Читать книгу Coyote Peterson’s Brave Adventures - Coyote Peterson - Страница 9

A ll great stories start at the beginning, and in this case our beginning happens to be on a warm summer evening when I was eight years old. They call this time of day “golden hour” because as the sun cascades through the tree branches, it breaks apart into warm light, illuminating the meadow grasses and causing the landscape to radiate a beautiful golden hue. Golden hour is the perfect time of day to encounter animals.

As I yanked on my rubber muck boots and cut through the glowing grasses, my stride was fixed on quickly making it down to the lake. Welcome to my backyard. Now keep in mind, my backyard was no ordinary backyard with a mowed lawn, a picket fence, and a sand box. My backyard was an epic expanse of untamed wilderness composed of endless forests, rolling meadows, winding creeks, and one enormous lake at the center of it all.

Crickets orchestrated my soundtrack, and as I drew closer to the water’s edge, the echoing sound of the evening’s first bullfrogs croaked out with an unmistak-able deep bellow, a surefire sign that the wetland ecosystem was alive with activity. Water snakes skittered along the embankments searching for prey, muskrats breached the surface of the water dancing in the flickering light, and a great blue heron stealthily stalked for fish in the shallows. I stopped at the edge of the lake as my boots squished into the primordial mud and I closed my eyes. I felt a moment of peace as I connected with the wild and whispered to myself.

“Let today… be the day… that I am brave enough to face The Dragon.”

The Dragon. As an eight-year-old boy, nothing captures your imagination more than believing that dragons DO EXIST and that you have the bravery deep down inside to actually capture one. Capture a dragon? Wait a minute. Capture… a DRAGON? Yes, you heard me right.

Follow me for a moment – close your eyes, and as you leave your human body to become one with nature, pretend that you are a fish or a frog. Now dive beneath the water’s surface and into the aquatic world of this giant lake. You are swimming under the weed beds and dodging around lily pad stems through a complicated maze of unknown wonders. Then, all of a sudden you round an old rotting log on the basin of the lake and WHAM! In a flash of power your world blooms white – and before you even know what has happened, you have been eaten by a Snapping Turtle!

Now open your eyes. Phew! Good thing you are still human!

These reptiles, the Common Snapping Turtles, are armed with a massive bone-crushing beak and razor-sharp claws, defended with a gnarled algae-covered shell and a long, spiked tail, and prehistorically painted with camouflage that makes them almost invisible to the untrained eye. They are without question the last true dragons that call our wetlands home, and today I was going to capture one… the biggest one in this lake… or at least that is what I told myself as I snapped back into reality and realized that my boots had sunk nearly knee-deep in the mud!

“Dang! Stuck again!”

I toppled backwards butt-first and landed on the embankment, and after pulling with all my might, I finally freed my feet enough to stand up. Clunky start, but I dusted myself off and slowly began to creep along the edge of the lake.

Shadows and stealth are what make the snapping turtle so lethal. You see, if you’re a member of an unsuspecting prey species and you are being hunted by a predator who knows how to use the shadows to its advantage… there is a good chance you will become a meal. How does that work, you ask? Well, most prey species feed under the illumination of light, while the shadows keep the predators hidden, allowing them to stalk up stealthily below their prey while staying completely unnoticed. Then as soon as the unsuspecting target gets close to the edge, where the shadows meet the light… SNAAAAP! Dinner is served.

In this scenario, I considered myself the predator and the snapping turtle my prey. Trust me when I say that only an eight-year-old Coyote would have such a thought. Looking back at this experience now, I am pretty sure I was nowhere near predator status in these early adventures. However, the goal was to use golden hour to my advantage when it came to sneaking up on this turtle. In the early evenings snapping turtles move from the deep into shallower waters to hunt along the lake’s edge. I knew that if I found myself in the right place at the right time, I might stand a chance of making a miraculous catch.

How did I know this, you may be asking? Well, I had been down this road several times before. I would spot the giant turtle near the lake’s edge and take a step into the water toward it, the turtle would notice me… and then WHOOSH! In a flurry of webbed feet and disturbed mud, it would disappear into the shadowy depths, and I would be left there contemplating what I did wrong. My stealth tactics were accurate, but what I lacked was the cover of shadows. From beneath the surface, I am certain that the turtle saw a giant towering figure and said to itself, “Oh boy, that looks like trouble! I’m outta here!” This is the scenario that had played out numerous times over the course of this particular summer… but little did I know, today was going to be different.

The sunlight was getting to be the perfect angle; just enough light breaching the surface to illuminate the basin of the lake’s edges, where I could see tadpoles and small fish dancing as I stalked along the sides. I was making my way to the far corner of the lake, a treacherous zone of deep, body-swallowing mud that was topped with tangling pond weeds and a perfect layer of clear water on top; an ideal hunting zone for snapping turtles.

This particular body of water was actually home to several snapping turtles. I knew this because to date I had captured five of them, all of which were average sized, weighing around twenty pounds. Then there was the big one, the one I called Dragon – little did I know that as I was slowly rounding the embankment, I was entering his lair.

