Grizzly Killer: Under The Blood Moon

by Lane R Warenski

  He stayed where he was in the cover of the pines watching them to see their reaction when they came upon his tracks turning into a bears. He smiled again at the thought of what he had done but he knew this was not something to take lightly for this was life and death for them all.

  As he waited the last few minutes while the Blackfeet approached the bear’s tracks his belly growled from hunger and he knew he had to get far enough ahead today to find some food and let Ol’ Red Graze for a few hours. Jimbo he knew could always catch squirrels or rabbits or marmots so he didn’t worry much about him.

  When the Blackfeet reached the game trail with his tracks changing into the bears he watched the leader stop and jump off his horse then the others do the same. One of them ran up the trail then slowly followed the tracks back down to the creek. He could hear their shouts and could tell they were mighty excited by their gestures but it didn’t appear they were ready to turn back.

  The five of them were standing there in a group shouting and waving their arms then the leader who he had started to think of as One Feather because he was the only one with only a single feather in his hair, mounted his horse along with only one of the others and started up the trail. The other three just stood there watching them ride away. The three still standing there were silent but when the leaders were a couple of hundred yards up the trail the other three slowly mounted their horses and followed along behind. Zach knew now if he could kill One Feather the others would turn around and go back. But how could he get close enough to take on One Feather without having to take on all five of them at once.

  He worked his way up through the pines and over the crest of the ridge again pushing Ol’ Red to his limit. He was traveling much faster up on this bare ridge top than the Blackfeet were following the trail along the creek and when he came to another draw leading down to the creek he went down to check on the tracks of Running Wolf and the women. He tied Ol’ Red in the pines and went to the creek on foot making sure he left no sign of ever being there and was concerned when he saw the tracks were now just a few hours old. They were catching up faster than he had hoped and he knew he must stop the Blackfeet regardless of the risk.

  He carefully made his way back to Ol’ Red leaving no tracks behind and continued on through the pines. Just a couple of miles further he came to an area where three draws all came down to the creek in the same place and had formed a large flat area. Some beavers had been at work here and there were several small dams forming a series of ponds and bogs. The willows were growing thick and tall. He could easily see where Running Wolf had skirted the outside edge of the willows and led the women up the draw heading straight south instead of continuing up the main canyon. He figured he was at least an hour ahead of the Blackfeet maybe more and it was only an hour or so before dark. He hoped the Blackfeet would stop here for the night where he would have the cover of the willows to do his work.

  He rode up the main canyon just a little ways and found good grass to leave Ol’ Red on and while walking back down the creek saw several fish in the crystal clear, shallow water. With practiced skill he quietly lay on his belly where the water washed up under the bank and very slowly moved his hand into the water and under the bank. In only a moment he felt a fish brush by his fingers and with lighting reflexes he closed his hand around the fish and threw it up on the bank. He then moved down the bank just a few feet and did the same thing again. Not wanting to risk a fire he ate the two fish raw and after not eating anything at all for two days now he felt much better almost immediately. Jimbo had caught several squirrels throughout the day and he just sat by his master’s side and stood guard while he ate.

  They moved through the willows along the ponds until they were back where Running Wolf’s and the women’s trail turned south, then headed up off the flat to the edge of the pines where he could stay under cover but still see their back trail. The sun was now down and the light was fading fast when he first saw the Blackfeet.

  The sky was a blaze of orange and a layer of high thin clouds carried the color from the mountains peaks to the west all the way over his head. A strong breeze had picked up with the setting of the sun, blowing up the canyon and keeping the Blackfeet’s horses from getting a scent of Ol’ Red. Zach was only fifty yards or so off the trail but well hidden in the edge of the pines. As the five Blackfoot Warriors approached the willows they stopped. One Feather got down and examined the tracks and then he spoke to the rest of them. Although Zach was close enough he could hear them talk he did not know the Blackfoot language and was only guessing they were deciding whether to camp or go on.

