The Deer’s Revenge

This story was written in answer to Fandango’s One Word Challenge. Word – ‘Character’

This story also includes the Your Daily Word Prompt word – ‘Elusive’

Here’s what I came up with …

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The Deer’s Revenge

Ben Strickland had been a deer hunter for many years. He had a wall of grand stag trophies from many different species. He loved the thrill of hunting the elusive characters through the wilderness forests near his home in Oregon.

As night approached, Ben was moving with all the stealth of a black panther. His Winchester Model 70 Supergrade rifle was primed and ready. His target, this hunt, was a large grey mule deer. He’d seen a herd heading this way from a hilltop vantage point about an hour ago.

Ben adjusted his camouflage trousers and slipped through a salmonberry copse beneath the golden canopy of white oak and pine trees. The spider creeping over his shoulder didn’t bother him as his dark eyes finally settled on the flanks of a majestic twelve-point stag.

Just the sight of his prey, set Ben’s heart rate soaring. His mouth ran dry on the adrenaline rush as he crept a little closer.

The gobbling noise of nearby turkeys failed to steal his attention as he aimed, held his breath and squeezed the trigger.

There was no Blam. The gun failed to go off. A pair of chipmunk playing in the leaf litter seemed to laugh at him as the chittered and then they were gone under the roots of a tree.

“Shit!” Ben checked the slide bolt and firing mechanism, rechambered his .270 Winchester round and took aim again. For a second time, the gun failed to discharge.

This time the forest seemed to go stone cold. The birds’ chatter stopped and the creatures all took to cover.

Ben felt eyes on him, he looked toward the mule deer stag. It and the herd were gone.

Something cracked nearby  

Ben flinched as he turned to follow the presence.

Red eyes, eight feet above the ground were staring right back at him.

“No, please don’t hurt me!” Ben backed away.

The eyes blinked closed and the elusive beast vanished.

Ben pushed through the bushes and felt his back hit something solid, warm and muscular. The being smelled of the forest, the musky smell of mould and rotting foliage. He turned and cried out in abject fear. Eyes wide he took in the most demonic character he’d ever seen. It had enormous deer horns coming out of its humanoid skull. Those red eyes bore into his skull as he took in its wiry body, gorilla arms and hoofed deer legs.

“For you, the hunt is over!” it said not vocally but telepathically. The words boring right into Ben’s skull.

“No! What are you?” Ben fumbled with his rifle but knew it was useless. Somehow this being was able to prevent it firing.

“I am a forest guardian. Some of you humans call us Wendigo. We were sentient but we cannot standby and allow humans to kill our earth anymore. You will be the first sacrifice. Every hunter that follows will also die until the murder of defenceless creatures stops.”

“What? Killing me won’t stop the hunters!”

“I said you will be the first. My brethren are awaiting you disgusting hunters in many forests throughout the world. Now, it will be the hunter on the endangered list.”

“No!” Ben tried to run. His feet were rooted to the ground —he panicked — he was paralysed.

The being seized his gun and bent it into a U-shape with the ease of snapping a twig. As the weapon fell to the leaf litter, he lunged, seized and tore into Ben. The forest was filled his screams until silence fell again.

Sometime later Ben’s remains were discovered at a roadside in the forest. A message in the flesh on his back warned; ‘All hunters will suffer this fate if they continue to kill animals.’ Within twenty-four hours thirty dead hunters, each bearing similar messages were found. The tide of death was changing for the better.

The End

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Imagine just for one minute being a deer, an elephant of one of the many other defenceless creatures. Imagine going about your day and Blam a heartless human shoots you purely so he/she can smile over your carcass for a trophy picture and mount your head on the wall. Its barbaric and wrong. The governments need to make this sort of hunting punishable as murdering humans is for it is no different. It is murdering innocent, defenceless souls in the first degree.

Hunters: know that every creature you kill. Every species you help make extinct is one step closer to us humans being extinct too. The time to stop the murder is now.

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Thanks for reading my friends. As always there are more stories to be enjoyed (I hope) in the Short Stories and Short Stories 2 tabs.

Have a great day!