Page 70 of Tiger's Tale
With the men out the way, the tigers felt free to attack. Bloody gashes now appeared along the bear’s hindquarters and back. They heard a scream as the bear managed a savage bite on the golden tiger.
“Veru!” Danik cried. One of her shoulders was torn and bloody.
Then Iriko finally joined the fray. He leapt boldly upon the bear’s back, wrapping his arms around its neck as if to strangle it with his bare hands. It bucked wildly, trying to throw him off, but it couldn’t rid itself of its passenger. Nik wondered where Iriko had been. It was as if he had come out of nowhere. Nik glanced over at Iriko’s sleeping furs, and they were covered with snow. He hadn’t been sleeping in them recently, at least not recently enough to see the bear.
Waiting for his opportunity, Nik, who had slipped on his magic boots and tunic, came very close to the tumult and, finally, thrust his knife up and into the bear’s side. This injury, in addition to all the other attackers, proved too much for the poor, hungry bear, and with a final frustrated bellow, it turned on his heel and ran off into the dark dawn.
Nik ripped off his tunic quickly so they could see him. “I stuck him with my knife,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll be coming back.” His voice trembled as he stared at the knife with blood dripping freely from the blade. He’d helped Danik kill and skin animals before, but they were small and it hadn’t been dark. They hadn’t felt like... like that night...
“It’s a she-bear,” Iriko said. “Show me the knife.”
“What good will that do?” Nik asked, irritated at being doubted and the fact that he still wasn’t in control of himself.
“Just hand it over,” Iriko said. “There’s no time to argue. She’ll probably double back.”
Nik blew out a shaky breath and thrust his knife into Iriko’s open hand, nicking him in the process. The larger man carefully measured the blade from hilt to tip using his thumb and fingers. Nikolai stared at the blood as it drip, drip, dripped onto the white snow. If it had been daylight, all of them would have seen Nik’s face go white at the sight of it. He swallowed.There was so much.It was his fault. All his fault.
“The blade’s not long enough,” Iriko said, flicking the knife so it stuck in the snow at Nik’s feet. “A bear that big, you need a knife deep enough to penetrate the layer of fat. You might have stuck her, but you only made her mad.” His mouth twisted up into a mocking smirk. “This is why you people need to stay on your side of the mountains. Not only do you know nothing about how to survive in the true wilderness but you couldn’t even tell that was a female bear.”
“That’s enough,” Danik said. “You are the reason she was even here. I told you—you left a trail. Any blood that was spilled tonight is something you’ll have to answer for.”
Iriko folded his arms across his mostly naked chest. “I can protect myself,” he said haughtily.
“I’m sure you can,” Danik replied. “But that doesn’t discount the fact that Veru was injured.”
Iriko’s smug expression fell away. As if he could sense exactly where the tigers were, he approached Veru and knelt by her torn shoulder. Veru was licking a paw and paused, looking up at him. Stacia was licking her sister’s injury and whining, but she backed away at Iriko’s approach. Nik could see when Iriko used Stacia’s eyes to assess Veru’s injuries. Iriko had the decency to wince, but then his face hardened, and he waved a hand in dismissal. “They’ll heal,” he said as he stood.
“Perhaps,” Danik said. “But healing requires energy. That means more hunting, more resources. And what about the bear? Is it fair to her? She was just hungry.”
“I, um, hate to interrupt this very important lesson, especially since Iriko really needs to be taught a few things,” Nik said, still feeling jittery, “but I just noticed that Zakhar is missing.”
Danik looked around. “Did anyone see him leave?”
“Good riddance,” Iriko said. “One less mouth to feed.”
When Danik gave him a look, Iriko threw his hands up in the air and said, “Fine! I’ll track him. Just keep in mind, you were the one talking about conserving our resources.”
“I’ll go with him. Will you stay with the tigers and watch camp in case the bear returns?” Danik asked Nik.
Nodding, grateful to be left behind, Nik sent the two men on their way and took his time folding his tunic as he tried to get his thoughts under control. He then selected a much longer knife from Danik’s pack. To his shame, his hands still shook as he sat quietly in the snow, his free hand on the nape of Veru’s neck, as they kept watch. Petting her soft fur as she healed from her wound soothed his soul, and eventually his mental anguish eased.
Not seeing or hearing any sign of the bear’s return, Nik’s eyes fell on Veru’s wound as it knit itself back together. When she was healed, he used a bit of snow to clean the blood from her fur. Stacia sat on his other side, and soon he let the long knife fall. He put his hand on her back too.
As the three of them sat together waiting for the others to return, they each thought of how very far they had drifted away from their dreams and their home and wondered if there was a way to return, and if they did, would they even find a home there, or was it gone forever. What home meant to each of them was different in that moment, but they found comfort in being together, knowing that they all had suffered loss and hardship. It united them in a way and kept driving them toward the same goal.
Stacia and Veru blinked rapidly as puffs of snow drifted lazily around them. Maybe it would be easier to just give up, to consign themselves to live as what they were now. Their eyes stung and burned, but they couldn’t cry, at least not like humans did. Their sorrow just made them feel heavy, like they wanted to lay down and not move.
As for Iriko and Danik, it was fairly easy to track Zakhar. Unfortunately, the great white bear was headed in the same direction. They heard the bellow and began to run. When they found Zakhar, he was at the mouth of an ice cave playing with a small bear cub and cuddling a second.
From the top of the hill where Zakhar had obviously fallen or slid down, Danik sighed and asked, “What are you doing, you glupec?”
“They were crying,” Zakhar replied. “I couldn’t help it. Aren’t they cute?”
“Well, now their mama is returning, and she’s already mad and hungry. It’s time for you to come back. Put down her babies and say a prayer for yourself that she doesn’t come after you.”
“Ah, that’s it. They’re hungry. Danik, can we give them some food?”
“No,” Iriko answered. “We need our food. The mother bear can hunt on her own.”
