Bear Adventure

by Anthony McGowan

  Frazer’s journey had been … tricky, to say the least. The main problem was the baby bear in his face. Goldilocks was clearly famished, and seemed to think that licking his mouth might make him regurgitate some goodies.

  It turned out to be surprisingly hard to steer a mountain bike over rough terrain through a sleet shower when a bear is licking your face.

  But the last thing Frazer wanted to do was stop – getting moving in the first place was the hardest thing of all, and he wasn’t going to sacrifice his momentum just to avoid a mouthful of baby bear drool.

  He looked quickly up to the peak of the mountain a couple of times to try to work out if he had reached the spot yet that he guessed, or rather hoped, Amazon had indicated. He was thinking he must be close when he heard the bellow.

  It froze his blood, far more quickly and effectively than the freezing rain had done. He felt the little boy behind him cling even more tightly to his back, and the little bear in front suddenly stopped licking his face and cowered down into the warmth and deceptive security of the backpack.

  Frazer briefly considered his options. He had the bear and the boy to think about. And his cousin.

  ‘You still holding that spear for me?’ he said over his shoulder.

  ‘It’s my spear now,’ came a small, pinched voice. ‘But you can borrow it.’

  Frazer cycled with new strength and speed towards the sound of the bear.

  Amazon grabbed a log from the fire, and stood to face the bear. The end of the log had turned to charcoal and, as she waved it before her, a tiny ember glowed briefly, leaving a wisp of smoke.

  It wasn’t enough to deter the bear. It carried on walking towards her.

  Amazon reviewed everything she had ever read or heard about bear attacks. Never get anywhere near a mother and cubs. That she knew, first hand. And it was of no use to her now.

  Try climbing a tree to escape a grizzly – black bears can climb, adult grizzlies struggle.

  But don’t bother trying to outrun a bear to the tree – it’ll beat you every time, and running will only ever trigger its predator-prey response.

  Use bear spray. Again, useless – she didn’t have any.

  Make yourself look big.

  She tried that. But compared to the giant walking towards her, even a full-grown man would look puny. Heck, so would most bears.

  Talk soothingly to the bear, as you back slowly away. She’d seen Hal Hunt do that.

  Amazon tried to speak, but nothing came out.

  Anyway, that was when a bear felt threatened by you. This bear didn’t feel threatened. This bear was the threat.

  If you get attacked by a bear with cubs, play dead. Otherwise, fight back.

  Well, that’s what Amazon was doing now. There were accounts she’d read of bears being deterred by a thwack on the nose. That was her only hope. If she had the chance, she’d ram the smouldering log right up its snout.

  She wasn’t giving up without a fight.

  Frazer took the gentle rise just a little too quickly. It was a classic situation for a dirt-bike jump, and he’d have aced it in normal circumstances.

  But these weren’t normal circumstances. He had a boy on the back and a bear on the front.

  And a monster before him.

  He saw it while he was still in mid-air.

  It was moving towards Amazon, who was standing resolutely, a blackened log in her hands.

  His first thought was ‘polar bear’.

  His second, ‘albino grizzly’.

  His third, ‘AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!’

  Then they landed. Or rather crashed.

  Luckily they touched down in an area of boggy ground, its surface a mass of moss and wet leaves. If they’d hit rock then some serious damage would have been caused.

  Frazer managed to half turn as he went over the handlebars so that he did not crush the little bear. Ben fell sprawling face first into the mulch and wasn’t badly hurt and – for the time being – was still too shocked to cry. The spear he’d been carrying flew from his hand.

  Frazer was winded, but his mind remained clear. He ran over to the boy.

  ‘Stay here,’ he said, pressing the boy down into the ground. They had fallen just behind a rocky outcrop, high enough to conceal the boy from the bear if he kept low. ‘Be absolutely quiet. And, whatever you do, don’t look, or get up. Got that?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘And take care of Goldilocks.’

  Frazer quickly unhooked himself from the bear-laden backpack and thrust it down next to Ben.