  It appeared they were going on and as Zach was deciding whether to take the chance and attack the five of them One Feather stepped off the trail into the willows to relieve himself. At the same time a huge grizzly bear stood up in the willows right in front of him. The willows were seven or eight feet tall and the grizzly’s head and top of his shoulders were above the willow tops. With a swat of one massive paw One Feather went down and all the horses in total panic started bucking and going in every direction. One of the Warriors was thrown off and just as he hit the ground he ran for the cover of the trees and right to where Zach was hidden. As he approached, Zach stepped from behind a tree.

  The shock and surprise was plain on the warriors face and the last thing he saw was the grizzly claw necklace around the mountain man’s neck. He felt a terrible pain but for only a second as the world around him went black and his body went numb. Zach pulled his tomahawk from the top of the Blackfoot’s head, looked and saw the three others running their horses at top speed back down the canyon.

  He looked at the willows for the bear but he couldn’t see or hear a thing. Jimbo had started to chase the other Blackfeet but came back after he saw they were leaving. Zach then sent Jimbo way out around the willows with a hand signal to go get Ol’ Red. He was worried about the bear and just where he had gone but he figured Jimbo would know and stay far away from him. He wanted to know if One Feather was dead or just wounded but he was not willing to approach those willows in the dark to find out.

  While he waited there in the edge of the pines for Jimbo and Ol’ Red, he thought about Sun Flower and Shining Star and how much he missed them and just how far ahead they were. He wondered about the big grizzly and he thought this must be the same bear that had made the tracks he had altered earlier in the day. He wondered if this giant bear was in the willows when he and Jimbo had walked through them just before dark and if he was, why had he not attacked them. He then heard the grunt of the bear and a blood curdling scream from One Feather, then the crunching of bone in the edge of the willows and he headed out, up the hill in the pines just as quickly and quietly as he could.

  Lost Creek

  As he moved toward the top of the hill he was listening for any sounds behind him hoping the giant bear would not follow. He came out of the pines just before the ridge top and although there was still a little light against the western horizon it was too dark to see anything looking back down into the canyon. He moved along the ridge top heading south until he came to a small outcropping of rocks where he stayed to wait for Jimbo and Ol’ Red to find him.

  The only sound he could hear was the breeze in the trees as it blew up the canyon. By now the sky was completely dark and the stars looked like you could reach up and touch them. He looked at the Milky Way and thought about the Indian’s belief that it was the trail that a person’s soul takes as it travels from this life to the next and he wondered if the souls of the two Blackfeet that had been killed tonight were following that trail right now.

  He tensed as he heard a sound and readied his Hawken for action. Then the sound came again and he recognized it as Ol’ Red’s hoof striking a rock. A minute later Jimbo appeared out of the dark right by his side and a couple of minutes later Ol’ Red was there as well.

  He mounted up and started south staying right on the ridge top. He trusted Ol’ Red’s sight in the dark and wanted to put as much distance between
them and the bear as he could. He let Ol’ Red set the pace as they traveled through the night. He figured it was well past midnight when they came to a pass that dropped into a very large canyon heading southwest. He knew now he had to stop and wait for light, for he had to find Running Wolf and the women’s trail before he could continue. They were on a grassy slope and he pulled the saddle off Ol’ Red and rubbed him down with clumps of grass. He spread his bedroll and lay down as Ol’ Red was munching grass. Jimbo curled up right by him and because he trusted completely his mule and dog to warn him of any trouble that might approach he went to sleep almost at once.

  When he opened his eyes the sky was just starting to gray along the eastern horizon. He didn’t move a muscle listening for the sounds that let him know all was safe. He heard the soft sounds of Ol’ Red munching grass but couldn’t hear anything of Jimbo. He slowly turned his head to where Jimbo should be and just a few inches from his face there was a dead snowshoe rabbit. He smiled knowing Jimbo had been out hunting for them both. He sat up and saw that he was only about a hundred feet from a stand of quakies. He could see the outline of Ol’ Red against the white trunks of the trees as he rolled up his bed roll, picked up the rabbit and headed for the trees.

