Page 48 of The Mentor
“Shit!” he sputtered. “You know that bears are excellent climbers, right?”
“They are?” This time I wasn’t whispering. It came out in a small shriek.
“I’m coming, just tell me where you are.”
“How am I supposed to know?” I cried. “Somewhere in the forest in a big pine tree.” Tears welled up in my eyes and I held my breath when I heard noises coming closer. “Hurry!” I whispered frantically.
From the way Archer’s image was shaking, I could tell he was running. “Send me your location,” he ordered.
“I don’t know how to do that, I’m not very good with technology.”
A stream of curse words came from him, but I was too busy staring in the direction of the noise to mind and then I saw it: a large black bear came jogging in my direction.
Like any sane person who is hiding, I knew to keep calm and stay quiet, but unfortunately my brain temporarily malfunctioned and a loud scream of pure terror rushed out from the bottom of my strained lungs.
That caught the bear’s attention. He stopped, rose up on two legs, and looked straight at me with small gleaming black eyes. The way he leaned his head back and sniffed the air made me scream again.
While the bear slowly walked closer to investigate, I pushed higher up the tree, my hands now so sweaty from fear that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hold on.
It was tempting to close my eyes and pretend this wasn’t happening, but I was in survival mode and kept my eyes locked on the huge bear.
“I’m one of the good people,” I said in a brittle voice. “Where I come from we don’t harm animals. You have no quarrel with me so just go away.”
The bear sniffed the tree before he lifted up on his back legs again, planting his big paws on the tree trunk.
My crying intensified, and looking up I realized that I couldn’t go much higher or the branches wouldn’t be strong enough to hold me.
Bears are excellent climbers,Archer’s words played on a loop in my mind.
I looked around for things to throw at the bear when he started to pull himself up by his claws. But twigs, pine cones, and loud screams didn’t scare the beast off. He had only his right hind leg on the ground when Archer finally reached us.
Clearly he had been sprinting, because his chest was rising and falling with his panting and his face was chili red. “Stay where you are,” he shouted to me, as if I had the option of going anywhere.
I swallowed hard and felt dizzy when the bear turned to face him.
“Be careful.” My voice broke and it felt like I had a second heartbeat in my throat. I would never forgive myself if something happened to Archer while trying to save me.
Archer had his eyes locked on the bear and moved sideways to pick up a big stick from the ground. Holding the stick in front of him he started roaring and shouting, making himself big and threatening. “Get out of here, go!”
The bear swayed from side to side before it charged him.
“Hey, knock it off,” Archer yelled at the bear and raised his arms up high. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
The bear took a left and stopped outside Archer’s reach, making deep guttural sounds that sounded to me like someone roaring underwater.
In an explosive motion, Archer rushed forward shaking the stick in front of him. “I said run the fuck off.”
This time the bear did and I gave a shriek of relief.
With the bear still storming off, Archer threw the branch to the ground and looked up at me. “Didn’t you listen to anything I taught you about bears?” he asked with both arms flapping in the air. “Don’t run, don’t fucking hide in a tree, and don’t scream like a girl.”
“I was scared,” I defended myself.
“I get that, but you can’t show them your fear. Black bears are skittish and easy to scare off. You make yourself big and threatening and you show them who’s the boss.”
“Don’t yell at me,” I cried and tried to calm my pumping heart by taking deep breaths. “If you hadn’t arrived he would’ve climbed up here and mauled me.”
“He?” Archer angled his head. “That was a small female and she was probably just curious to see what you were doing up there.” With a smile, he added, “Maybe she thought you needed help.”
