I could feel my hands tighten around the gun I was holding. My alert eyes narrow as the sick hollow feeling sank in. It was as if my stomach dropped a hundred stories tying it’s self in to knots along the way. I swallowed what felt like a beach ball in my throat and forced the words to come out of my mouth, ”Shaulin don’t shoot!,” Shaulin, hearing the urgency in my voice let the rabbit in his gun sight slide away. Why Stohry? “I know you don’t mind me shooting animals,” he said in response to my frantic tone.

This was true, so why did I ask Shaulin not to shoot? Not for the reasons somebody might think. I was not an animal lover who would not stand for a helpless animal being killed as long as the meat was put to good use; this of course was our only purpose.

So why? Why was I asking Shaulin not to shoot? Because of some thing I had just seen. But before I tell you what it was, we are going to go back. Back before the sweet and salty smell of beacon and eggs waking me up in the morning. Back past the first songs of morning birds. Back about one week to the day my big brother Shaulin took me to a hunter safety class.

The sticky smell of people sitting in brown plastic chairs still lingers in my mind. After three gut wrenching classes, we came to the final test we past this with smiles on our faces.

By this time it was nearing our mom’s birthday, and she only had one gift she wanted in mind. She wanted to experience the unfamiliar taste of rabbit. So Shaulin and I set out with our newly earned hunting license on a mission to fulfill our mom’s wish.

Living in the forest made being able to go hunting easy, so we headed out. The deep rich smell of dirt on the earth started to heat up when…standing back to back Shaulin and I both saw a rabbit, one on his side and a different one on mine. We both took aim. I was so nervous that the sound of my heartbeat was drowning my own ears.

I was ready to shoot when I witnessed something I never thought I would. Bam! Something pounced on my rabbit! Shredding it up as it gripped it in its teeth. I could see how big and sharp its yellow teeth were. I could see the gold eyes with black specks dancing across them like stars across the night sky and most of all… the power. With shock I realized that the powerful animal shredding my rabbit in to pieces right in front of me was a mountain lion.
My heart skipped a beat! And this was how we got to…”Shaulin don’t shoot!” I explained in a low voice to him what I just saw. Shaulin, not knowing if this was another one of my sisterly tricks or the truth, looked up just in time to see the mountain lion carrying my rabbit away. Just a moment before the lion faded away in to the back ground with my rabbit still in its deadly grip looked back at us as if to say,” No this is my rabbit not yours!”

Shaulin and I walked home that night with no rabbits in our hands but memories in our minds.

The next morning we went back out. But this time I had more than just my gun; I had a moment that would belong to me for ever.