The Wolf-Bird-Man

Changing out of her wet jeans and tee shirt, Dannaya meet Julie at the door of her cabin. Dannaya had been helping out with the water safety course at the waterfront and had fallen into the water climbing into a canoe. It had been all Kevin’s fault, he hadn’t tied the canoe to the dock so when she stepped into the boat it sailed away; which made Dannaya fall into the water.
“Hey Julie.” Dannaya said closing the door to her cabin, “What do you want to do for the next two hours of free time?”
“We could always go for a hike.” Julie said. Julie had grown up in a small town in the Rockies, a town where kids carried knives from a young age to defend themselves from mountain lions. Julies childhood included hunting, fishing, bushwhacking, and ATVing. Julie was extremely comfortable in the bush, unfortunately she did not have a very good sense of direction, mostly because he brothers never let her lead the groups. She was also the girl that as a young child when people saw her didn’t know if she was a boy or girl because of her short hair. Since then she had grown her hair out a little but still wore all boys clothes, and walked like a trucker. “Yeah there is this really good trail up to Wolfbirdman’s perch.”
“No idea where that is, but sure lets go.” Dannaya and Julie began walking up the center gravel road of camp, Dannaya stopping at the staff room for a drink of water. Before they entered the trail head, they looked over to see group of people playing in the creek; Dannaya noticed one in particular, Kai. “Hey we should invite Kai.”
“No, I want this to be a girl talk. I haven’t seen you since last year.” Julie said starting down the trail, “We’ll be back in half an hour.”
[two hours later]
“I think we’re lost!” Dannaya cried out sitting down on a log. “It’s been two hours.”
[Editor’s note: To save you two hours of reading I have condensed the events and conversation into a brief list: conversations: boys, life at home, boys, how protective Kevin had been since their parents had divorced four years ago, boys, how weird it would be if someone liked Kevin, the legend of the Wolf birdman (camp legend states that he is half wolf, half bird, half man, and 100% killer. He eats wild animals and can be heard on stormy nights howling at the wind, and every morning he makes bird noises after he pranks your cabin.). Events: the two of them went on a smaller trial, and fell into a stream, almost fell off a waterfall, found a rope buried in the dirt, found a deer bone that they thought was a human bone, found a rusty water barrel on a wooden stand, tire tracks and a fresh grave for a dog named molly, wandered through the forest.]
“We are not lost, I know exactly where we are.” Julie said standing on top of a stump pretending to look into the distance.
“Where is that?” Dannaya said swatting a mosquito off her neck. Julie looked over and shrugged then froze. Julie slowly put up her finger to her lips and pointed behind Dannaya. Turning, Dannaya saw a flash of dark fur behind a rustling bush. Jumping from the stump, Julie ran full speed down the slight incline. Dannaya was quickly on her heels running as fast she could. Dodging trees Dannaya looked backwards and slowed down. She couldn’t see anything behind her, suddenly she heard the piercing cry of a bird of prey. As quickly as she had slowed she quickened back into running. Bursting into a meadow full of tall grass, Dannaya screamed out in terror, “I love you Kai!” head down running Dannaya ran head long into Julie who was standing on the edge of the lake. Both girls tumbled into the water. Sputtering, Julie came to the surface.
“I found camp.” Julie said turning to Dannaya. She pointed to her right, and there it was, the dock, boathouse, guard shack, and tree line.
“Well that’s embaressing!” Dannaya said climbing back up onto the dry shore from the three foot deep water. “I just got dry too.”
“Which part, being so close to camp and not knowing it? Or confessing your love to Kai this close to camp?” Julie said poking fun at Dannaya. “I still don’t understand why you chose Kai, he’s kinda weird.”
“No, it’s just his friends.” Dannaya said, starting the walk along the shore line back to camp. “Seriously if we do start going out, I’m defiantly going to make him stop hanging out with them.” Dannaya said turning to Julie. “I will not be seen hanging out with that group of losers.”