Volume 1 - Sidestory 1

Damn... Am I just going to die like this...?

I've lost track of how long I've been suspended in the air, some sort of invisible vine had been holding me in place the entire time. My vision fades as hunger and thirst overwhelms me.

* * * * *

Hmm... what's that smell? Why is my mouth all wet?

I slowly open my eyes, I'm in some sort of cave...? The floor is some sort of big, flat stone and I'm laying on some dead grass. I sniff the air and I can tell that someone else has been here, wait, there's another smell as well, but they are gone now. In front of me is some food and water, I edge my severely weakened body forward and finish them all. Drowsiness overcame me, I move back onto the pile of dead grass and fall unconscious.

* * * * *

I don't know how long I've been in here, but whenever I woke up, there's always food and water waiting for me. I inspected the walls, there seems to be several holes high on the wall where light pours in. There's a draft coming from some parts of the walls as well. I marked my territory and did my business.

One time I noticed something is looking in at me from the holes, I started shouting at it, but it quickly ran away. I haven't seen it again. Since there's nothing to do in here, I start pacing around. When I start getting tired, I head back to sleep.

Since I'd recovered, I'd been bored and alert.

*ka kan kara*

While I was sleeping, there are some strange noises near a part of the wall. The wall suddenly opens, revealing daylight and a gust of fresh air rushes in. I growl as I cautiously sniff the air and move toward the opening. The scents I smell before are stronger now, so they are close by or had been here recently. Seeing no alternative, I made my way out of the opening, a familiar scenery unfolds before me, I recognize the various smell of trees, the streams, and the blooming flowers. Since it seems safe, I run out of the cave and straight into the trees. I look back to see the weird hill where I was in, this is where those balding, two legged creatures live occasionally. I have no idea how I got there when I was near death, I will probably never know. It's too dangerous to stay here, so I run further into the forest and get as far away from here as possible.

* * * * *

*Da*

*Kara*

"Get outta here brat."

A fat man with a moustache sneers as a soldier reaches inside the car after opening the door next to me and roughly grabs me by the collar, dragging me out.

"Your parents served well, we took special care to bring you here as per our duty." The man continues sarcastically as the 2 other men in uniform laugh. "Don't worry, we will make sure to take really good care of the donations your parents made to the country!" The laughter gets louder before the car speeds off back toward the city.

I look at the vast scenery before my eyes, it's the summer family home that my dad brought me to every year. While I look on with bittersweet memories, *wasa wasa* sounds startle me. I turn to look at the source of the sound, but there's nothing there. Sighing, I walk toward the building that's going to be my new home.

* * * * *

*wasa wasa*

*haa haa*

*wasa wasa wasa wasa*

The prey run left and right through the leaf litter before finally splitting off. Two of them are running in the direction of the water, perfect! I chase them with all my might to give them no quarters.

*bashan*

*bashan*

The prey falls over the sudden cliff and into the water just as planned.

*basha*

I leap into the water as usual and get ready for my meal. I start looking for my prey as I swim in the water. In front of me stands that two legged creature that I've seen on occasion, it is holding a stick that he used to hunt prey with. I yelp in surprise before swimming back the other way. I stare at him from the shore, cursing my luck to have let my prey got away by offering them directly before the creature. The creature stares at me, it seems it was surprised by my appearance too.

If I recall, snow covered the ground twice since the creature showed up. Going by the smell, it's similar to the cave I was in when snow covered the ground six times ago.

*pasha*

*pasha*

The creature starts moving about in the water, making two splashes as it plucks two objects out of the water and holds them up.

THOSE ARE MY PREY!

I scream in anger internally as I look on. The creature looks at the prey, at me, back at the prey again. It puts its stick through a vine with a fruit hanging off of it and puts it on its hairless body while holding my prey on another limb. It slowly walks out of the water and puts the long stick with the fruit down, it brings out a shiny stick from somewhere and bites into my prey. I can only look on as the creature steals my meal. Instead of eating it, the creature reaches over to the fruit, opens it and brings out a wet prey. He bites into it with the short, shiny stick as well.

