The icy wind stabbed my body as pa and I laid prone in the once lush flowing riverbed. For some reason there hasn’t been any water there for years. I was 14 at the time and pa and I were hunting for deer. It was late winter in the year of 1861. The Civil War had just begun and every now and then, Confederate troops would prowl up North to take us Northerners to camps to be used as slaves. What a world.
I snapped out of my fluent daydreams and back into reality as we sat in the frost encrusted riverbed when my hands became prisoners of Earth’s icy grip. Even my wool jacket couldn't keep its relentless charge out.  At The Time I was afraid of my own shadow. That was about to change.

Two hours later and still no luck. Drenched in boredom I twirled my curly dark hair, waiting for excitement. There was still no sign of deer and the weather sure didn’t let up. Though the sun was shining bright, the air was freezing cold. The Earth sat covered in an icy white blanket of snow despite of the giant woodland trees towering above. All of a sudden we heard rustling. “Ssshhh Trevor.”

  Pa hushed even though I wasn’t making a sound. At the very next moment a good sized doe meandered into the open. I raised my rifle and the doe raised its head. My shadow dark eyes opened wide. Scared to shoot I sat there.The doe must have gotten startled by something, because in a flash, it’s white tail shot up,  it’s spring like legs gave way and hurled itself into the brush. What followed was a blood curling Indian like roar.
Pa took me by the hand and we ran for it. “Dad what’s going on?”

  He didn’t answer. I could tell by his blood drained face this wasn’t good. We dashed for what felt like hours and my legs were lead. Every time I drew breath my lungs filled with fire. As our wild dash continued, my foot got caught on a root protruding from the ground. The boot was imprisoned between Earth and root. In the moment, I was not using my head and tried frantically in vain to pull it out. Pa drew his blade and sawed and the root. No luck. Instead, he pulled off the boot and my foot was free. By the time I got up it was too late.         “Hold it! Where’d yer think yer goin?”

  A gruff voice growled. The voices owner must have been some kind of officer. He wore a cotton button up suit with a fine hat in which a feather sat perched at it’s side. He looked kind of scruffy looking. Not unlike his ragtag band of animals. The fire in my lungs turned to ice cold fear.

“Is it yore business?”

Pa said with a cold scowl. I could tell this this wasn’t good. “Mr. I assure yew that when you don’t compute yer only makin’ matters worse on yerself.”

“What do you want?”
Pa semi-successively trying to control himself. The officer started nonchalantly kicking the snow with his jet black boot as if he had forgotten we were there.

“I have business to take care of.”

“This is business that yew are apart of.”
His voice was getting more sinister by the second. “Spit it out are we in trouble?” Pa’s stocky figure appeared as a bear ready to strike.
“No yore not in trouble. We just want to take yer wid us.”
“Well what if we don’t?”
More of a threat than a question. The officer pulled out sleek and shiny revolver. “That’s yore problem then.”

  I had to do something. I couldn’t speak, my throat was clogged with sobs. Ever since I could speak I have always been a coward. Not any more. I summed up the courage of a thousand cannons and screamed,

“Wait! You can’t kill him and I’m not going anywhere. If you want to take him you gotta get through me first.”
I threw my gun to the ground and raised my fists.

The officer stood there with a surprised look on his face. “Yo’re lucky. You got guts kid.  Always ‘member never show fear an’ yer should be fine.”

  With a wave of his hand his men stirred and fell back. We stood there in bewildered silence. Just like that the once dangerous and chaotic landscape was restored with peace and stillness. I’ve never cared much for winter but this time it felt different. The quietness seemed pleasant to me.

Suddenly Pa pipped up. “What did you think you were doin? You could ‘ave gottin’  yourself killed too.”

In my head I was thinking well I saved you didn’t I? Though in reality I knew he was proud of me for speaking up for once and especially in that situation. The truth is that was his way of saying “Thank you.”