and started back down the hill, squinting through the snow storm to try and see the way on.
I took several steps then paused as the sound of barking called me to a halt.
I fell still, the oppressive silence of the snow-filled landscape the only thing I could hear for a moment before Tyson’s barks came again.
I hesitated. Tyson may have been a half wild mutt, but he didn’t make a fuss over nothing. If he was barking, there was good reason for it. Maybe we had company. Though it didn’t seem likely the Cutters would be out in this weather and no one else ventured this far up the mountain and into the forest during winter. So maybe he’d found some other kind of trouble, pissed off a porcupine or made enemies out of a wolf pack…
“Tyson!” I bellowed one last time. If I could hear him then he could damn well hear me too, but the only response I got was more distant barking.
I gritted my teeth and turned off of the path as I took a guess at the direction his barks were coming from. There was an echo in this valley which played tricks on you if you didn’t pay enough attention, but I was used to the ways of this forest and I was fairly confident in my route. Living up here for a year had made me adept in a lot of things which I hadn’t been before. But these woods were devious and if you didn’t keep your wits about you, you could find yourself falling prey to all manner of dangers. From the wild animals to pitfalls and sudden drops in the terrain.
There were old gold mines out here and the tunnels that had been carved into the earth by the men seeking their fortune were as likely to collapse beneath your feet as anything else if you passed too close to them. Not to mention the Cutters gang who occupied the north side of the mountain and the abandoned gold mines there for their cannabis crops. They’d built a community of savages who ruled their territory with an iron fist and held no laws to account. Not that I mixed it with them much. I’d come up here to escape from the world and the life which I thought I’d been destined to live.
When it turns out your entire life was a lie, there isn’t much else you can do but turn your back on it and leave the past where it belongs. Perhaps one day I’d have to return to Sinners Bay and face the consequences of everything that had happened before I left, but today wasn’t that day. And neither was tomorrow.
For now at least, solitude was my friend and Tyson my only companion, and that was the way I wanted it. That dog might have been a half wild beast, but since I’d found the stray mutt caught in a hunter’s snare, he’d stuck by my side. And I had to admit that I was more than a little glad of his company. So if the mutt was barking with such urgency then the least I could do was take heed and see what had him so riled up.
The wind blew mercilessly and I was half blinded as the blizzard raged. It was so intense that my footsteps were disappearing behind me almost as soon as I stepped out of them. If I didn’t know these trees so well, I’d be afraid about finding my way back to the cabin.
I rounded a rocky cliff and Tyson’s barks grew louder as I squinted into the blizzard.
“Where are you, boy?” I called, the wind tearing my voice away the moment it left my lips.
A dark shape raced towards me through the snow and I tightened my grip on my rifle a moment before recognising Tyson’s black and tan coat. He was at least some part German Shepherd and I half wondered if the rest of him was wolf at times due to the size of the beast. Though he was as soft as a boiled egg once you got him on side, he was a mean bastard if he didn’t like the scent of you.
“There you are, boy. What are you up to now?” I asked him as he shoved a cold, wet nose into my palm. “Come on back to the cabin.”
I turned to head home and he growled at me, catching the edge of my coat and tugging hard