He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. They were close behind, catching up, always there even as far as he ran. He looked back and saw the humans on their snowmobiles, the loud sounds nearly deafening. He ran through the snow, leaving tracks that were quickly covered by the vehicles in pursuit. He slid, his heart racing. A cliff, nowhere to run.

He turned and looked at the humans, who were already pointing their guns at him. "No..., he spoke under his breath, and immediately felt a sharp pain in his belly.

"No!!", Tails cried. He gasped and opened his eyes, sitting up. It was night time in the Endless Forest, and the snow was gently falling. It took him a moment to understand that it was a nightmare. He felt a sharp pain in his side, and sitting up, he realized he had been sleeping on a sharp rock that had poked him in the belly.

Sighing, he stood and went to the Pond for some water. He was overheated despite the cold weather, and as he dipped his weary head into the shallows, he lifted it for a moment, and caught a glimpse of a reindeer flying through the air. Tails tilted his head here, as the flying deer came closer and soon landed before him.

Tails approached cautiously. "Hello? Are you lost?", he asked the flying deer. The reindeer shook the snow from his body, the bells on his gear ringing. "Actually, quite the opposite. I came here to find you, Tails.", he replied.

The stag tilted his head, "Find me? What do you mean by that?", he asked.

"Oh where are my manners?

Possible mature language warning.

It all happened so fast. I was out hunting in the forest, the winter had left snow all over so just mustering through that was difficult as it was. The caress of coldness on my nose and cheeks made me stop for a moment, I buried my face in my gloves to keep warm. I continued on, looking for all the signs of deer here. They were all present, too – fresh hoofprints in the snow, gnawed bark off of the trees, and so on. The deer was close. I knew it was close.

It all happened so fast that I had little chance to even react. I crept past the trees, thinking I would see my trophy buck. But I heard something close by, and before I realized it, there was a grizzly bear so close to me that I could smell the fresh salmon in her breath when she roared. The cubs were so close, I didn’t see them until it was too late. Before I could point my rifle at her, she had already struck me.

It all happened so fast that I thought I was dead, one bear paw into my side knocked the wind out of me, throwing me to the ground. I was lucky the snow was there to take some of the impact. But the mother bear was slowly approaching, ready to tear my face off. I braced myself, and at that moment my rifle fired on accident. It wasn’t pointed at her. It wasn’t pointed at anything. But the sharp discharge was enough to start an avalanche.

It all happened so fast that I was ready to give in. The snow caught me, I was at Mother Nature’s mercy. I saw the bear and her cubs escape. They were quicker to react than I was. I tumbled down the side of the mountain, until I hit softer snow and was almost buried alive.

A week or two of short poetry written at school that I neglected to type up.

Much of it bears similarities to previous works.