Kelly Crockett. Queen of the Wild Frontier
She woke up in the hammock she had made herself. Glanced to her right, noticed her pet Red-Tailed Hawk Pepper she had hatched and raised from a chick was still sleeping soundly. The sun was just rising above the horizon, beams of sunlight poking through the foliage of the forest. The fire she had started the night before had been burnt out, but she could still smell the slightly burning wood. It was a cool morning, the leaves were already changing colors and falling off, there was a particular shade of purple that she really loved about the leaves around her camp, it helped her decision on where to stay. She sat up, put on her brown moccasins and started to plan out her day. As she stood up her long brown hair draped down to the lower part of her back, she stood about 5 feet tall, her body agile, decently muscular from all the time she spent outdoors. She went into her hut and into her food storage bin,
“Drat!” she said. She had run out of food the last night and hadn’t noticed. Pepper had woken up at the sound of her frustration. He was always very loyal and knew how she was feeling. He flew over and landed on her shoulder.
“Well good morning Pepper! I certainly hope you slept well you lazy bum!” Kelly said jokingly. Pepper just cawed loudly and shook his head.
“Pepper, it seems we need to go out and grab ourselves some breakfast! How does salmon sound this morning?” Pepper nodded his head and chirped slightly. She knew that meant he was satisfied. “Well, c’mon, you get to scouting ahead and i’ll follow, i just need to get ready.” She put her coonskin cap on, slipped on her brown light leather jacket, she had kept her brown cloth pants on from sleeping overnight due to how cold it gets in the forest at night. Just slightly north of the camp was a river, it always helped having a river nearby for a source of food and water. Pepper was most definitely already up towards the river by now, so she started heading north.
Pepper flew down cawing loudly letting her know it was safe to keep going. As she got to the river bank she saw the salmon jumping up the mini waterfalls the river had created. The river was loud, and she loved the smell of water. She pulled out her net and got it set up on the ground. She effortlessly grabbed a salmon out of the air with her hand and put it in her net. She then noticed the bushes rustling on her left. A giant 12 foot brown grizzly bear walked out of the forest. She had known bears came down to the river for food gathering when the salmon were heading upstream, but she had hoped to get out of their before any had shown up, though it seems as if the bear wasn't going to bother her. Kelly reached out and grabbed another salmon with her hand effortlessly as the bear did the same. She caught maybe around ten or twelve salmon and the bear started to take notice.
The bear started to come over, Kelly got a little nervous. the bear bowed its head, Pepper made a loud caw, and the bear sat down at her feet. Kelly looked at the bear inquisitively, was she here to steal fish? Was she here to beg? Kelly had no idea, but she took a salmon out of her net and tossed it at her. She seemed to smile as she picked up the salmon off the ground and ate it, Brushed her head up against Kelly and pointed her snout towards the river. Together they both caught upwards of 20 salmon. Afterwards the bear motioned for Kelly to follow her, so she did. Kelly found herself at a decent sized cave only a few minutes walk from her own camp, surprised because she hadn't noticed it the night before. The bear roared and it startled her. Out came 3 small bear cubs, Kelly realized the bear wanted her to help feed the bear cubs. She tossed them a few salmon each and the cubs seemed to love it. She pat the mother bear on the head.
“I’m going to call you Bessy!” The bear roared in excitement. Kelly walked away smiling as she had just made another wildlife friend.
