Notes from Châteauvieux

The Evening Chase — Vahina and the Roe Deer

The sky still hesitates to thunder above Séüse.

That evening, the sky stayed brooding, still hesitating to thunder. Above Séüse, the mountain and its long ridge, the clouds slowly parted — as if to crown the sky with one last light before nightfall.

 

Vahina stops, alone in the middle of the harvested wheat field.

Vahina had stopped to take in the field. And then, suddenly, I spotted a roe deer taking shape at the edge of the trees. She froze completely, not a single move, like a cheetah on the savannah waiting for the exact instant to spring on its prey.

On alert, facing the edge of the woods.

The roe deer were still grazing, unaware of the drama closing in on them. Then Vahina’s scent must have reached them, ten meters away: they leapt over the hedge and vanished in an instant.

 

Frustrated, Vahina takes off after them.

Frustrated, Vahina took off after them. A chase through woods and forest that lasted a good ten minutes — before she came back to me, panting, breathless from a pursuit that had no winner.

 

Back to calm, in the evening light.