Drift Wind

They came in the night breaking and smashing. I heard my ma put up a fight, but then came the shot and I heard her body hit the floor of our old cabin. Now I was crouched under the old foot bridge, the water although still ice cold from winter melt higher up in the mountains couldn’t compare to the chill I felt in my heart. These men meant to kill me stone cold dead. All because of my blood some said, but I knew the truth. This was no backwoods feud. These were government men. I had to get west to my Uncle Taran. He’d help me.

Tara Collins wasn’t use to the ways of civilized society the likes of which could be found in the valley bottoms that rivers meandered lazily through. She’d been raised high up in the hills of the Allegany Mountains where those bottom land rivers were first given birth to. It didn’t matter now how well she knew the byways and secret places of the mountains. No place was safe for her. She was to her knowledge the last of her kin left in the East. It was time to go west and make her own way.
EXCERPT:
How was this possible? The horses nearest me flicked their ears at me, but continued grazing as they kept a wide berth around me. Their actions seemed almost tame, but I had the distinct feeling that they were not.
Why did they not trample me to death? Perhaps they recognized that I was no threat to them.
Just then I heard an excited breakout of horses neighing warningly and then there was a deep chesty roar. I sat frozen still, my eyes wide open at the hearing of the roar that continued to echo out across the prairie.
Horses took off into a full run all around me in an awesome flexing of muscle and sinew put to the test. Despite the panic to escape they sheeted around where I lay in the grass as if there was an invisible wall around me.
The horses that had been near me were gone as the herd split and went in what seemed like a hundred different directions. That’s when I saw the predator.
It was a bear, but a bear unlike any I had ever seen or heard tell of before. Its legs were taller than a horse and while truly massive in size it looked like it could run very fast.
There were three of them. Two were in full chase after the horses, who’s kicked up heels made the ground beneath me vibrate with heavy intensity. The third bear however looked like it had no stomach for chasing horses today.
It looked about scanning its environment, which is when it saw me. It gave an excited huff and began to lope unbelievably fast toward me.
I tore the makeshift sandals off my feet and letting the coat fly off my shoulders I took off barefoot across the prairie as fast as I could run. Looking back I saw the bear looming fast. Its speed was uncanny given its great bulk.
I ran harder and then on a whim I began dodging to the left and then to the right. The bear was upon me, but it was as I had hoped. It was fast in a straight line, but unwieldy in shifting direction.