{ "submission_id": "3767187", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "1017", "keyword_name": "animals", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "2598" }, { "keyword_id": "1007", "keyword_name": "blood", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "22532" }, { "keyword_id": "18650", "keyword_name": "exploration", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "861" }, { "keyword_id": "123", "keyword_name": "female", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1134039" }, { "keyword_id": "33", "keyword_name": "fox", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "257948" }, { "keyword_id": "3776", "keyword_name": "hunting", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1068" }, { "keyword_id": "837", "keyword_name": "monster", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "26889" }, { "keyword_id": "969", "keyword_name": "violence", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "4646" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "0", "create_datetime": "2025-12-07 22:21:45.586874+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "07 Dec 2025 23:21 CET", "last_file_update_datetime": "2025-12-07 22:19:11.149736+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "07 Dec 2025 23:19 CET", "username": "RexLeonum", "user_id": "738722", "user_icon_file_name": "206246_RexLeonum_leo_icon.png", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/206/206246_RexLeonum_leo_icon.png", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/206/206246_RexLeonum_leo_icon.png", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/206/206246_RexLeonum_leo_icon.png", "file_name": "5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "files": [ { "file_id": "5824802", "file_name": "5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5824/5824802_RexLeonum_huntswoman_movie.rtf", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "submission_id": "3767187", "user_id": "738722", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": null, "full_size_y": null, "screen_size_x": null, "screen_size_y": null, "preview_size_x": null, "preview_size_y": null, "initial_file_md5": "117f18b656c10f3d059e7e2696abecaf", "full_file_md5": "117f18b656c10f3d059e7e2696abecaf", "large_file_md5": "", "small_file_md5": "", "thumbnail_md5": "", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2025-12-07 22:19:11.149736+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "07 Dec 2025 23:19 CET" } ], "pools": [ { "pool_id": "104711", "name": "One-off Story Movies", "description": "A random assortment of short stories I felt like writing.", "count": "1" } ], "description": "A short story about a fox woman hunting in a forest. Nothing goes wrong.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "A short story about a fox woman hunting in a forest. Nothing goes wrong.", "writing": "Huntswoman: The Movie\n\nThe wind gave a gentle stir, sending several brown leaves tumbling across the forest floor. Paws dashed through the wilderness until a figure dropped to one knee with swift precision. The woman exhaled, her breath faint in the chill, autumn had settled in.\n\nShe pressed her back to a pine tree and peeked around it. A fox face emerged: dark brown fur, sharp blue eyes, and long black hair that flowed over her shoulders. Stepping out with silent digitigrade strides, her claws digging into the earth, the young huntress stalked a small buck grazing in a clearing.\n\nShe wore a brown leather vest over a thick dark-gray shirt, and in her hands rested an old-style bolt-action rifle. Her fox tail gave a slight flick as she rose to full height and leveled her weapon at the buck.\n-\nThe cabin carried a faint chill, but the woman quickly flipped on her electric heater. She hauled the buck's body into the open freezer, where five other deer and several rabbits already hung, slowly being bled out.\n\nAfterward, she picked up a festival flyer and a letter marked HUNTSWOMAN across the top, the clack of her claws echoed as she walked about. She read it briefly before glancing at her calendar. Most days were crossed out, and two days ahead a circle marked FESTIVAL. She let out a slow breath, then checked the freezer again, counting the game she'd gathered. Satisfied, she nodded once.\n\nShe walked to a dresser and grabbed her keys. Outside, her boxy but reliable truck sat in the driveway. She hesitated, then sighed and set the keys back down. It was an old era she lived in, with little in the way of entertainment besides a few worn books and a neglected fishing pole leaning in the hallway corner. A bible was front and center on the coffee table as well as several religious paintings scattered across the walls.\n\nIn another room of the cabin, the Huntswoman removed part of her clothing and began her routine exercises. Her body was defined by dense, functional muscle and a deep feminine curve. Her hips bore the signs of having given birth to multiple children, but she moved with practiced efficiency. Her warm-up grew into heavier lifting, faster push-ups, and a sequence of martial-arts movements, ending with a sharp, low kick that cut the air with precision.