by Sawyer Belle
Chapter 8
Before the rest of the riders went away, Ty gave Brent his shotgun and an estimation of five to six hours before he returned in the Thing. The shotgun served as a harsh reminder that they were in grizzly country. Mackenna grew up in an area where black bears often wandered near her home in the beginning of spring, but they were never aggressive and were always caught and taken away.
During her summers in Montana she had seen several grizzlies, but it was always from afar, and she never had any reason to fear an encounter as she was securely in groups of ten or more and grizzlies tend to attack smaller, less threatening prey. With her, Brent and one invalid in the thick of the forest with only two horses and a shotgun, she tried to rein in her fear.
Brent was less than happy with the circumstances. Ty had mentioned that he might have seen a grizzly, but Brent had definitely seen one. He hadn’t thought to warn anyone as the bear turned away from them and Ty seemed to move further from it as well. With the three of them out there on their own, he decided that they should go into the clearing that Buddy had been running toward. It would be easier to defend them, if needs be, in an open space where he could see in all directions. He didn’t explain his reasons to Mackenna, but she didn’t ask. She only complied and he suspected she was smart enough to understand his motive.
He picked Katie up and cradled her in his arms while Mackenna followed, leading their horses. Katie winced and yelped so often that Mackenna wanted to shout at her to be quiet. Her own knee was throbbing and she could feel its swelling pushing tightly against her jeans and chaps. She dreaded to see what the skin beneath looked like. She hobbled behind Brent, grateful that he couldn’t see how painful each step was for her. It was even harder to walk once they reached the softer, uneven dirt of the open meadow. When they finally stopped, Sass rubbed her nose gently on Mackenna’s shoulder, as If she knew her rider was in pain. Mackenna patted the horse affectionately.
Brent deposited Katie onto the ground and urged her to rest and sleep if possible. He removed the saddle from his horse and set it on the ground so she could prop her foot up on it. She fell instantly asleep, worn out from the ordeal. Mackenna sat in the pliant, green grass and straightened her leg. Brent brought his saddle bags over to her and sat down, offering her a strip of jerky.
As the sun bore down on them she wished she had indulged Bev’s pleas for her to wear a cowboy hat. She had never been fond of them, finding them heavy and cumbersome. She always wore her bandana headband to keep back her hair and any drops of sweat. In this, she and Brent were the same and were both squinting now as a result.
“Well,” Mackenna began, “We’ve got nothing but time, so what do you want to talk about?”
“Let’s talk about you,” he said.
She smiled, pleased that he’d want to know more of her. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything you want to tell me. What grade are you in for starters?”
“I actually graduated with Kelly.”
“Isn’t she a year older than you?”
“Yeah, but I took more classes and advanced my studies so that I could graduate early.”
“Really?” he asked, genuinely impressed. When she nodded he asked her why.
“Well, I don’t really see any point in hanging around high school when I can get on with my life. I want to get started on my college degree and get things moving.”
“What do you want to study?”
“I’m going to be a vet,” she said with a sure smile. “I’m in love with animals. I’ve been around them my whole life. I can think of nothing more rewarding than healing those wonderful creatures.”
Brent smiled softly and Mackenna looked away shyly.
“I guess it sounds silly, but I have my mom to blame for it,” she continued. “My parents own about twenty acres in the Washoe Valley, that’s kind of between Carson City and Reno. We have a training and rehabilitation facility there. My whole life has been about healing the physical and emotional scars of animals, mainly horses.”
“Emotional scars of animals?” he said skeptically. “Sounds like a lefty invention to me.”
“You don’t believe animals can have emotional scars? Like a dog who was formerly beaten or a horse who suffered a traumatic injury?”
“I think animals have shorter memories than humans. Sure, they can be traumatized but there isn’t an animal I’ve ever seen who wouldn’t abandon his fear for a handful of food.”
“Then you’ve never been around animals like the ones I’ve seen,” she said decisively. “Animals surely do carry scars, and they are harder to heal than people because they can’t tell you what it is they’re thinking or feeling or remembering. You have to really study the animal, find a way to reach into its soul and find the hurt. If you can read an animal, you can learn everything you need to know about him.”
Brent raised a sardonic eyebrow, but it was more to tease Mackenna than to dispute her claim. She obviously had a talent for reading animals, hence her pairing with Sass. She slapped him playfully on the shoulder.
“I’m being serious!”
He laughed. “I know. I’m teasing you. I believe you. I guess some people are better at that sort of thing than others.”
“You’re good with animals, Brent. I’ve seen you.”
He shrugged. “It’s just a job.”
“Don’t you like working the ranch and the animals?”
Brent snickered. “Not at all. I hate it, actually.”
Mackenna sat back as if hit. “How can you hate this?” she asked in wonder. “How can anyone hate this beautiful landscape? How can anyone live without animals and mountains and freedom?”
“Maybe this is freedom for you,” Brent returned. “For me, it’s a prison.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“Bills have to get paid,” he said tightly then directed at her, “Not all of us can live off of our parents.”