Snapping Turtles are territorial, and once a large male has found a plentiful food supply it will guard this area aggressively against encroaching turtles. The Dragon was enormous, and I am willing to bet that no turtle in the lake would ever dare challenge his territorial throne. Good thing for me is that I was not a turtle, although now that I think about it… maybe it would have been wiser not to challenge this mammoth reptile.

My eyes were razor sharp with precision as I scanned the surface of the water looking for a trail of bubbles… a sure sign that a turtle was moving beneath the surface. Nothing. I stood and waited with the warm summer breeze dancing off the ends of my T-shirt; my fingertips twisted the tops of the long grasses as I studied the water with anticipation, the sun barely escaping through the tree branches. I was losing light quickly and so far there was no sign of this ancient creature. I began to walk further around the edge of the lake, when suddenly a small group of bluegill fish darted from beneath the pond weeds and scattered in an incredible panic into deeper water. I stopped dead in my tracks, knowing that one thing and one thing alone can scare a group of fish like that: a snapping turtle.

The bed of weeds was dense, spanning about 15 feet in length, and on my end I couldn’t see a thing. No bubbles, no movement… no visible sign of the turtle. I decided to move a little further ahead and position myself at the far end of the weed bed. If the fish were coming toward me, that meant whatever scared them was also coming in my direction. I was moving as quietly as I could, but my boots sank into the mud and made a suctioning sound with every step I took. It was hard to focus on the water when I was in a constant battle to simply keep my boots on my feet. Each and every step was a muddy challenge until I came to the front end of the weed bed and squinted my eyes into the setting sun.

With the light reflecting off the water, I tilted my head left and right, desperately trying to focus my gaze through the glare on the surface. Something was there. An obscure shape, like a floating rock, right up against the weed bed. As my eyes slowly adjusted I realized that the obscure shape before me was a massive, foot-long tail decorated with algae and covered in spikes that just happened to run straight into the back end of an enormous snapping turtle! THE snapping turtle. This… was… THE DRAGON!

There are moments in your life where time becomes divided into two parts… “before this” and “after this.” I was stuck in a state of limbo, partially because my boots were sinking in mud, but also because my body was paralyzed with fear and excitement. Little did I know that these coming moments would change the direction of my life FOREVER.

With the Dragon less than two feet away from me and his front half tucked under the weed bed, I could definitely see him, but he could not see me. My mind began to race with strategy and anticipation.

“What do I do? What do I do?!?”

I had my shot at catching this turtle – and he was huge… strike that, I mean MASSIVE! As an eight-year-old, I probably stood on the bathroom scale and pushed the needle to about sixty-five pounds, and this turtle would easily top out right around fifty! This was one giant reptile!

By now the sounds of nature had fallen silent; the frogs, the crickets, the wind… everything was still. I carefully and quietly lifted my left leg, my boot sucking at the mud with a gulping sound as it released. I stood on one foot… the turtle had not moved. Holding my breath, I gently stepped deeper into the water, trying not to disturb the environment in any way whatsoever. With the toe of my boot cutting through the water’s surface, my leg submerged and went down deep; well over the rim of my boot. Almost instantly the water flooded in, soaking my foot, and a tar-like ooze soon followed, turning my sock black.

“Oh boy, Mom is gonna make me

throw out this pair of socks for sure… but who cares! This is the Dragon… this is my moment!”

I was now less than a foot from the reptile – it was within arm’s reach. I could feel beads of sweat running down my face as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. My heart was in maximum overdrive, and its beats echoed in my eardrums. I began to lean down toward the water, and then… the turtle moved. Not a lot, just a little, but it was very slowly beginning to turn. The reptile was hunting, and I prayed that I had not just become its target.

The back edge of its shell, which was sculpted with jagged spikes, continued to turn towards me. I needed to act quickly. If it turned all the way, my opportunity would be lost, because I had to catch it from the back of its shell, otherwise I would be looking straight into the face of the beast and those bone-crushing jaws.

‘Do it Coyote… grab the back of the turtle’s shell before it turns around and you lose your shot at landing The Dragon. Do it, Do it, Do…’

Then in a blind moment of insanity, I plunged my arms into the water and grabbed onto the back of its shell!

The world stood still; not a sound, not a gust of wind, just a complete empty silence in my mind. In that moment, the silence lasted for hours; but in reality, it lasted for less than a second – and then BOOOOOM! My world exploded! In a fury of claws and splashing, the giant reptile realized something, or in this case someone, had grabbed it. The massive upper shell, which was covered in green slimy algae, breached the surface and sent a tidal wave of water crashing over my arms and soaking my clothes.

A sharp piercing pain suddenly shot up my arm, just after my mind realized that I had taken a handful of razor-sharp claws. I let go of the turtle and fell backward.

The Dragon spun in confusion as my mind spun in a daze.

“My hands… are off the turtle!” It was getting away! “NOOOOOO!!!” I screamed as I rocketed to my feet.

With my boots stuck in the mud, I pulled my feet free from them and went headfirst into the water after the turtle. In a blind “grab of faith” I managed to latch back onto the turtle’s shell, and boy, was it angry! Fifty pounds of ferocious reptile began to pull me out into the deeper water. I was nearly waist deep and panic was beginning to set in.

