Chapter 6
At precisely three am, Roy got out of bed. He first opened his door and walked into the living room to see his father passed out on the couch. Roy also looked down the hall, and every light in the house was off. Then he returned to his room and dressed as quietly as possible. Once Roy was dressed, he made sure his knife was on his hip, and then he pulled his backpack out of his closet and his bow with the quiver that held twelve arrows. Roy knew he would not need all twelve; he hoped only one would be used.
Once he had everything he needed, he walked out of the house. But before Roy could hit the road, he needed one more thing from the barn: his dad’s night vision scope. This would let him see the hogs at night and give him an advantage in the hunt. As Roy approached the barn, the dogs in the kennels started to wake up and make noise. Roy knew they would start barking at any moment, and if he wanted this hunt to be successful, he would need to do it the old way. No nightvision and no gun. He would be hunting like the Indians did over a hundred years ago.
Roy headed down the gravel road and looked up at the stars to see which direction he was going. The moon was dim, so his eyes were able to adjust quickly. Walking down the gravel road to the highway was no problem for Roy. He didn’t want to be seen on the highway, so he walked along the fence lines. This let him use the trees and fence for concealment. Every time a car would pass down the highway Roy would stop and make sure not to move until the car passed on the road. It was nearly impossible for two vehicles to be out this time of night to see him. Once they passed him, he gave them a few more seconds to keep driving before he continued walking.
The road to the ranch where he was headed was only about a mile and a half from his house. Then, the ranch was another half to three-quarters of a mile down a gravel road. Or at least that’s what Roy thought. It only took about twenty minutes for him to reach the gravel road and get off the highway. Roy was not wasting time; he was on a mission and practically jogged the whole way.
Roy heard something off in the woods before he even reached the ranch. He couldn’t see much but heard a pack of hogs breaking through the brush about a hundred yards away. He stood there and listened for them for a while, and he could tell they were just babies. The noise was not as loud as you would hear with a bigger and older hog. Roy knew that there is usually a large hog in the vicinity wherever you find small hogs. He could not leave the road and go off in the mesquite and yaupon brush to find them. It would take hours to get through there, and Roy wasn’t about to waste his time going after a bunch of small pigs. He had only pig on his mind.
Roy quickly climbed over the gate when he made it to the ranch. As he climbed over, he thought about what he was doing. Now, he had officially done something wrong. He entered someone’s land without their permission. His dad could hunt the land, but Roy was not granted that same permission. Now Roy could hunt with his dad all day, but the owner of the land never told Roy that he had permission to hunt on his land, and neither did Sam.
Now, when Sam finds out about what Roy is doing, that will be an issue Roy will have to face when the time comes. He knows if he comes home empty-handed, he will get an ear full from his father. But if he brings the beast home, he will still get an ear full from his father, but his dad will be proud of him for avenging his best friend’s death.
As Roy entered the ranch, he said a quick prayer that he would find the beast and kill him fast. He also prayed for Bandit to guide him. Roy wasn’t an Indian, but almost every hunter prays for the skills of the past Indians to help them on their hunts. The way the Indians hunted hundreds of years ago is still practiced by hunters worldwide. The most famous Indian hunting ritual is the heart of the animal. When a hunter kills an animal, it is customary, especially for new hunters, to eat the heart of the animal. Roy did this with the first deer he killed a few years ago. Before they moved the deer or even cleaned him out, his father took his knife, opened the deer’s ribcage, and cut out his heart. He took a bite and passed it to Roy. Roy was nervous and scared but he took the heart from his father and held it in his hand. He was scared to grab it, and the heart was lying in his hand.
“Take a bite,” said his dad, who had blood dripping down his chin.
Roy put the deer’s heart up to his mouth and took a bite. At first, he just nibbled and looked up at his dad. Sam motioned for him to take a bite, so he knew that his nibble was not good enough. Roy shoved that heart in his mouth and bit down on it. Pulling a chunk off the heart with his teeth. He did his best to chew it up, but he quickly pushed it down and swallowed it whole. Roy almost choked on it but would not throw it up in front of his dad.
Once he swallowed it, he handed the heart back to his dad. “Now you have the heart of the deer in you. When your heart ticks, his heart will also tick. Never forget that. Anytime you hunt, you will have that deer with you. The more animals you kill, the more hearts you will eat. The great hunters of this land used to eat every heart, and that’s why they were able to get the sense of the animals they had killed.
Roy thought about this as he entered the ranch and wanted every advantage he had to help guide him and protect him on this hunt. He also knew that he would only get one shot off if he was lucky, so he went ahead and notched an arrow in his bow and began to make the trek down to the river bottom. As ROY walked down to the river, he thought about Bandit and hoped that he would be able to avenge his death. Not only did he think about how Bandit passed but also about all the good times he had with his best friend and brother.
Roy’s senses were on high alert; his eyes had adjusted, and he could see clearly at night, just like it was day. The Mesquite and Post Oak trees were easy to distinguish, with the moonlight perfectly hitting them. His hearing had also adjusted, and Roy could hear the slightest sounds as he walked down to the river. The closer he got, the louder the flow of the water could be heard as it rushed around a bend on the northern slope of the property. With every step Roy took, he made sure that his heel landed first and rolled his foot as he stepped. If a branch or something made a noise under his foot, he would quickly pick his foot up and continue to walk. While still trying to be as quiet as possible. The morning dew started to settle more and more as the minutes passed, and fog started to cover the river bottom. Roy knew he had to walk south until he found the low-water crossing.
As he continued to walk, Roy could see where the hogs had traveled through the grass and towards the river. He could tell that nothing had been through here recently, and those tracks were probably from the day before when he lost his best friend. Roy was looking for fresh tracks, but he didn’t see any. He did come across a set of deer tracks that looked much like hogs, but the deer tracks were more pointed than a set of hogs, and the hogs were wider than a typical deer track.
The hunt continued until Roy came to the river. He slowly made his way down to the low water crossing and seriously thought twice about crossing. He knew what he was about to do would get him in big trouble with his dad and the game warden. He would be labeled as a poacher. And he didn’t want to bring shame to his family’s name. Roy thought about it for a moment and was about to turn around.