a/n: Ahh finally got around to posting the first chapter! Been so busy with everything lately and now it's summer and I have time to do some writing! Hope you enjoy
Please leave comments and feel free to check out my other story: Don't Wake Me Up
It's a non hockey story but lots of my friends who have read it really love it and I hope you will too!
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I came down into the kitchen with two bags packed. “I’m leaving for a few days.”
“But dear, you just got home.”
“I need to get out and have some time to myself Mom.”
“Where are you going?”
I knew exactly where I was going but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I’m not sure yet. Someplace quiet and away from everyone, I need to go somewhere where I have only my voice and only my opinion in my head.”
My mother opened her mouth to argue but then closed it and gave a slight nod. “Take all the time you need just please let me know where you are when you get there.”
I told her I would, gave her a hug, grabbed my backpack and duffle bag and headed out the door.
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Eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.
2010 Stanley Cup champions eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.
Those two lines had run through my mind at least a hundred times over the 3 hours I have been hiking. Three hours of pulling myself up steep hills, over fallen trees and across forest streams. Those phrases were my motivation; they kept driving me forward over this rugged terrain.
I was punishing myself for our team just making the playoffs and being eliminated after the first round. I was the captain of this team and I should have done so much more to motivate my team. Even though my teammates, coach, and other people were telling me that it wasn’t my fault. I felt that it was.
If only I had…
My thoughts were cut short when I stepped out of the thick Canadian forest and saw my lake for the first time.
Lake Toews.
Its beauty was astounding. The lake was dark and it reflected the surrounding forests and mountains like a mirror because of its calmness. I knew without a doubt that I had made the right choice in coming here to sort my thoughts out. It was peaceful and undisturbed, a place that I could get over my frustrations and focus them towards preparing for the next season.
I took a big breath, in hailing the clean, crisp air. It rushed into my lungs and it seemed to renew my body from all the physical punishment I was giving myself.
I took a couple steps towards the water when I heard a noise ahead of me. I froze as some sort of animal appeared on a rock to my right. I heard myself take in a sharp breath. The animal was some sort of dog, weather it was a coyote or a wolf I was not sure, but the more we stared at each other I figured it had to be a wolf by it’s size and colour.
I slowly reached back to grip my bear mace. The wolf went rigid and lowered its head, his mouth pulled back in a snarl revealing his long, sharp teeth. A feral growl ripped out of his body before he let out a deep, threatening bark.
A sudden movement on the rock above the wolf caught my attention. My eyes widened in surprised as I saw a woman twisting around to face me. She was already crouched into an animal-like stance. She shifted her right hand and the sun reflected off of the blade of a hunting knife that was gripped tightly; ready to strike.