\n\nAfter catching her breath, she dressed again and headed back toward the freezer.\n-\nShe grabbed a few lean cuts of meat, the last of her rations, and cooked them quickly. After an hour of rest, she gathered her gear: her rifle, a bag of ammunition, a backpack stocked with survival tools, two protein bars, and a small first-aid kit. She glanced at her old fishing pole, made a face, and muttered a silent \"yuck\" before heading out.\n\nAbout thirty minutes of hiking along winding dirt paths brought her deeper into the wilderness, where pine and maple trees crowded the land and thick underbrush tangled around their bases. Every few minutes the Huntswoman paused to sniff the ground, building a scent map in her head, sometimes she was running, sometimes creeping through the brush. Her ears flicked at the flutter of wings, and her sharp fox eyes darted toward every speck of movement. Each time she returned to the path with a frustrated huff—still no sign of prey.\n\nAnother half hour passed, another round of tracking. This time she discovered nothing she could hunt, but she did catch a foul, rotting stench that made her gag and stumble back. After composing herself, curiosity pushed her to try again, drawn forward as if her goal lay close.\n\nEventually she found tracks, likely deer. The sight brought a proud smile to her face. She followed them carefully, and as she moved, the disgusting odor faded behind her. She gave one last glance back, shrugged, and continued onward.\n-\nThe Huntswoman hopped down a small slope into an open break in the trees. She scanned the area and sniffed the air again, then froze. At her feet lay a wide pool of blood. No body. No carcass. Just a violent, messy sprawl of crimson and torn earth.\n\nShe shook her head and turned to leave… when a smell brushed past her senses. Strange. Unfamiliar. Gone almost as soon as it arrived. She couldn't even hold onto the memory of it. The Huntswoman turned back, uneasy, and crouched beside the scene.\n\nShe focused, letting her mind reconstruct possibilities from the limited signs. First, the blood, an instantaneous bleed-out from a powerful slash. Wolves? Too small. A bear? Possible. She pictured the attack: a ruthless mauling, flesh torn from bone. But when she imagined the size of the bear needed to make a mess like this, none of the images matched anything known in this forest.\n\nScratches on bark. Dents in the ground. Tufts of deer fur clinging to nearby trees. The pieces worked individually, but never formed a complete or sensible picture. After several silent moments, the Huntswoman exhaled, shrugged, and turned to leave. Strange things happen in nature and this probably isn't the first time she found a scene like this.\n-\nShe followed a trail marked by fading animal scents until she began noticing mismatched trees, species that shouldn't have been growing so close together. She paused, scanning the woods and breathing deeply as she tried to orient herself. A nearby fence ran through the forest, the wooden posts worn and barely maintained. The Huntswoman scratched her chin, puzzled.\n\nWith a sigh, she sat on a stump, unwrapped her protein bars, and ate while resting her legs. When she finally stood and took a long sniff of the air, her disappointed expression said everything.\n\nMoving along the fence, she eventually saw a dirt road and a large section of the fence was missing, and various dents in the vegetation would suggest vehicles driving through the forest on her side of the fence, to her angry expression. Then, she caught another scent, blood. Soon she found a second scene much like the first: splattered blood, a few scraps of flesh and bone, but little else. Just like before, the evidence was too thin to make sense of what happened. She shook her head and continued on.\n\nA while later, a foul, smoky odor curled into her nose. She tracked it into a ravine where a landslide had buried several vehicles. She carefully climbed down and inspected the wrecks. The engines had long since died, the occupants clearly gone for a while. The evidence suggested that the vehicles were abandoned somewhat recently. She studied the tracks, thought it over for a moment, then waved it off and turned away to leave the ravine.\n\nWhile she searched for a good place to climb out, a sudden rustle in the brush caught her attention. The Huntswoman snapped into motion, rifle ready, slipping into a stalking stance. Her ears twitched as a normal fox darted past her and disappeared over a nearby rise.\n\nThe Huntswoman smiled faintly and followed the same direction. She was just about to climb the worn path out of the ravine when something in the dirt made her pause. Paw prints, large ones. She crouched, tracing the edges with her fingers as she tried to imagine what made them. Wolffolk? Maybe a big foxfolk? Looking ahead, she decided to follow them deeper into the ravine.