Mackenna studied his face as he ground his teeth and clenched his jaw. Something had changed his mood, and suddenly, too. She started to notice a pattern with him over the past month. His insults toward her came swiftly on the heels of his own mood swings. She had stopped taking so much offense weeks ago when she realized this. She knew that his harsh words came more as a result of his internal struggles than as his legitimate opinion of her. Still, it didn’t make it fair or right for him to do that to her.
“Why do you do that?” she asked with mild irritation.
“What?”
“Why do you insult me without reason? If you don’t want to answer a question or talk about something, simply say that. Don’t insult me as a means of ending the conversation or changing the subject.”
Brent did not respond but stared right past her, fueling her anger. She was about to tell him how childish he was being when the movement of his arms stopped her. His face did not waver. His eyes never blinked. He slowly reached down to his side and lifted the shotgun. Mackenna turned to see what he saw and her breath lodged in her throat.
There, on the edge of the meadow emerging from the shadows of the forest stood a grizzly, massive and bristling, shoving his snout into the air as he sniffed the scents they gave off. He took a small step forward as if drawn by a current of air.
“Oh my God,” Mackenna breathed in a whisper, fear clutching at her heart as the full weight of their vulnerability rooted her to the ground. “Brent…” she pleaded.
“Get behind me,” he said lowly and she scrambled to do so, ignoring the pain screaming in her leg. She was thankful that Katie was asleep, else the woman would be screaming for sure. Sass and Jake, their horses, were tied to a fallen trunk and were already trying to pull free of their restraints, stomping and snorting at the danger they sensed.
“What do we do?” Mackenna whispered.
“Just stay calm,” he soothed, “and be quiet. Let’s see what he does.”
Just then Sass screeched a long and baleful whinny and the grizzly dropped his head, gl
aring right at them. His lower lip curled under and he growled, the sound an ominous scrape of thunder rolling across the space between him and the cluster of horses and humans. Mackenna felt it in her bones and against her will her body began to quake. The beast took another step forward, his growl a never-ending challenge to them.
Brent slowly stood to his full height, the butt of the shotgun pressed into his right shoulder and raised to eye-level as he pointed it at the bear. The grizzly accepted the challenge and rose onto his back legs, stretching the length of his body toward the sky as his claws reached out before him. He grunted a deep-throated cough and took another step forward. Brent pointed the muzzle of the gun toward the sky and pulled the trigger, the shot echoing across the meadow and bouncing back around them.
The horses whined in protest, flocks of birds fluttered noisily away and Katie awoke with a yelp. She sat up and saw the grizzly raised up and let out a scream to rival the sound of the shot gun. The bear ceased his growling and slowly lowered himself back to all fours. He studied them for the longest moment of Mackenna’s life before deciding that they were not worth the fight. Lazily, as if to demonstrate that it was his lack of interest and not their meager show of strength that stalled him, he turned and disappeared into the dark shades of the woods.
Brent, whose eyes never left the bear’s, slowly lowered the gun. Mackenna released a heavy sigh and in the background Katie wailed.
“I want to go home!” she cried. “I don’t like this! This is not what I signed up for! We’re all gonna die!”
Mackenna looked at Brent and he held up a hand to say that he couldn’t deal with Katie just then, so she went to the woman’s side.
“Katie, hush!” she hissed. “We’re not going to die.” The woman carried on wailing until Mackenna shouted over her. “Do you want him to come back?! Be quiet!”
Katie cried quietly into her hands. “This isn’t happening,” she chanted over and over again.
“We’re perfectly safe,” Mackenna said. “You see that shotgun Brent has? If that bear gets anywhere near us, one shot from that will tear his head open, and believe me, Brent has never missed.”
“You mean this has happened before?” Katie asked, quieting down.
“Well, not this particular scenario, but we run into grizzlies all the time and not one has ever survived a fight with Brent’s gun. So, relax. You’re getting worked up for nothing. We’re going to be just fine. Ty will be back in a few hours to drive us out.”
Katie nodded hesitantly and then laid back down. Mackenna rejoined Brent and stood quietly beside him.
“That’s good what you told her,” he said in a low voice.
“Yeah…” Mackenna drawled. “If only I believed it myself.”
He looked down at her. They both knew that what she’d said was not true.
“Do you think he’ll be back?” Mackenna asked.
“Don’t know,” Brent said. “Let’s just hope Ty gets back before we find out.”
Chapter 9
Fear is nothing if not persistent, Mackenna learned. Once she had begun to relax into easy conversation again with Brent, the grizzly returned two more times throughout the day to hiss and growl at them. Brent frightened it off by shooting at the ground in front of him. Once the shot buried into the earth it sprayed dirt into the air like powder and the animal scurried off.
Katie could not control her hysterics and after a steady succession of panic attacks ripped through her, Brent had Mackenna give her a pill cocktail of a pain reliever and a muscle relaxer. Ty had left him the pills with the instructions to use them only if Katie could not endure the pain. As it turned out, Brent could not endure Katie.
As the day waned and the sun threatened to disappear behind the western treetops, Brent decided to gather wood and start a small fire. He gave Mackenna the shotgun. She knew how to use it, but had never fired a shot outside of practice. As she peered down the barrel, watching the shadows near Brent, her heart throbbed painfully, causing her pulse to pound against the metal of the gun.
