Out of the Woods

The author sits at her desk. She looks out the window, into the cold snowy mountains, lined with trees. A fox briefly crosses her view. Her fingers hover over the keys of her computer. She can hear the clock ticking from the wall.

Tick… tok… tick… tok…

‘Just the first sentence’ she silently negotiated with herself, ‘I just need a good hook, that’ll get the creative juices flowing.’

Tick… tock… the clock sounded off passive aggressively across the room. Tick… tock…

‘I hate working on a deadline.’ She thought to herself. ‘I knew this was a bad idea.

Tick… tock…

Her fingers remained motionless over the keys.

‘What about a topic?’ She thought.

Tick… tok… tick… tok…

Nothing.

Tick… tok…

‘A genre?’ … ‘What about a title? Can I come up with a fun title?’

Still her fingers hovered. There was no clicking of keys, no words appeared on the screen, just a blinking curser on a blank page.

Tick… tok…

“Fuck” rang the audible expression of her disappointment, “I need a smoke”

She grabbed a lighter, and a clear tube holding a single pre-rolled joint which she got from the gas station in the town about mile down the road.

She slipped into the hallway where she piled on a snowsuit, a jacket, a hat, ear muffs, gloves, and a few scarves, before shoving her feet into big winter boots. She stuffed the lighter and joint into her pocket before walking out the door and onto her porch.

Her porch was boxed in by a sheer screen all the way around it. She turned a dial, which caused her fire pit to roar to life. She sat down on a chair in front of the fire. The moment her butt hit the seat her whole body went ice cold.

“Fuck!” She shouted as she jumped up.

Realizing her mistake she removed the lighter and joint from her pocket and placed them on the table. Then she pressed a button on her pants that caused them to warm up. Once she could feel the warmth return to her body she sat on the chair again. Now that she was comfortable, she pressed a button that made the roof of the porch retract just enough to air out the space above the fire. A small sliver of the night sky above was visible through the opening.

She picked up her joint, removed it from its tube, and lit it, inhaling the smoke deeply into her lungs and holding it there for a few moments before exhaling and clearing her mind of distractions. As she exhaled the writer could see beautiful lights dance against the night sky. A series of howls could be heard from the woods in the distance. Wolves!

‘Maybe wolves?’ She mulled over the idea in her head ‘Maybe an animal fiction? About… a wolf?’

An owl hooted from the dark woods nearby.

‘And an owl!’ She added in excitement.

She wrestled a notebook and pen out of her pocket, as she did her hands became cold. She pressed the button on each glove that caused them to warm. Then she began to scribble ferociously and passionately.

‘The wolf and the owl… both spot the same prey’ she continued ‘the owl sweeps in discreetly for the kill, but just moments away from catching the prey it scurry’s away having noticed the wolf who was also coming in for an attack! This set off a chain reaction causing the owl and the wolf to collide into each other in their shared pursuit. They tumble across the ground, giving their prey plenty of time to escape in the confusion.’

There was a faint rustling coming from somewhere deep in the woods. The writer felt the breeze come in and pressed the button on her jacket which caused it to heat up. She wrote out an argument between the owl and the wolf about territory, and the food chain, and respecting the hunt.

‘This is perfect!’ The author thought. ‘Finally a story is flowing freely from hand to paper!’

She stared at the paper for a moment. She became suddenly aware of her joint, which had put itself out, dropping ash all over her pant leg.

“Fuck” she said.

The wolves howls were present again, somewhere off in the woods. The author relit her joint. She started writing out some backstory about the wolves and owls being at war over territory. Each refusing to respect each others borders, each refusing to resettle in separate territories, each refusing to acknowledge the others claim to the land.

The conflict, she decided, was that the owls and wolves ate the same food, lived in the same territories, and yet inhabited different planes. She wrote out war strategies based on each others skills, she wrote out weaknesses for their rivals to exploit.

The owl hooted again nearby.

As she looked over the strengths and weaknesses of their populations she knew the end of her story.

A twig cracked as leaves rustled in the woods nearby.

The wolves and owls make peace! The owls patrol from the skies and alert the wolves to the location of prey.

A deer ran out of the woods, past the authors patio, catching her attention before disappearing into the woods once again.

She looked back down to her paper. Then the wolves kill the prey and eat their fill, leaving a healthy pile of scraps for the owls.

The author was taken out of her train of thought by the sound of the wolves' howls. Closer this time. Too close for comfort. She looked up from her paper and saw a pack of wolves staring at her from the other side of the thin mesh screen. One barked at her aggressively, they all howled in response.

“Fuck” she gasped.

Just then one of the wolves jumped at the mesh screen. The author jumped up, dropping her notebook to the ground. The screen didn’t give under the weight of the wolf, but she knew that was a lucky break. She ran towards her door before noticing another wolf at the side of the patio who was jumping as well. She grabbed the doorknob just as the wolf broke the flimsy boundary separating them. She flung the door open but the wolf was too close for her to get in and shut the door before it tore her leg off. So she ran the other direction and out the patio door.

‘The front door!’ She thought to herself as she sprinted through the snow towards the front of her house. She could hear the wolves howl before sprinting to catch up to her. As she was reaching the door she could hear they were right on her tail. She grabbed the door knob and turned… it was locked.

“Fuck”