  He picked dry sticks from under the quakies and built a small fire under them then skinned and gutted the rabbit. He was just getting the rabbit on the stick over the fire when Jimbo came up with another rabbit in his mouth. But this one he just ate as he watched Zach roasting his.

  He rubbed Jimbo’s ears and talked to him while the rabbit cooked and then sat down and ate the first real meal he had had in three days. The sun was peeping over the horizon when he saddled Ol’ Red and headed along the ridge looking for where Running Wolf and the women had crossed. He sent Jimbo way ahead figuring the Blackfeet were gone for good. It was just a few minutes when he saw Jimbo come running back towards him and he started Ol’ Red into a gentle lope to meet the dog. Jimbo was wagging his tail then turned and led Zach right to the drag marks of the Travois’. Looking at the tracks he figured they had crossed this divide just before dark last night so knowing they would have had to stop for the night he knew they wouldn’t be far ahead. As he started down following the trail he sent Jimbo on ahead to find them.

  He was nearly to the bottom of this large canyon and could hear the creek tumbling over the rocks in the bottom when he saw Jimbo come running up the creek. Only a couple of hundred yards behind Jimbo he saw Running Wolf, Sun Flower and Shining Star riding right to him. As they approached both women jumped down and ran toward him. He slid off Ol’ Red and in an instant had both women in his arms. Sun Flower had tears in her eyes as she looked up at him while Shining Star just hugged him tight with her head on his shoulder. Running Wolf was smiling as he said, “It is good to see you are still breathing, my brother.” Zach just smiled and breathed a deep sigh of relief that this ordeal was over.

  He followed Running Wolf back down the creek for about a half mile when they broke out of the trees and brush into the edge of a large meadow. A couple of the horses whinnied their greetings to Ol’ Red and he brayed back letting them all know he was glad to be there. Zach saw they had set up a cold camp and planned to be on the move again first thing this morning. But now he knew they could rest here and let the horses and Ol’ Red build their strength back up.

  He slid off the big red mule and pulled his saddle off, then turned him loose to go out to the horses and graze on the thick meadow grass. Raven Wing had been rolling up their sleeping robes but stopped to come over and welcome Grizzly Killer back with a big smile and hug. He stood there in the middle of his loved ones and said, “It is good to be back.”

  They built a fire and the women got coffee and biscuits started then put a pan of jerky to boiling for their breakfast. As they set around the fire eating the biscuits and softened jerky strips Zach told them of everything he had done over the last three days. They all laughed until their sides hurt when he told them of his tracks turning into the grizzly’s tracks. Running Wolf said, “When the giant bear stood up in the willows they must have thought it was you attacking them instead of a real bear.” Grizzly Killer replied, “I don’t know what they were thinkin’ but they were running their horses back down that canyon so fast even Jimbo couldn’t catch ‘um.”

  Zach figured they had traveled twenty-five to thirty miles west by a little south of where they left the Bear River. This was country he had never been in before but this was a right pretty little stream kind of lost in all these hills so he started calling it Lost Creek. This canyon that Lost Creek runs through was big, open and wide. The hills were covered with grass and brush with only small stands of pine and quaking aspen growing in the shady areas of the draws. Along the creek was cottonwoods and brush with large areas of meadow covered with grass. He had jumped many deer as he came through the trees down into the canyon and figured they could stay here for a couple of days and let the stock rest and eat before moving on.

  After it was decided they would stay on Lost Creek for a couple of days, Running Wolf took Raven Wing with him to go hunting, leaving Zach there with Sun Flower and Shining Star. The three of them walked a little ways down along the creek with Jimbo checking out every part of this large meadow. They sat down in the grass and enjoyed each other’s company listening to the water rush over the rocks in the creek bed and the birds singing in the branches of the cottonwoods. He laid back, closed his eyes holding his wives and was soon asleep. Sun Flower and Shining Star smiled at each other and lay down by his side glad their man was back.

