i know my ship is coming in

Jaden Ohanzee · 04-19-2011, 12:08 PM

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Sorry, started writing this yesterday but didn’t finish till now Sad . I hope its not too long. You inspired me to be “semi-interesting too! :> WC-1300+

Compared to some of the days Jaden had experienced lately, today was a good one. No one had picked a fight with him yet. No coyotes or cougars annoyingly surprised him. Today was peaceful. The only thing threatening this nice day was Jaden’s mentality: he no longer had anything to live for. It was just as simple as that. He had no one to hunt any longer, no home to go back to or pack to call family. No one would care if he suddenly just up and disappeared. But he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He wanted to have a good day today, and getting blue about life wouldn’t help.

The male had decided to take a stroll down the beach. Sand and ocean waves were comforting because they reminded him so much of Alaska. Many times had he walked down a beach or just sat on the sand and watched the sea while his mind mauled whatever drifted to his attention. Often now, those thoughts were of Alaska and his past and would sour the man’s mood if he found them today. So, he was walking with slow strides, body relaxed and eyes darting about for things to fill his mind besides his past.

Along the land locked edge of the beach there was a thin tree line. It was more broken then it would be naturally because of the road that cut it from the rest of the forestry. The trees were very much alive though, despite their scarcity and stood tall and green. Some came right up to the sand where their roots erupted from the shoreline as a testament to their will to survive.

They reminded Jaden of years before when he had first started his archery training. His uncle was the most skilled archer in their pack and had decided to pass his knowledge down to the amateur assassin. One exercise they practiced was climbing a tree and shooting at buzzards. Jaden recalled his uncle’s words, “When you can hit a bird in the sky, while maintaining you balance on a tree limb, no ground dwelling creature will stand a chance against your skill.” Perfecting the delicate art it took to do what his uncle expected took the dark red and black Optime almost two years of daily practice. Even then he was lucky to get one hit from every few shots. When climbing in a tree and balancing on limbs, you must also be relatively free of equipment. Only being able to take an arrow or two as ammunition with him at a time called for many times climbing up and down trees.

Instead of dwelling on his now dead uncle, Jaden rushed his mind forward and looked for a perfect archery tree. Each before him was in perfect proximity to seagulls for him to practice once more, but the ones he passed were not ideal of climbing. One he saw was almost all dead. Another had sharp bark and was surrounded by too-hard-to-fall-on-safely rocks. In truth, the thought of actually climbing a tree this day was an abstract idea, until he noticed the perfect maple tree.

It was colossal. The optime stopped all together and just looked up as it towered over him. The tree must have been almost eighty feet tall and grew well into the sandy beach. The only downside to it was a large dead section near the top. The maple looked like it might be beginning to die because of how far it had grown out into the sand. Larger roots erupted out of the sand and looked dead and rotten from the constant salty abuse of the sea. Many had been eaten away by animals or broken off in the tide. The root’s absents left a somewhat soft and sand area near the bottom.

Looking over his shoulder, Jaden noticed a few seagulls riding the thermals of the sea shore. First he thought,Why waist the time? I could get hurt and there is no real point to climbing that tree. He grimaced at the truth, but he could not pass up the tree. He needed to indulge in some recklessness every now and then, didn’t he? After looking at it for a second, he sighed and through down his satchel and shoulder strap. He drew his bow from the satchel and an arrow from his quiver before dragging them to the tree and leaving them near its trunk. Then, he shouldered the bow and with another sigh, jumped up and grabbed for his first hold on the thick maple branches.

Initially getting into the tree was always the difficult part, even for the well trained and somewhat strong Optime. Having to be careful with the sharp arrow head in his right hand just aided to the climb’s difficulty. Once he got past swinging his body onto the first branches though, climbing was considerably easier. Though the tree was over grown with lots of little sucker branches on its larger ones, the big ones were numerous and made great climbing holds. As he cleared ten feet past the first limbs, which were almost ten feet up already, he found a thick, six inch branch that had been split by snow fall. He gave it little attention and a wide birth, thinking to watch for more. He quickly began to encounter numerous other dead limbs as he approached the trees mid section. Soon there were more dead than living branches and the man began to slow his climb, not wanting to grab a branch that would break. His mind warned him to stop, but he ignored it for a minute or two before realizing there were no more living branches above him. Once he stopped, he realized even the one he stood on was dead. He decided it was strong enough to hold him anyway and that he had gotten high enough. He was only about forty feet up, but falling even that would be dangerous.

The view Jaden met at that height was breath taking. Sea stretched into the distance for an eternity and he had clear view of the gulls scavenging the beach bellow. Grinning, he took his bow in hand and armed it. The draw string made a stretching sound as he pulled the arrow back and looked for a victim.

The hunter was dead set on an eye level ‘gull, when another target caught his attention. Floating gracefully above the sand was an Owl! In broad daylight? Jaden wondered skeptically. He knew they were night creatures. Perhaps he is sick, and with that thought, he chose his prey. Owl feathers were very pretty and would make great tails for his arrows too.

Shifting the bow over to take aim at the owl, Jaden pushed his feet evenly out onto the single dead tree branch underneath him for balance. The branch flexed and there was a sudden and loud CRACK! The assassin looked down, “Damn,” he breathed before it gave. The arrow flew harmlessly into the ocean and the bow flew wildly free o the tree as he flailed his arms uselessly. Branches whipped painfully at his body . Some broke away as he passed through the tree. He felt his breath leave him as one particularly large branch caught him right in the groin. He winced and grabbed blindly at the branches for a hold, trying to slow his fall. Branch after branch broke under his weigh bruising his forearms and body. One branch finally did stop his descent, but only for a second. Looking up he saw the same split branch he had noticed on his assent and didn’t even bother cursing this time. He fell the last twenty feet and landed on his feet. He completed a roll to dull the impact, but could not slow his momentum quick enough to keep from eating the sand. He landed in the sand face first with a thud. For a second he just lay there in too much pain and shock to move. Then he slowly pushed himself up and spit out a mouth full of sand. He groaned and rolled onto his back, covered in sand and dazed.

Jaden does. "Jaden speaks." Jaden thinks.

#00+

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