Iorek pawed a stone nearby, ending up hurting himself and cursing to himself towards the sky, he had the impression that the spirits were looking at him and in a sense they made fun of him "very funny. And now what is it, will you turn me into a black bear? "
Ranting against them was the only thing he was able to do at that moment, away from his land and his island and once again in conflict with everything and everyone as he used to do. It was his defense strategy, driving everyone away. The breeze that touched the fur of his neck calmed him a bit by the fibrillation of sudden anger.
At the moment he wasn't as angry with Koda as he was with Kenai. Koda was a cub and did not realize certain things, but Kenai was a big boy and could perfectly realize his arrogance and do something about it.
"they can go alone to the Salmon Run, I'm done." and still talking to himself ... the nerves.
He shook his head vigorously: where to go? He didn't know.
He only knew that he wanted to go as far as possible and without stopping, at a marching pace ... but Koda could have been in danger touched his mind, and Kenai pitied as a bear (roaring, rearing up, defending himself or using those claws)...
he wouldn't have been able to protect himself or Koda. Iorek stopped, now fought.
His expression changed from anger to repentance as he looked back on the path he had left behind. He looked at his paws for a moment, then pursed his lips and sighed heavily.
"when did I become so submissive?" he said to himself as he went up the slope ... to leave with a quarrel without the certainty of seeing each other alive was not cute, and this he had experienced on his own skin. He shook off the feeling and ventured to the place where they had last seen each other looking around, left and right "Kenai? Koda?" he called in a calm voice, turning the corner. The two brown bears were sitting side by side ... it seemed they had made amends, but Iorek wasn't sure.
Kenai had turned his ears to him, so he knew he was there. Shortly afterwards the two turned around: the dawn sun beat on the orange walls dotted with cave paintings ... they were many and many represented scenes already seen:
hunting scenes, festive scenes ... and bear hunting. A bear was rearing on its legs, fangs brandished exactly like the hunter's spear. It was as if all three could feel the cold of the blade and the blood dripping immediately after. Iorek sat quietly the moment Koda spoke "Those monsters are really scary. Especially with those sticks ..." Iorek looked at him and in those hazel eyes he recognized something he had learned to recognize. Fear. "have you seen them before?"
Koda nodded, but said nothing else. There was no need for anyone to say anything, it was all clear. Kenai took a breath and stood up "let's go." he said walking away from that place, leaving only the empty majesty of silence.
Koda was tired.
They had moved a few kilometers away from the mammoth slips to go near a valley, and the cub dragged its legs evidently exhausted. So much that Kenai had urged him to climb on his back, and so now the three of them were advancing in search of the right path once more with a much more relaxed atmosphere.
"So, you recognize anything yet? Or maybe you can't see past my big head?" Kenai broke the silence with something that wasn't like him; a joke made light-hearted with the sole aim of making peace completely.
Iorek also chuckled as soon as Koda responded with a laugh in turn. A second of silence and then a question.
"So, do you really think I have a big head?" Kenai said, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Iorek lowered an eyebrow with a smirk that wasn't like him, a playful smirk "hm ... you know, it doesn't seem so big if you hunch your head like this." And he placed a paw on the scruff of his neck, pushing on it so that the fur arched more towards Kenai's ears.
Koda laughed again "definitely!" Kenai began to shake his head playfully
"Oh, you mean like this? Or like this? How about this?" and in this he bounced making Koda bounce too. All three laughed out loud, and it was a relief considering the tense atmosphere of just before. "okay you two, take it easy!" Iorek ordered them, still laughing.
"oh come on! I have yet to get to the good part!" Kenai protested, still laughing. They passed under a strap whose silence alternated with the sound of horns crossing and colliding and of colliding skulls.
Iorek looked up to see reindeer-like, but less hairy, and much smaller creatures intent on a display of brute force in front of females. "what are they?" Koda, proud to know for once something that the white bear didn't know, replied with a knowing air.
"those are rams. They're only empty heads if you ask me. Banging your head against another's all day must have them get a little rickety. "
Kenai shrugged in approval "he's not wrong." he said looking at the scene that appeared before him. "you say they can give us directions?" the brown bear ventured again. The stouter ram shook his head wildly in the direction of the more ruddy one "Oh, my. That was good." and they both returned to collide poking their hooves in the rock and trying to throw the other on the ground. The second ram snorted after the crash and said "Oh yep."
"Oh, it does." the other nodded. A flock of sheep was right behind them and the smaller ram exclaimed
"OK. Hit me again. I think she's looking. Hello, sweetie!" and the other echoed him with "Oh, yes. She's checking me out, all right. Hey, baby."
now, Iorek did not understand females (nor of his species or of others) but he could clearly see that the sheep was not interested in that presumptuous male "they don't know much of female behavior, those two ..." he commented in a specific voice turned to Kenai without taking his eyes off the scene. "I'm afraid you're right ..."
