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Talking calmly, he felt a hint of a breeze waft through the air.

He watched the doe lift her nose and sniff.

He did the same, checking for anything out of the ordinary, anything wrong.

He noted nothing thankfully. As he stared at the arrow, it was hard for him to still the anger in his heart.

That anybody would do this to an animal was just heartbreaking, and to leave her in this condition was even worse.

He took another step forward, talking to her.

Just as he got close enough to reach out a hand, she caught sight of him, or maybe of Kojack at his side.

He called Kojack to heel. Kojack stepped back and waited, giving him room.

It wasn’t the first animal they’d come across that needed help, and it wouldn’t be the last one.

But Timber could hope that, if he got to her and could help her, she would accept it.

She slowly sank down onto her front legs, her back giving out underneath her, as she collapsed, staring up at him.

There was hope in her gaze, also fear, but the hope itself was waning.

He finally managed to get close enough to crouch beside her.

He took a look at the arrow and realized it had a screw-in head on it, so holding the head firmly against her flesh, he quickly unscrewed the long handle of the wood from the shaft.

With that part out, he took a quick glance to see just how bad the injury was.

It had penetrated enough that it was excruciating with every step she took, yet it wasn’t anywhere near bad enough to kill her.

It had just caused her such pain with every movement that it was more than she could bear.

It didn’t take him much but one harsh pull to extract it.

It didn’t have a barb on the end and came out clean.

She cried out with the pain, but then her pain was gone.

She stared at him, and he wondered if he could run to the house and get his medications and return to find her here.

He had to, so that he could clean up the wound and could put in a stitch or two.

He rose slowly to his feet, calling Kojack to his side.

He moved swiftly to his house and inside to where he kept his medicine chest. He did an awful lot of rough medicine around this place, but sometimes that’s all that was needed.

Grabbing his kit, he slowly returned to the doe.

As he got to the spot, she was still there.

She seemed to be calmer and in a lot less pain and distress.

He smiled as he crouched beside her again and quickly cleaned the wound.

Then, grabbing the suture material, he stitched the muscle underneath that had been pierced and sliced, then slowly moved his way back out of the wound, until the skin itself was closed.

And, with a final application of an ointment to fight infection, he stepped back and smiled at her.

He murmured, “Looks as if you might be good to go.”

She stared at him but remained quiet, not moving, just resting.

He nodded. “Rest for as long as you need to.” And, with that, he stepped back, taking Kojack with him, slowly and steadily putting more distance between them.

He hoped that she got the message. When he turned around the next few times, she was still there, just watching him.

He smiled and added, “There’s no rush. Take your time. ”

Almost as if she understood and heard him, she stayed quiet for the longest time.

When he came out after dinner a little bit later to check on her, she was still there.

He frowned, concerned there might be another injury he hadn’t seen.

Just as he was wondering if he should try to get close to her again, she slowly got up and started to eat the grass around her, and that was the sign that he’d been waiting for.

With that, he smiled and let her just rest and work her way through some food.

He had water but none close by. It was on his lists of things to do, to get a water catcher system outside, but he hadn’t done that yet.

He had one for collecting rain, but he didn’t have a trough yet.

So he grabbed a bucket, filled it with water from the rain barrel, and moved it closer to her.

Then putting it in plain sight, he backed off and let her have access to it, if that’s what she needed.

By the time he made it back to his cabin again, he saw her drinking.

He smiled, thinking that, as days went, today had been pretty decent.

Now, if only he had an idea who the hell was clumsily hunting deer with a bow and arrow.

Considering the fact that he owned all the acreage around here, it bothered him more than a little because this was private property.

Not only was no hunting allowed, it was intended to be a refuge for animals, so no hunting of any kind would be tolerated around his place.

Perhaps he needed to go look around and find out who was causing this kind of chaos, although they may well be long gone since he couldn’t kill an animal with a shot like that.

Either way, it wasn’t good for anybody. With the two dogs, Kojack and Philly, loaded up into the back of the truck, he slowly drove out of his place and down around the roads.

