Matthew nodded as closed his eyes as Jonathan watched both of them. Jonathan knew that she would always be there like he knew that he would follow his dreams and live with the people. Where Matthew had to make an effort to reach out to others, Jonathan did it as easily as he spoke other languages but his greatest gift was the ability to cloak his thoughts. He reached out to Matthew who smiled and climbed back down on the floor picking up a book to read.
The hunt ended when the mountain lion went too far into the mountains to make it worth pursuing him. They didn’t know why he would have travelled to the flatland or why he kept coming to the lodge when the amount of food in the mountains was so plentiful. Once they heard the roar in the distance but he seemed to be merely egging them on. They finally returned to the lodge to find the smell of beef stew to be too tantalizing to worry about how the mountain lion could continually outsmart them. The snowfall had been heavy but very dry making it difficult to maneuver far from the pastures which had little or no snow.
Mirisa let them fix their own food as she curled up with her sewing and started mending the knees in the boys’ jeans.
“Mirisa, I need to you keep an eye out for the mountain lion. His prints indicate that he is over 120 pounds and probably a male since there have been no sign of cubs or smaller prints.”
“Alright.”
“Mirisa?”
“Yes James.” She put her sewing on her lap and gave him her full attention.
“They can kill before you can react.”
“I’ll make sure the boys are careful and keep the girls inside until you find him.” She put her needle back through the thick material pushing it with her thimble and putting it back through making a tight little stitch that lay flat. “Do they eat people?”
“I don’t think they are picky though this one doesn’t seem to be hunting.”
In the morning she asked them if she could go out with them to find the Christmas trees. They tried to tell her that she needed to stay home with the children because there was too much snow from the recent storm but Mirisa convinced them to let her go since they were taking Matthew. She went upstairs and changed clothes putting on her long johns, heavy boots and jacket. She put on her handgun and Meeks got her rifle out of the cabinet with Matthews. They headed north along the ridge and turned up the trail to where the small trees were growing. She watched as they picked out the first tree for upstairs. Dominic chopped it down and tied it in a bundle before looking for a larger tree for the great room. They finally found a taller thin tree for Dominic’s house and bundled all three tying them on the pack horse.
As they headed down the side of the mountain they felt the rumble before they heard it. Garnett was riding next to Mirisa when they both turned to the growing resound that drowned out any attempt to communicate as it traveled down the steep valley between the stands of trees. Garnett immediately reached over grabbing Mirisa’s reins as he kicked his horse heading for an over crop of boulders that were a hundred yards below their position. The horses struggled to keep their footing on the soft deep snow while trying to outrun the avalanche. Dominic and James were far enough to the north of them that they weren’t in the direct path and Meeks and Matthew were slightly above Dominic in the tree line with the packhorse.
Matthew instantly stood in his stirrups as Meeks grabbed his reins to stop him from trying to get to his mother. The sound was like nothing Matthew had ever heard as everything in sight was swallowed by surging billows of snow soaring down the mountain so fast that it took everything in its path toppling trees and eating up the panicking wildlife running for their life as it blocked out the setting sun. Matthew watched as the snow seemed to devour his mother before his eyes as his dreams had foretold.
to be continued…Book V – The Belltower
The Visitor - New York 1871-1873 Page 26