What comes with the snow.
As he aims for the biggest deer he’s seen in months, he gets distracted by something white falling onto his riffle. Snow… could it be?
John hasn’t seen in snow in so many years that he stopped counting. He looks up to the sky and sees hundreds of thousands of snowflakes falling down at an incredibly fast rate. At this rate, the area will be covered in no time without any sign left of the grass. By the time he aims again, the deer has already escaped.
He’s pissed. He can’t go home without dinner this time; the food he had stored has already run out and his rabbit traps have not been a success lately. He has a feeling that something is wrong, he’s never ran out of food before in all the years he’s lived in the woods.
Before looking for another animal to catch, a heavy thought crosses his mind… it’s summer. Not only is snow very uncommon, but it’s supposed to be summer, or has he lost track of time again? He decides to forget about it and go look for some prey.
At least now he can see the footprints of any animal that has been recently around. He climbs a tall pine tree and takes out his binoculars to see the surroundings. There are no nearby footprints, but he’s positive that he has to find at least some birds. There’s nothing; no movement other than the snow falling from the sky and no sounds other than the tree leafs.
He decides to head the same way where he last saw the deer, even though he didn’t see what direction it went. Not before long, it becomes difficult to walk and he can feel his hat and jacket covered in snow already. He’s never been one to complain of the cold, it’s like he has his own heating system inside his body, but he can feel his lips starting to crack.
A sudden loud noise makes him skip a heartbeat and he positions his rifle ready to shoot. He can hear a few birds fleeing their nests, something must have disturbed their space. He feels something running his way, or maybe more than one thing. He sees the same deer as before running away from where the noise came from. He fires three shots and injures it on the back leg, the deer falls to the ground. When he gets closer to the animal he realizes it’s bigger than expected. He finishes the job and shoots its head.
He’s lucky he didn’t go too far from the cabin, it shouldn’t be too hard to carry it back there. The snow seems to be slowing down already, making it easier for him to see his way back. The deer is way too big for him to carry it on his back as usual, even for such a big man. He ties a rope around its back legs and drags it behind him.
Midway to his cabin he stops and notices something has been following him. He can’t see anything other than snow and trees, but he can feel the vibration on the ground from someone walking behind him. He hasn’t seen any other people around for years and convinces himself that it’s all in his head or maybe is just another big animal that has no interest in attacking him, otherwise it would’ve had attacked him already.
When he arrives to the cabin, he leaves the deer on the porch and checks his calendar. It is in fact the 26th of June, he hadn’t lost track of time. Maybe global warming is taking over the 4 seasons already. He turns on the TV on the news channel, but they don’t seem to be talking anything about weather.
There’s nothing he can do about climate change anyway, so he might as well not even worry about it. He takes off his jacket and puts on his butcher clothes to start preparing the meat. He goes out to drag the deer to the back of the house and there’s no sound to be heard again; everything seems to be back to being nice and peaceful.
A few hours later, he wakes up from a short nap. He left the deer all prepped and part of it cooking slowly on a wood fire, it should be ready by now. He looks out the window and it’s not snowing, but all the field is still covered in about two to three inches of snow. He puts on a sweatshirt and his hat to go check on his meal.
As soon as he opens the back door, he freezes. He closes his eyes as tight as humanly possible and opens them again only to see the same exact thing standing in front of him.
“Hey, you mind sharing some of that?” says what looks like a yeti standing behind the wood fire looking at the piece of meat; it’s covered in white thick hair, monkey face, short horns and must be at least 8 feet tall.
He swallows the words he can’t even find to respond. He just stays there not moving, only blinking, waiting for the moment when the yeti disappears and he realizes it was all in his head. It seems like an eternity before he gives up on that idea and realizes there is an 8 feet tall yeti on his back yard.
“Is everything okay with you, man?” asks the yeti after several minutes of dead air.
“Is everything okay? Is everything okay!?” John steps outside closing the door behind him, big doesn’t go any further. “You’re a Yeti! In my backyard! Asking me to share my food! What the hell!?”
The yeti stays silent for a moment and steps back a little. “Sorry man, it’s just that it’s been really hard to hunt these days; and I’ve had this deer on my watch for a while now. I mean, look at its size, you’re not going to eat the whole thing, are ya?”
John opens his mouth, but has nothing to say except for shaking his head.
“I can get you some birds, rabbits, squirrels, any other small animals in exchange. I’m just not a fan of eating such tiny things.”
“You’re offering me a deal?” asks John confused.
“Well, yeah, if that’s what you wanna call it.” The Yeti shrugs.
“Okay, okay…” He thinks about it for a minute or two. “Fine, you can bring me some other edible stuff, but it has to be close to the same amount of venison I give you, go it?”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll be right back with your food. Do you mind starting to cook the rest of the deer for me while I’m away?”
“Don’t you eat it raw?” John realizes he doesn’t know the first thing about yetis. But then again, no human knows anything about these creatures, do they?
“Raw? What kind of monster do you think I am!?” the yeti suddenly stops sounding so calm. “You humans need to stop thinking we’re monsters in the first place. We’re just like you, ya know? Hunting around for our food and then taking shelter for a good sleep. We’re not very different.”
“Fine, sorry. I’ll cook the meat for you, it’ll be ready in like an hour.” John says as he starts setting up a new wood fire.
The yeti leaves to look for John’s food; every step he takes leaves the same vibration on the ground that he felt before. As the vibrations fade away he realizes that this was his first social interaction in years, and he’s glad it wasn’t another with human; he’s actually kind of glad he met this yeti, it seems like they could be friends. How cool would it be to be friends with an 8 feet tall yeti, uh?