Chapter Thirteen
THIN BLACK CLOUDS SHADED the skyline; dragging slowly over the valley like heavy unmilked cows pregnant with the promise of rain. They threatened at any moment to tear themselves open upon the ragged pine branches that reached out of the valley’s belly.
Lucas watched the clouds.
The sun crouched warily behind the clouds. The wind prowled through the pine tops like a great, raging, sightless beast, until the oily cloying pine scent stuck and caught tarrily within his throat. He dragged a hand across his brow, mopping the perspiration that threatened to blind him. His shirt was dank with sweat. The axe grew heavy.
He leaned upon the handle of the axe and he waited for whatever came next.
It was a day of shadflies.
The sky was thick with them. He could not open his mout
