The Hunted Cont'd

Then, that smell again. This time he pin-pointed the source. It was coming from back along the trail he had turned off and peering intently (Harry’s vision wasn’t that great) he spotted the bright orange garb of a hunter, kneeling behind a tree about a hundred feet away. Harry growled lowly and backed away, turning as he did so and continuing down the trail.

He could see the lake now and knew of a portion of the trail that ran into a dead-end gully with extremely steep walls. He made his way into that, pausing at the start of the gully until he was sure the hunter had seen him. Then he made his way in and pushing though the bush, quickly entered into a small cave in the wall that he had used as a den for a couple of winters. Until he got too big for it and had to find another place.

The bush closed behind him and he waited patiently for a few minutes until he spotted the hunter moving along the trail up the gully. Harry waited for a minute until the hunter was well past and then exited the cave and began to follow the hunter up the path.

After about five minutes the hunter came to the end of the gully and realizing that he could go now further, turned wondering what had become of his quarry. There was no way even a bear could have climbed the surrounding walls of black rock. He must have left the trail earlier on. He was about to backtrack when there was a rustle in the bush and Harry appeared.

The hunter stepped back with a gasp, until he was against the gully wall. Harry stood still, about ten yards from the hunter and eyed him suspiciously.

After a minute or two, the hunter slowly raised his gun and brought the bear into his sights. He held his breath and slowly squeezed the trigger. There was a metallic click followed by nothing. The gun had jammed. Now the hunter began to panic. He dislodged the shell and placed another in the chamber. Again, he raised the gun and squeezed. The same result. The gun was useless. 

Harry could smell the salty sweat on the hunter and knew that this was fear. If there was one thing Harry disliked, it was the smell of human fear. He growled again and the hunter turned and tried frantically to climb up the unimpeachable wall. Realizing the futility in this Harry began to advance on the hunter, who turned and clambering at his jacket emerged with a can of bear spray. He waved it around and yelled at harry who continued to advance. The hunter hit the button, and a mist of stinging spray instantly enveloped him as the wind was blowing quite robustly up the gully now.

He coughed, choking on the fumes as Harry moved up. Finally, about fifteen feet away, Harry raised himself on his hind quarters to his full seven feet. The hunter screamed and fell to his knees. Harry, decided to break the code of silence. He was too curious not to, although he would pay for it if anybody else heard about it.   

“What are you doing?’ Harry said, in a low soft voice.

The hunter stopped screaming and looked up at the bear. He must be going crazy, thought the hunter. It sounded like the bear had just said…

“What are you doing here?” Harry repeated.

“You can talk,” said the hunter with a shaky voice.

“Yes. Yes, I can. We all can. We just choose not to,” said Harry.

“But…”

“Never mind all that. Answer my question. What are you doing here?”

“I’m, uh, hunting,” said the hunter.

“What are you hunting?” Harry asked.

“Um, deer,” the hunter lied.

“You were following me. Are you sure you weren’t hunting for me? I understand it is the time of the so-called spring bear hunt, after all.”

“You know about that?”

“Of course. I’m a bear. It’s kind of necessary to know what you’re up against.”

“Well, you’re sure damn smart for a bear. You’re smarter…

“Don’t say it,” Harry said.

“Than the…”

“I’m warning you.”

“The average bear?” the hunter said, meekly.

“Okay, that’s it.  It’s chewing time.” Harry growled.

The hunter fell face down on the earth with a moan. “It was just a joke! Please, please don’t! Have mercy on me! I am truly sorry for trying to hunt you. I’ve never hunted before, I didn’t realize what I was up against.”

“Are you alone?” asked Harry.

“Yes, yes, all alone. It was a dare really. My brother’s a big hunter, you see, and he is always on my case about trying it, so I bought some stuff and headed out here. I thought if I could come back with something, even a rabbit or something, he’d leave me alone about it.”

Harry relaxed down off of his hind legs into a more comfortable position. He looked down at the hunter whom he was almost standing right over. The hunter could smell Harry and feel his breath on his ears.  He moaned again.

“Relax,” Harry said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t think. I tend to change my mind pretty quickly. I have what you might call a mercurial nature. How much do you want to do this hunting thing? Because you know, I’m actually pretty strongly against it personally. Unless, as in my case, its just to find food.”

“I swear to god, I don’t want to hunt anything.  I’ll never hunt again, that’s for certain. I don’t want to hurt anybody. Really.”

“Good to hear.  Okay, I’ll tell you what.  I happen to know where there’s a big dead buck not far from here. How be I take you there and you can grab his antlers and take those home to show your brother? Tell him you couldn’t bring the whole thing because it was so big.”

The hunter looked up timidly. “You’d do that for me?” he asked, incredulously.

“Sure. You have to promise me two things though. One, you’ll never hunt again and two, you’ll go home and try to convince your brother not to hunt either.”

“I’ll try,” said the hunter.

“Because I’m telling you this. If I ever catch you or your brother in the woods up this way again, it won’t go well for you. Do you believe me?”

“I don’t believe any of this,” said the hunter. “But I get your meaning.”

“All right, come on then, I’ll show you where the deer is.  Just the antlers though, okay, I’ll be needing the rest of it for the coming month.”

“Okay,” said the hunter. And off they went.