High Country - Sex Stories

High Country

The mule deer buck was just across the clearing behind a cluster of aspens, but Daniel couldn't see anything but the antlers when the buck raised his head at intervals to listen and scent the air. As he browsed, the buck moved across the clearing, and had the eagle not screeched, would have been in the sights of Daniel's rifle in a few more minutes.

The buck had raised its head at the sound and its large ears swiveled, searching for any sound that might mean a wolf or cougar was near. The eagle screeched again, and all Daniel could see was the black tip of a tail as the buck disappeared into the dense underbrush that surrounded the fallen ponderosa pine. Daniel cursed silently and looked up to see the huge nest perched at the top of tall, dead oak.

He'd come across the fallen tree the day before while scouting for trapping sites for the coming winter. It lay just a few yards from the bank of a beaver pond and Daniel had found the small, round pellet droppings of deer sign when he investigated. The next morning at first daylight, he'd gone back to the small clearing and waited. The tall grass and shrubs were ideal forage for deer, and his meat supply was getting low.

Daniel had seen areas like this many times in the past years. As age and boring insects weakened the tall, thick trunk, the big tree eventually began to rot at the base. Through the years, wind and snow weighted the branches and stressed the partially rotted trunk. Ultimately the tree fell over, another casualty in the never-ending cycle of life and death in Nature. In the process of falling to the ground, the massive trunk and spreading limbs would clear a swath through the other trees and underbrush.

The falling of the pine meant sunlight could reach the ground again, and it was as if some unseen planter had sprinkled the seeds of grasses, small, bushy plants and aspen trees on the needle covered ground. The snowmelt and subsequent rains brought those seeds to life. They sprouted, then flourished into grasses, wild flowers, small bushes, and the thickets of aspen that seemed to be everywhere.

Here and there, small pine trees only half a foot tall dotted the clearing. These were the offspring of the giant pine that now lay dead and rotting into more topsoil. Only one, or maybe two would enjoy the protection of the aspens until strong enough to stretch for the sun and fill the clearing again. The rest would be eaten by grouse and other animals, or would be choked out by the underbrush. It was the way of Nature that many would be born, but few would reach maturity.

Daniel squinted as he looked up at the eagle. There were two, instead of one as he'd thought before seeing the nest. The pair would have a chick in that nest by now, and they were just telling him to stay away. Daniel smiled at the pair of large birds screeching at him through open, yellow hooked beaks as they spiraled through the brilliant blue sky.

"Go back to your chick, I ain't a gonna bother you ...