The Raven In The Yukon Trail

The raven sat far above the Yukon trail, searching for a source of sustenance. The cold had paralyzed most life driving them to seek shelter in their dens and nests. The Raven cared little about the cold as his mind focused solely on finding food. The long days of no sun made locating food difficult and even the raven struggled to see within the maze of the pine woods. He shook his wings to remove a layer of frost that the freezing winds had carried. He waited for any signs of life in frozen pine forest nestling among the branches for a slight reprieve from cold. Cold such as this was dangerous and most animals would avoid travelling in such conditions, but the raven was smart and he knew that in such conditions death was common place. It
He went to work again scurrying about in desperation, trying to build a new fire. The raven and the dog watched him struggle to gather the necessary materials as his hands grew numb. The man dropped and fumbled about for his matches after dropping them in the snow. The man grew more and more desperate as he burned his fingers in a desperate attempt to build a fire. The man’s shaking hands could not hold the matches for long as they burned him and he dropped them as well, crushing his hopes. The man glanced up from his failure and desperation set in. He called to the dog in a friendly tone. The man thought to save himself by killing the dog and sheltering his hands within its corpse until they were warm enough for him to build a new fire. The dog was suspicious of his intent for it sensed something odd in the man’s voice. The man commanded the dog to come him, and the raven watched as he seized it and pulled it beneath himself. The man tried to kill the dog, but his paralyzed hands prevented him from doing it harm. The man realized that he was unable to kill the dog so he reluctantly released the beast from his grasp. The dog scampered a good distance away from the man and stopped to watch him with distrust. The man lost all hope of building a fire, and the thought that he may die drove him to desperate actions. The man jumped up from the ground taking off at a break neck pace. The raven and the dog followed closely behind the man, watching him until his endurance finally broke and he collapsed into the snow. The raven circled above the fallen man for he knew it was only a matter of time before death claimed him. The sound of the bird above him drove the man onward and in desperate attempt to escape his fate he rose and ran a few hundred feet before collapsing his resolve finally broken. The man lay there in the snow’s freezing embrace, and after a few moments he peacefully