Chapter 6: (Episode II)

Mama grizzly watched her cubs splashing in the water, making noise and scaring the fish. She was trying to teach them how to catch the fish, but they were still too young to learn much just yet, having been born the past winter in her den.

She caught a whiff of horses ... and humans. She looked and saw them as they slowly came into view across the meadow. She recognized the horses and wasn’t concerned, but the humans smelled wrong with all kinds of odors she didn’t recognize. Still, she was the queen of the forest and no animal ever dared to challenge her, including the humans. She kept an eye on them as she escorted her cubs away from the creek to where she knew some berries grew.

Suddenly, she looked up as the sound of an approaching horse alerted her, and she saw that a horse and human rider were coming right at her, right for her cubs.

Her instincts kicked in immediately: Danger!

She got up on her hind legs and roared to her cubs. They immediately scurried up a tree to safety. The horse dumped its human, but that human kept approaching her. She saw a second horse and human approaching; she bellowed again and splashed into the creek, the ice-cold water spraying everywhere. Nothing would stop her from protecting her cubs, and nothing would stop her from killing these humans. Kill them all! Protect the cubs!

Jake drew a bead on the bear with his rifle even as Sailor galloped at full tilt. He didn’t think one shot would kill her, but it would at least slow her down. He was about to pull the trigger when the bear disappeared in a white mist. Disappeared? Bears don’t ... ohhh, he thought.

The water was about 40 feet wide where the bear was crossing, and in her furious rage she’d forgotten about the deep pool in the middle of the creek. She sank completely underwater ... it took her a full 20 seconds before she could continue her assault, and by then she was too late. Jake had already reached Chad and helped him get on the back of Sailor. They high-tailed it back to their group as fast as Sailor could carry them, and he was only too happy to be heading away from the bear.

Jake looked back to see the big grizzly on her hind legs bellowing at them again, but she had given up the chase; the horse and riders were heading away fast, and she didn’t want to leave her cubs. He slowed Sailor to a canter, still putting distance between him and the bear. The riding group cheered and waved their hats at the rescue party.

Jake whoa’d up as he rejoined the group amidst hearty shouts of “Way to go,” “So awesome,” and “You saved his life!” Chad pumped his fist in the air and then clamped Jake on the shoulder. “This guy’s a hero!” exalted Chad.

“Get... off, ” Jake growled.

The crowd quieted down as they looked at Jake and realized something wasn’t right; his normally friendly face looked set in stone with his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed. Jake got off of Sailor as soon as Chad did, then stepped up to Chad and grabbed his shirt just under his chin, making a fist with the fabric.

Everyone flinched when Jake roared almost as loud as the bear. “Do you have any idea exactly how fucking stupid you are?” Jake shook Chad hard. And although Chad was two inches taller and looked bigger and stronger than Jake he slowly backed up, never having had someone yell at him like this before. He didn’t even think to wipe Jake’s spittle off of his cheek. “You were either going to get mauled, or I was going to have to shoot that bear! That bear belongs here! You don’t! This is her land, her home, and you were going to make me kill that magnificent animal just so you could take a better picture? Do you know that if I killed her, her two cubs would also have died? I should have let her kill you!” Jake shoved Chad hard, and he stumbled a few steps before falling on his ass. He got right back up, though, his eyes wild with fear and anger, the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

“Hey! You can’t ... you can’t talk to me that way!” Chad brought his fists up in a rather wobbly fighting stance, as if his brain and his ego were at odds and his ego was winning but only slightly.

Jake just laughed. “Buddy, if you needed to piss you coulda just gone and done it behind a tree.” The rest of the crowd snickered and smirked as Chad looked down at the massive wet spot on his shorts; his pants had been dry when he got off the horse a minute ago. Jake crossed his arms and shook his head. “Calvin! Get this... man ... off my trail.”

Calvin saw the fire in his eyes, and though he didn’t work for Jake, Calvin wasn’t about to cross him at this moment. “Yeah, Boss. Are you ... ummm ... are you gonna be okay by yourself?”

Jake looked at the riders. “Well, I don’t think we’re going to have any more trouble staying on the trail, will we, folks?”

They all shook their heads and answered with various versions of “No, Boss.”

“Send Jimmy up here,” Jake instructed Calvin. “We’ll wait for him at the lunch site.”

Calvin got on the radio and explained the situation to Marcy, who promised to send Jimmy up as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Chad had collected and mounted his horse, who had returned to the group on his own earlier. He called out, “C’mon, Jamie. Let’s go.”

Jamie froze as her cheeks flushed. Thoughts of fear and elation swirled in her brain, but they were overridden by other thoughts–shame and anger. Jamie felt deeply embarrassed to be associated with Chad because of his selfishness and recklessness, and she was almost as mad at him as Jake was for nearly causing the bear’s death. “I ... ummm ... I...”

“Miss Jamie,” Jake offered in a slow, soothing voice. “You seem very upset right now. You don’t have to go nowhere. You’re welcome to ride with us. We’ve got a nice lunch waiting for us just up the way. You can ... gather your thoughts and talk to him in a couple hours.”

“Why don’t you just mind your own fucking–” Chad started, but he stopped as Jake whirled on him and pointed his finger.

“You got no say in this matter.” Jake’s demeanor went from warm and friendly with Jamie to stone cold when he spoke to her fiancé. The effect wasn’t lost on Chad, who visibly tried to back up, except he was sitting on his horse. His cheeks flushed, and his eyes widened; he was afraid, and everyone knew it.

Calvin rode up to Chad. “Let’s go, buddy.” As they rode back on the trail towards the ranch, Chad muttered something about “Yelp Reviews,” but the group couldn’t hear anything else.

“Alright, then,” Jake spoke loudly to the group. He took a big breath and let out a heavy sigh before he resumed in a more reasonable voice. “I’m sorry for my outburst. I’ve just never had anyone do something so ... well... stupid. He not only put his own life in danger, he put mine and the bear’s life in danger, too.”

“Would you have really shot the bear?” Jamie asked.

Jake bowed his head for a moment before looking back at her. “I was about two seconds from pulling the trigger. And it wasn’t so much to save his life as it was to save the ranch. Having a bear kill a guest, no matter whose fault, would severely damage the ranch’s reputation. Bookings would dry up and this place would go under, I have no doubts about that. So yeah, I would have. I also would have beaten him to a pulp for making me kill such a majestic animal; I have no doubts about that, either. Then I would have gotten fired, because you can’t have the hosts beating up the guests, can you?” He said that last bit with a smile and got a few little chuckles from the riders.