  Then, scooping up the spear as he went, he ran towards Amazon, screaming at the top of his voice.

  The bear was now five metres away from Amazon. She had turned, her astonishment, Frazer could see, mingled with the seed of hope. In a couple of seconds he was at her side, and together the cousins confronted the advancing bear, she with her club, he with his home-made spear.

  ‘Thought you’d never get here,’ said Amazon, from the side of her mouth.

  Frazer tried to think of a quick, witty comeback, but then decided that it was probably more important to stay alive.

  ‘You go for the nose,’ he said.

  ‘Duh!’ replied Amazon, as though she’d been fighting giant yellow bears all her life.

  ‘And I’ll go for the eye. If it takes me down, grab the kid and run and don’t look back. Head for the mountain. Find the trail and don’t stop till you’re home.’

  Amazon looked at him, smiled a brief but warm smile and then together they faced the bear.

  And now Frazer had the chance to really look at the huge animal that was approaching them he found his terror almost exactly matched by his awe. It was the biggest bear he had ever seen, but also clearly unlike any other bear in the world. It was a completely new species. Something in between a polar bear and a grizzly. It was a …

  And then it dawned on him exactly what it was.

  But that knowledge would not help them now. The bear had been startled, no – that was too strong a word – it had been mildly surprised when he had exploded off the bike and into its world. It had paused for a moment or two, raised its massive head – longer than a grizzly’s, rounder than a polar bear’s – to take a reassuring sniff. But then it had come on again. It was getting two for the price of one, like a grocery store special offer.

  It was beginning to move up to attack speed when suddenly it stopped dead in its tracks.

  It had been distracted by a noise.

  Goldilocks was bleating. Still trapped in the rucksack, the little golden bear was struggling to get free, making loud complaints. Ben was trying hard to comfort the cub, but it wasn’t working. The boy didn’t know what to do to calm the creature.

  And the giant bear was now ambling in their direction.

  ‘Oh no …’ said Frazer.

  ‘Ha! Here!’ he yelled, but the big bear ignored him. It was running now towards the rock behind which the boy and the baby bear were hiding.

  Frazer ran to try to intercept it, and he sensed that Amazon was right there with him. He carried on screaming, waving his arms wildly.

  But it was too late. Bears run faster than people. Much faster. That’s all there was to it.

  The great pale monster reached the little outcrop of rock. Still the sounds of the struggling cub came from beyond it.

  ‘Run!’ screamed Frazer, metres behind the bear. ‘Ben, run, please, run for your life!’

  It was the only hope – that the big bear would attack the little bear first, giving Ben the chance to get away. It was a desperate hope. And probably forlorn. The bear stepped easily over the rock. It bent and it seemed to Frazer that it was biting something. He jumped and reached the rock seconds after the bear.

  And then he stopped.

  From the trees away to the left something came hurtling.

  Amazon saw it first.

  It was moving with a weird jerky gallop, as if it were carrying some terrible injury, but an injury that love or hate had striven
to overcome. It was similar in colour to the yellow giant. But the shape was different. Rounder. And so much smaller. But the bellow it was emitting was not small at all. It was the cry of a mother, out to save her baby.

  But, as Frazer had already seen, it was too late.

  Amazon was a stride behind Frazer. She stopped next to him on the low rock and looked down. What she saw amazed her.

  The huge yellow bear was gently nuzzling at Goldilocks. As she watched, he slipped his muzzle inside the bag and eased it open, so the baby could get free. The two sniffed at each other and then the baby put its paw up and touched the other bear’s face. The big bear then delicately nuzzled at the baby.

  But only for a second, because then, with a final grunting roar, the third bear arrived.

  ‘It … it’s the mother,’ said Frazer, astonished. ‘She must have somehow survived that rockfall. She was obviously knocked out when she was buried, but then came round and somehow managed to follow us here.’

  ‘But she’s hurt … badly hurt …’ said Amazon.