Holding onto one of my prey and a wet prey in each limb, it shows off as it turns toward me. After a moment, it lays them onto the ground before walking off with one of my prey, its long stick, and the fruit; I don't see the short stick anymore. I follow the creature with my eyes, wary and unsure what it's trying to do. It disappears toward to the weird hill, leaving the prey behind. I sit vigilantly in case the creature returns.

After a while, the creature doesn't return. I cautiously approach the spot where he bit into the prey, I can see the dead furry prey and a dead wet prey laying on the stony shore. Dragging both further away from the shore, I eat my meal while keeping my eyes out for thieves.

Halfway through my meal, the sky thieves appears. I cannot deal with two of them, so I grab the mostly uneaten wet prey and run into the woods, leaving the mostly eaten furry prey behind.

* * * * *

*Da*
*Da*
*ta ta ta*
*Kan*
*UUrrrRRRA UURRRRRRAAAAA*
*kAN KAn kan*

"'The brat will die on his own,' he said. 'If starvation doesn't get to him, the wildlife will get him,' he said. 'It's just a matter of time before we can just take all the assets', he said. YOU DAMN IDIOTS! IT HAS BEEN 4 YEARS AND HE'S STILL ALIVE AND KICKING!" A fat man twists his moustache angrily as he berates the two men working on a cage. Inside the cage, a loudly raging, roaring bear rattles the metal bars as he slams himself into it. The fat man stops playing with his moustache and grabs one of the spears strapped on the side of the pickup truck.

*zaku zaku zaku zaku*
*UUUUUUUURRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA*

The fat man stabs the grizzly bear with a long spear several times from the side of the truck. "Shut up you stupid beast!"

"Sir! Please stop angering the bear!"
"Calm down sir, we can't unload it like this!"

The two men trying to unload the cage off the back of a pickup truck plea with the fat man, with the truck's solar panel in an overhang position to accommodate the cage. The rusty cage sprays the still unevaporated morning dew each time the bear slams into it.

"What does it matter?! We need it to be angry for it to kill that damn kid anyways!"

*zaku zaku*

The fat man stabs the the bear twice more as the men tries to slide the cage off a metal ramp.

*UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

The bear roars in anger before slamming itself into the side of the cage, tipping it over the ramp in the process.

*KAN GA Ga ga ga*

The rusty cage lands roughly on one of its corners, bending the cage out of shape. The latch with the locks on it popped off its hinges in the process.

*UuuuRrraaaaaaaa*

The bear charges into the cage again, this time opening it.

"Quickly! Get back into the truck, governor!" One of the men orders while arming himself with a spear that his partner handed over.

"Don't you DARE order me around! It is just some stupid bea- EEEEEKKKK"

*tatatata* *gon*

The bear suddenly dashes and slams into the man, causing him to land on his ass.

*kan*

The fat man holds his spear horizontally, barely blocking the bear's biting maw.

"Save me you fools!"

One of the men stabs from one side of the bear while the other runs around and stabs it from the opposite side.
*uuurrraaaaaaAAAA*

The bear abruptly turns, flinging the men off their spears that remain lodged in the bear's flanks. The fat man takes the chance to get up and tries to run away into the truck.

*mushi*

The bear charges and bring down its right claw, raking the man's scalp all the way down to his waist.

"ku... hel..."
*rrrrraaaaaa*
*goki*

The fat man collapses onto the ground in pain. He struggles to crawl toward the truck before the bear bears down on him with his maw, crushing his vertebrates. The men get back up and try to kill the bear by forcing all their weight onto the spears as it attacks the barely moving fat man.

*rrraaaaAAA*

The bear swings around, slamming one man into the side of the truck while sending the other flying. The bear charges at the still falling man and mauls him viciously. The other man tries to enter the truck by opening the door and crawling in.

*ban* *goki*

The bear, noticing the movement, charges into the door, slamming it into the man's dangling leg. The door bounces back after crushing the man's leg.

"AAaaaaaaHHHHHHHH!"
*hhaaaaaa haaaa*

The bear drags the man out of the car, it releases the man's leg after he's out in the open. With its jaws opened wide, the bear tries to bite the remaining man's head.

*zaku* *gushu*

The man swings around at the last moment, stabbing the grizzly in its right eye while shielding himself with his right arm.

*UUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAA RRRRAAAAAA*

The bear swipes its claw down at the man continuously while thrashing in pain.