“What if this turtle drags me under… what if it turns around and bites me… what if it EATS ME?”

I can tell you this much, snapping turtles don’t eat humans.

But at eight years old, anything is possible in your imagination. I held on with all my might, my hands fighting to keep their grasp on its slippery algae-covered shell. The creature’s clawed feet fought against me, sending waves of water into my face while its massive head twisted and reared around as it relentlessly tried to bite me. The battle was on, and I dug my sock-covered feet into the mud… I had reached the point of no return!

Just another couple steps forward and I was going to be in over my head – but a couple steps backward and I would have a chance of dragging this ancient looking beast up and out of the ooze. With teeth clenched, I pulled with all my might, slipping in the mud and water. Finally, I gained my footing, and in that instant the turtle’s head rose to the surface, its jaws open wide. The beast turned and looked right at me with its golden diamond eyes, the most beautiful yet terrifying thing I had ever seen, as it hissed something awful. The smell of death plumed from its gut, the remains of countless fish and frogs reaching my nostrils and sending my head back with a jolt. It might as well have been a fireball from the belly of a mythological dragon. It was so disarming that I nearly lost my grip.

This was the moment I had been dreaming of, face-to-face with a real life, modern-day DRAGON! I refused to let go.

‘PULL COYOTE… PUUUULLLLL!’

I took a step back, and the turtle lunged, causing me to slip and collapse onto a single knee.

‘DON’T LET GO!’

I stood back up… and pulled again, one more step toward the shore. Sweat mixed with mud ran down my forehead and into my eyes. I shut the left one and winced in pain at the fiery sting. My mind screamed, “Sweat and mud will not defeat me today!”

Another strong pull and another few inches gained. This was a literal tug-of-war against, pound for pound, one of the most powerful reptiles in the world, and somehow I was winning! My toes dug into the mud through my socks, and I put every ounce of strength I had into another pull… the turtle’s shell was now completely visible, its massive prehistoric tail covered in mud and glistening in the setting sunlight.

I could not believe it – there it was right before my very eyes.

“The Dragon is Real!”

After a final pull, I could feel my feet on solid ground, the turtle still clutched in my hands as its dagger-like claws sliced through the mud, attempting an escape. One more step back and the meadow grasses began pricking at my legs. Then, by some miracle of eight-year-old strength, I heaved the giant turtle up and onto the embankment. The Dragon had been landed!

Wide eyed, I stared right into the face of a 50-pound Common Snapping Turtle. With its mouth agape, exposing its fleshy pink tongue, I realized that its bolt-cutter-like jaws were wide enough to fit my entire forearm. It was an unbelievably impressive animal who with a single bite could have easily taken my hand; so I wisely kept a safe distance, preventing a possible strike.

The animal was dripping with thick mud and looked as if it had just been unburied from the time of the dinosaurs. My eyes had never seen anything so incredible… so prehistoric. Admiring its inch-long claws and scale-covered forearms, I stared down the length of its dome-like shell, which was alive with squirming leeches. I then walked around behind it to admire the saw-like ridge of the shell which I had so desperately clutched. The tail curled alongside its body was massive, at least a foot in length; it was the closest thing to a living dinosaur that I had ever seen. I flexed my hands and stretched my fingers; they were sore, exhausted, and battle-worn. The mud beneath my fingernails had been driven so deep that they throbbed in pain, while the laceration from the dragon’s claws spilled blood down my thumb and onto the golden grasses around me.

I was exhausted, covered in mud, and standing bootless. The sun was quickly disappearing behind the trees, but I didn’t care. I collapsed to the ground and sat a couple feet from the turtle. In that moment of truce its mouth closed and its body relaxed. We both calmed our breathing and stared at each other with bewildered eyes; mine infatuated with his elegance and perfection, his probably with the thought of…

“How in the world did this little kid ever catch me?!”

The turtle then exhaled again, the sound resonating deep in my chest as the beast then lifted its massive body up off the ground and onto all four feet. It startled me. I had never seen a turtle walk like that before, and I shuffled backward a few feet in the grass. The Dragon slowly turned back toward the lake, telling me it was time to return. I watched as he slid down the embankment and splashed into the water. I stood up, and as I did the giant turned his head back and looked right at me, those golden diamond eyes, as ancient as I had always imagined they would be, looking right into mine and saying…

“Well done, you actually did it.”

In what seemed like slow motion, it slogged into the water, and I watched while the mud swallowed its shadow as the turtle disappeared back into the abyss.

Twilight had passed, the meadow was growing dark and as I stood there soaking wet with mud and sweat, I looked down at my bloodied hand to admire the would-be scar that the Dragon had bestowed upon me. A smile beamed across my face, and in that moment, I knew that I wanted nothing more in my life than to get up close with as many animals as I could.

I turned toward home and began to make my way back through the meadow. It took me all summer, but I had finally done it, I had caught The Dragon. And while no one was around to witness my incredible triumph, I just hoped that my mom would believe the incredible reason why I was coming home… without my boots.