A Hunter and Pray

Aurora noticed the hunter before Tyee, but this came too late to drag them behind a nearby tree trunk and avoid detection. The hunter was whistling through the thicket with a sweat-stained shirt and a careless gait. The hunter, too, noticed Aurora first. His eyes lingered on her long skirts and their contrast to the deep woods around them. This was not a woman's territory, he noticed. What was she doing here?

When the hunter caught sight of Tyee, his face soured, and his whistling abruptly stopped. No matter how the hunter arranged the pieces, an Indian boy far out in the woodland with a white woman didn't look good, no matter how you spun it.

The hunter's conclusion was clearly unflattering, for he raised his gun and pointed it directly at Tyee's head. A voice, thick and burley, said, "You get away from her now, boy." 

Tyee raised his hands in surrender, stepping slowly away from Aurora but saying nothing.

"What in heaven's name are you doing with this woman?" The hunter said. 

The two stood still, caught in the deadly snare of the hunter's trap. In the six weeks they'd spent patrolling the woods, they'd never encountered another person, only animals. The animals were better in many ways. Their secret was safe with them, but it was not to be safe with the hunter.

The hunter inclined his finger to rest threateningly on the trigger. "Are you deaf, boy, or just stupid? What is your business with her?" Aurora stood still, her brow knitted tight as a cold sweat appeared on the nape of her neck. 

Tyee opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Aurora listened to the leaves crunch as he nervously shifted between his feet. His silence invited a simple shrug from the hunter. "Well,"

The gun clicked, and Aurora lunged forward, sliding herself into the space between Tyee and the hunter. "Please don't hurt him!"

The outburst vexed the hunter, but he wasn't an uncurious man, so he asked. "And why not?"

Through trembling lips, Aurora said, "I-I don't want you to."

The hunter's laugh was cruel and low in his bearded throat. "I don't mean any disrespect, Miss, but I don't hold the wishes of any Indian fucker in too high of regard." The phrase took her aback. Is that what he thought? "Now, please move aside. I'd hate to kill a woman just as much as I'd to splatter that pretty dress with blood."

"Aurora, please," Tyee pleaded. "I don't want you hurt."

"But he'll hurt you," Aurora said.

His voice was tight and hushed, hoping to prevent the hunter from hearing, but he listened intently to every word, "At least one of us should leave here alive." 

"What's done is done." She said. "You're not making the decisions today."

The exchange intensified the hunter's interest in them, for he lowered his gun without a huff. "What is your affair with this beast?" The hunter pointed towards Aurora. He considered Tyee, then Aurora. His eyes lingered on her with a hunger that made Tyee stiffen. "Nothing improper, I hope. I can hardly think of many proper reasons for a lady to find herself reeling in the wilderness with her skirts, trimmings, and a wild man." He boasted a sly smile grown from the sweet satisfaction of their alleged secret.

"Surely nothing like you're suggesting," Aurora said slowly and carefully. Breathing through her nose to steady the pounding in her throat. 

The hunter fixed an evil stare at Tyee; he did not break it when he spoke. "Then you might be inclined to fill me in, Miss. I'd hate to make the wrong impression." 

As it came Aurora's time to explain, she found her method much similar to Tyee's. Her throat dried up, and her tongue fumbled with its ability to form words. This amused the hunter.

"I see." He said, starting a slow and methodical pace around them. Aurora teetered with him, keeping her body between the hunter and Tyee. "My Christian morals tell me that I cannot leave a defenseless white woman out here in the sticks to be ravished by some savage. I cannot walk away from what I have seen here today."

"Nothing like that- has happened." Aurora found the strength to pronounce. 

"Yet." The hunter produced a finger, one ripe with possibility. 

"Nothing will happen!" She insisted a bit more bravely. 

"Oh, he wants to," The hunter said, nodding towards Tyee like he was referencing a footnote in an Oliver Twist novel. "He'd be a silly fool not to." 

Behind her, Tyee was burning with something she couldn't place should she try. Aurora racked her mind for anything that could explain their pure happenstance of running into the hunter that day. She remembered the berries they had picked earlier that day, digging into her pocket and producing them for the hunter. 

"He doesn't want to," She struggled some to say. "touch me." Aurora shook her head. "He's teaching me to gather."

There was a glint in the hunter's eye, "Gather?"

"That's right," She assured. "Gather."

She had expected this to tie up any loose ends of their story, but it seemed to unravel them further. 

"Now, what would a white woman of your status want with gathering?" He said, doubtful but engaged.

"It isn't so much about need as just wanting something to do." She feigned innocence that only a fragile, stupid woman of those times could. Praying the hunter would buy it, but he did not.

"Something or someone." He said crassly, chuckling to himself. "Tell me, boy, how long have you been running around with this white woman?"

"Six weeks," Tyee said.

The hunter humphed. "Do you chat on your little ventures?"

Tyee nodded.

"You ever get to hold her hand?"

Tyee shook his head.

"You sully her?" The hunter said, which surprised both Tyee and Aurora.

Tyee winced. "Never." 