\n-\nHer tail flicked in agitation as the ravine narrowed and ended at the mouth of a cave. The tracks led straight inside. The Huntswoman stepped to the entrance and called out, \"Hello? Hello!\"\n\nShe moved in cautiously, keeping her eyes wide. The cave grew darker deeper in, but with the light still filtering from the entrance, her fox eyes could see well enough.\n\nHer fur bristled as the coppery scent of blood filled her nose. A few more steps revealed another violent scene, fresh blood splattered across the stone. She backed out quickly, shaking her head in frustration. But then she paused. The blood was recent. Very recent.\n\nShe sniffed the air again, searching for whoever had caused it, but nothing came up. That only worsened her irritation. With a huff, she made her way out of the ravine and headed southwest.\n\nAfter some time she slowed, staring down at what looked like a faint, worn path carved into the forest floor. She frowned. The real trail wasn't far from here… so why was there another one? The mental map she relied on was beginning to unravel.\n\nShe glanced behind her, recalling the fence she'd passed earlier, then adjusted her direction, shifting more westward. The sun's position confirmed it.\n\nMoving steadily, she eventually emerged onto the proper dirt road. Relief spread through her, and she allowed herself a small smile.\n\nShe began the quick walk back toward her cabin.\n-\nThe Huntswoman hadn't gotten far down the road when her nose caught the scent of a deer. She stepped off the path, but paused. The scent wasn't just deer, there was fear in it. And somewhere in the forest lurked whatever had done that to the young man in the cave.\n\nShe thought briefly of her truck, of loading her six deer and the rabbits onto ice, driving them to the festival, and making decent money with her wolfen lover. Then she looked back into the trees. One more deer would bring in even more. She hesitated only a heartbeat before tightening her grip on the rifle and heading into the forest.\n\nWithin minutes she slowed her pace, ears forward. She could hear the deer wandering through the brush. She spotted it, a tired creature, still shaken from running but already beginning to settle. It lowered its head to graze.\n\nThe Huntswoman stepped forward with deliberate silence and slowly raised her rifle. The deer didn't notice the tall fox woman emerging from between the trees.\n\nShe sniffed. The wind brought no scent of predator. Still, an uneasy thought settled in her chest. Something felt wrong. The deer moved with a strange urgency, snatching mouthfuls in quick bites.\n\nThe fox woman shook off the feeling and lifted her rifle the rest of the way. She steadied her breath…\n\nThen sound. Barely anything, just the faintest whisper. She froze and turned her head left.\n\nThe leaves were moving strangely, too slow, too controlled, too intentional. For a moment she thought her eyes were playing tricks, that the forest itself had begun to crawl. But then the shape shifted, and the illusion fell apart.\n\nSomething stood there. Something huge. Its fur matched the trees with uncanny perfection, its twisted flesh bulging beneath it. The head was that of a deer, but the teeth were red. Wet. Wrong.\n\nThe Huntswoman snapped her rifle toward it and fired. The blast sent the deer fleeing and shoved her backwards as she tried to chamber another round.\n\nThe creature stepped forward, towering, impossible, a horror that should not exist.\n\nShe loaded another bullet and fired again. It staggered, but held itself upright.\n\nThe Huntswoman turned and ran. She sprinted through the forest, crashing through brush until she burst onto the dirt road. She glanced back, nothing, but she didn't dare slow. She ran as if the monster still breathed at her heels.\n-\nShe couldn't run forever; her cabin was still at least an hour away. She slowed to a fast walk, her eyes flicking toward the trees for any hint of the thing that hunted her. Eventually her lungs burned, and she had no choice but to drop to one knee to catch her breath. She cursed under her breath, she'd spent so much energy fleeing, but with no sign of the creature, her pulse slowly settled.\n\nAfter a few minutes she stood, ready to keep moving. She took one last look at the forest around her. She smelled nothing but dirt and pine. No animals. No wind. No sound at all. The silence was so absolute it felt unnatural that her tail lowered while her fur stood on end, so she lifted her rifle toward the trees.\n\nNothing happened, at first. But when the muzzle of her rifle drifted over a certain patch of undergrowth, the creature shifted, its body reacting instantly as if recognizing the danger the gun posed.