After their breakfast, Nate and Alex began what was to be their morning activity, a hike one of the trails that would likely take them up one of the mountains near the town and that the town had been built between. He remembered seeing some of the sights as his family had driven into Moon Lake from Minnesota. It was built in the Cascade Mountains to the northeast of Seattle, and was in a valley between a few of the mountain peaks in the area. Nate remembered seeing that as they drove in and really thinking that the town was truly close to nature with the way the forested mountains surrounded the town.
As they walked from their campsite, Nate found that the recreation area for weres was also very much like that. There were plenty of trees and many of the camping areas seemed to have lots of natural bushes or trees that seemed to form "fences" around the camping areas. It was like a couple of the history courses he'd had that talked about the hedgerow country in Normandy. Nate actually had some curiosity on this.
"Lots of bushes and stuff around the campsites," Nate commented to Alex as they walked toward the trail head, "do the local park rangers manicure the bushes and stuff or monitor things?"
"As in trimming trees and bushes?" Alex wondered, "No, they don't do that. That'd get in the way of the purposes of concealment for weres coming to camp."
"Wouldn't it also give normal animals cover?" Nate asked in that regard.
"Yes," Alex agreed, "it can... but unlike normals, WE have the sense of smell and hearing to know if there is a bear or mountain lion in the bushes... and while a lot of natural animals do not like weres and if pushed into a fight would try to kill a were even if they'd won an opening to escape once a fight's begun, predatory animals may tend to avoid weres when they can. As as werewolves, we are big enough and strong enough to pose a true physical threat to even grizzlies and polar bears, and werelions, weretigers, and werebears are even BIGGER and STRONGER than we are."
"What about weres that are smaller, like werecats, werefoxes, weredogs... or based off of animals that aren't predators?" Nate wondered.
"Well, they'd be fleet enough of foot to get away, your mom as a cat could climb a tree far more easily than a normal could," Alex shrugged, "and in the case of werehorses and werecattle, they might also have a size and strength advantage or good horns. I think there was a story of a werehorse that was attacked by a grizzly once in the 1800s. The werehorse, based off a Clydesdale, snorted, transformed and turned. The bear got close and reared up to attack when the werehorse kicked. As the story goes, the blow broke the bear's upper jaw and knocked it out. The werehorse suffered only superficial scratches, snorted at the bear and trotted off."
By this point the two had reached the trail head, which was marked by a wooden signboard that showed the map of the trails to follow. The map was made of paper and was protected by a glass protection layer that covered it. It showed both the were and normal campsites and the relevant trails. Both trails went up the nearby mountain, though the "normal" trail took an easy route up the mountain that wasn't challenging while the "were" trail took a slightly tougher trail. Nate felt that'd make for an interesting hike, and hoped the end point would give them a great view. Nate also noted a side trail that branched off to what was marked as a clearing that was marked "Fur Field." That had to be the area where they could go to transform during the day.
"So... while there can be the potential to be killed by an animal, it is usually going to be careless mistakes that lead to that," Alex finished as they looked at the looked a the sign, "as we have all the same abilities they do plus human sentience and intelligence. So... be smart when hunting and being respectful while camping and you'll never have a trouble."
"Okay," Nate nodded and did feel assured and turned to follow Alex to a nearby trail.
"So... do you want to jog the trail?" Alex as he lead them up the start of the trail.
"Now, I'm fine walking," Nate answered, "allow for a good look at the terrain and enjoy the time to talk to you."
"Talk out your first great novel?" Alex asked with a bit of a chuckle.
The path took an almost immediate climb. It wasn't steep, but Nate could easily tell they were going up hill. He did manage a bit of a chuckle at his boyfriend's comment.
"You're still liking last night's ghost story?" Nate asked to him, chuckling.
"Yeah," Alex gave a friendly smile, "sure it's not the next great American novel, but it was good. If you can write a book as good as that... you'd surely find a very well receptive audience."
"Maybe put together collections of short stories," Nate mused, "might actually work better with the things I'd tend to be interested in as topics."
"Or you could go for the next Stephen King," Alex commented, "even if it means playing to the stereotype tales on weres. They may not be as well liked by weres, but there are plenty that do understand that Hollywood and so on aren't trying to be "realistic" and are only playing to what old folklore tales have told them."
"Actually, much of Hollywood's take has actually invented some things," Nate commented, "we've been able to transform at will and whenever we want, physically anyway. And many old folklore tales say that. The only transforming under a full moon is more a creation of the first Wolfman movie with Lon Chaney Junior. They actually invented what they wanted to use."
"Interesting," Alex commented, "but still, while a lot of weres may not like the way we've been depicted... it's not as though they're going to demand werewolf movies and stories be more "accurate" if you know what I mean."
They continued on, and climbed up over the path where rocks were being used to frame the path and allow them to continue climbing up the mountain. The further they went and began to climb up the mountain, it began swerve to a side so they would be avoiding going straight up the mountain. It was a decent climb, but still manageable. Nate even felt that he probably could have made the hike before he became a werewolf.
"Well... given my interest in werewolves, I might tend to give a story with werewolves that is a bit more realistic that old stereotypes," Nate commented, "not revealing Moon Lake's secret or anything... but still taking a take that doesn't depict them as slobbering and mindless monsters."
"Well... whatever tale you tell, I'm sure people will read it," Alex commented, "I could only hope to do half as well as you with regard to ghost stories... and most of the ones I know have been told to me by friends. You said you made that one up on your own."
Nate nodded as they continued. He felt pleased with that and Alex's review did give him confident that he could do well enough as a writer to have long term success. However, he put a lot of that aside as they continued to climb up the mountain. He enjoyed looking to the natural world as they continued to climb up the mountain. As they did so, the path continued to climb up the mountain. It began to grow steeper, but still easily manageable. As they climbed, they also began to notice that the trees were beginning to thin out a bit, indicating that they were beginning to approach the tree line. Alex did notice as Nate looked at the changing topography.
"Founders Hill, as this mountain is named, does have a low tree line," Alex said to Nate, "but it isn't as tall as some of the other mountains in the Cascades... Shoot, it isn't even the tallest mountain near Moon Lake."
"Any idea why the tree line is lower?" Nate wondered as they began to approach a wooden staircase in front of them that seemed to lead up towards a wooden observation platform above them.
The beams looked as though they'd been driven into the rock and earth, or that holes had been pre-dug for them and earth and rock were simply filled in once the beams were in place. From what Nate remembered seeing on the map at the trail head, this meant they were actually beginning to reach the end of the trail.
"I really don't know," Alex commented, "maybe there's too much were activity... be it hunting or... you know... that may disturb younger trees or maybe there's something in the soil... I really don't know."
"Might be something to ask Eric on," Nate commented, "he'd surely have a good theory."
"Maybe," Alex shrugged as they climbed the stairs and eventually came to the viewing platform. As they arrived, Alex gestured to the fair railing, "Welcome to the viewing area for Founder's Hill, one of the best spots to see ALL of Moon Lake at once."
Nate slowly approached and placed his hands on the railing to look out and found it to be an amazing view. He could see the tops of the trees immediately below him, but he could also see a good portion of the lake below them and beyond that, the town. From the height they were at, Nate could easily see the wagon wheel formation that Moon Lake had taken with its forest areas between the spokes of the town that extended from the central area. It was actually a rather serene shot of how the town fit into the natural world.
"It's amazing," was all Nate could manage, commenting on the view.
"Yep," Alex agreed and placed an arm around his boyfriend's shoulder.