Morning came and Tor was awake much of the night both with the girls and his thoughts about how he would be able to end the scourge that prevented this clan from wintering in their preferred place, the cave.

As they ate breakfast, Alt explained with vigorous hand gestures. "We generally build shelters inside the cave away from the entrance but where we can still see the light of morning stream in because to go where it is dark all the time requires many torches and is disorienting. No one can stand it being dark all the time… Except the bear."

Tor responded with hand gestures to verify, "I understand… Build shelters… Near entrance… Deep inside requires torches… Not good. The bear?"

"The bear likes it deeper into the cave where it is always dark. But the bear won't share the cave with us. My two older brothers were in the cave beginning to rebuild our shelters from a seasons’ cycle ago when the bear came in and confronted them. We didn't see it go into the cave, because most of the rest of us were out here harvesting our crops and gathering wood."

"The bear goes deeper… Two of you building cave shelters… You were not there?"

"But we heard it. There was a great roar that came out of the cave, and then another and another. We heard our brothers yelling incantations to the gods and then screaming as they were killed. One almost making it out of the cave when the great bear caught him and knocked him down to his death and then dragged him back into the cave."

“You all heard the bear roar… And then, screams… And the bear killed your clansmen? I am so sorry!" Tor acted out great sorrow at their loss. Tears came to his eyes as he thought of what happened.

"We ran to the entrance of the cave. The bear continued to roar. We saw the bloody body drag marks where the bear pulled the one that almost escaped back into the cave. We did not follow. None of us could. I can't go in that cave. We heard the bear breaking bones as it ate our brothers." Alt began crying, remembering what he heard and saw.

"You heard your clansmen being killed and eaten… And you could do nothing about it? Have you heard the bear lately?"

Alt shook his head in the universal, "No."

Tor took that as a good sign. That bear may already be sleeping. He reassured those listening with strength in his voice and gestures. "I will kill that bear. But I will need your help. At first we must go in the cave and learn what we need to do. Bears can run faster than we can, so we must sneak in and sneak out without the bear knowing that we are there."

Tor looked into the eyes of those four young men still left to check on their willingness to be brave. He saw them reluctant, but seeing no other way except to follow him with whatever brash plan he had. They had no other choice. Winter was coming and they needed to survive.

Alt led the men to the cave while the women and children cried. Tor insisted that they not take any weapons, because to enrage a bear with a wound would be worse than confronting one with only ones bravado. Bears were curious. They could be frightened off if one acted strong enough and stood up tall. Tor had done that occasionally when a bear would come into his camp smelling his food cooking. Often all you had to do was stand up and yell loudly, and the bear would leave in fright.

But Tor knew that this bear was different, attacking two men at once and killing them both… Eating them. It would be no wonder that this bear would be sleeping having eaten so much just before settling in for the winter. At least that's what he hoped…

At the cave's entrance, Tor lit a torch and turned to see who would follow him. Only Alt and the youngest of the other three came forward. He signaled to them to follow, but not close. And motioned that if the bear came toward them, that they all would stand as tall as possible and raise their arms high while he waved the torch back and forth, to scare the bear away. Tor did not say it, but that's what he hoped.

Once the torch got burning brightly, Tor entered the cave as though he were hunting small game. Only this time he did not have to worry about dry branches breaking under his feet, only tripping on the uneven cave floor. They passed the clan's shelters and Tor pointed to them, indicating a place they could hide if the bear wounded, came after them. Beyond that, some bats on the ceiling rustled a bit, but they were sleeping the day off and did not want to leave their roosts even with the disturbance, smoke and flame from the torch.

Gradually, the trio moved from the entrance deep enough so that the light of it could no longer be seen. But even without Shin, tied up with Tsen back at the camp, Tor smelled the beast. The smell was much stronger than any bear he had ever encountered. But then, the bear had eaten two men. Maybe they gave it a stomachache.

And then, he heard it, a great wheezing sound of the bear sleeping off what it had eaten. But when he saw the great body moving in rhythm to its slumber, Tor knew that this was was no ordinary bear,, but a bear like his father had killed and placed the great skull over their lodge. A cave bear. One he thought he would never see.

Advancing no further, he held the torch low and surveyed the cave floor to see if there was any way he would be protected if the bear came for him. All he found was bones. Something to trip over or make a noise with. What was left of the two dead men. Fortunately, a short distance back, the floor rose up to about his waist and he could hide behind the solid rock created inside caves by dripping water.

Moving more quickly now, a plan was forming in Tor's mind on how he would kill the bear, the gods willing. Once outside, he extinguished the torch to save it for later and motioned for everyone to go back to the camp.

Gathering up the bows and arrows that the young men had, he hung from a branch a deer hide, and selecting the best bows and arrows for the four men, asked them to practice by shooting at the hide and trying to hit it in the middle. The exercise served two purposes: the first finding out who was a good marksman and the second, to find out if any of his or their arrows were defective, especially where the arrowhead was lashed to the arrow. While the arrowheads didn't puncture the hanging hide, there was great strain on the strength of their lashing before they fell to the ground, telling him which ones were worthy of puncturing a tough bear's skin.

