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THE swamp had four distinct seasons and within each she had ht she wore a mantle of purple, all different hues, dark swirls that filled the night sky and lighter lavenders that crept through the cypress trees The e, turning them a pale, silvery blue Crimson and blue made up the color purple, and it was evident in the splashes of dark red slashing through the trees to pour into the duckweed-carpeted water below

Saria Boudreaux smiled as she carefully stepped fro it day by day, a little at a tirown up on the edges of the swamp and there was nowhere she was happier The blind was set up alongside an owl's nest and she hoped to get night pictures, a coveted coup that could possibly bring her a great dealher an independence froht possible

Going to school had been rather difficult--she'd been raphy Most of her childhood had been spent running wild in the swa hunt alligator with her father when her brothers were gone--which had been most of the time She wasn't used to authority in any form, and school was too structured, had too many rules She couldn't breathe with so many people around her She had nearly fled into the swamp to avoid the rules when a kind teacher had pushed a caested she take some pictures of her beloved swamp

There was a bit of a ht she had used the last few nights to reveal activity in the nest The babies er sounds as an adult approached, and as it descended, Saria tripped the caht,strike, as she set off the electronic flash Used to lightning, the birds never seeht flare

She caught a gliht sky as the owl dropped down to the nest, and her heart sang At night the swaators could literally shake the earth Movement was all around her, in the air, under her feet, in the water and through the trees The natural rhythht to dark So too ht vision seemed vastly improved, so that even without the flash of the ca with their catch

Flickering light caught her eye So around Fenton's Marsh Fenton Lumber Company owned thousands of acres of swamp and leased it to most of the fa in the burrow each leased several thousand acres to hunt, trap and fish, s almost entirely in the swamp Some of thein money as well, but their lives centered around the swamp

Fenton's Marsh was considered rather sacred and off-liht of anyone poaching there Jake Fenton, the original owner, ell-respected by those living there It was hard to gain the trust and respect of anyone living in the swamp, yet all the families had liked the older ular fixture in the swaator hunters had allowed hireenhorn was never welcoenerous leases and no one would jeopardize their livelihood by biting the hand that fed them Fenton was dead, but everyone knew that the randson, Jake Bannaconni, would be developing it one day Out of respect for Jake Fenton, they left that marsh alone

The adult owl took off again, the rustle ofher attention briefly, but she refrained frohts in the swamp madeer uneasy, and she didn't want the flashes fro the craear She had ht, but the uneasiness was suddenly full-blown fear, and there weren't a lot of things Saria was afraid of

She had begun the clied screaly, harsh--and terrified The swas and insects going silent, the nor into chaos The screaony

Chills slid down her spine as she quietly slipped into her boat Had an alligatorit? As she pushed off into the carpet of duckweed, a screarowls and deep roaring reverberated through the cypress grove The world around her froze, every creature going still Even the alligators fell silent The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood up Goose bus in a rush

A leopard She knew the legends andone of the elusive creatures referred to thehost cats" A few naturalists said they didn't exist Others clai for new territories She knew the real truth, and they all had it wrong

Saria sat very still in her boat, her body tre knife at her belt She'd carried that knife from the ti careful, deliberate un from the case beside her and checked to un practicing at the age of ten and was a deadly shot--which hadwith her father She could hit that sator's neck to kill it every single time

She moistened her suddenly dry lips and waited there in the dark, heart pounding, hoping the trees and the root systeht wind carried her scent away froht and the silence stretched for what seee predator was still close--the night was far too still

She had tried to tell herself for years that she'd had nightmares, and maybe she'd actually convinced herself it was true until she heard that sound--that roar And now she could hear a rasping call and then a sawing cough She closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her te down hard on her lower lip The sounds were u

ns, but not that Once heard, it was never forgotten She'd heard those sounds when she was a child

Remy, her oldest brother, was sixteen when she was born and was already considered a man He worked on the river, as did Mahieu by the ti The boys were in school and worked afterward for long hours while herdisease and her father retreated further and further into the world of alcoholisone and her father rarely spoke Re in the arhteen, ran the store and bar nearly single-handedly and rarely had ti out to work

Saria had been responsible for the house and the fishing lines, running wild in the bayou without supervision from that time on The boys had coain, back to the service They were barely aware of her existence, eating theattention to the fact that she cooked She had desperately wanted attention and felt alienated and left out--not angry exactly, but rather sad that she didn't really fit in with them