\n\nThe Huntswoman fired. Bark exploded from a nearby tree. She chambered another round with practiced speed and fired again, this time hitting the creature. Its deep roar shook the forest floor, and she clenched her teeth in mounting panic. She grabbed another bullet, but the towering beast strode toward her with terrifying ease. She had to crane her neck back to look up at its monstrous deer skull of a head, its blood-soaked teeth glistening.\n\nIt reached for her. The Huntswoman dropped low, pulled a knife, and stabbed the creature in its hoofed foot. The monster buckled with an enraged grunt. She took her knife and bit into the handle to hold it while quickly loading her next shot. She fired again; the creature staggered, moaning, but still managed to take one enormous step forward and rake its claws across her. She dropped to the ground with a panicked yelp.\n\nGritting through the pain, she scrambled up, grabbed both rifle and knife, and prepared to strike again. The monster slammed its fists down on her, driving her into the dirt, but she stabbed at it a second time. It kicked her away with horrifying strength, sending her tumbling across the road.\n\nHer knife was left buried somewhere in its flesh. She chambered another bullet, hands shaking, but before she could aim, the creature lunged. Its long fingers stabbed into her vest, tearing away leather, cloth, and strips of flesh alike. The claws felt barbed—hooking into her body as they ripped her open.\n\nShe screamed in agony but managed to swing the rifle up through her cry. She fired point-blank into the creature's face, blowing a black void where one of its eyes had been. The monster reeled back, shrieking, giving her a handful of precious seconds. Sobbing through the pain, she forced another round into the rifle.\n\nHer next shot struck true and sent the beast into a frenzy. It charged wildly, trampling her under its massive weight before raking a claw across her back, tearing off yet another piece of her vest.\n\nThis time, she forced herself back to her feet and ran, loading a bullet while sprinting at full speed.\n-\nShe dropped her bullet and spun around, teeth clenched in fear and fury. But with no sight of the beast, which had to be right behind her, her legs gave out and she fell to one knee. She took a quick breath, the tension never leaving her face. When she reached for another bullet, she froze at the sight of a dark trail in the dirt. Her blood. Only then did she realize how badly she was bleeding.\n\nWorking as fast as she could, she tossed her rifle and backpack aside and pulled out bandages. She was halfway through patching the worst wounds, working past her matted and bloodied fur, when the creature emerged again from between the trees. Now that she finally got a clear look, it wasn’t blending with the background at all. Its fur simply mimicked the forest’s colors well, and the \"deer skull\" she thought she saw before was only a skull-like pattern across its head. One of its real eyes was gone, her shot had blasted it clean away. She looked for the other injuries and found that her knife was no longer lodged in its leg, probably fell out somewhere on the path.\n\nThe Huntswoman snorted in defiance. With its illusion broken, the creature looked less like a myth and more like a savage animal she refused to fear. She smiled as she tightened the final bandage. The beast clearly didn't understand that its attempt to make her bleed out had failed.\n\nShe reached for her rifle and slid a bullet into place. The metallic click made the creature flinch and stumble backward, retreating into the forest shadows. She waited a long minute, but it didn't return.\n\nShe gathered her gear, though her knife was still lodged somewhere inside the creature. She wasn't about to chase it down for the blade. Instead, the Huntswoman resumed her hurried pace along the path until her cabin finally came into view. She cast one last look over her shoulder, and seeing nothing stalking her, she stepped into the safety of her home.\n-\nShe loaded her truck with her already gained deer and rabbits, tossing the ice in with a hurry, her tail was never still. Once she had secured them she went back into her cabin to gather her minimum belongings. She hunched over constantly, always expecting the creature to re-emerge. Once everything was in her truck, she took another look around, fox ears twitching, nose sniffing, eyes scanning, but the creature seemingly was not around.\n\nShe looked like she refused to believe it, but she finally gave an exhale and got in her truck. Even driving away from the cabin, she still was looking for the creature, expecting one last encounter, but the beast must have truly been a beast and fled when it felt the hunt was too much.\n\nTwo days later, she and her husband would be selling bread-treats stuffed with deer meat with rabbit steaks on the side. The Huntswoman told the police about a bear that attacked her and killed a person that was sneaking on her old family property and a police search would find the rest of the vehicle people also torn apart by the \"bear\", only finding her knife.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Huntswoman: The Movie

