8/10/2019 101 Hunting

1/3

Merrill-Lee Rasmussen

Boggess

English 101

September 29, 2011

The cold was starting to seep into my bones; a layer of liquid was coating my body. I

wasnt sure if it was just the rain falling from the unbroken line of grey clouds or sweat forming

from the adrenaline that was pulsing through me. I figured it was a mixture of both because a

salty glaze had been forming in my mouth. I was in the middle of nowhere; trees as tall as

skyscrapers towered around me. Enclosed on some alien planet, green blurred together to make

a maze. The rain dripping off the leaves hit puddles of water and made a splash that was like a

rock skipping across the ocean. Yet each minute there was an increasing amount of rocks sliding

through the ocean. I was running, slower than normal for the weight of my gear and the gun I

had in my hands slowed me down.

The vegetation around me was a blur of green as I ran down the winding dirt road trying

to be as quiet as possible. I thought every snap of a stick or grinding of a rock would scare him

away. I seemed as if it took hours to go the short distance to where he would be walking out. I

had done this a million times, not but never received any prize. Time seemed to be dragging

until I came bursting, around a bend and there he stood.

His huge white and tan body was standing in the middle of the road blending in with the

wilderness all around us. He shifted his head around to face me, just as my foot came down on a

branch, ending with a loud crunch. While his head was turned, the massive rack towering over

8/10/2019 101 Hunting

2/3

Rasmussen 2

him became visible. He must have been the king of this forest; the long sharp tips that extended

off of his antlers were like branches on a tree always growing.

I knew he was the one for me, it was time put my training to use. I raised my gun; the

rustle of my clothes didnt seem to faze him. He seemed focused on something else, something

in the other direction. Holding my gun was like holding a feather; my arms lacked resistance. I

looked down the barrel into the scope, lining the sights right up with my target. As the safety

clicked off, he looked back to the get pierced by the bullet.

Having been shot, he now fell to the ground. The bullet had gone a little higher than

planned and had broken his back. He lay there on the ground not able to move and unaware of

what had happened to him. The next few shots I took at him echoed through the trees like yells

of victory. It was over, the beast had fallen at my feet by my hand and my hand alone. I had

accomplished something on my own. The adrenaline rush was there reddening my cheeks and

causing my heart to pound so hard it could have burst through my chest.

Did you get it? my dad yelled, running down the dirt road. He looked like he was part

of the forest with leaves hanging from his clothes from running through the brush toward my

shots.

Yeah, I did I choked out. I couldnt control myemotions anymore. It was so

overwhelming.

Dad, I said I need a hug

My dad was so proud of me. The hug he gave me is one I will never forget. It was the

kind of hug that said he was, at the moment the proudest father in the world. As the hug

8/10/2019 101 Hunting

3/3

Rasmussen 3

continued I started to realize he was hugging me with so much force that it was constricting my

breath. Finally I was able to squeeze out of the hug as my life began to flash before my eyes.

As we stood there taking pictures and celebrating, it was hard not to think of the

magnitude of power it took to kill a beast like the elk I had taken down. That day showed me the

true meaning of life and how nature works to supply the world with the necessities to survive.

More than that, it was even harder to think about the power it had taken to create an animal of

that beauty. How that magnificent of an animal could be taken down by a piece metal, is a

power accessible to man, yet is something that cannot be controlled.