Chapter 12

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."R. Frost

The women had everything packed up and so we started out west again. I was just after noon when we heard it. The sound was coming from higher up the mountain we were riding past. Everyone was scanning the ridges looking for whatever it was. After about 5 minutes of searching I was ready to get on with it. Just as we were returning to the track Tewnia spotted something about 800 yards straight up from us. I could see something was there, but I had to pull out the Sharps to use its scope to see. I'd had a set of modern lenses installed in the traditional looking scope. The originals were no better than 4x but my scope was variable to 80x. I still had the Creedmoor sights on it for authenticity but I had the new lenses for security. I swung the big rifle uphill, looking at the spot I'd seen.

There in the crags was a large fellow with a spear. He was jabbing at one of the largest cave bears I'd ever seen or heard about. I'll give him this, he may not be smart but he's not a coward either. I thought it might be a good idea to help him and find out if he needed a clan to join. The girls thought he might be one of the clan-less ones that roam around looking for one to join. Usually they come from clans that have too many men and not enough women.

We made our way up the incline, getting as close to the ruckus as we could and still be in the relative protection of the coniferous forest we'd been in. The underbrush we found made it slow going. We got to within 400 yards of the combatants and I could see better the events that were occurring. The guy must have stumbled on to the cave of a mother cave bear and some cubs. She was angry and she was going to eliminate the threat to her family. I watch as she clawed the rocks trying to get to the fellow on the rocks. Fortunately he had climbed higher than the bruin could reach. For the moment he was safe. But these bears could last all day and the man will tire soon. I had to do something to help.

From my position I could see that the guy was pretty much intact, maybe a few scratches. I don't think they were from bear paws either. They must have come from climbing the crag he was on. He made a good choice though. It seems the bear couldn't easily get to him. I moved over to the right about 100 yards. This gave me a better trajectory angle for the sharps. I found a downed branch that had dug its way into the ground and was solid. I decided to use that as a bench rest. This put me at about 460 yards from the bruin. I was almost ready to fire when Shanana shouted. I looked in time to see the guy loose his handhold and slip and fall to the ground. He didn't move but the bear stood tall on her hind legs and advanced menacingly toward the downed man.

I was ready, as I ever would be, so I pulled the set trigger, let out my breath halfway and fired. My aim was for the massive open mouth of the bear. If I could tickle her tonsils, I would blow her brains out and take her down with one shot. We waited for what seemed like minutes to see the effect of my shot. I had automatically reloaded the Sharps and was ready for my second shot.

The bear tottered on its legs a moment, then its front limbs went limp and it slumped to the ground. It almost looked like slow motion. I waited a moment and the bruin didn't move again. Just to be sure I sighted again on the bears head and put my next shot through her left eye. I saw the splatter as the slug exited the back of her head. Now I was sure it was safe.

"I got her," I shouted as I started to run as best I could up the rocky slope to see if the man was still alive. The others followed as quickly as they could. Abo was staying right with me on the climb.