The wind gave a gentle stir, sending several brown leaves tumbling across the forest floor. Paws dashed through the wilderness until a figure dropped to one knee with swift precision. The woman exhaled, her breath faint in the chill, autumn had settled in.

She pressed her back to a pine tree and peeked around it. A fox face emerged: dark brown fur, sharp blue eyes, and long black hair that flowed over her shoulders. Stepping out with silent digitigrade strides, her claws digging into the earth, the young huntress stalked a small buck grazing in a clearing.

She wore a brown leather vest over a thick dark-gray shirt, and in her hands rested an old-style bolt-action rifle. Her fox tail gave a slight flick as she rose to full height and leveled her weapon at the buck.
-
The cabin carried a faint chill, but the woman quickly flipped on her electric heater. She hauled the buck's body into the open freezer, where five other deer and several rabbits already hung, slowly being bled out.

Afterward, she picked up a festival flyer and a letter marked HUNTSWOMAN across the top, the clack of her claws echoed as she walked about. She read it briefly before glancing at her calendar. Most days were crossed out, and two days ahead a circle marked FESTIVAL. She let out a slow breath, then checked the freezer again, counting the game she'd gathered. Satisfied, she nodded once.

She walked to a dresser and grabbed her keys. Outside, her boxy but reliable truck sat in the driveway. She hesitated, then sighed and set the keys back down. It was an old era she lived in, with little in the way of entertainment besides a few worn books and a neglected fishing pole leaning in the hallway corner. A bible was front and center on the coffee table  as well as several religious paintings scattered across the walls.

In another room of the cabin, the Huntswoman removed part of her clothing and began her routine exercises. Her body was defined by dense, functional muscle and a deep feminine curve. Her hips bore the signs of having given birth to multiple children, but she moved with practiced efficiency. Her warm-up grew into heavier lifting, faster push-ups, and a sequence of martial-arts movements, ending with a sharp, low kick that cut the air with precision.

After catching her breath, she dressed again and headed back toward the freezer.
-
She grabbed a few lean cuts of meat, the last of her rations, and cooked them quickly. After an hour of rest, she gathered her gear: her rifle, a bag of ammunition, a backpack stocked with survival tools, two protein bars, and a small first-aid kit. She glanced at her old fishing pole, made a face, and muttered a silent "yuck" before heading out.

About thirty minutes of hiking along winding dirt paths brought her deeper into the wilderness, where pine and maple trees crowded the land and thick underbrush tangled around their bases. Every few minutes the Huntswoman paused to sniff the ground, building a scent map in her head, sometimes she was running, sometimes creeping through the brush. Her ears flicked at the flutter of wings, and her sharp fox eyes darted toward every speck of movement. Each time she returned to the path with a frustrated huff—still no sign of prey.

