Here is a recap of what happened in the first part of my story, enjoy:
We went back to stacking hay until my mother rang the bell for lunch. My piles were much higher the John's, but his were stacked appropriately. My mother rang the bell again, we started back towards the house when we noticed the younger boys standing around in a circle looking at what appeared to be a body of one of the sheep.
As we chased the kids back to the house and went to see if we could figure out what killed the poor beast.
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We returned to find that the sheep had been killed by what looked like a large animal. John and I stood and threw a few ideas around.
"I think it was a bear." Johns words came out quietly so that none of the listening ears that were getting closer could hear.
"I don't know John, personally I think it might have been some form of larger wolf The kill was to clean to have been a bear." I said as i turned quickly to scare the children away.
The kids all screamed and back off a few feet laughing as the older children tried to get the little ones to come closer again.
I eyed them all and stomped closer to them sending them all scattering towards the house.
I returned to the poor animal and squatted closer to the ground to look at the body. The animal had been killed by a predator, the kill had been quick but the wounds showed that the animal had feed before being scared off by the children, or another member of the family.
My father and brothers had returned from the fields for lunch by this point and came to investigate.
"Emmett, what did you and John do now?" My father asked in a curious tone.
I turned to look at my father when I noticed that there were other injured animals around the outer perimeter of the field. We all went to check the animals out and found that 2 more had been killed in a similar fashion as the first, while 3 had been injured but were not beyond some time and healing.
My older brother Phillip went to tend to the injured animals, while my brother Benjamin came out of the house carrying guns.
"Lets not do anything foolish now." My father said as he looked around at the sons finally ending at my brother Benjamin and then myself.
"What we need to do is go inside, get something to eat, and think logically about this before we go out and hunt everything within a 5 mile radius."
"Dad, it couldn't have gotten far. If we want to kill whatever is attacking our livestock." Benjamin said stepping closer to my father, hoping that his size might influence my father.
Unfortunately Ben had forgotten that our father was not a small man, and that da' had quite a temper when cornered.
"I said that we are going to wait and think this over. We need to talk to your mother and sisters to find out if any of them noticed anything." My father shouted leaning in closer to Ben.
The rest of us all flinched because father did not loose his temper often, but when he did there was no member of this family who wanted to be in the area, let alone the one one who made him upset.
Benjamin wisely stepped back and quickly began apologizing for not listening when he was told the first time, and more or less for anything that he had done wrong since he was born.
We all made our way back to the house as mother opened the door to see what was taking so long.
Usually when she rings the bell the whole family comes running, especially after a whole morning of planting.
"Are you going to come eat, or are you men just going to stand out here and argue?" My mother said as she leaned against the door frame.
"We are coming now dear." My father said as he looked around at all of his sons.
"Benjamin, would you and Emmett please gather the remains of the sheep and put them in the small barn until after lunch?" He said as he lead the way into the house.
We made our way to the first animal that the children had found. I picked the poor beast up in my arms, attempting to keep the blood from getting on my clothing. I made my way over to the smaller of the barns as Ben turned to go to the field in search of other casualties.
We managed to collected all 3 sheep, and made our way back to the house without ruining our clothing, and hopefully before all the lunch was gone.
We went back to stacking hay until my mother rang the bell for lunch. My piles were much higher the John's, but his were stacked appropriately. My mother rang the bell again, we started back towards the house when we noticed the younger boys standing around in a circle looking at what appeared to be a body of one of the sheep.
As we chased the kids back to the house and went to see if we could figure out what killed the poor beast.
__________________________________________________
We returned to find that the sheep had been killed by what looked like a large animal. John and I stood and threw a few ideas around.
"I think it was a bear." Johns words came out quietly so that none of the listening ears that were getting closer could hear.
"I don't know John, personally I think it might have been some form of larger wolf The kill was to clean to have been a bear." I said as i turned quickly to scare the children away.
The kids all screamed and back off a few feet laughing as the older children tried to get the little ones to come closer again.
I eyed them all and stomped closer to them sending them all scattering towards the house.
I returned to the poor animal and squatted closer to the ground to look at the body. The animal had been killed by a predator, the kill had been quick but the wounds showed that the animal had feed before being scared off by the children, or another member of the family.
My father and brothers had returned from the fields for lunch by this point and came to investigate.
"Emmett, what did you and John do now?" My father asked in a curious tone.
I turned to look at my father when I noticed that there were other injured animals around the outer perimeter of the field. We all went to check the animals out and found that 2 more had been killed in a similar fashion as the first, while 3 had been injured but were not beyond some time and healing.
My older brother Phillip went to tend to the injured animals, while my brother Benjamin came out of the house carrying guns.
"Lets not do anything foolish now." My father said as he looked around at the sons finally ending at my brother Benjamin and then myself.
"What we need to do is go inside, get something to eat, and think logically about this before we go out and hunt everything within a 5 mile radius."
"Dad, it couldn't have gotten far. If we want to kill whatever is attacking our livestock." Benjamin said stepping closer to my father, hoping that his size might influence my father.
Unfortunately Ben had forgotten that our father was not a small man, and that da' had quite a temper when cornered.
"I said that we are going to wait and think this over. We need to talk to your mother and sisters to find out if any of them noticed anything." My father shouted leaning in closer to Ben.
The rest of us all flinched because father did not loose his temper often, but when he did there was no member of this family who wanted to be in the area, let alone the one one who made him upset.
Benjamin wisely stepped back and quickly began apologizing for not listening when he was told the first time, and more or less for anything that he had done wrong since he was born.
We all made our way back to the house as mother opened the door to see what was taking so long.
Usually when she rings the bell the whole family comes running, especially after a whole morning of planting.
"Are you going to come eat, or are you men just going to stand out here and argue?" My mother said as she leaned against the door frame.
"We are coming now dear." My father said as he looked around at all of his sons.
"Benjamin, would you and Emmett please gather the remains of the sheep and put them in the small barn until after lunch?" He said as he lead the way into the house.
We made our way to the first animal that the children had found. I picked the poor beast up in my arms, attempting to keep the blood from getting on my clothing. I made my way over to the smaller of the barns as Ben turned to go to the field in search of other casualties.
We managed to collected all 3 sheep, and made our way back to the house without ruining our clothing, and hopefully before all the lunch was gone.