"What? No, no, no. Come on, you nitwit. Are you out of your head? She's looking at me. Look at that!" protested the first male, followed an indignant expression from the second "Right. Like she's looking at your ugly mug? Come on!" Iorek rolled his eyes "and here comes the jealousy scene." comment.
"Jealousy scene?" Koda asked.
"I'll explain it to you when you grow up." from there an almost ridiculous clash with insults worthy of an elementary school boy. "can anyone put an end to this ruse?"
Kenai chuckled "Excuse me." interrupting the quarrel and the two rams turned to him "what do you want?" asked the eldest. His voice echoed in the mountains and this confused him. "Who is that?"
and Iorek would never have thought of attending the scene that followed, because the two rams began to scream at who they thought was mimicking them ... when in reality it was their own echo.
"Hey, shut up!"
hey, shut up!
"no you shut up!"
no you shut up!
"Will you shut up ?!"
will you shut up ?!
"YOU SHUT UP !!!!"
YOU SHUT UP !!!!!
the three bears looked at each other, they all three thought the same thing: ask those two imbeciles for information?
absolutely not. So they kept going until Koda exclaimed "Wait a second. I know this place!" Iorek and Kenai looked at him relieved, but at the same time happy "you do?"
Koda jumped off Kenai's head (or rather, walked on it until he got off) "Yeah. The salmon run's not far!" Kenai delighted in a relieved laugh
"see? There was no need to slaughter each other. We will get there in no time! See, Ior?" and slammed his side against Iorek's. for the first time having a nickname didn't bother him. "so, Koda! lead the way!"
The cub jumped to the edge of a small rocky descent "We just have to go through here!" and the carefree tone with which he said it did not reflect at all the environment before them: an arid place with holes in the ground that Iorek recognized as a geiser: jets of boiling steam that could disintegrate a careless human within seconds. In the same seconds in which the smile died on the face of the two bears replaced by a shocked expression, with mouths open like two cod.
They turned their heads towards Koda, the only one still smiling of the three and who realized only after the looks that were directing him
"What?" he asked with all the innocence of the world.
that place gave him chills ... the vapors of the Geisers barely made the view beyond one's nose visible and walking was like stepping on a minefield. Each step could shatter a bone or kill you ... it was one of the worst places he had ever been.
"Hey, you sure you know where you're going?" Kenai asked, keeping close to Iorek and looking around cautiously and suspiciously watching Koda hopping as if he already knew where to put his paws "Yeah, follow me!" he exclaimed hopping away and disappearing into the fog. Iorek tried to locate him, but it became impossible at some point "we have lost a core member." commented Iorek, rising on his hind legs to try to locate the cub.
"Koda! stop joking around, come out!" He couldn't get a better view from there either, he started looking around but to no avail. The frost in the air was too thick, but it was a type of frost made of heat and Iorek felt it stick to the fur in an unbearable way
"do you see him?"
but no answer came, and at that moment his blood froze because he realized that he was alone. "Kenai?" When he looked around he never saw either of them... there was only him, just as he had started that journey.
Him against the world.
The white bear landed on all fours and started looking around again
"guys? Where did you end up? Come on, it's not fun!" a few seconds passed from when he realized he was alone to when a contact, or rather two, sudden on his back and two voices shouting.
"YAH!" made him jump with an "AAH!" and made him stumble back to land next to a fallen trunk, his chest worked quickly with fast breathing. Iorek turned bewildered to see Kenai and Koda laughing like mad, rolling around on the ground.
"you should have seen your face!" Koda gasped in laughter, followed by Kenai "priceless! HAHAHAH!" Iorek levered his legs to get up quickly "never do that again!" he exclaimed accusingly.
"Scared you, didn't we?" said the cub. Iorek pouted.
"there is fear and there is surprise, microbe!" he said however with a touch of irony in his eyes.
"And you were both!" Koda exclaimed, rolling on the ground with laughter again followed by Kenai's.
Iorek performed a perfect annoyed pout "hahah. Veeeery funny." but when seconds later Koda's expression changed from amused to terrified, Iorek realized that something was wrong. "umm, guys?"
"oh, don't fall for it Iorek!" Kenai was still convinced it was a joke ... but now the danger was real. So Iorek was faster: as soon as a hissing sound was heard in the air he grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him right at the moment when an arrow that could have beheaded him passed to a hair from his ears.
"WOAH!" the so-called arrow was now stuck in the ground, the plume of seagull feathers woven with oak wood.
