Disrupted: Day 10

Word Count: 60,035

Summary of Events:

Gwendolen was holding Sarah and watching the boys when she had to try and break up an argument they had over their horse, only to get insulted by the younger boy. Ezra listened as his employer announced to the men that they would be doing a cougar watch due to the cougar he and Judson had heard earlier in the day. Gwendolen was copying out lessons for the boys to do when the younger one  came and apologised to her, which she appreciated. Ezra and the hands found where the cattle had stayed for a night and when Lachlan wouldn't go toward some trees Ezra decided to go toward them on his own . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Almost at the trees a foul scent filled Ezra's nostrils. Not the scent of a cougar — Ezra didn't know what that was — but the scent of death, and death that had been there for awhile.

Ezra crept closer still and scanned close to the ground. He then paused and looked up at the trees; cougars often hung their kills from trees.

He saw nothing either way, but still the oppressive scent of death filled his nostrils and made him almost ill.

Stepping into the trees, Ezra looked up and behind himself especially. He saw nothing lurking in the trees. He almost wished he had a dog with him.

Diligently Ezra scanned around; up in the trees, down on the ground, looking for a carcass or a cougar — or both, which, honestly, would be even better — but he saw nothing.

He thought he heard a feline growl and looked around slowly. No green feline eyes, no slim tail hanging down, or anything else remotely cougar-like caught his eye as he scanned.

Continuing on, Ezra found the smell of death getting even more overwhelming as he kept walking, scanning the ground in front of him, as well as the trees all around, until, finally, he found the source of the putrid smell.

Ezra swore under his breath, not that he was surprised; after all, if they were driving the cattle faster than the cattle could take the calves hardly had time to drink, so this was only natural.

The calf carcass — mainly due to the fact that it was still too cold yet for flies — wasn't really broken down, except for the rather obvious signs that some carnivore had taken a few bites out of it.

But it couldn't be a cougar, as cougars usually carried their carcasses into the trees, and this carcass was on the ground. More likely, then, it was a wolf. Ezra looked around the carcass for tracks.

The spruce needles that littered the ground only showed disturbances, but not exact shapes as to what had caused the disturbance. But the he spied a snow patch, littered with needles.

A boot print, heading south. Ezra looked back at the carcass, did that mean it'd been dragged here by rustlers?

Why here? Ezra shifted his jaw, maybe to hide it from them. He rolled his eyes, as if their trail wasn't blatantly obvious.

But did that mean there was possibly a campsite nearby? Maybe they could get an idea of the numbers.

Creeping through the trees silently, Ezra kept up his vigilant scanning up and down, looking for cougars and campfire marks.

Thankfully he found the campfire marks without finding a cougar. Here he found horse droppings as well, and flattened places where the men had slept.

Using the toe of his boot, Ezra indicated the corners of the bedrolls until he'd circumnavigated where the campfire had been. Counting the rough rectangles, Ezra shook his head. Nearly a dozen men were involved in this."