The cold, steel teeth bit into my leg. My red blood steamed as it fell onto the snow. The black jaws of the trap had sprung up from the frozen earth, leaping out of that white powder after my unwary step.
I was going to die.
I could hear the howling of the dogs, the voices of men shouting—the echoes of my own, guttural screams rebounding off the mountain.
Think! some quiet part of me shouted over the panic.
I stared down at the thing around my ankle. I tried to pry it apart, but it was locked. My numb fingers felt all along the complicated mechanism. Their howls and shouts were growing louder now; I didn’t have much time.
There! A little leaver was holding the jaws in place. I pressed it down and found some relief from that hideous bite. Groaning, I pressed one side of the trap open with my leg, driving the cold metal further into my flesh while my free hand clasped the grated edge of the other. With a quick kick, I had my leg free.
Run! that little voice said. Wait! I thought.
Stretching the mouth of the trap open as far as it would go, I heard the metallic click and felt the spring catch on something. Then I ran, leaving the bloody trap there, empty, hungry, waiting in the path of my pursuers.
Into the frozen wilderness, I fled.
Tale Told 