What if Brent were attacked? What if she missed? What would happen to her and Katie, two women who were too injured to run? The answers to those questions and more swirled through her mind and she shuddered. She murmured a quick prayer to see Ty quickly returned with the Thing.
Brent made his way back and cleared a wide circle in which to build the fire. Once the task was done and the sticks were snapping and crackling, he took the weapon from Mackenna. She looked shaken, but was braving her fear. He hoped that Ty would return before dark. It would be much easier for a bear to sneak up on them under the cloak of night. Although the horses would give them fair warning, he was sure.
Both of their prayers went unanswered and as a thick black night descended with only a sliver of moon to light the area, Mackenna’s terror became almost unbearable. She inched closer to the flames, and closer to Brent. Her leg hurt too bad to bend at the knee so she kept both legs straight out in front of her. The fear and the pain worked together to weary her and she felt her entire body sag beneath the weight of it. Brent saw it, too.
“Why don’t you lie down and try to get some rest,” he said softly. “Ty will be back soon enough and then you’ll have to ride for another two or three hours.”
Mackenna knew that the last thing she could do at that moment was sleep, but she would not speak to Brent about her leg or her fear. She was already dreading the ride back to the ranch but she had no intention of it taking her two to three hours, because she had no intention of walking. She and Sass would hit the trail running just as soon as possible. So, she nodded drowsily and laid down on the soft dirt facing the fire.
In her mind, she could hear the tremor of the grizzly’s voice. She could hear the depressions of his paws in the dirt, could feel his hot breath breathing down the back of her neck. She knew she should turn around, put her back to the fire so she could see anything that approached, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She would rather not see what approached since she was powerless to stop it.
Again, she began shaking. Her entire body racked steadily as if from the cold, but she was perfectly warm. It was fear shivering through her blood and before she could stop it, tiny teardrops formed in her eyes, slid over the bridge of her nose and dropped onto the ground. She closed her eyes, summoning any amount of courage she still owned to combat this weakness.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of strong arms lifting her up until she sat with her back against Brent’s torso. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and rubbed his hands up and down her biceps. His cheek was pressed into the side of her head, his lips hovering just above her ear. He whispered to her that she would be all right, that she was safe with him and other words she could not discern. She believed him and let his warmth flood through her and the fear left with each contented breath.
After a while, his words stopped and there was nothing but peaceful silence in the air and a wonderful heat surrounding them. Mackenna savored every detail, the hardness of his chest rising with his breaths behind her, the gentleness of his embrace, the mingled scents of horse, sweat and gun powder drifting from him. With a final sigh before fading into sleep, she closed her eyes and knew that she was falling in love.
Brent held her until Ty returned. The horses had begun to stamp and whinny, but it was not out of fear or warning. They whickered in recognition of the familiar sputters and roars of the Thing’s engine. Brent heard it shortly after they did and the sound was soon followed by bits of white light pulsing through trees like a strobe. As the jeep rolled onto the edge of the meadow, its headlights landed right on them and Mackenna stirred against the brilliance of it.
Ty was driving and Kelly was standing up in front of the passenger seat, leaning out of the roofless vehicle and onto the metal braces that completed its frame. Mackenna’s eyes fluttered open and she turned her face away from the bright light and buried it into the crook of Brent’s arm. Only then did she realize that she was still in his arms and sh
e sat upright, staring shyly up at him. He smiled warmly back down at her.
“Told you we’d make it,” he said, then patted her shoulder. “Now, up you go. Time to ride.”
She had nearly forgotten the situation, lost as she was in his arms. The second she moved her leg, a burning pain raced outward from her knee in a starburst. She winced and Brent frowned at her.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she answered too quickly and then panted a bit. “My…uh…leg must have fallen asleep. You know, the whole pins and needles thing.” She tried to laugh it off and Brent seemed to accept her explanation. “I’m going to sit for a minute until the feeling comes back. You go help Ty with Katie.”
Brent left her and soon Kelly was at her side. On her face was a mixture of concern and barely restrained anger. The intensity of it was so strong that Mackenna flinched when she saw it.
“What?” Mackenna asked with concern.
“Sorry to interrupt your evening,” Kelly spat and Mackenna knew that was not anger. It was pure jealousy. She rolled her eyes, not in the mood or physical condition to indulge such ridiculousness.
“Don’t worry,” Mackenna returned icily. “Next time, you can hang out with a hysterical, injured woman for six hours while being stalked by a grizzly.”
Kelly’s eyes widened and all anger vanished. Mackenna nodded in acknowledgement of the wide-eyed stare.
“Yeah, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of here,” she continued. “Help me up, will you. My leg’s gone stiff.”
Kelly did as asked and walked along Mackenna as she hobbled toward Sass. Ty and Brent had Katie in the back of the Thing and were propping her ankle up and securing it so it wouldn’t jostle too much on the ride back.
“Sorry, kid,” Kelly finally said. “I saw you with Brent and…just reacted.”
“Forget about it,” Mackenna said before moving to the right side of the horse.
“You’re going to mount from the right?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah,” Mackenna grunted as she did just that.