Arrowheads were also examined and sorted, both for their points and for their sharpness. The best arrowheads were obsidian, but there were only one or two. There one more flint arrowheads and they varied in sharpness. There were stone arrowheads but they generally weren't very sharp. Tor's copper arrowheads were sharp, but untested.

While the men practiced, Tor went down to the stream and found a straight willow that was not only strong, but flexible, so that the wood would bend rather than break while green. He quickly carved one twice the length of his body and lashed his obsidian dagger to the business end, just like he had seen in the drawing on the wall of the coppersmith's cave of his father killing the cave bear like this one. Tor shuddered thinking of it, but did not want his fear to bleed out over to the others, so he steeled himself as he worked and observed their shooting abilities, hoping they didn't see.

It was getting late in the day and Tor didn't see any reason to delay. He gathered the men around and with a stick on the soft ground near the campfires, he laid out a plan that he wanted them to follow. By now, he trusted only four of the best arrows and then, as a backup in case needed, each of them would have two more arrows, but were instructed not to use them. "Only he, Tor," he vehemently gestured, "Would kill the bear." They would not shoot a second arrow except at the entrance far from one of the shelters if the bear came out for them wounded.

As a final instruction, he told everyone in the camp to climb trees high above the ground if the bear came out of the cave angry and wounded. With enough wounds, it would eventually die. They should wait it out and not venture down out of the trees until the bear was dead.

The women and children begin climbing trees and Tor and his hunting party of four entered the cave once again with Tor holding the torch high and the others following close behind him until they reached the sleeping bear. He had thought of sneaking close and slitting the bear's throat, but he didn't think that would work. This was his best and only plan.

With hand signals, Tor directed two of the men to one side of the bear, and the other two to the other side. He asked them to draw their bows and shoot into vulnerable parts of the sleeping body, and then, swiftly and quietly leave the cave. Waiting at the entrance, two on each side, to fire additional arrows and run in two different directions to confuse the bear before climbing trees they had chosen before from which to fire more arrows down on the bear coming from below to try to reach them.

Tor watched them draw their bows back with each one shaking both from the tension and fear and quickly lowered his arm as a signal for them to shoot. They did, nearly at the same time, and then disappeared behind him as he watched the bear's response. It was almost immediate when the bear rolled over and swatted at the arrows in its sides as though they were mosquito bites. Roaring so loud that it reverberated up and down the cave and gave Tor a shiver that ran up and down his spine and almost paralyzed him until he realized he had to move, hearing one of those scurrying behind him fall with a cry of hurt that he dared not let distract him.

Backing up and holding the torch high, the bear continued to swat and bite at its tormenting wounds, blood could be seen gushing from two of them, good hits. Reaching the naturally raised part of the cave, where he had dropped the spear, Tor got behind it and grabbed the spear, placing the butt where it would not slip and held it out with one hand while still holding the torch high with the other.

The bear was dazed, both by its wounds and by its deep sleep, but soon realized where its tormentor was by that bright light that didn't scare but infuriated. In full charge from the dark to the light of the cave entrance the distance was covered in nearly an instant by great strides. Tor dropped the torch and the bear stopped right in front of him, just as he had expected.

As was characteristic of bears wanting to show their power. When faced with a foe that challenged them, would stop before their enemy, rise up to full standing height, and then pounce upon whatever was irritating and small. Bloodied and angry, the great bear stood up over Tor to show how insignificant he was, and with a resounding roar came down with mouth open to clamp onto this creature's small head and decapitate it.

As frightened as he was, Tor held as steady as he could with both hands and made sure that the obsidian blade met the bear's open mouth as it descended toward him, dripping saliva. Feeling the blade rammed through the roof of the bear's mouth into its brain and the willow spear bending sharply from the force and weight, and then, recoiling to make double sure that the great animal's brain was severely lacerated, twice.

Even behind the waist high rock, the bear falling almost caught him, a single claw slashing the deep cut in his upper left arm and his face covered with bear spittle. Upon falling to the cave's floor, it thrashed around a bit, but Tor knew that it was only death throes that he had seen often in animals that were mortally wounded. He signaled to the others with yells and hand motions to come to him.

Before long, the bear wheezed its last breath and lay silent. The others came up upon Tor yelling and begin slapping him on the back for his bravery. But he only had in mind that they had only a short time to completely butcher the bear and preserve the meat before it spoiled. At least he had many hands and knives to do the job. His wound was bleeding badly and needed attention, stitches.

First, they dragged the bear out into the light with the assistance of Tsen’s great strength where they could see its huge size. And then, they began gutting it and tasting raw the great heart of the beast. Thanking the gods as they worked. One of the young women, down from the trees, stitched Tor up with sinew. It hurt immensely, but Tor was too elated with adrenaline to notice.

Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull

4/28/21