"Liar." The hunter insisted. 

"I haven't so much as held her hand," Tyee said, breathing steadily but with a threatening fragility creeping into his voice. 

"But you want to?" The hunter asked, gun no longer aimed directly at Tyee and instead hung lazily in his arms. 

Tyee remained silent, but his face told the hunter everything he'd wanted to know. The hunter's amusement was building. 

"You want to be with her?" The hunter said, accusing. 

"No," Tyee said, but his voice betrayed him.

The hunter raised his gun and trained it on Tyee, "Don't lie to me."

The threat being more than enough, Tyee truthfully admitted, "Yes."

The hunter savored his next question even before he asked it. "Do her parents know about this little romance?"

The mention of her parents knocked something loose in Aurora, but Tyee bravely fielded the question. "No, they-"

Excitement flashed on the hunter's face, but its source was unclear.

"I'm familiar with the picture you're painting." He declared. "You're involved in a secret romantic rendevous with this white woman."

"I'd hardly call it romantic," Tyee said glumly.

"What would you call it then?" The hunter asked.

"It's not romantic for her." He admitted. "It's romantic for me, I suppose." Though her back was turned, she could feel his eyes blazing into her.

The hunter smirked. "That must be tragic for you, Indian."

Tyee nodded softly.

"Right." The hunter clapped his thunderous hands. "Here is how we will proceed, Miss. Halcom." He caught her surprised look at hearing her last name and reveled in it. "That's right, I know your folks. Mayor Halcom sure won't like to hear I found his daughter convalescing with some vagrant deep in the woods." He exhaled a leisurely breath, flaunting that the conversation cost him nothing. "To avoid this, you'll come back with me now and agree to take me as your husband."

"No," Tyee muttered loathingly, but the hunter ignored him.

"You come willingly, and I won't tell a soul that I found you here with him in a state of undress-"

"I'm not undressed!" Aurora insisted, shocked at the game he was playing with the truth.

"Golly, I wish you were." The hunter licked his lips. "Besides, it's my word against yours. Who will old dad believe? Did he ever mention me?" He read her look of confusion with blatant satisfaction. "Your grandfather bought my beaver skins for years and years. Your old dad and I used to hunt these very grounds together. He moved into politics, whereas I had other passions. But your dad is a good man. He never forgets a friend." The hunter said. 

Tyee stepped forward. The hunter displayed the successful gloat of having lured him out from behind Aurora. She grabbed his wrist tightly and commanded, "Don't move."

It had been the first time their skin had met, and electric sparks shot through them as it happened. If they were to die now, at the very least, they would have experienced this. Tyee moved not another inch.

Had the hunter been impatient or upset about the turn of events, he did not let on. "It's funny. I used to sell beavers with your father. Now he's going to sell your beaver to me." And out of him, a crude laugh poured.

Tyee nearly shoved her off his wrist, prepared to bound towards the hunter, but Aurora's grip did not waver. "Stay." She pleaded. "Please. He wants a rise out of you, an excuse to shoot."

"Oh, darling, I am not trying to get a rise out of him. I am successful in getting a rise out of him." The hunter said.

"I won't agree to your deal," Aurora said, giving Tyee's wrist a gentle squeeze. He looked at her, trying to decide what the gesture meant.

"Oh?" said the hunter. "Your daddy will be most pleased with the bride price. I find the price of my silence to be a valuable asset. Can't sell off a daughter who's been sullied. Lowers her market value, they say. Besides, I'd be an excellent son-in-law to him. I can't see much reason for him to object. Especially when she comes so willingly."

"I didn't sully her!" Tyee insisted, his voice gruff and angry.

"You wouldn't expect that man to marry you then." The hunter ignored Tyee, who grew cold at the mention of Laverne. "Your daddy will be furious that you ruined his business deal. Now imagine you're a worthless trade once word gets out that you were fondled by this"- He struggled to find an insulting term but landed on "savage."

Aurora could feel the impact of the hunter's words on Tyee beginning to take effect as he shrunk into her grasp.

"Soiled. You're ruined for your husband." The hunter's words were confident, dripping with the pleasure of their previous admissions. "What man would take a woman so savagely taken by another?"

The hunter tapped his chest, naming himself the answer to his prophecy. "I'd be so willing." His gaze disgusted her and infuriated Tyee yet again. "I'd have to tell your father, of course, so he understands why you are my prize won. He'd be pleased to have me bring the fear of God back to your Christian loins. As for me, I'd have vanquished the man who violated my wife." The hunter said. "It would seem that nothing was all too hard to explain."

Tyee tugged at his arm in her grasp again, but he did not free himself. "I didn't soil her."

"Tell me," said the hunter musically. "Why do you visit with her if you know she doesn't share your feelings?"

Aurora found herself tormented by Tyee's belief that she didn't share his feelings. Though now was hardly the place to express them, she'd never known they'd be welcomed rather than met with indifference or malice.  

Tyee reluctantly admitted, "Selfishly, I want to be with her. I know she can't be with me." He looked down. "Believe me. I know better than anyone. Sometimes it is enough to be with her. I know it can't last forever."

