~~~ Series Notes ~~~
This piece is part of a series. All of the chapters in this series have been completed. They are submitted to Literotica as a bundle. They should appear at a rate of one per day.
My characters may have biases, attitudes, and beliefs that I do not share. When reading dialogue, please keep in mind who is talking, to whom they are speaking, and whether or not they might be attempting to deceive that person in some way. There is also the chance that they may be ignorant of some fact(s) but believe they know the truth.
My lore is my own. I beg, borrow, and steal - and then fold, spindle, and mutilate. Judge my work on its own merits - not on how well I do or don't follow the path that others have blazed.
If you don't like what or how I write, you might not be my target audience. Raging about it doesn't do either of us any good. If you don't like my stuff, kindly take your business elsewhere.
~~~ Chapter 1 - Fae'd In ~~~
I'd just bought my own place, outside of Welch Oklahoma, bordering Cherokee lands, and was settling in - with the plan to live completely off of the grid. I had a few solar panels for the limited amount of electricity that I needed to run my little travel trailer until I could build myself a house.
My plan was to use concrete blocks and then cover the whole thing in dirt. The idea was that the soil and the vegetation would make the interior easier to cool and/or heat.
So far, all that I'd managed to do was to remove most of the weeds - to try to resurrect the garden that had been built by the previous owners. That feature was the main thing that had clenched this as the place for me to buy - that and a chicken coop with a dozen good laying hens.
For whatever reason, the previous owners were moving to Oklahoma City - ready for the urban life. They could have it, as far as I was concerned. I'd only grown up around smaller-sized towns and communities - and I was ready to give that up for even more peace and quiet. A city the size of our state's capitol held no appeal for me at all.
The rest of my family lived four hours west (and a bit south). My sister, who'd just graduated high school, was still living with mom and dad. She probably would continue to do so - at least for the next couple years - while she figured out what she wanted to do next.
I'd graduated from trade school and should have apprenticed to a local electrician - but the main company in the area where we'd lived had just gotten bought out by an outfit from the nearest city - and I didn't want to be part of something that big.
Grandpa Wells had passed away the year before and I took my share of the inheritance and spent it on my burgeoning empire.
My phone rang and I checked caller-ID. It was Hazel, my sister.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I need a favor," she said.
I made a sound that was as annoying as possible - letting her know that I was already annoyed with her request - and the presumption that I would agree to it.
She laughed at me. The gall! Somehow, she knew I couldn't say 'no'.
"Alright," I sighed. "What is it?"
"Our climbing club is going to Scotland for a few days and I need a travel buddy."
"What happened to Raquel?" I asked.
Raquel was my sister's high school classmate - and long-time climbing partner. Every time I saw anything to do with that Disney movie about the Scottish redhead, I thought of Raquel. Change the cartoon character's blue eyes to amber - and make her a little less strong-willed and slightly less death-defying - and you'd have my sister's best friend.
"Wedding ...," she answered.
"Not hers ...?" I asked - trying not to sound as curious as I really was.
"No, silly," she said.
She hesitated only a second before she couldn't resist needling me.
"You really need to just ask her out. She's a little weird. She might like you."
"Thanks for that," I muttered.
She snickered.
"Now that you've shit on me," I asked her, "what is it that you need? You know I'm not a climber."
"Yes, but you love that camera of yours," she countered. "Look up Inaccessible Pinnacle. You won't want to climb it with us - but the area surrounding it looks like something I think you'd love - for trekking and photography."
I put my sister on speakerphone and searched for the area she was talking about. It WAS something I'd probably enjoy.
"How much?" I asked.
"I talked mom and dad into covering your flight and transportation," she said. "If you'll go with us, take pictures of the club as we climb Inaccessible Pinnacle, and then as we rappel down, then you'll have three days to yourself while we hit the pubs and climb a few less noteworthy summits. You just need your backpack with your gear, your camera, and money to buy whatever food you'll need while exploring."
She gave me the dates for the trip and I told her that I'd think about it. There was nothing to think about. Hazel already knew I'd go. She'd aligned too many planets on my bucket list - and my consent to tag along on this trip was a foregone conclusion.