  Jimbo was trying to catch a squirrel that was in a cottonwood just across the creek but it was like the squirrel was teasing him. It ran down the side of the tree and chattered at Jimbo staying just out of his reach but as soon as Jimbo moved it ran back up the tree well out of range of Jimbo’s deadly jaws. Shining Star carefully sat up not wanting to wake her man and softly giggled at the antics of this squirrel that seemed to be purposely taunting the huge dog. Then, as Jimbo jumped after it, the squirrel jumped over his head landed on his rump and jumped again, landing on small log that was over the creek. He ran across the creek and right into another tree.

  This was more than Jimbo could stand. With lightning fast reflexes, he spun around trying to follow the squirrel across the creek but the log was rotten and wouldn’t support his weight. The log broke and Jimbo went crashing into the creek where the water had formed a deep pool. At the sounds of the breaking log and big splash as Jimbo hit the water, Zach opened his eyes and sat up instinctively trying to reach for his rifle but all he could feel was Sun Flower and Shining Star in his arms.

  The women were laughing and then Zach saw Jimbo climbing up out of the water and asked his wives what happened. In another moment, he was laughing too and then Jimbo ran right up to the three of them and shook, spraying water all over them.

  It was about mid-day now and a breeze had started to pick up blowing up the canyon and far out to the west clouds were building. There hadn’t been any rain or snow since the big storm the first week of June, which had laid a foot of snow down on their way to the rendezvous, so they all knew a storm was overdue. They walked back to camp and the two women set up their lodge and then Raven Wing and Running Wolf’s, while Grizzly Killer built a lean to and covered it with a buffalo hide to store their supplies under. It was mid-afternoon before Running Wolf and Raven Wing returned with Running Wolf leading his chestnut with a nice plump Mountain Sheep over the back of his saddle.

  All three women started right in on that sheep and had it skinned and butchered in no time. The wind was too gusty to roast it now so they cut a piece up and put it in a pot full of water setting right in the coals so the wind wouldn’t blow the heat away. The clouds were getting closer and just before the meat was finished, Shining Star made up a pan of biscuits while Sun Flower made coffee. They huddled around the fire and ate and by then the sky was completely covered with thick dark clouds.

  They all wondered if this storm w
ould be as severe as the ones that hit them last year on their way back from Rendezvous and decided they’d better prepare in case it was. They shoveled dirt up over the ground flap and dug a little rain ditch around each lodge. They brought fire wood into both teepees and made a good sized stack up under the branches of a large pine that was just up the creek a few yards.

  By early evening they could hear thunder rolling through the hills and could see the flashes of lighting getting much closer. The first rain drops fell just before dark and they went into their lodges for the night. Jimbo was invited into the teepee and he just curled up in front of the door flap.

  Zach smiled as he watched Sun Flower and Shining Star and thought just how lucky he was to have the love of two such beautiful women. He listened to the rain hitting the buffalo hides that made up the teepee. It was a steady gentle rain and he lay back on the robes as his wives finished their chores. He was tired, it had been a grueling three days, the sound of the soft rainfall, the warmth of the teepee and the peace he felt being here with his wives relaxed him so much he dozed off to sleep. He was awakened in just a while by his wives taking off his buckskins and helping him under the robes where he held their naked body’s tight one on each side as he fell into a peaceful much needed sleep.

  When he opened his eyes again there was just a little light coming in through the smoke hole of the teepee. He could hear Jimbo softly snoring and feel the warmth of Sun Flower and Shining Star’s body’s up against his. He could hear an occasional rain drop hit the teepee but for the most part the rain was over. The air was cool but not cold and as he listened he could even hear one of the horses munching grass above the gentle splashing of the creek as the water tumbled its way down stream. He smiled inside knowing all was safe with the world right now.