"Nothing ever does." The hunter said, entertained to play with Tyee's feelings at gunpoint. "I admit, I'm curious. Why do you think she hasn't turned you away already?" 

"Why do you want to know so much? Isn't it enough to shoot me?" Tyee asked.

"I like to play with my food." Said the hunter.

"I saved her life once," Tyee began. "Down by Mill Creek. There was a man that showed up to rob her, maybe worse. Perhaps she feels obligated to me." He shrugged, and Aurora squeezed his wrist.

"Obligated?" the hunter repeated. "Why would she feel obligated to you? She's engaged to be married. Given the circumstances, I hardly think anything more than a courtesy thanks is appropriate."

"She's been more than courteous," Tyee said, which upset the hunter to think he was making a lude joke at Aurora's expense.

"Don't get smart with me, boy." The hunter snarled. "Six weeks are bound to be filled with a lot of courtesy."

"More than I ever expected," Tyee said, pretending not to notice. "I offered to teach her self-defense, which led to her wish for my instruction in other matters. We obviously can't practice on the creek bank. Too many prying eyes."

"Prying eyes in the woods too." The hunter said, "Why would she feel six weeks of obligation towards visiting you?"

Every response promoted a throbbing pulse in Tyee's wrist. "You'll have to ask her."

"Why do you think she is obligated towards you?" The hunter pushed, not changing his line of questioning to Aurora.

"I don't know why she would feel an obligation towards me. I don't make advances. Truly. I can't marry her, even as much as I'd like to. I'd ruin her life worse than all the other ways a man could. Say, I might already have a stake in doing that by not turning her over to you." Tyee looked to Aurora. "I would isolate her from everyone she knows. No amount of want could ever make me do that."

Aurora wanted desperately to call out to him, but the words hung in her throat.

"Indian, if I'm not mistaken, you're in love with this woman." He said it accusingly, same as if he had committed a crime.

Guilty as charged, Tyee said, "What difference does it make?"

The hunter turned his attention to Aurora, remembering at last that she was part of this spectacle. "What about it? What is your business in coming out here?"

Aurora peered at her hand, pinched tight around Tyee's wrist, and vividly recalled the spark that had coursed through her at their meeting. "I don't know."

Despite confirming what Tyee already thought true, Aurora's lack of a love declaration struck him like a blow.

Chuckling at Tyee's misfortune, the hunter said. "Since you'll agree that you cannot marry this girl, you'll find the best outcome of this scenario, for all parties, to be my taking and marrying her. Wouldn't you agree?" He went on. "I won't say anything about this. I won't even kill you on second thought. Your existence is a bleak enough punishment, and I have never been a cruel man." The hunter stepped forward to claim his prize. "I'll just take the girl and be on my way."

Tyee hooked his free hand on his blade's handle, resting it there. The hunter paused. "That's for the lady to say."

She gave Tyee a pitiful look that she hoped swam with clues about her plans to deceive the hunter. Then released Tyee's hand and held it hand out for the hunter. Tyee's face shattered.

The hunter emitted a chime of audible glee, reaching triumphantly towards Aurora's hand. When his dirt-stained hand nearly took hers, she seized the opportunity to kick him hard in the shin, causing him to double over and drop his gun.

"You little bitch-" The hunter cried out, clutching at where her hard-tipped boot smashed into his leg. Tyee reacted quickly. He used the time to grab the hunter's gun and toss it far away. Then tucked his own body into a charging stance and tackled the hunter.

Having trapped him on the ground, Tyee started hitting the hunter wildly. Their grunts of struggle faded to the background as Aurora stumbled for the gun in a panicked haze. Though she hadn't the faintest idea on how to shoot it, she collected it and trained it on the hunter as he had done to Tyee.

Finding her shot was a challenge. Tyee and the hunter thrashed against each other, competing bitterly for the spot on top. She couldn't risk taking the shot without Tyee suddenly moving into the frame and intercepting her attempt.

Dexterity had been Tyee's strong suit in the fight. His movements were swift and decisive, shown with intense movement. He evaded the hunter's thick hands with ease for a time, but soon the hunter's stalky build overtook him.

His weight pinned Tyee to the ground while the hunter laughed. Tyee struggled under him to throw him off and swipe at him, but it was no use. The hunter's sturdy knees were pinned hard on Tyee's chest, and with vicious ease, he reached his hands around Tyee's neck and began to strangle him.

Aurora shrieked. Pure terror coursed through her while she begged and pleaded for someone to come and save them, to stop the hunter from strangling Tyee, but her words were no use. No one was coming.

With trembling fingers, Aurora took aim at the hunter. His enormous head loomed a short distance from Tyee's. Aurora tried to calm her shaking hands and inclined her finger on the trigger, just as the hunter had done. 

She was running out of time. Except for the hunter's grunts of triumph, only Tyee's suffocated attempts at breathing could be heard. The sensation snapped her into action. Then, with only a moment's hesitation, she pulled the trigger and prayed that Tyee was not hit.