The Legend Of Dawson's Mine: Prologue

In which the story before the story is told.


A red squirrel hops from branch to branch as he scurries through the pine trees in search of food.  At the edge of a clearing he stops to examine a pine cone, chattering excitedly to his friends.

Across the clearing a lone deer raises her head and looks in the direction of the chattering.  A few minutes later, satisfied that there was no imminent danger, she lowers her head and resumes her grazing.

A light mist drifts gently through the air, covering everything in a fine layer of dew. A pair of blue jays fly through the area in search of seeds and insects.

The snapping of a tree branch shatters the air.

The deer lifts her head again in alarm and stares across the clearing.  She sees a man standing there, just inside the treeline.  He seems harmless enough, but just to be safe she decides to wander off into the safety of the trees.

The man walks into the middle of the clearing and looks around.  At the opposite side of the open space stands an old maple tree.  He walks towards it.

The tree is old.  Very old.  It has stood in that spot for over 200 years.  Its trunk is an impressive 6 foot in width, and its long, thick branches, full of leaves, spread out 50ft in every direction.

The man examines the tree closely, walking around it, checking every crack and crevice.  After a few moments, he places a small device on one of the branches near the trunk, and presses some buttons.  Beeping fills the air. The birds stop singing. The squirrels pause their endless scampering.

The man backs away from the tree and leans against a large fallen log.  He pulls some food from his pack and munches quietly for a few minutes.  Once the food is consumed he takes a water bottle from his pack, opens it, and gulps it dry.

Refreshed, he stands back up and returns to the maple tree.  He presses a few more buttons on the small device and examines it closely.  Satisfied at what he sees, he stashes the device back into his pocket. He then pulls out a green box from his pack and places it among the large scraggly roots of the maple tree, covering it with some branches.

Finally he straightens up and examines the box from a higher perspective. A satisfied smirk appears on his face. He then adjusts his pack on his shoulders, heads off down the trail from whence he came.  Vanishing quietly into the woods.

The birds resume their singing.  The squirrels resume their endless search for seeds.  Eventually the deer returns to the clearing to resume grazing on the sweet grasses.

The forest slowly returns to normal.

At no point in time did any of them notice the dark figure standing in a grove of pine trees, watching them silently from the shadows.


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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Copyright 2015 by Dave DeBaeremaeker. All Rights Reserved.