she waits for them to take off.

[alostranger]

He lay in a world of delirium before reaching for her hand, desperately. The moment he had it he raised his gaze to look at her as they dug into his other arm.

One of the EMTs, an african american male, tried to get his attention, "Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones. Can you feel anything in the leg? Mr. Jones please..."

He tried to talk to her, try to say something to her before nodding once at the EMT and twisting his head to the side. His throat was dry as the chopper made it's steady progress toward the city and it's gleaming lights.

Once they'd landed he refused to let go of her hand, not saying anything - his fingers tight around hers.

[badcampingtrip]

She couldn't stop glancing down at him between watching the single level skyline approach. Once the helicopter landed and the EMT's unlatched Paul, she walked him through the double doors before Reggie was crowded away by Doctors, her hand eventually torn away from his.

She watched them wheel him down the hall, arms circling to hug herself. A nurse directed her pointedly towards a waiting room with a curt ,"They'll get you when they have news."

[alostranger]

Time passed. An hour, two hours, three hours - before a doctor approached her, "...You found him?"

[badcampingtrip]

She had paced in the waiting room, thoroughly irritating the nurses with questions of at least basic information. People who get rescued out of the woods were always dehydrated or frostbitten. She wanted to know how bad off he was.

People magazine was flipped through and discarded two or three times and Reggie even took a stab at the coffee. It wasn't worth it.

She's sprawled in a chair, ankles crossed on the edge of a table as the Doctor walks towards her. Dropping her feet, she stood up and turned to face him.

"Yeah. Out in the woods. Is he ok?"

[alostranger]

"Fine. Better then fine. Only mildly malnourished. He says he was hunting but animals like that..."

The doctor shakes his head, "...Can I assume you feel responsible for him?"

There's a hint of a smile on his features.

[badcampingtrip]

Her relief shows on her face. "Good. That's good." A nod, a release of tension in her shoulders.

"Doesn't he have family? I figured with him being presumed dead that someone might have mentioned next of kin. Until they get here, I do."

Who knows what mother is grieving over her lost son? Surely he had people who missed him. She's just the girl that found him, but she wasn't raised to do it half-assed.

[alostranger]

"A sister out in California? But we've been unable to contact her. The woman on his emergency contact sheet has apparently been married.

[badcampingtrip]

"Oh. Then I guess so. Yeah, I'll take responsibility for him." She had the room in her house, the guest room was on the bottom floor which would make it easier to move him around. Her head was already abuzz with preparation ideas.

"How long will the hospital be keeping him?"

[alostranger]

"A couple of days. We've set his leg, it was set previously but the bandages needed to be changed. He was asking for you earlier. Do you...do you know him?"

"Tell him he's lucky he didn't lose the leg."

Almost too lucky, but the doctor wouldn't tell her that. He motioned with his head for her to follow him, "...The hunt for those rangers was national news Miss..."

[badcampingtrip]

She shakes her head. "No. He just came out of nowhere and saved me from a bear attack."

She quickly keeps pace with him as she talks. "It was pretty big. I remember watching it on TV. Didn't think that I'd ever find someone out there. I'm just happy that he's ok."

When they reach Paul's room, Reggie walks in and peers around the privacy curtain. She was sure they gave him pain killers or something and if he was asleep, she didn't want to bother him. He'd earned some rest.

[alostranger]

He dozes. In and out. In his dreams he's back through the woods running, running - never feeling more free...then someone whispering in his ear, in Brian's ear - hands on his leg...

He jerks awake, "...Brian! Mikaela! -"

His chest rises and falls, "...The girl from the woods."

[badcampingtrip]

Well, he's awake. Reggie glances back at the Doctor before stepping around to Paul's bedside. "Thank you."

She looks over him, hands curling around the cool metal of his barriers, gaze landing on his face. She disliked the way he jolted awake and struggled to push an imagination of what he might have gone through out of her mind.

"Hey. The Doc says you'll be out of here in a few days." She draws part of her lip under her teeth briefly. "They said you had no family or anything near by. Do you mind staying with me until you're healed?"

She'd never asked a guy over to her house before for anything more then a one night rumble and the idea of inviting a total stranger to live with her, even if it isn't for long period of time, makes her uneasy. But where was he going to go when they relased him?

[alostranger]

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask for Samantha - a girl he had been seeing. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask about a dozen others but instead he peered at her, "...Yeah. I mean if you'd be okay with that."

[badcampingtrip]

"Oh, unless you have someplace to go, that is." Way to assume Reggie, she chides herself. She had figured since the woman on his contact information was gone that he was alone. She should have just popped in and left her number and gone home.

"I'll leave my number with the nurses. If you do need a place to stay, I've got a spare room." Good save.

[alostranger]

"...I don't..."

Paul looks a little lost, "-I'll - I'll call you. see what people say and how long I'm going to be in here."

"I think they declared me dead. Is that right? I mean did they?"

Yes. The whole party was declared lost.

[badcampingtrip]

She nods. Of course, she'll spend the next day preparing just in case. It gave her something productive to do.

"Yeah they did. You've already been mentioned on the news. Only a few hours in town and you're a celebrity." She smiles pleasantly.

[alostranger]

He laughs at that and then looks pained, "Everything's too bright. And I saw..."

He closes his eyes and turns away, "...Can I just take you up on it now? Then maybe...call my sister and see if she can get me set up again. Wouldn't be with you more then a couple of weeks."

[badcampingtrip]

His pain makes her somber again. "Yeah, sure. Gimme a call when you're discharged."

She watched him a moment. "You should probably get some rest."

[alostranger]

He lay back on the pillows, "...Thank you. Mrs. Derrickson."

[badcampingtrip]

"Pretty sure that life saving gives you first name rights." She smiles again and walks back around the privacy screen. She would go home and get her own needed rest before starting her half written to do list.