A bluish hued blade of hair stuck out from behind the bush. It seemed odd, like a bright teal leaf amidst the shades of green of the undergrowth. It wiggled from here and there as if from movement and through the thickets of small branches could be seen a pair of muddy red eyes. They were not angry in fashion for their brows were raised, as if curious. Then they lowered in a thoughtful, furrowed manner. The eyes were attached to a broad face that appeared to be the result of arcane breeding. It was difficult to see, but it seemed the face stretched out in an awkward smile.
This was Rohir, his red garments tarnished and torn a little from the dirt he'd been crawling in for the past half an hour. His leather boots were tarnished and caked with dirt from long travel. His entire body was low on the ground, and he gazed through the thickets of the bushes along his right side and front of him at the tiny fluffy animal that resided fifty feet from him, mindlessly chewing on a nut. "Squirrel," he whispered to himself and kept smiling until he found the opportunity to creep closer. He shuffled closer to the side of the bushline with surprising stealth and the small animal didn't even perk its little fluffy head up at the rustle of leaves. The warrior stripe that stood on Rohir's head was not humongous, but as he lifted his head near the top, the tip could be seen as he moved closer.
Rohir had tracked that squirrel for three and a half weeks. Now, he wasn't completely skilled in the arts of animal tracking, but he knew it was the same squirrel by the unusual horizontal stripes along its back. They were shiny, and brownish, darker in comparison to the tan hide of the tiny creature. Normally, nobody with a clear sense of sanity would bother chasing a squirrel, especially not for three and a half weeks. But with that in mind, it was easy to indicate that Rohir was a persistent man. And perhaps a little crazed.
"You think you're clever little squirrel, but you're not! You can't hide and run from me forever." He licked his lips and honed his eyes on a small glinting object that was pinned by a string to the end of the squirrel's tail. "My, my, so you do have it! What a coincidence. Just the rock I was looking for!" Just then, he stopped his whispering abruptly when he saw the animal's ear flick and it turned its head to and fro to search for the source of the sound.
He held his breath, and didn't budge an inch. He stared in shock mode at the animal until it suddenly met him square in the eyes. By now Rohir was in a low crouched position and he kept his leg muscles tight and prepared. Silence seemed too loud even now and he slowly exhaled as he saw the animal's legs shift gradually. Then, in an instant, he sprang up and over the bush in a miraculous leap, diving straight for the squirrel and wailing at the top of his lungs. "HAHHHHH!" But the animal managed to evade by a mere fraction and was bounding off as fast as it could, the green stone tied to its tail jumping and dragging along the way.
"You're not getting away this time!" And the chase was on. He pursued the squirrel faster than he thought he could run and almost on it. It ducked and dove beneath a labyrinth of trees. "Come back here!" While he wasn't as young as he used to be, he managed to maintain his stamina long enough to catch a stupid squirrel. If only it would allow itself to be caught.
For several more minutes, he pursued the creature in vain, but wouldn't give up just yet. Suddenly the squirrel made a swift turn, leaving Rohir sliding along some leaves just to make the turn in time. The squirrel scurried toward a large tree and vanished into a dark hole under a fat root. But Rohir kept his eyes on the squirrel as it disappeared, then abruptly was thrown backward by a force he didn't see. His vision went white as he smacked head first into a fat, low branch that hung from the thick, dense trunk. The next thing he knew his back was on the ground and he could remember nothing else.
Oh the joys of squirrel hunting!
