THE GOODLANDS - My Debut Novel

I've completed my debut Western Mystery, The Goodlands, A Sam Rios Novel (or maybe a Wide-Open West Novel. Now it's time to query agents!

 

___________________________________________________________________________________

THE GOODLANDS

A Sam Rios Novel

Christine Haese

 ______________________________________________________

 

Part One

GONE WESTERN

 

“Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.”  ― John Muir

 

 ______________________________________________________

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

He was flat on his back and barely conscious when the brown and gray canine roused him with her soft whine and accompanying bad breath, panting in rapid rhythm. She had just finished rolling and rubbing on his open backpack and was standing near his side, licking his bloody shoulder. He flinched as she ratcheted her head sideways and moved her soothing tongue from his shoulder to the open wound on his forehead.

 

 “K-Dog, is that you pal?” he asked faintly.

 

With squinting eyes, he followed the canine’s flaring nostrils upward, until he saw two yellow eyes glaring at him with uncertainty. Small, pointed ears were alert and attentive. Turning his eyes and head slowly downward, Sam knew this was not his pet, but a wild creature. He should not show dominance. He held his breath as the she-wolf looked up and listened intently to something in the distant twilight. Carefully, she stepped over the human and walked toward a game trail leading into darkening timber.

 

Looking back once, the lobo shook her head, and twin strings of slobber created an arc in the final light of day. She trotted confidently into the darkness, accompanied by the scent of her mother, stolen from the human evidence bag. Her faint whine and howl called for her pack and converged with the wind.

 

Oddly, Sam Rios, Law Enforcement Officer for the US Forest Service did not fear the wild creature, but as she disappeared, he found himself exhaling in relief. Searching in its direction, he saw only black, silhouetted statues of Ponderosa pines displayed against a backdrop of disappearing sky.

 

What just happened? He stretched his wounded body upward to peer deeper into the woods, lost his balance, and rolled downhill, landing in a shallow stream of icy water, which racked him in pain. He shivered and cried loudly. His scream sent chills along the mountain’s spine and all the predators paused to listen.

 

He knew he must desperately struggle to remain in survival mode, but the warm fluid was dribbling into his eye, pain stabbed at his chest, and he could not lift his left arm. When he tried to escape the water, its sandy bottom hugged his body tighter.

 

Then he heard the shouting.