Two weeks later, I arrived at Mom and Dad's place - so that they could drive my sister and me into Lawton to meet up with the rest of the crew that was going. I glanced at Mt. Scott - which was where my little sister had cut her climbing teeth as a youngster - and developed the passion for her hobby.
When we caught up to the rest of her group, I saw that my backpack and suitcase was almost as big as those of the climbers. I only knew a few of them - so I just sat in the seat, next to my sister, staring out of the window, as she conversed with her climbing buddies on everything they were looking forward to on the trip.
Our flight to Inverness Airport took 17 hours. The bus ride to Skye took another two and a half. I'm not sure any of us slept on the way there - so our first day was mostly spent getting adjusted to the time-change.
I woke from my slumber, bought enough trail supplies to get me by for a few days, and found a place to sit - to look over my maps and planned trekking route - while I waited for the climbers to assemble and for our transport to arrive.
It was a good thing I'd invested in a larger memory card for my camera. I ended up taking pictures of pretty much everything. The club's ascent took several hours - and we'd already burned a couple getting to the base of the thing. By the time they came down, I was a quarter of the way through the capacity on my micro USB card. I was absolutely in love with everything about this island. Hell, that was probably true for the whole country. The climbers had laughed at how many photos I'd taken - just between the airport and the hotel.
I climbed halfway down to the bus with the club members and then gave my sister a hug and told her to have fun at the pubs - but not too much. She laughed and gave me a sisterly shove.
I turned my eyes to the northeast and made for the hills on the other side of the mountain stream that I'd seen. My canteen was full - but I wanted to give the water a taste.
The sun was headed towards the horizon but I still had plenty of time to make my way to the hollow I'd picked for my first night under the starlit skies of Skye. My kit was light. My bed was a sleeping pad and an insulated sleeping bag. My shelter was a tarp (and an emergency blanket, if it got colder than I expected).
I arrived at the stream, leaned on a small boulder to kneel down, and cupped my hand, scooping a bit of water and preparing to bring it to my lips. A silvery fish leapt away, and I turned to watch it splash into the water further downstream.
That was when I swore that I saw a Barbie-doll sized hunter with a tiny bow - clad only in leggings - of greys, greens, and browns. His eyes were full of hatred. He leapt forward and bit me on the wrist.
I tumbled onto my ass, holding my injured hand and scrambling away. I lost my balance, fell backwards, and lost consciousness. Just before I passed out, I swear that his tiny eyes changed from glowing red to wide green orbs that were full of alarm - and then fear.
~~~
I woke as the sky was lightening with the dawning of the new day. I was clothed, lying on my mat. My sleeping bag lay over the top of me. My emergency blanket was stretched out over me and my bed, held to the ground by the weight of dozens of fist-sized rocks.
There was no sign of my attacker. If it weren't for the fact that I was sleeping so much differently than my norm, I might have assumed that I'd just had a long day and had passed out from sheer exhaustion - but the bag laying on top of me - and the stones holding the silvery blanket in place - those things suggested that I'd been tucked in by someone else.
I pulled the blanket free - setting several rocks scattering - and discovered that most of the shit in my backpack had been dragged out by someone - or several someones.
Whoever they were, they'd only taken about half of my foodstuffs. The rest had been gathered in a pile - apart from the rest of my supplies and equipment. Along with my remaining packs of jerky, trail mix, granola bars, and instant meals, there was a little clutch of quail eggs. I assumed they were quail. They were too small to be chicken. Whoever had taken my food had, at least, traded for something else that I could eat.
The rest of my stuff looked to be all here - just scattered - like a dozen little Barbie doll hunters had studied each and every item - trying to figure out what its purpose was - and then tossed it aside to grab another.
As I gathered all of my things, I thought back to the little hunter that I had startled. He was smaller than a Barbie-doll. My sister's dolls were almost a foot tall. (I know this because the neighbor's dog found one once and I had to construct the little cardboard casket so that my sister could give the thing a proper burial.) The tiny hunter was probably more like a span in height - eight to nine inches.