*gabo* *gabo* *gabo*
*haaaaa... hhaaaaaaaa...*

The wet, sticky sound of flesh being pulverized overlaps with the bear's heavy breathing. After calming down, the bear's nostril flares, turning toward the nearby waterway.

* * * * *

*bashan*

*pasha*

A decent sized splash is followed by a smaller one, two figures emerge from under the water's surface and move toward the shore.

*buru buru*

"Hahahaha, watch it big guy!"

A small gray fox with a mottled coat shakes itself dry next to a youth with short, black hair.

"Hm... strange... hey, where's your mom?" The youth looks around, "actually, why isn't there any birds singing... something feels wrong. Come on you." Opening the woven basket tied to a rope, the youth grabs the still struggling fish from the tip of his fishing spear and throws it into the basket. He secures the basket again before heading back home.

The yearling cub droops its ear, releases and re-secures the crab that's in its mouth before following the youth. The cub have seen this creature plenty of times before, its mother is indifferent about it, but she often left him with it when she went out hunting in the early days. It recalls the scent of another fox in its early memory, but it doesn't recall ever meeting it.

*haaa haaaa haaaa*
*guurrrrrrrrrr*

An extremely large grizzly bear with blood all over it and two sticks protruding from its sides moves toward the two, the young cub is the first to notice it, dropping the slightly crushed crab and starts growling. The youth reacts right away to the growling, easily spotting the bear. There's less than a hundred meters between the two of them and the bear, the youth's home is still several hundred meters further away, there are tall, strong trees nearby tens of meters away.

The youth drops everything save for his fishing spear and slowly backs away diagonally in a low posture, changing the foothold the bear will have to deal with in order to approach them. The open land leading to the shoreline angles downward, allowing an easy charge toward the water. As such, the youth is trying to make the shortest route between them to be on equal footing, and if possible, have it run uphill instead.

*rraarraaaUUUrrrrrAAAA*

The bear charges at the youth in a straight line after growling. The youth continues to back away slowly before picking up a decently sized rock in his right hand. Rotating the rock into a comfortable position, the youth keeps backing away slowly as the bear comes rushing in. The fox growls and yelps, taking hesitant steps. Taking careful aim, the youth whips the stone at the snout of the bear, temporarily stunning it. He grabs a handful of sand and stones from the ground before quickly dashing toward the trees while the bear tries to shake away the sudden pain with a *UUURRAAAAA*, the gray fox follows after the youth after staring at the bear for a split second longer.

The youth stops just inside the forest, where the thicker, taller trees are.

*ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu*

The youth takes a deep breath and tries to calm his nerves and recite his teachings. He starts talking to the gray fox for no particular reason aside from calming himself. "To defeat a bear, don't try to overpower it, it's stronger than you. Don't try to outrun it, it's faster than you. Don't try to climb out of its way, it can climb better than you. Exhaust it, anger it, watch its neck, pay attention to its movement, stay out of its reach, be a step ahead of it."

*wasa wasa wasa wasa KAKA KA*
*UUURRRRAAAAAAAA*

The bear charges straight at the youth before suddenly stopping and thrashing around in pain. The spears lodged into its sides entangle themselves with the trees, one of them snaps while the other forcefully cleaves the wound wider before falling out completely. The thrashing bear effortly snaps saplings and young trees as it moves about haphazardly. The youth tries to calm his rapidly beating heart while backing away diagonally again, putting some larger trees between them. The bear stops thrashing, gets on its hind leg and releases a *UUURRRRAAAAA* before looking around with its 3 meter high vantage point. Spotting the shivering fox and the 2 legged enemy, it drops to all fours before charging toward them. It deftly sidesteps trees that gets in its way while completely overrunning smaller ones.

The youth throws his handful of sand and stone before moving into a slight uphill position. The bear stands on its legs and swipes down blindly, the youth has been following the movement of its head. Since its neck turned to the right, it will be using its left claw. He quickly moves toward the bear's right hand side and plants the fishing spear's rear end into ground the as the bear comes down from its swipe. Due to the its slightly lower elevation, it has a harder time using its full weight, still, the amount of strength is fearsome *shiiii* The fishing spear's tip stabs into the bear's throat, followed by a *ka goki* and snapping off. The gray fox takes this chance to bite at the bear's hind leg, who promptly sends it flying while still being blinded by the sand, making *URRRAA* noises.

