I was 12 and it was opening day of bow season for dear. My folks let me take the day off school so I could hunt. I went to my spot which was at the base of the hill that I lived on. Fields of corn mostly ringed this hill that to the south stopped at a massive forest that spanned 100s of acres. I grew up in these woods and fields. We had one neighbor near the base of the hill where the road bent east and continued onward other wise it was miles to any of our other nearest neighbor. I sat upon a stump that elevated me so I could see down the tractor trail that wound around the whole corn field; my house would be a quarter mile or so away up the hill before me to the north and the trails ran east west. There were also irrigation trails that crossed the corn field ....one of these is what I traveled on from my house to reach the main trail that ringed this field and lead to my designated hunting spot. The west trail went 200 hundred yards then turned north from where I sat and I could not see but to the bend and the east path ran strait for a half mile or more till it to wound north to an irrigation pond and then the road and my neighbors house. Behind me was the woods and where I sat, on my west flank was an old logging road that twisted it's way south and inward towards its swampy heart, it's watery edge beginning not to far within. As the sun arose I heard some thing coming down the path behind me and I readied my bow. I heard it stop then head to the west an Then nothing ..no movement. I figured it had moved off beyond hearing (a deer). Shortly there after from the west trail....past the bend and where at or near where there's a crossing threw the fence row that runs north south and that lead to another monster field that paralleled the one I was hunting in...I hear a puppy Yelp Yelp and I thought then to my self ...o no one of my puppies had followed me out this am when I had left the house ( we had puppies at the time) I then heard and owl hoot...this went on back and forth for a little bit for I do recall being perplexed right before the sounds changed and fear set in. All of a sudden all hell brakes lose and I listen to the most god awful battle I have ever heard. I don't have words for it. To this day I get a chill. Screams ...growls ...roars ...the forest was braking. I was scared stiff...it wasn't happening very far away from where i sat and all i had was an old bow and two arrows. This crazy ass battle seemed to go on forever till One won and one lost. The one that lost yelped like a dog down the fence row heading north. Then the one that won ran threw the corn not to many rows in front of me headed to the east. It sounded like a bull rushing threw the corn as it went by. It went by very fast. I couldn't see it for the corn was to high and i was sitting just up off the ground but I could hear it. I watched for it to cross the tractor trail but I never did see it. So I sat there. Freaked pondering how the hell do I get home. Go around a corner that I can't see around and where all this crazy stuff just went on or go strait threw the corn field where you really can't see any thing at all or go down the trail the same way this train just plowed towards and I have no clue where it's at and I know it's that way some where. So I decided visibility was preferred over not seeing and i didn't want to round a blind corner so I went east the way it just went, towards the irrigation pond. My legs where numb and it took me a bit to move. I don't remember walking/running all that way until I reached the road and walked up the hill to my house. I cried the whole damn way home ...scared shitless... When I got home I was hysterical and my mom calmed me down. Then she told me I had to face my fear and made me go back. She stuck an old single shot 22 into my hands and said go.. and walked back heading towards the battle spot and not very happy about my predicament.. When I made the turn and was getting nearer to where it had happened I swear to this day I saw a massive log get thrown out from the trees into the corn field and with that I ran home as fast as I could ....
perhaps now looking back I allowed my fear to get the better of me at that point.. I just don't know but i did not enter the woods alone again until I was in my latter teens.