Deer...

As he creeps along silently he thinks to himself how quiet the forest always seems. There are sounds, of course; the wind rustling through the trees; the distant rumble of the river; the birds and insects, but in comparison to his Manhattan home, it seems almost deathly silent. Apt, given what he's here for. His three buddies are off to the west somewhere, not more than a mile away but it feels like he could be the only person in the whole forest. He stalks on, the wind blowing at his back, down towards the stream.

The four of them make the trip from New York to the forests of New England twice a year, putting the strain of Wall Street behind them for five days, donning their orange jackets, loading their rifles and losing themselves in the hunt. Today is the final day of this trip, the return journey looming large, and he has yet to catch sight of his quarry, despite having tracked him for two days. He approaches the stream cautiously and peers through a screening bush.

There! At the stream, not a hundred yards away, a deer stands, head bowed to drink from the burbling waters. He slowly unhooks his rifle from his shoulder and sets himself for the shot. He takes careful aim but then pauses, taking time to clear his mind and calm his senses, Then he is ready to pull the trigger.

A rabbit, startled by something unseen, erupts from the undergrowth nearby as the shot is taken. The disturbance causes him to lose his aim and the bullet passes wide and a little high of its mark. Before the echoing ring of the shot has faded the deer has gone, leaving behind just the lingering memory of the moment it froze, looking straight down the barrel of the gun.

--- ¦ ---

Well, yesterday's hunt doesn't seem to have caused you too much trouble, despite all the 'dross'.

Pointswise, for the posts that they found, NiC gets 2 points, BW gets 7 and e scores big with another perfect 10. Laura, Harriet and lemonpillows all found blogs connected to 'banana' and are each awarded 5 points out of a possible 7 (for finding a blog with the target word in the title - to get the extra two points the target also needs to apply to the theme of the posts in some way and that wasn't the case in these three examples, that I could see).

All of which means *does quick mental sum* that e is well out in the lead with 24 points, followed by Harriet on 16 and NiC on 12. Still there are still 17 hunts to go before the end of the month so there is plenty of time to catch up.

Sitting here, drinking from a bottle of water (filled up from the water machine at work), I was reminded of the recent failed venture into the bottled water market by Coca-Cola. "Aha", thought I, "that could make a good target for a bloghunt". And so, never being one to ignore moments of inspiration, for today's hunt you need to find posts and blogs that mention 'Coca-Cola' or 'Dasani'. I will accept 'Coke' as a valid entry (as long as it's clearly the sugary drink kind), though not 'Pepsi' - me being a stickler for the rules and all that.

Good luck and happy hunting!