"Damn it..." The youth quickly swings his head to look for something to use before running past the bear. Seeing that the gray fox is okay and back on its feet, he gives a small sigh of relief before reaching down for the spear that had been dislodged earlier, he inspects the spear while moving deeper into the woods. The spear is a little worn, but well made, it's still completely usable. It's spearhead is thick and wide with a cross section further down. He quickly circles back into an uphill position as the bear recovers.

The battle continues, with the youth moving in and giving a quick stab after it swipes. Since he already broke one spear, he isn't willing to risk breaking another one by trying to impale the grizzly. After dodging and counterattacking a few times, he notices the bear's missing right eye after, so he took advantage of it by always circling to the right after stabbing.

*zaku*

*wasa wasa*

*zaku*

*wasa wasa*

It's a one-sided fight with the youth stabbing, moving away, stabbing, moving away. The fight is going splendidly for the youth, as the bear's movements are slowing down. None of the wounds he had dealt were fatal, they are merely paper cuts by human standards. But this is a battle with "death by a thousand cuts" as its focus, so it's fine. Sensing the chance to finish off the bear, the youth tries to attack from the front this time. Unexpectedly, the bear didn't swipe at all after getting onto its hind legs, but drops back down while doing a horizontal swipe. Getting caught off guard, the youth stumbles backward and slams his head into a tree, the beast lunges forward with its maw after recovering from swiping.

*guuurrrr kuuuu*
*AAARRRRRRRRRRRRo*

The young gray fox appears from behind the bear and bites its hind leg again. Out of nowhere, a gray shadow flies by and attaches itself to the bear's bleeding throat where the tip of the fishing spear is still embedded.

* * * * *

Get up, get up, open eyes, damn it, OPEN!

I struggle to get back up to my feet after receiving a blow to the back of my head.

*UUUURRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA*
*yuuuuukuuu shiiiii*

The bear is roaring while trying to claw the gray mass attached to its throat. Quickly blinking a few times to clear my vision, I realize a bloodied fox is biting onto it, barely holding on. Her rushing in probably saved me just now.

*WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

Screaming a shout that dwarf the bear's roar, with a voice I don't recognize, "LET HER GO!" I rush in with a strength that I didn't know I had. I rapidly and forcefully attack the grizzle with abandon.

*zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku zaku*

I repeatedly stab into its snout, ear and head. I had taken out its other eye at some point. I don't remember much, I just keep stabbing, stabbing, stabbing and stab some more. The gray fox that had accompanied me on and off for the last few years lay limp on its side; a pool of blood forming underneath it. The young fox cub is whining next to it.

The bear is barely able to move, I do one deep lunge with the spear right into its mouth, giving it a twist before pulling the spear out. I keep on stabbing its head as tears and snot drips onto the forest floor.

The fox was something my father and I saved after it got caught in a badly done wire snare trap that I made to catch rabbits. She surprised me and kept an eye on me after I got dropped off here by a bunch of crooked politicians after my parents died fighting in the war. That one time she chased the rabbits into the water, we were both surprised. That other time when an eagle dove in to steal my fish basket, she popped out from the water and scared the eagle out of the air. During that horrible snowstorm that one year, it took shelter at my house after its mate got killed by something. I was there when she gave birth to her cubs, although only one survived, I feel she's the closest to a family I had since coming back. I can honestly say, if she wasn't there, my mind might have become broken from the loneliness and just trying to survive.

I regain my composure after my throat starts hurting. I must have been screaming without knowing, I'm pretty sure I've lost my voice for now. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I go to pick up the fox's corpse with the cub whining and following me. I'm going to give her a proper burial. I'm going to help take care of the cub. I will come back for the bear meat. There's one more mouth for me to feed now. I head back home with my bruised, battered, bloodied body with a new determination in my heart.

[Note: The beginning is in the perspective of the mother fox
Note 2: Yes, you don't see Hank, he haven't shown up yet.
Note 3: That one line near the beginning of chapter 13 is directly referring to this incident.]