  But, as if to deny that, the mother bear crashed into the giant, which must have been at least four times her weight. Frazer was convinced that the huge bear would retaliate and the mother would stand no chance against him.

  But the massive animal backed away from the mother. Backed away and then lay down, first on its side and then on its back. The female staggered over – clearly her mad charge had used up her remaining energy. She bit at the bigger bear, but not savagely. It was more like a reprimand. Like a mother telling off her son – almost.

  Still the huge bear cringed beneath her. And then she saw her cub, and the two of them bleated out their delight, while the huge male looked on, almost bashfully.

  Amazon and Frazer took the opportunity to move quietly to Ben. Amazon picked up the little boy and hugged him.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she whispered to Frazer. ‘And what kind of bear is that anyway?’

  ‘I’m pretty sure it’s a hybrid – half grizzly, half polar bear. I read something about there being one or two of them in zoos. And they’ve started to turn up in the wild. It’s even got a name … a pizzly … no, a grolar, that’s it. It’s going to get more common because of global warming, which is bringing the two species closer together.’

  ‘But that doesn’t explain what’s going on now … Why aren’t they fighting? And why didn’t he kill the cub? I thought that’s what they did …?’

  ‘I know, it’s bizarre. I can only think that … well, maybe he’s all alone. He’s not like any other bears, but he’s the same colour, almost, as the Kermode bears. Maybe he thinks he’s one of them. And the other thing is that he might only be a kid.’

  ‘A kid? But he’s enormous!’

  ‘Sometimes when you get a hybrid the genes that limit growth get turned off. That’s why a liger – a half tiger half lion – is much bigger than either of its parents. So maybe that’s what’s going on here. He’s just a big baby. He lost his mother, and now he thinks he’s found one.’

  Amazon looked again. And it did, in fact, appear exactly as Frazer said. The mother spirit bear had Goldilocks sheltered between her front paws, and the massive grolar was trying to butt in, pushing his nose towards the baby, who sniffed and nipped back at him.

  ‘I think you’re on to something, Frazer,’ she said. ‘And it looks to me that he’s found a kid sister, as well as a mum.’

  Frazer grinned. ‘Don’t you reckon they’re kinda acting like a parent and a teenage kid who’s been naughty, but is sorta sorry and wants to get back in his mom’s good books?’

  ‘Do you think that they could maybe, er, hang out together?’ asked Amazon. ‘He could help look after Goldilocks, and the mother could teach him how to do real bear stuff.’

  ‘Can we go now?’ said Ben, before Frazer could answer. The little boy was still clinging to Amazon, just as Goldilocks was clinging to her mother. ‘I’ve had enough of the bears.’

  Frazer was just thinking of the long trek home – easier, perhaps, without Goldilocks, but still likely to be an ordeal – when he heard a sound that somehow screamed of humanity. And not in a good way.

  It was the click of a rifle being cocked.

  ‘You kids stand back out of the way,’ came a gruff voice. ‘You’re safe now. I got them murdering bears right in my sights.’

  They spun round to see two men wearing filthy camouflage outfits. They each held a rifle aimed at the bears.

  ‘No!’ screamed Amazon. She realized that they were some of the hunters who had come out into the wilderness to shoot any pale-coloured bears. The new family was in mortal danger. ‘These bears didn’t kill anyone. We’ve found Ben. He’s right here, unharmed.’

  ‘Little lady, you let us decide what to shoot. Now stand aside or –’

  The hunter never finished his sentence.

  For the first time since his true mother had been lost, the great bear was happy. He knew at some level that these others weren’t quite the same as him, but they were close, close enough. He had saved the little one from the trap. And the big one … she would look after him. She would show him how to do the things that bears do. How to fish, and find berries, and dig into bees’ nests for the honey and the grubs. And he would use his strength and his might to defend them from anything that would try to hurt them.

  He did not fear the small humans who had tried to steal the baby away. He was aware that they were still close, but to him they mattered no more than the trees or the rocks.

