Gazelle Hunt - Steven Sawtelle

Short Story: Gazelle Hunt

So recently I started writing a few short stories just for fun, and thought this site would be a good place to keep them. I’ll title them Short Story: like this one for future reference!

Miles hated the irony of his name. It implied that he could run for miles, but if his name was truly an indicator of how far he could run he would be called “a few yards followed by intense panting” instead. He was a chubby 16 year old who wanted to be anything else. Fortunately for him, he had just been granted clearance to go on his Transformation Hunt. The government gave out passes to allow newly grown men and women to find their transformation animal. It happened in a magical section of the nearby Kaudi Forest, where the first animal one hunted and killed inside would bond to their body, and they could freely transform into it for the rest of their lives. The Kaudi Forest had one enchanted version of every animal on the planet, which could bond with a hunter on its death, and then rise from the dead no matter how bad its wounds every night before the next group of intiatives.

So, rather than work out and become fit, Miles had long ago decided that he would figure out how to hunt a gazelle as his Transformation. He had no pressing need for the more traditional animals his friends had decided on and tried to pressure him into. Tara had gotten her transformation last year and chose a dolphin, deciding that travelling far and being beautiful were her most important criteria. Derek had picked by far the most common, choosing to be an eagle. Bird Transformations made a lot of practical sense when it came to fast travel and convenience, but their frequency meant they lacked a certain flare Miles yearned for. Joey had gone for the incrediby difficult to hunt tiger, and spent many of his days strutting around in his Transformation now. But Miles had seen a gazelle when he was young, and watched it gallop away effortlessly from a charging lion that came near. He envied the grace and speed, and knew then that it was the Transformation for him.

The day of one’s Transformation Hunt was honored as one of the most important days of a person’s life in Organica. Miles brought the bow he had been practicing with for years to the starting hut, and listened to the obligatory lesson the instructor gave about the process, as if he and everyone else hadn’t meticulously studied the whole process for years in preparation. Anyone of even moderate wealth enrolled in a preparatory course that covered everything from picking the right Transformation for you to methods of hunting your chosen animal. Once the lesson finally ended, he ran for the exact spot he knew his gazelle would be. To call this a forest would be a disservice, as it was a magic myriad of ecosystems all in one. He ran - thinking blissfully that this would be the last time he ran so slow - for where he knew the grasslands would be, and after a few minutes he found his gazelle. Beautiful and elegant, it casually grazed in a meadow. He approached it slowly, but having only ever practiced on targets, got too close and spooked it towards the jungle section of the forest.

After waiting a few minutes to get the jump again, he tried to approach. He walked towards it slowly from an angle that allowed him to see it in a clearing between two trees. He breathed in, pulled back, and let go with practiced aim…

Above Miles, the forest bristled with activity. Among the wildlife was the Kaudi Forest’s resident three-toed sloth, which was slowly passing the clearing. The sloth slowly traversed, arm over arm, but it was as slow mentally as it was physically. As it reached for the next tree branch, it became evident that the sloth had mistakenly grasped its own brown arm instead, and completely lost its grip on the trees. As it fell towards its death from the canopy, the sloth didn’t even have the acuity to process what had happened to it.

Miles’s arrow flew through the clearing, directly on target to hit the gazelle. Just before the arrow made contact, as his heart began to soar, he noticed a hairy mass hurtling down from the trees. Moments away from the gazelle’s heart, the body of the sloth dropped right in front of his arrow, against all odds absorbing the full impact of the arrow. Startled again, the gazelle darted away, and Miles could do nothing but look on in horror, as his dreams of a life as a gazelle withered, and he felt his body fuse forever with the essence of a three-toed sloth.