Another half hour passed, another round of tracking. This time she discovered nothing she could hunt, but she did catch a foul, rotting stench that made her gag and stumble back. After composing herself, curiosity pushed her to try again, drawn forward as if her goal lay close.

Eventually she found tracks, likely deer. The sight brought a proud smile to her face. She followed them carefully, and as she moved, the disgusting odor faded behind her. She gave one last glance back, shrugged, and continued onward.
-
The Huntswoman hopped down a small slope into an open break in the trees. She scanned the area and sniffed the air again, then froze. At her feet lay a wide pool of blood. No body. No carcass. Just a violent, messy sprawl of crimson and torn earth.

She shook her head and turned to leave… when a smell brushed past her senses. Strange. Unfamiliar. Gone almost as soon as it arrived. She couldn't even hold onto the memory of it. The Huntswoman turned back, uneasy, and crouched beside the scene.

She focused, letting her mind reconstruct possibilities from the limited signs. First, the blood, an instantaneous bleed-out from a powerful slash. Wolves? Too small. A bear? Possible. She pictured the attack: a ruthless mauling, flesh torn from bone. But when she imagined the size of the bear needed to make a mess like this, none of the images matched anything known in this forest.

Scratches on bark. Dents in the ground. Tufts of deer fur clinging to nearby trees. The pieces worked individually, but never formed a complete or sensible picture. After several silent moments, the Huntswoman exhaled, shrugged, and turned to leave. Strange things happen in nature and this probably isn't the first time she found a scene like this.
-
She followed a trail marked by fading animal scents until she began noticing mismatched trees, species that shouldn't have been growing so close together. She paused, scanning the woods and breathing deeply as she tried to orient herself. A nearby fence ran through the forest, the wooden posts worn and barely maintained. The Huntswoman scratched her chin, puzzled.

With a sigh, she sat on a stump, unwrapped her protein bars, and ate while resting her legs. When she finally stood and took a long sniff of the air, her disappointed expression said everything.

Moving along the fence, she eventually saw a dirt road and a large section of the fence was missing, and various dents in the vegetation would suggest vehicles driving through the forest on her side of the fence, to her angry expression. Then, she caught another scent, blood. Soon she found a second scene much like the first: splattered blood, a few scraps of flesh and bone, but little else. Just like before, the evidence was too thin to make sense of what happened. She shook her head and continued on.

A while later, a foul, smoky odor curled into her nose. She tracked it into a ravine where a landslide had buried several vehicles. She carefully climbed down and inspected the wrecks. The engines had long since died, the occupants clearly gone for a while. The evidence suggested that the vehicles were abandoned somewhat recently. She studied the tracks, thought it over for a moment, then waved it off and turned away to leave the ravine.

While she searched for a good place to climb out, a sudden rustle in the brush caught her attention. The Huntswoman snapped into motion, rifle ready, slipping into a stalking stance. Her ears twitched as a normal fox darted past her and disappeared over a nearby rise.

The Huntswoman smiled faintly and followed the same direction. She was just about to climb the worn path out of the ravine when something in the dirt made her pause. Paw prints, large ones. She crouched, tracing the edges with her fingers as she tried to imagine what made them. Wolffolk? Maybe a big foxfolk? Looking ahead, she decided to follow them deeper into the ravine.
-
Her tail flicked in agitation as the ravine narrowed and ended at the mouth of a cave. The tracks led straight inside. The Huntswoman stepped to the entrance and called out, "Hello? Hello!"

She moved in cautiously, keeping her eyes wide. The cave grew darker deeper in, but with the light still filtering from the entrance, her fox eyes could see well enough.

Her fur bristled as the coppery scent of blood filled her nose. A few more steps revealed another violent scene, fresh blood splattered across the stone. She backed out quickly, shaking her head in frustration. But then she paused. The blood was recent. Very recent.

