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Hunter's Log

Phil Watson

08/09/XX

The air is finally starting to get colder.

This may coincide with how the trail is going cold in turn. It seems as though all of the activity from a few weeks ago could've just been an anomaly. Techno won't hear it, but then again he was the one to see it in the first place. Today there weren't even tracks to follow any bigger than a bunny's, or any more of those peculiar shadows.

The tree that we found last week doesn't seem to have returned to normal. If anything the shadows seem to only be growing more pronounced, clawing further upwards, despite being cast from nothing. Techno noted that those overcast parts of the tree are cool to the touch, but... that could simply be as a result of the lack of sunlight.

We still shouldn’t be lingering on the shadows. We are here with a job to do. It’s like I’ve been saying, it’s not as if I don’t believe Techno saw something, it’s just… we haven’t caught anything we haven’t eaten. If we don’t hunting animals that do exist rather than those that honestly might not, we’re going to be out of a job.

I told him all of this, again. There was a buck I had tracked up toward a ridge, and I had just been trying to find the best place to line up a shot. Then Techno randomly whisper-yelled “Look!” And whether it was the noise from that or me almost falling over, when I looked back at buck was gone, and whatever Techno was trying to show me didn’t exist.

Maybe it did exist. I really don’t know if I care at this point.

He tried to drag me over there to check and I finally put my foot down. We need this money. We don’t have the time to chase whatever tricks our minds might play on us deep in the woods. It’s been weeks by now.

I really hoped he would see sense. Techno is usually so logical, I truly don’t know how this place has gotten to him quite like it has.

He said he knew what he saw. We had that same conversation again, he refused to listen when I said it had been dark and we had been exhausted, and I just didn’t know what to say.

I haven’t seen him since.

I hunted the rest of the day alone. Techno went off after whatever he’d sworn to see, and I just couldn’t make myself follow him. One of us has to be earning us rent at least.

Granted, I didn’t manage to catch anything. It’s as if the woods went completely dead. Some hunter’s log this has been.

Hopefully tomorrow will prove to be be more fruitful.

Hunter's Log

Phil Watson

09/09/XX

Techno didn’t come back last night.

I waited. Maybe not for as long as I should’ve, and maybe I should’ve realised something was off when the sun had gone down without any signs, but… I just assumed he was mad. I thought maybe he’d come in while I was asleep, but his bed wasn’t slept in.

Could he have left?

Although, all of his stuff is still here at the cabin. His clothes, his weapons (minus the rifle from yesterday), his flute… I can’t imagine him leaving without a song, of all things.
I shouldn’t be joking about this, I know. Maybe I should’ve looked more than I did today. I just also wouldn’t put it past Techno to just want some space. He could’ve trekked to the nearest town, he’s an adult perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

Still, would it have killed him to give me the heads up first?

It made today about as useless of a hunting day as yesterday was. I swear, I was hearing countless noises of movement yet I never saw any signs of life whatsoever. No moving branches or rustling bushes, no footprints - even when I could hear the scamper of small feet or the snapping of twigs.

Even the woods seem to be mocking me for trying to work. At one point I could almost swear I heard someone laugh at me, but... There was nobody. Not that I’d expect to see anyone out this far, other than maybe Techno. One day without him and I’m already starting to sound as crazy as he does.

Surely this dry spell will break soon.