He stayed to the paved road to see if anything was there.

When he didn’t see anybody, he moved slowly back toward the property.

He parked the truck, walked over to his pasture, where the deer had come from, and called over his gelding, Sparky.

Timber slipped a halter over his chestnut face, buckled it up on the side, and, using a stump, he quickly clambered up onto his back and walked him bareback around the property.

He kept an eye out for anything that was off, and there was always something off. It was just a fact of life.

As he moved slowly, he caught sight of something in the distance.

He froze, wondering what it was, then moved a little closer and found a tent and several men, sitting around a fire, a case of beer between them as they laughed and chortled.

When he came through the trees and stopped just at the edge of their camp, silence fell.

He looked at them, his tone calm but dark, as he announced, “You’re on private property. ”

One of the men hopped up and replied, “No, we’re on Andy’s property, and we’ve got permission to be here.”

“No,” Timber stated calmly. “This isn’t Andy’s property anymore. This is my property. And you are trespassing.”

“What the hell?” the one guy asked, glaring at him. “No way. We’ve been coming here for years.”

“Coming here and doing what?” Timber asked, glaring at him. “Hunting?”

“What do you think?”

“Are you the one who left that arrow in the doe?”

The guy frowned at him. “Oh, she survived that?” he asked, then laughed.

Timber continued to glare at him. “Yeah, she survived that, and, as you’ve admitted yourself, you’re hunting on private property.”

“What then? You want a percentage of the kill?” he asked, with a mocking look in Timber’s direction.

He shook his head. “No, you need to vacate the premises, or I’ll be calling the cops.”

“Oh, wow, as if we care,” replied the head guy, a playfulness in his tone. “Seeing how this isn’t even your property.”

At that, the other two men started to laugh.

Timber smiled at them and repeated, “You are on private property, and that’s not allowed. So, get your asses off my property now…”

“Or what,” asked one of the men, with another laugh. “It’s not as if you’ll stop us.”

“Really?” Timber replied. Moving Sparky forward, he came up closer and stated, “This is your final warning. Get the hell off my property now. If I see you here again, and you’re using unlawful weapons and hunting anything on these acres, I’ll feel free to shoot back.”

At that, the men stopped and stared at him. “What the hell?”

Timber’s anger built. “You come onto somebody else’s posted property, you hunt an animal, and you don’t even take care of the fact that you wounded an animal and left her to exist in pain, while you’re sitting here drinking beer?”

“We couldn’t find her,” the main guy shared, without any shame. “We tried to track her, but we couldn’t.”

“That’s because you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, and, because of your lack of skill, you shouldn’t have access to weapons,” Timber said, pointing toward the road. “Get your asses off my private property.”

“It’s not your place. It’s Andy’s, and we’re not going anywhere,” snapped the one young man who seemed to be their leader, and he looked pissed.

One of the others got up and added, “Look.” He swung an arm toward his buddy. “Obviously he seems to think that this is Andy’s place. We haven’t been here in a while and just assumed it was still Andy’s.”

“He would have told us so,” said the angry leader of this group.

“No, he wouldn’t have,” the second guy argued, followed by a snort. “Hell, you didn’t even ask the last couple times you came here.”

The one who had been talking out of his ass shot him a hard look and snapped, “You shut the fuck up.”

“No, I won’t,” he said, glaring at him. “You told me that it was all cool and that we were allowed here.” He turned to face Timber. “Sorry, man, I’m not trying to get in your way.”

Timber raised one eyebrow. “Then you’re leaving now, right?”

“We could leave in the morning,” he suggested a bit sheepishly.

“No,” Timber growled. “You’re leaving now.”

The guy flushed, looked at his two friends, and grimaced. “I don’t think they’ll go for that.”

Timber nodded. “You’re leaving now on your own, or I’ll confirm that you do.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell is all this trouble about?” asked the third man, finally speaking for the first time.