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"Do you have any plans for Sunday?" Sasha asked him in the dressing room after the shift, as they were both going to dress back in civilian clothes and slowly go to their homes. It was Friday and the view of the weekend was finally here.
"I just wanted to stay home, why are you asking?" Leonid turned to him with astonished expression.
"I want to go hunting roebucks with my friends. It's end of the September, the hunting season is here and I'd like to go into the woods. Do you want to join us?"
Leonid thought. He and Sasha had talked about hunting many times, but they only went hunting ducks once. He enjoyed the adrenaline fun, but he never dared to hunt any larger animal. Maybe now is the right time to change that.
"I'll be glad," he said with a smile.
"Great!" Said Sasha. "Will I pick you up at 9 in the morning?"
Leonid nodded.
From the dressing room, everyone went home in his own direction.
*
*
*
The Saturday fled quickly, and on Sunday morning everyone met next to the Leonid's house. Sasha arrived with his other two friends in the car. Leonid joined them quietly and they proceeded to the nearby forest, where everyone went hunting regularly.
They parked the car on the forest edge on a dirt road and began to prepare their rifles.
"Do you remember how work with it?" Sasha asked Leonid quietly as he handed him one of his rifles, for he didn't have his own.
Leonid nodded. "Like ducks?" He asked.
"This is more complicated," Sasha confessed. "There are a few rules."
Leonid looked at him, and Sasha began.
"When hunting roebucks, you try to get as close as possible to the animal without observing or smeling you. We have to find their tracks and stick to them until we find some animals. It is possible that they will lead us to the meadow where they most often graze."
Leonid nodded again in agreement. "What should I do if I see one?"
"We will all be together. Leave it to us, you at first sight will not estimate the age of the animal, whether it is ready to be hunt or not yet. Just try to be as quiet as possible and shoot only when you get the signal. Try to aim so that he is well hit and he has not suffered for a long time," he explained briefly.
Leonid felt a bit pushed away after his words, but he was well aware that as a completely inexperienced hunter, he would rather watch and learn than cause any stupidit thing.
"Ready?" One of Sasha's men asked. Sasha threw his rifle over his shoulder and letting him know they could go.
The four of them set out on inconspicuous forest paths, tracking down all sorts of wild animals before the roebucks tracks crossed their path.
"It's just a deer," one of the men pointed out, not sure they had found roebuck.
"It's a roebuck," Sasha said. "Look," and pointed directly to one of the track. "The deer is much larger, and his hoof print would also be more wide. This is a roebuck, we are going right."
One of his friends agreed with him, and the other man nodded. They looked at Leonid, who could only agree. He knew nothing about the footsteps and he had to trust them.
They followed in the footsteps. They tried to crawl inconspicuously with thickets, and paused every second to look around to see if some animal is nearby.
"We are going around all the time, where are they?" Leonid whispered as they were crouching behind the bush.
"The footprints looked fresh, but they could be far away, we might not even find them," he explained.
"What if we don't find them?" He asked.
"Either we find other tracks and a different herd, or we come home. And that could happen."
Leonid was looking forward to a good hunt, but the last time they were on the pond, it was easier to shoot the ducks. If he could hit, success always came - there were many ducks. He would have to go out with Sasha more often to learn how to be a hunter and not just be a nuisance for others. After a hard work, this is a great relax.
"Silence!" One of the men whispered, pointing in front of him.
Everyone looked this direction he was pointing. On a small glade in the middle of the forest, where four pieces of animals grazed in blueberry bushes. With a simple glance, they could guess that it was two deers and two does.
"I'd take that one on the right!" Sasha said softly, believing that the second deer was still too young.
The others nodded and slowly crept into places where they would have a good view of the herd.
Sasha and Leonid also moved. They looked for a nearby hill from which the animals would be a little under surveillance.
As they crept, however, while trying to remain as silent as possible, Leonid accidentally stepped on a dry branch that had broken under his foot.
Roebucks raised their heads from the ground and turned their ears. They chewed off the last bite of grass and slowly started to run.
"Leonid!" Sasha whispered angrily.
"Now!" Their two colleagues shouted at them. They did not want to let the animals escape after so many hours in the woods and decided to try their luck even from a distance and started shooting.
Leonid didn't think about it and ran with his rifle after the deer. He felt guilty, and the only way to save their hunt was to try to run after them and shoot while he is running.
At the same time they fired, he ran. He took the rifle off his shoulder and shot blindly before him which way the herd ran.
He barely ran twenty meters when he collapsed to the ground.
"Lenya!" Sasha shouted.
"Sasha!" Leonid's greatly shaky voice came from somewhere in the middle of the thicket.
"Lenya, where are you!" he repeated, running after him, thinking where he had fallen.
"Lenya!"
"Lenya!"