"Fear always springs from ignorance."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
No sooner had I seen the head, than it had vanished back beneath the wreckage.
"Hold on!" I cried out, and then tumbled along the rocks to reach the trapped creature. Had I know it was a bear I might have been more wary, for I had been told to many times, by my grandfather, of the demon bear Mor'du, and how he had savagely ripped off his leg. But even though I didn't know what it was, I was still going to help the lost creature.
As I reached the bank something began to claw the heap again, and I flinched back thinking that there was something else beyond the foliage, other than the trapped creature.
"Hold on! I'll get you out!" I plunged in between the branches, scrabbling to take hold of any thing loose or weak. The clawing continued, as well as the creature's frantic cries, and I hurried faster to find the poor thing. There seemed to be just one more, enormous, log between me and the wee thing but I couldn't make it budge.
"Ahk! What am I going to do now?"
I tried to call out and see if anyone was nearby, but nothing happened. So I paced along the shore, while the clawing grew louder next to me.
"Oh, just SHUT IT! Will ya?" And to my surprise it did…for a moment.
That was when I noticed a huge stick dangling over the water's edge. A stick that was just large enough for me to wedge in behind the log and pry loose from the heap! I leaped at it, plunged it against the log and then franticly pushed against the limb until I thought the bough just might break. Suddenly the clawing had stopped and was soon replaced by the sound of groaning wood. The groaning pended a thud that seemed to rock the whole woods, and landed me flat on my butt in the stream again.
As I pushed my hair out of my eyes, I watched the breach that had been made and the wee face that was again staring back at me. It looked around the hole as if it were unsure of what to do next, as if the possibility of success had never occurred to it. I leaned forward on the log and let my head rest on my arms.
"Hey," I spoke as if speaking to a friend, not a whisper, not a call, just… as if I were speaking another human. The deep eyes then locked on to mine, and it was like I said; a calm swept over me, and it felt like I was making a friend for life, letting this moment burn into me and nothing else affect it. Letting every other thing, every thought and sound fade into the background as my bear and I spend centuries of just communicating with our eyes and nothing else. The world was tranquil, until my father suddenly pulled me away from behind.
"Clotilda!" he screamed urgently trying to drag me back across the stream, "Get back! Get back!" Then I notice that he had drawn his sword, and was screaming back at my bear. I was slowly coming back to my senses, but didn't understand why he was attacking my bear.
"Daddy, No! No!" I screamed trying to fight back and defend my bear. Then I heard the roar, and looked up just above where the sapling had fallen from and saw only a set of snarling jaws with foam dripping at the mouth. I saw the wee cub's mother.
My father gripped me firmly and spoke urgently into my ear, "Move slowly Clotilda. We're goin' back across the bank, and then I'll put you on my horse." Another roar came from the mother and reverberated across the forest. My father tugged me back a little, and I fell in line beside him, we made it only a few paces when the mother started to rush forward down the bank. I was swung up into my Father's arms and buried my face into his bearded cheek when the roar stopped and the sound of the bears lumbering charge was gone.
To this day I am still perplexed by what happened, and doubt that it really even happened. Because the only thing you can do if you're being charged down by a threatened mother bear would be to make peace with your maker. Instead the charging mother had stopped, and her roar was replaced by what sounded like an almost comically, squeaky, pitched version. I disentangled my head from my father to see that my bear was standing in front of us roaring!
The wee cub then lumbered forward and nuzzled its face into the mother's chest, and that was the last that I saw of my bear. My father leapt up the bank, and raced away with me on his horse, staying deathly quiet until we had put enough distance between us and the bear. Then he reared in his horse to a stop and dismounted so he could look me straight in the eye, as he said, "Clotilda, what where you thinking?"
"I'm sorry, Da…"
"SORRY! You were staring down a bear cub! Your mother and I were worried sick and we've told you, 'If you're goin' out into the woods,-'"
"'Be back at noon and cheek with us' I really am sorry Da, I just… " I choked up on the last word, and was trying to stop my impending tears so I could finish, "WHAT Clohtilda? What!" My father prompted impatiently.
"I just … –got lost!" And with that my attempts at fighting back my tears utterly failed. I cried, other than one other time in my life since my father's death, would I ever let myself cry again.
My father looked at me with shocked sea green eyes, then wrapped his arms around me and stroked my head whispering, "There, there, now… Hush… hush…" He looked me in the eyes again and said, "Everyone gets lost at least once, the next thing to do is be found," Then he hugged me again, " My Clan prided themselves about knowing where they are, and where they want to go. However, even we must get lost at least once in life." I hugged him back, "I'm just glad it's over, I never want to be lost again!" Then my father kissed my forehead, scooped me back into his arms, and we rode back to the rest of the search party. My mother scolded and kissed me furiously while I stayed in my father's arms all the way back to the castle.
When we arrived back at the castle I retold my story of the bear to my mother,who was caring my brother in her belly at the time, but she only smiled, patted my hand, and sent me off to bed. While my father watched me, with worried sea green eyes, as I went up the grand stairs that lead to the castle's many rooms. I would find out the next morning that my father was called away latter to defend a border in his home clan land. Little did we know that it would be the last time my mother or I would ever see him again.
My three uncles had accompanied him to the battle but when the returned they no longer had their mischievous grins. They came home somber, and delivered the news to my mother; that my father had died at the hands of the enemy, and that was all anyone would ever say. No one would tell me who the enemy was, why they had attacked us, how my father had died, or even if we had won. And I wouldn't be able to find out until much later.
Not soon after my brother was born, my mother left us in the care of our grandparents to "Go an watch over the clans..."
Thanks again for reading! And for the reviews! I can't belive my little tidbit got so many views... Anywho, like I said I got this, I just have to type it XP *I may even have a pic of Clotilda to go with it next time!