She sniffed the air again, searching for whoever had caused it, but nothing came up. That only worsened her irritation. With a huff, she made her way out of the ravine and headed southwest.

After some time she slowed, staring down at what looked like a faint, worn path carved into the forest floor. She frowned. The real trail wasn't far from here… so why was there another one? The mental map she relied on was beginning to unravel.

She glanced behind her, recalling the fence she'd passed earlier, then adjusted her direction, shifting more westward. The sun's position confirmed it.

Moving steadily, she eventually emerged onto the proper dirt road. Relief spread through her, and she allowed herself a small smile.

She began the quick walk back toward her cabin.
-
The Huntswoman hadn't gotten far down the road when her nose caught the scent of a deer. She stepped off the path, but paused. The scent wasn't just deer, there was fear in it. And somewhere in the forest lurked whatever had done that to the young man in the cave.

She thought briefly of her truck, of loading her six deer and the rabbits onto ice, driving them to the festival, and making decent money with her wolfen lover. Then she looked back into the trees. One more deer would bring in even more. She hesitated only a heartbeat before tightening her grip on the rifle and heading into the forest.

Within minutes she slowed her pace, ears forward. She could hear the deer wandering through the brush. She spotted it, a tired creature, still shaken from running but already beginning to settle. It lowered its head to graze.

The Huntswoman stepped forward with deliberate silence and slowly raised her rifle. The deer didn't notice the tall fox woman emerging from between the trees.

She sniffed. The wind brought no scent of predator. Still, an uneasy thought settled in her chest. Something felt wrong. The deer moved with a strange urgency, snatching mouthfuls in quick bites.

The fox woman shook off the feeling and lifted her rifle the rest of the way. She steadied her breath…

Then sound. Barely anything, just the faintest whisper. She froze and turned her head left.

The leaves were moving strangely, too slow, too controlled, too intentional. For a moment she thought her eyes were playing tricks, that the forest itself had begun to crawl. But then the shape shifted, and the illusion fell apart.

Something stood there. Something huge. Its fur matched the trees with uncanny perfection, its twisted flesh bulging beneath it. The head was that of a deer, but the teeth were red. Wet. Wrong.

The Huntswoman snapped her rifle toward it and fired. The blast sent the deer fleeing and shoved her backwards as she tried to chamber another round.

The creature stepped forward, towering, impossible, a horror that should not exist.

She loaded another bullet and fired again. It staggered, but held itself upright.

The Huntswoman turned and ran. She sprinted through the forest, crashing through brush until she burst onto the dirt road. She glanced back, nothing, but she didn't dare slow. She ran as if the monster still breathed at her heels.
-
She couldn't run forever; her cabin was still at least an hour away. She slowed to a fast walk, her eyes flicking toward the trees for any hint of the thing that hunted her. Eventually her lungs burned, and she had no choice but to drop to one knee to catch her breath. She cursed under her breath, she'd spent so much energy fleeing, but with no sign of the creature, her pulse slowly settled.

After a few minutes she stood, ready to keep moving. She took one last look at the forest around her. She smelled nothing but dirt and pine. No animals. No wind. No sound at all. The silence was so absolute it felt unnatural that her tail lowered while her fur stood on end, so she lifted her rifle toward the trees.

Nothing happened, at first. But when the muzzle of her rifle drifted over a certain patch of undergrowth, the creature shifted, its body reacting instantly as if recognizing the danger the gun posed.

The Huntswoman fired. Bark exploded from a nearby tree. She chambered another round with practiced speed and fired again, this time hitting the creature. Its deep roar shook the forest floor, and she clenched her teeth in mounting panic. She grabbed another bullet, but the towering beast strode toward her with terrifying ease. She had to crane her neck back to look up at its monstrous deer skull of a head, its blood-soaked teeth glistening.

