Disclaimer:
This story involves violence, death, native Americans, religion, profanity, and incest. I don't wish to offend, this is purely a work of fiction. All characters involved in sexual relationships are over 18.
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Jones Farm Savages
4. The Hunting Trip
The brown-furred rabbit nibbled on the leaves of one of the white flowering weeds, that covered the whole meadow. A bee, disturbed by his insistent tugging, left the white blossom and quickly vanished into the blue sunny sky. Suddenly, the rabbit jerked his head up, his long ears stretched out, listening for danger. Just before he could flee, the blunt sound of a gunshot thundered across the meadow and the small body of the rabbit was deformed by the impact of the bullet and thrown to the ground.
"Gotcha!" Lily called, her brother's rifle in her hands.
"Nice shot. You really get better at this," James said and Lily's face beamed with pride.
"Yeah, I think it's the breathing you showed me," she said.
James smiled and stood up, "Let's get our dinner."
An hour later the two siblings each carried a rabbit, as they entered their family home. Bethany, who was sitting at the table, looked up, saw their prey and shook her head.
"Not again," she whined.
"Ok, you don't get any of it," James teased back.
"You wanna starve me?"
"Yeah, I would. Good thing for you, they're Lily's, so it's up to her."
Bethany turned to her younger sister and nodded approvingly, "Well done. Should i hunt me a chicken or is my little sister charitable enough to let me have some of her rabbits?"
Lily laughed, "Of course you can have some. Always."
Ruth, their mother, had followed their exchange and interjected: "That's enough".
She grabbed the two rabbits and just as she opened up the first one with a practiced cut, she said over her shoulder, "James, please stop teaching your sister those things. That's inappropriate, all she needs to know is to cook, sew and make a home. Otherwise she'll never find a husband."
"Like me?" Bethany asked
"If you would wear a dress in town, I am sure you would find a man," Ruth said
Bethany laughed.
"At least you could take Rachel there sometimes. At her age, I already had James"
Bethany's voice was suddenly sharp, "I told you before, there are no decent men in town, I wont let a drunken fool have her."
Ruth turned around, her hands covered in the blood of the rabbits, she looked at her daughter.
But before she could say anything, James ended the discussion, "Let's finish the chapel as I promised father. When people start coming, we'll pick a honest and good churchmen for Rachel."
Silenced, Ruth turned around and focused on the preparation of the rabbits and Bethany murmured something about horses and left the house.
James turned to Lily and whispered with a smile on his face, "and maybe we'll find one for you as well. A big hairy one."
Lily blushed, she already had her eyes set on a churchmen, on the preacher to be exact, and as far she could tell, he was big, but there were no hairs. Quickly, she changed the topic.
"Mother, I would like to go whitetail hunting with Tama"
"I don't think so," Ruth responded.
"She said she saw some in the south. She has hunted them before."
"You're not going hunting."
"But it's not dangerous."
"You heard me. Now get me some carrots and onions."
Lily pouted as she stormed out of the house to fetch the vegetables from the garden. James walked to his mother and helped her to clean up the rabbit intestines.
After a while he began to speak, his voice was soft and calm.
"I think you should let her go. We've rebuild the smokehouse and with the additional meat, we can sell it as jerky in town. We certainly could use the money."
"You can go," Ruth said.
"Alone? That would be stupid. And I doubt Kimeya let me and Tama go alone on a overnight hunting trip. Besides I have things to do here."
"I don't know James."
"Tama is a good hunter, she'll protect her."
"She is a young girl. Both are. I don't let them go alone."
"James can come with us," Lily said.
She stood in the door, the vegetables in her hands. Ruth turned around and looked at her youngest daughter. She could see the hope in her eyes and her wordless begging. Ruth raised her shoulders and her resistance was gone. She looked at James, giving him the last word.
"Please,..," Lily whispered.
"If Kimeya is okay with it, sure, I'll do it," he said.
Lily threw the carrots on the table and rushed to him to give him a hug. She turned around and with quick steps she run out to tell her best friend.
"It'll be fine," said James to his mother.
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A few days later, James, his younger sister Lily and Tama had been on horseback the whole day, when they saw their first white-tailed deer. The trip so far had been tiring, their way led them through a ever-green forest and had slowed them down. In their first night away from home, cold rain had poured down on them and on their small camp between the trees.
James and Tama tried their best to keep a fire going, but then one of their five horses got spooked during the night, slipped away and James spent two hours to find it. None of them slept much that night and for the most part of the second day, it kept raining and their mood was on a low point.
Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and the forest grew thinner. They rode up a hill and there he was, a big buck with an impressive set of antlers.