There was no time to stay and watch who shot the arrow, now it only mattered to run away from the familiar figure of the hunter " There was no time to stay and watch who shot the arrow, now it only mattered to run away.
"Come on!" Koda shouted, starting to run. But Kenai was petrified looking at the cruel-eyed hunter who was advancing maliciously. The moment he was about to turn around and rescue him Kenai reared up, roared and slammed his paws against the fragile floor letting out an eruption of boiling steam in front of the hunter, then turned and reached Koda and Iorek who in the meantime had taken the cub from the scruff "hurry up! we have to cross that trunk!"
the three bears turned around and for the first time in a long time they began to run for life and to avoid being turned into fur by a hunter who seemed to have it specifically with them. His heart pounded so fast in his chest that he didn't even feel it beating, it seemed more like a buzz than a real palpitation.
The Geysers did not help, because they trapped them several times and forced them to change their way "at this rate he'll take us!" said Koda, terrified and in a fragmented voice from Iorek's race "we have four legs while he has two. We'll get by!"
With a desperate leap they managed to reach what acted as a bridge but which was only a fallen trunk, but which turned out to be their only hope of being saved in time. But launching himself dead on a potentially dangerous trunk was foolish even in a dangerous situation like this, they had to go slowly: they were suspended at about thirty meters above the level of the river in flood where the currents could have killed Koda in one fell swoop and they could not possibly risk this.
One step at a time. One and two, one and two ... Iorek slowly advanced avoiding to look down so as not to lose his balance, he kept his gaze fixed on the other side that seemed to get closer and closer to give them respite, albeit taking his time "Iorek-" Koda whined, ears flattened on his skull and heavy breathing "I'm scared, Iorek!"
"Father, I'm scared!" a cub stuck on a lake that was breaking was whimpering, dark eyes as big as two pine cones and staring at a bear in front of him who peered at the ice with speed, as he was examining the situation."Iorek, everything will be fine. Don't look down." replied the father"trust me."
The warmth of Koda's muzzle against his chest tore him from that moment of his childhood. And it was then that he realized that the roles had reversed ... the scared and cowardly cub had become the protector, and the cub curled up against his wide chest and the bear behind him advancing shaking slightly were those who needed be protected. He repeated the words that his father said to him that day
"It will be all right. Don't look down, just look ahead." to give strength to himself but also to the two "trust me."
Kenai was just as terrified as Koda, but a glow of confidence crossed his gaze.
...But fate was against another time. The hunter had caught up with them, and a minute later a jolt hardly made them fall. Kenai yelped and clung to the trunk with all the strength he had, holding onto that for dear life really taking the plunge along with that damned trunk.
Iorek managed to hold Koda firmly between his jaws while he lost his balance by a miracle: the hunter was hitting his weapon into the hollow that stuck the trunk in the ground in such a way as to make it fall and therefore bring the three bears with it...
And it was already halfway. Iorek kept his nerves steady, glanced at Kenai quickly.
"run when I tell you!" and in a last attempt not to die from a crash after a fall of meters high, he gave his neck a momentum and threw Koda on the opposite bank.
"now, Kenai!" the two sprang at the speed of light towards the mainland, this time without landing in a perfect but completely ungainly way, falling heavily on the grass and raising sods of slush and arid soil.
To feel the earth again, gravel and mud under the paws was a relief and Kenai left his head on the ground with a breath of relief ... the hunter screamed in anger from the other side, falling on his knees on the desertified and arid ground, giving up his weapon beside him. That was the perfect opportunity "come, let's go!"
But Kenai was still again, standing on the spot watching the hunter go back and forth like a caged lion would. As if he were looking for a way to reach them. Kenai looked ... sorry.
Iorek looked at him and got closer to shake him out of his trance "come on! Let's get out of here!" and although reluctantly Kenai sighed and followed him for a while with his head down. But they had let their guard down too early, because the human screamed and unexpectedly took the run and launched, Kenai turned around launching a roar of dismay when he saw him cling with the blade of the spear against the now sloping trunk and close to fall.
The terror surfaced again and the fight or die instinct seemed active in everyone except in Kenai, who leaned over to see the scene putting himself in very serious danger and watched as the hunter tried to climb. "KENAI!" Koda shouted trying to go to him to pull him back, but Iorek stopped him with one paw so as not to endanger him too, he was just as terrified as everyone else was,this situation was the most bizarre they had ever found themselves in, especially seeing Kenai attempt to stop the fall of the trunk by shouting.
"No!" as it slipped quickly into the water, plunging at full speed towards the river under the stunned gaze of Kenai.
The hunter re-emerged shortly after, but as the trunk moved away with him over Iorek felt Kenai's gaze grow increasingly sad.