It reached for her. The Huntswoman dropped low, pulled a knife, and stabbed the creature in its hoofed foot. The monster buckled with an enraged grunt. She took her knife and bit into the handle to hold it while quickly loading her next shot. She fired again; the creature staggered, moaning, but still managed to take one enormous step forward and rake its claws across her. She dropped to the ground with a panicked yelp.

Gritting through the pain, she scrambled up, grabbed both rifle and knife, and prepared to strike again. The monster slammed its fists down on her, driving her into the dirt, but she stabbed at it a second time. It kicked her away with horrifying strength, sending her tumbling across the road.

Her knife was left buried somewhere in its flesh. She chambered another bullet, hands shaking, but before she could aim, the creature lunged. Its long fingers stabbed into her vest, tearing away leather, cloth, and strips of flesh alike. The claws felt barbed—hooking into her body as they ripped her open.

She screamed in agony but managed to swing the rifle up through her cry. She fired point-blank into the creature's face, blowing a black void where one of its eyes had been. The monster reeled back, shrieking, giving her a handful of precious seconds. Sobbing through the pain, she forced another round into the rifle.

Her next shot struck true and sent the beast into a frenzy. It charged wildly, trampling her under its massive weight before raking a claw across her back, tearing off yet another piece of her vest.

This time, she forced herself back to her feet and ran, loading a bullet while sprinting at full speed.
-
She dropped her bullet and spun around, teeth clenched in fear and fury. But with no sight of the beast, which had to be right behind her, her legs gave out and she fell to one knee. She took a quick breath, the tension never leaving her face. When she reached for another bullet, she froze at the sight of a dark trail in the dirt. Her blood. Only then did she realize how badly she was bleeding.

Working as fast as she could, she tossed her rifle and backpack aside and pulled out bandages. She was halfway through patching the worst wounds, working past her matted and bloodied fur, when the creature emerged again from between the trees. Now that she finally got a clear look, it wasn’t blending with the background at all. Its fur simply mimicked the forest’s colors well, and the "deer skull" she thought she saw before was only a skull-like pattern across its head. One of its real eyes was gone, her shot had blasted it clean away. She looked for the other injuries and found that her knife was no longer lodged in its leg, probably fell out somewhere on the path.

The Huntswoman snorted in defiance. With its illusion broken, the creature looked less like a myth and more like a savage animal she refused to fear. She smiled as she tightened the final bandage. The beast clearly didn't understand that its attempt to make her bleed out had failed.

She reached for her rifle and slid a bullet into place. The metallic click made the creature flinch and stumble backward, retreating into the forest shadows. She waited a long minute, but it didn't return.

She gathered her gear, though her knife was still lodged somewhere inside the creature. She wasn't about to chase it down for the blade. Instead, the Huntswoman resumed her hurried pace along the path until her cabin finally came into view. She cast one last look over her shoulder, and seeing nothing stalking her, she stepped into the safety of her home.
-
She loaded her truck with her already gained deer and rabbits, tossing the ice in with a hurry, her tail was never still. Once she had secured them she went back into her cabin to gather her minimum belongings. She hunched over constantly, always expecting the creature to re-emerge. Once everything was in her truck, she took another look around, fox ears twitching, nose sniffing, eyes scanning, but the creature seemingly was not around.

She looked like she refused to believe it, but she finally gave an exhale and got in her truck. Even driving away from the cabin, she still was looking for the creature, expecting one last encounter, but the beast must have truly been a beast and fled when it felt the hunt was too much.

Two days later, she and her husband would be selling bread-treats stuffed with deer meat with rabbit steaks on the side. The Huntswoman told the police about a bear that attacked her and killed a person that was sneaking on her old family property and a police search would find the rest of the vehicle people also torn apart by the "bear", only finding her knife.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Huntswoman: A Short Story", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "1", "rating_name": "Mature", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "3", "name": "Violence", "description": "Mild violence", "rating_id": "1" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "1" }