  He had found his family.

  Then he heard that click. It was the click that came before the bang that took away his first mother, his true mother. He looked up and saw that there were big humans there, beyond the small ones.

  He stood.

  These ones would not be permitted to harm his new mother, his baby sister. He would protect them. He would … kill.

  He got clumsily to his feet, pushing the mother and the baby away from him, away from danger.

  And then he charged.

  Amazon had her back to the bears. She was facing the two hunters, trying to stay in between them and their prey. Frazer was doing the same – they both knew that the hunters would never risk firing through them.

  Because their backs were to the bears they never saw the charge.

  But Ben, who was still clinging to Amazon, looking back over her shoulder, did.

  What he saw was a bear apparently charging straight at him.

  He screamed.

  Amazon and Frazer both turned.

  They saw the great pale beast eating up the few metres between them. They both knew instinctively that he was not coming for them. They knew that he was trying to save the family that he had only just found.

  Yet still it was the most frightening thing any of them had ever seen.

  And then the rifle shot rang out – a sharp but strangely quiet sound, almost like a heavy ‘tut’ from a cross schoolteacher – and the bear stopped, looking almost surprised. It seemed to gather itself again and began to come on. But its mighty front legs buckled beneath it and it fell, almost comically – had it not, that is, been so tragic – right at their feet.

  Amazon spun again to scream at the hunters, or rather at the murderers. She saw that they had already turned to run. One had even dropped his rifle – or hurled it away in terror.

  And she saw something else. Standing by the wreckage of the aircraft some twenty metres away was another man. He was also holding a rifle. A very strange-looking rifle.

  ‘Uncle …?’

  ‘DAD!’

  It was Hal Hunt, looking gaunt and resolute. He was carrying the X-Ark – the high-precision tranquillizer gun favoured by TRACKS.

  A few minutes later, they were gathered together under the wing of the wrecked aircraft, sheltering from the falling snow.

  The two scruffy hunters, whose rifles had been confiscated by Hal Hunt, were arguing.

  ‘How could you drop your gun like that? When it went off, it cudda bl
owed my head off.’

  ‘Well, you started running, an’ it sorta spooked me. If you hadn’t been yella, I’d have –’

  ‘I suggest,’ said Hal in a voice made more intimidating by its quiet precision, ‘that you gentlemen shut your mouths and get the heck out of my sight, before I decide to put you to sleep, and lay you down next to that bear.’ He tapped the X-Ark. ‘And, believe me, he’ll wake up long before you will.’

  The two hunters gulped.

  ‘OK,’ said the first hunter, ‘but I gotta report in this whole incident, including this here crashed aircraft and those freaky bears.’

  ‘Yep, you should probably do just that,’ said Hal Hunt.

  ‘Can we have our guns back?’ said the second hunter.

  ‘Sure. You can get them back from the Canadian Mounted Police station in Prince William. That’s supposing you have the right permits, of course. The Canadian government is very strict, I understand, on the legality of carrying firearms in the State Parks …’

  The hunters looked at each other shiftily, and then headed off back into the woods, still arguing.

  ‘Told you we shoulda gotten them permits …’ was the last thing they heard.

  Alone at last, the three Trackers embraced.

  Hal’s eyes were moist.

  ‘I was worried about you. I thought I might have lost you as well … And look at this big boy! Ben, I know a mom and dad who are going to be very pleased to see you.’

  ‘I bet I get a really gigantic present,’ said Ben, a broad white smile on his grimy face.

  ‘How did you find us, Dad?’ asked Frazer.

  ‘The GPS function on your watches. I could track you on my laptop. Or get a rough fix at least. I flew the plane in and landed on a lake five miles that way.’ Hal pointed down the canyon.

  Amazon couldn’t control herself any longer. She hadn’t wanted to talk about her parents’ disappearance in front of the hunters, but now she had to ask.

  ‘This is it, isn’t it? This is my mum and dad’s plane. Where are they? What’s happened?’