by Wystern on June 9th, 2010, 3:34 am
Wys saluted Kam goodbye as he was leaving him behind for the ambush. Crow found some mud and covered his face and armor in it, hoping it would mask his smell, at least a bit. He took down the hood, and started slowly walking away from the last trap. "Here goes nothing." He muttered to himself. This idea started getting wore and worse as he was progressing into it, but he is in this too far to back off now. He let out a sigh, he either had to come back leading a beast or die. Or be mocked by the other Knights...no, that was entirely out of the question. The bow he was carrying was mainly just a way to attract attention to himself. He did read that if a bear tasted human blood, it would seriously consider all humans as a food supply. The upside is that many died in these wild lands. The chance of a bear who had a human for dinner was fairly high; or so he hoped.
"Here, bear, bear, here bear, bear." Wys was calling out though not very loud. He was leaving some signs, very broken branches, slashed trees, just something to run back on. He was not entirely sure if he would like to meet the creature on the receiving end of that message. "Good Gods! Stop being such a damn coward!" He told himself, but it is far easier said than done.
He found a spot and waited for about an hour, he was about five minutes of straight running distance back to the entrapment. Wys checked his trail, in the moonlight, there was a very obvious path to follow back. Wys heard crackling sounds and froze. It was just an owl landing on a dry branch above him. "What next? You will freeze at your own shadow?" He told himself. Wys should probably stop that. Patronizing himself did him no good. Neither did the fear.
He paused for a second, this time he heard buzzing. There, right there, a mother grizzly stuck her snout in the bee hive, trying to get out the honey to feed her kin, about three cubs were playing beside her. Wys stopped, he barely breathed. That beast was roughly five times his size, it was big, and he knew how far a mother would go to protect her kin. Especially when it was "food" she had to protect the cubs. Wys stopped and considered what he was about to do.
"This is it." He whispered as he picked up the bow and started pulling the arrow. The mud on his hand let the arrow loose and stray, and he cut himself a bit under the knuckle of his left index finger. The arrow landed about five feet away from him, in the midst of a bunch fallen dry branches. He wasn't noticed yet. No, being noticed wasn't enough, he had to give her a reason to get him, and that meant he had to hit at least one damn target with this blasted bow.
Deep breath, he picked up another arrow from the quiver. Nineteen left, no chance in hell he would go pick the other one up. Deep breath, aim the arrow... hold, focus, lock the target, the mother, hold, and... release. The arrow made a springing sound as it got launched through the air and flew straight... into the body of a cub. Not the desired target, but effective nonetheless. The mother looked at what just happened, her snout a bit stung and swollen from the bee poison. She ran over to the cub, tried to pick it up, but it's injured, limp body wouldn't stand. The bear roared with rage, looking around, noticing the figure standing about forty feet away, the trees were far enough apart for her to cross that distance fast.
The mother sniffed the air and Wys noticed that his hand was bleeding, enough to cover most of his fist in blood. She charged, he reacted and ran, trying to put the bow in the quiver. No luck, he just threw off the quiver and threw away the bow. The bear roared, about twenty feet away, it closed the distance faster than he thought, but they were about to head into the brush, he would maneuver easier than her, he thought; he better be able to, or else.
"Kamrynn!" Wys roared at the top of his lungs, dodging a tree. The bear was closing in, and he was far from the traps when he had a brilliant idea. He untied the knot on which the cloak was bound and threw it into the bear's face, it was close enough where he didn't really have to look. It worked, blinded, the bear slammed into a tree, almost knocking it down. The cloak slid off and it began the chase again, but Wys gained some very precious time.
His body was getting numb from adrenaline. He was running out of breath, but he couldn't stop, he couldn't stop. To stop would mean death, it is too soon. They were going to kill it. They had to now.
"Get ready!" Wys screamed again. Soon, he thought, soon, it had to be. There! Last slash, he jumped over the trap, bear just a few feet behind him, it flew right onto the spikes. She wasn't even startled. "No way..." Wys muttered to himself. That was supposed to phase the creature, but she didn't even notice in that blind rage. Or maybe he should have tried harder making the trap. The bear was leaving a trail of destruction, Wys figured the cubs would just follow. He jumped over the second trap, the bear simply missed it. He looked back, the beast was closing in again, and fast, her cubs were indeed following.
The mother finally slammed into his back, he turned, fell forward, three feet ahead, stunned and confused. When he shook it off, the bear was on its back feet, about to trample him, just when he finally saw his partner in a possible death. Wys grabbed the sheathed katana after the strap that held it snapped off his hip, evidently that's what made him turn as he fell, and tried to roll away.
If gods are watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.