Kenai was peacefully sleeping in his and Koda's cage. It was the first week of spring, but the brothers were lazy and decided to keep sleeping for another couple of weeks. Koda had just gone out for a while to have a quick bite, but he would be right back. Koda had convinced Kenai that it was perfectly safe because of Kenai's size, which had nearly doubled since two years ago. Along with that, he had grown stronger, his roar had gotten stronger, and he was better at avoiding traps and catching fish. Koda was convinced that no hunter would be stupid enough to disturb such a fearsome sleeping bear.
And he was right, but the woman who disturbed them both was not a hunter. She was not even close. In fact, in the woman's home tribe, which she had gotten kicked out of, the lady, Titika, was a seamstress. A good one at that. But, no matter how good of a seamstress she was, no one in the village could forgive her for sleeping around in the tribe. So she left, but not before forcing the local wise-woman to give her the ability to speak to the woodland creatures.
She thought that if she could show the animals that she could speak to them, and explain that she would only kill them out of either self-defense or for food, they would help her throughout her exile, and soon she might even have a forest army at her hands. Revenge filled her mind. She would show her stupid village that she was a valuable tool, and that it was foolish of them to get rid of her.
When she stumbled across the giant bear in its cave, she thought that she could speed up her takeover of the forest quicker if she got that majestic beast on her side. Thinking it was extremely smart of her, Titika strolled into the den, only pausing when Kenai's great muscles twitched. She felt mild fear at his motion, but calmed herself by telling herself that the bear would not harm her after he found out that she could speak with him.
Before she could wake him, Titika's stomach rumbled softly. Titika made a face and walked out of the cave. She grabbed her spear and travel pack, which she had leaned against the entrance of the cave, and started hiking through the woods to find a nice meal. She walked in relative silence for a while, still trying to get used to the talking animals around her, but she soon found what she was looking for.
It was a dark brown bear, probably still around two years old, not too big. It was a male. This was perfect, Titika thought that if she killed the male bear, the bigger male in the cave would be her eternal friend for taking out a potential opponent at being the dominant male in the woods. Not only that, but then Titika would have a lunch to eat. Titika crouched low and watched the young bear as she readied her spear to kill him.
Then, the bear started sniffing the air and seemed uneasy. It shifted its weight and stood up on two legs. It was taller this way. It would see Titika this way. Its eyes widened and it started wailing, while looking around and backing up. To Titika it was just a noise, but to the bear, who happened to be Koda, it was a source of comfort,
"Kenai! Kenai, help me! There's a hunter here, Kenai!"
Titika smirked at the bear's nonsense and threw the spear. The young bear closed its eyes and moved its head away, expecting to feel pain. But, Koda did not. A giant tan bear had jumped in the way just in time. The angle the bear had been jumping changed the point at which the spear penetrated Kenai's arm. It was angles, right below his elbow. Kenai glanced behind him at Koda, making sure that he was okay. During fights, Kenai got all sober and morose. He did not like fighting humans. It pained him. but this woman had tried to kill his little brother.
Kenai stood up on his two hind legs, growling menacingly. To both his and Koda's surprise, the woman set the stick down and held up her hands, slowly saying,
"Truce, truce! I won't fight you!"
Kenai lowered his heavy body, strewn with twists of muscles, onto the ground, barely wincing at the pain coming from his left forepaw. He glanced at the woman wearily.
"I'm Titika, and I want to be your friend," Titika greeted. Kenai rolled his eyes and started lumbering away, Koda fussing over him,
"Are you okay, Kenai? Does it hurt? Do you want me to do anything for you?"
Kenai shook his head and Koda walked silently behind him. Titika was offended, but realized that the bear must have actually been a female, the mother of the dark brown cub. She called out,
"I didn't mean to hurt your cub!"
Kenai adopted an annoyed look on his face. He knew that she could understand animals; that was the only reason that she was talking to them. He didn't want to speak to the lady. He continued to plow through the woods, trying to get as far away from the girl as possible. Unfortunately, Titika took Kenai's silence as an invitation to journey with them.
She ran to catch up with the two brothers. Then she talked. The talked and talked and talked so much that even Koda thought that she spoke too much. Eventually Kenai stopped and turned around, he stood on his hind legs and thunderously roared in Titika's face. The birds in the trees flew away, deer and elk heads all around the woods shot up from the grass, and the roar echoes in the valleys of mountains, causing the sheep up there to bleat in surprise. Kenai stood fuming in front of Titika, then his front legs landed on the ground with a loud thud and a sharp wince from Kenai because his wound still hurt. Titika whispered,
"Oh, I see. You can't talk, is that it? Don't worry, I'll translate for you,"
Kenai and Koda exchanged glances and rolled their eyes. If Titika kept following them around, then it was going to be a looong year.