Night Eyes

The call of the nighthawk mingled with the crackling of the campfire when the peaceful and calming sounds were disrupted by a slight rustle in the tall grass beyond the flames.

“Ssh,” Tanner whispered.

Tammy jolted up in the camping chair too quickly toppling it over backwards, her with it, hitting the back of her head on the firewood pile.

“Tammy!”

Groaning she raises her head from the wood as her boyfriend lifts her into his arms. The back of her head burning with pain, she inhales air to calm herself. 

“Are you okay?” he asks, cradling her closely, completely forgetting the rustle in the grass mere seconds before. 

She rubbed the back of her head, Tammy blinked rapidly, tears glittering on her lashes in the flickering light. “It hurts,” she whispered leaning her head on his warm chest.

Rocking her in his arms, he asks if she would like to climb into the tent to lay down as silence rained down around them. The night blackened the landscape around their remote campsite, far from the beaten path. The blankness creeping in, blanking out half of their gear set back from the fire. Rising to his feet, Tanner nearly tripped on the toppled chair, he paused.

“What was that sound? Do you think it was a bear?” Tammy had always had a great fear of all bears, although she loved tenting in the great outdoors.

“What?”he asked after absently as he gazed at the dying fire, the coals had formed lumps of ash in the pit, only a few glowing coals remained. 

“Do you think the sound was from a bear?”

“Oh. No, probably the breeze,” he answered, clearly unconcerned now, settling her back on her feet.

“There isn't any breeze, hasn't been for a couple of hours. It’s kind of extra still tonight.”

“It is calm,” he smiles at her as he places a few pieces of wood on the coals, stirring up sparks. The crackling echoing in the silence.

“Fine, it's a normal quiet night,” she smiles when the nighthawk called. “I think I will sit by the fire longer. My head is OK.”

 As they reclaimed their seats, the muffled sound of the grass being tousled as if someone or something had brushed the grass stems, interrupted their thoughts.

“Did you hear something?” they checked in unison.

“I may have. A small sound, maybe a mouse,” he chuckled.

“Right, a tiny, harmless mouse.” Shaking her head Tammy changed the subject to their weekend hiking trip they planned as their next adventure. 

This camping trip had involved a trek up a mountain on foot and the next one would involve a boat. The wild and remote locations were desired for every adventure the utmost appeal had always been the quietness of the land around them. This night was no different, the peacefulness of the mountainside was the deciding factor for the placement of their camp. The great expense of the old growth fir trees set along a deep valley, undisturbed from logging, its’ beauty surpassed many locations they had ventured before.

Tammy glanced away from staring into the flames to Tanner when she heard him sniff, the sound so low, a whisper, much like someone trying to silently cry. Asking if he was alright, she ignored all else. 

He looked up at Tammy, with a question in his clear gaze, “I’m good. Just shook me up a little when you went over and hit your head. You are good?”

“I'm fine. Just tender. But I thought I heard you sniff, like a crying sniff.”

“That wasn’t me. I thought you were breathing out the stress.”

“Well, I guess that could have been either of us then.”

“True,” Turner says, rising to hand her a drink spiked with rum, “this will certainly calm our nerves.”

“Mmm,” Tammy moans in pleasure as she grasped the cup.

A slight sound carries from behind their little tent, both sitting up in their chairs, fully alert, listening for a few moments. Tammy whispers, “there is something out there. It doesn't sound like a bear.”

“You're right. Come sit with me,” Tanner whispered back.

Rising slowly, looking out about their camp and into the timber, Tammy freezes completely still. She finds herself staring into a glowing yellow eye in the blackness of the night forest. The eye appeared completely blank but also filled with a predator force and her its prey. There was something out there, but what had an eye like that bottomless glowing pit.  The foreign bottomless eye alien to anything she had ever seen on their adventures. Realizing the sound had come from the opposite direction that she was staring she scrambled to Tanner.

He grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him before she had a chance to tell him about the floating, bodiless eye. Shifting her gaze to him, to find he was intently staring over the fire, his jaw set tightly, the muscle bouncing in tension. He was staring in another direction than where she had seen something. Looking back to see the eye only to find it gone, she noted the direction of his stare and regarded the trees. Nothing seemed to be there.

“We are not alone, Tammy! I just saw a yellowish green eye behind the big fir tree.”

“I know,” she rasped back.

A step hinted behind them so softly she was not sure she had actually heard one. Ever so slowly she turned to peer into the night.

“There it is again,” Tanner bumped into her back as she stepped back to his view.

Her body gently move forward and straight into the gaze of another eye, then suddenly turned into a pair of luminous eyes that stared into her soul. The form invisible in the blackened shadows of the night. Utter fear raced through her body.

“What are they?” she squeaked, terror raging through her veins, squeezing her throat tight.

“I don't know. I can only see one eye. It seems to glow neon in the flames. And aliens aren't real.”

Movement in the shadows behind the tent caught her attention. There was more, surrounding them, enclosing them in a circle of ambush. To corral their prey, the unknown force encompassed them in with no escape.

Warm fingers grasped hers then tugged her toward the fire while he tossed more wood into the flames. Sparks flew up high, more light flared around the tiny clear area where they stood, she looped around meeting the bodiless eyes, several gazed back their eery stares watching, single and in pairs. Not one direction lacking eyes, they were surrounded. It was time to decide on a course of action to defend themselves.

A bear banger lay on their sleeping bag within the tent. The noise it would make might chase those alien eyes away. She motioned to her partner her plan to retrieve the bear banger.  Tanner kept watch as she retrieved the bear banger, they had only one to set off, so it had to work.

Climbing out of the tent doorway, she met the gaze of the yellow eyes and saw the animal for what it really was. The black form emerged into the firelight in full view, its reddish pink tongue whipped out across its’ nose, as if telling her she would be a good morsel to eat. More came into sight, their eyes no longer glowing but glittering with intent. Some black, some grey, there had to be more than a dozen of them looming in their true great size in the light.

“Wolves,” they claimed in unison.

Suddenly Tammy yelled at the top of her lungs, in an angry, harsh tone for them to ‘go away.’ The pack jumped back into the trees nearly invisible to see, stirring and rustling in the grass. Tanner joined in, his voice echoing through the valley below. Setting off the loud bear banger, she felt she had just saved their lives. Carrying on for a few more minutes, their throats throbbed raw. The wolf-pack left, nearly melting into the woods.

Tammy and Tanner watched the tree line, searching for any yellow eye, peeking from behind a tree. Nothing came into sight or could be heard. The silence was welcomed, when suddenly the quiet was broken by the far-off call of a wolf, then another called joined in. Breathing a sigh of relief, they hugged one another without peering around in fear then turned and entered the tent for the night.

In the wee hours of morning the call of nature woke Tammy and forced her outside, rising from the tent she gazed around at the shrinking shadows, the morning dew sparkling bright in the dim light and the warm rays of sunshine caressed her cool cheeks. There was not a wolf in sight. A squirrel scurried across the ground with a fir cone in its mouth on her left and a red-breasted robin gobbled up a worm to her right. Peace was restored to this little piece of nature's heaven.