Chapter Text
Day 15
Apart from the snow covering the ground, the forest surrounding the huge pond in Wyoming was quite dismal, full of dull grays and browns. Two men, dressed in equally dull colors and armed with shotguns, quietly crept through the woods. One of them motioned for his friend to stop, and they both crouched behind a bush that had dropped all its leaves months ago.
Dietrich sighed, his breath visible in the cold air. "You know, Troy, you have full control over your jackal spirits now. You could probably make hunting a lot easier by using them."
Troy gave him a look. "Dietrich, you enjoy hunting. You're just mad I pulled you away from a warm fire and hot chocolate."
"Perhaps a little. A hunting trip needs more planning."
"You knew it was my turn to host Christmas dinner."
"And?"
"And you know I hunt for the goose myself."
"Yes, but you typically do not drag me along with you."
"I take you along during deer season."
"Yes, but you have never asked me to hunt the Christmas goose with you."
"Well, there's a first time for everything."
Dietrich gave another sigh.
"Besides, nobody forced you to go with me. You completely, voluntarily got out of that chair and came with me."
"I am aware of that."
"You've also said I'm your best friend without prompting, so I think you decided to just take the opportunity to spend time with me."
"Shut up, Troy." Dietrich looked past Troy at the pond, which was teeming with Canada geese.
A big grin spread across Troy's face. It was considered unsportsmanlike to shoot waterfowl while they were on land or water, so he turned to Dietrich, whispering, "Alright, buddy, let's go around to the southern side of the pond."
The two headed around the pond to the southern side. The geese were likely to fly toward them when they took off. Now, it was a question of when they would take off. Troy and Dietrich hunkered down with their shotguns and waited patiently. It was about the only time that Dietrich would ever see Troy being patient, wearing a thoughtful look on his face rather than that dastardly grin or goofy smile. Neither man said a word to each other. They remained crouched there, watching the geese.
Dietrich's legs were beginning to ache, and he noticed Troy doing his best to quietly massage his lower back. Troy, of course, caught Dietrich looking at him and glared at him. Dietrich bit his tongue in an effort to keep from laughing, but cupped his gloved hands around his mouth to whisper, "Is your poor old back bothering you?"
"Shut up, Dietrich," Troy hissed. "How's your old back doing?"
"I am much younger than you. My back is fine." That wasn't the complete truth. Dietrich's back was beginning to hurt, as were his knees. He noticed his right knee had poorer tolerance of prolonged use due to breaking it years ago while on a trip to North Africa with Moffitt. He was warned that not getting treatment right away wouldn't do him much good, but he didn't have much choice when he and Moffitt were in the middle of the Sahara. Along with his back and knees, Dietrich's thighs were now burning, and he was fighting an urge to grunt and groan. When he couldn't take it anymore, Dietrich tried to carefully maneuver into a more comfortable position. He sat down, the muscles in his legs sore and obscenely tight. He set his shotgun down, and eased himself onto his back, still trying not to make a lot of noise.
"You okay?" Troy whispered.
"You know what is nice about deer season?" Dietrich asked.
"What?"
"It is not nearly as cold." Dietrich winced. "My legs are killing me."
Troy looked over at the geese, then scooted over to where Dietrich was laying on his back and staring up at the dull, gray sky through the dull, brown branches of the trees around them. "We can call off the hunt, buddy."
Dietrich shook his head. "No, no, I do not want to be responsible for failing to acquire Christmas dinner."
"Are you sure? You look awful."
Dietrich sighed, closing his eyes and grinning a little. "This is not the worst I have ever looked. There was that damn chain, remember?"
"We were both a little worse for wear." Troy gave him a lopsided smirk. "There was helping you out of that cave. The ammo dump we had to blow? Remember all that clutter came down on your leg and tore a hole in your trousers?"
"Yes. I have tried to forget that."
"I think worse was when you had your car flip on you in that sandstorm."
"Worse than when I was in the hospital after I tried to end my own life?"
Troy's grin faded, his expression becoming a bit distant. "Yeah. You in the hospital was worse." He gave a quiet sigh. "Did I ever tell you that… I relived that a little, after we brought you to a hospital after the battle with the magpies? After you let the mamba bite you? I went into your room, and even though they said you were asleep, it just looked too similar to when you were unconscious. Even the bandage on your arm. Millington made sure you were getting the antivenom made from Moffitt's blood, so it all… it all looked like we were back in Würzburg, waiting for you to come around so we could start helping you want to live again."
"No, you never told me this."
Troy nodded. "I meant to say something, but I didn't want to stress you out, and after your wife got mad at you, I figured it was best to just leave it alone for a while."
Dietrich didn't regret letting the black mamba bite him to save Troy at the river, but he did feel awful for making so many people worry. He went back to looking up at the sky, then glanced at Troy. "It is funny to think that when you were at my side in the hospital, after I tried to commit suicide, neither of us thought we would be here, experiencing this very moment."
"I don't think either of us considered it when we first met in North Africa."
"Definitely not. I wish things had been different, but getting a friendship such as this out of it was the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Seriously? Not marrying Esther? Not having your son? Me and my friendship is the best thing that ever happened to you?"
"I would not have had the courage or confidence to talk to Esther if it had not been for you. I would not even be alive if it were not for you."
"Well, you have a point there. If I mean that much to you, I won't argue."
Dietrich nodded, his own smile returning. "I must also point out, there is no way how I look now is worse than when we went on a road trip and I came down with a bad case of sinusitis."
"That's true. You looked much worse back then." Troy looked over his shoulder at the pond. "The geese are still there. I don't think they suspect a thing."
"How? We are not being particularly quiet, and I can guarantee when you move, there will be even more noise."
Troy sighed. "Don't say it—"
"Anah was not exactly wrong in her Rice Krispies assessment."
"Of course you agree with her." Troy froze, then picked up his shotgun when the geese began honking. He put the gun's sights to his right eye as the geese prepared to take off. "Christmas dinner, here we come."
The geese took off from pond. Troy pointed the shotgun at one of them, and fired before it could fly right over him. Sure enough, the goose came tumbling down—right back into the pond. "Damn it, it's in the water!" Troy cursed before setting his gun down and dashing out to the pond.
By now, Dietrich had sat up, and was laughing as Troy waded into the cold water. It wasn't quite as funny as Troy's legendary jump into the creek when the two were chasing Moffitt's horse, Snowstripe, but it was a wonderful reminder.
Troy was cursing in both English and Greek by this point, frantically swimming to get the fallen goose. Dietrich kept laughing, completely unaware of the sound of waddling, plodding footsteps behind him. He didn't hear the wings rustling, either. Dietrich took a moment to breathe, and stood up, wincing at the pain in his legs. He completely forgot the pain when all was silent and he could hear one lone honk that sounded quite close to him. Dietrich slowly and stiffly turned, just in time to see a goose hissing and charging to bite his rear end. A chorus of unseen geese began honking all throughout the woods. Dietrich cursed in German before grabbing both shotguns and shouting, "Grab that goose and let's get out of here, Troy! The geese are attacking!"