Bear Adventure (3 page)

‘Your dad gives you a hard time, doesn't he?' said Amazon, after Hal had walked the length of the spit and disappeared behind a fold in the shore.

‘It's just his way,' replied Frazer, not looking back at his cousin.

Before Amazon had the chance to ask him any more questions, he pulled the rod back over his shoulder and sent a cast out fifteen metres into the deepest part of the lake, the lure sailing over the water in a perfect arc.

‘Sweet!' said Amazon, genuinely impressed.

Frazer quickly reeled in the line, jiggling the rod so that the lure would imitate the random movements of a fish.

‘Your turn,' he said, when the lure came back empty.

He showed Amazon how to hold the rod and operate the reel. She tried to copy his cast, but the lure refused to budge from the end of her rod.

‘You forgot to let go of the release button, here at the back of the reel,' Frazer said, smiling. ‘Unless you do that, it won't, er, release.'

She tried again and managed a decent cast. She began to reel it in, again imitating Frazer's style.

‘I think it's stuck on something,' she said, when the lure was halfway back. ‘I –'

‘It's not stuck,' Frazer yelped. ‘You've caught something. Quick, strike – I mean, give it an upwards yank, before it slips off.'

Amazon did just that, and felt the weight of the fish on the line.

‘I don't believe it,' smiled Frazer. ‘On your very first cast! OK, just reel it the rest of the way in, nice and slowly.'

When the fish was almost at the shore, Frazer showed Amazon how to raise the rod, lifting the lure clear of the water. And there, caught on one of the hooks, was a glistening fish, perhaps fifteen centimetres long.

Amazon let out a squeal of pure joy.

‘I never thought I'd catch one in a million years!' she said, and she would have done a little fish dance if no one had been there to watch.

Frazer showed Amazon how to take the hook out of the little trout's mouth. Then she held the fish in her hands for a few seconds, taking in the perfect, speckled beauty of it.

‘Hate to tell you this, Zonnie,' said Frazer, ‘but we've got to throw that little fella back.'

‘No! Why?'

‘Too small.'

‘Really?' Amazon's shoulders sagged a little, but another part of her was pleased to be able to let the beautiful creature go.

‘Can't believe you hooked him with that big lure. Got to give them a chance to spawn. But now you've got the hang of it there'll be no stopping you.'

Frazer was right. In half an hour they'd caught three decent-sized trout. Frazer's was the biggest – almost as long as his arm – but Amazon had two that stretched from her hand to her elbow. She held one up and Frazer photographed it.

‘One to show your mum and dad,' he said, ‘when we find them.'

Amazon responded with a warm smile. It was a smile that Frazer hadn't seen her unleash before.

And then Amazon stopped smiling. For a moment Frazer thought it was because he'd mentioned her parents, which had brought back bad memories. Then he realized that Amazon wasn't even looking at him, and that her expression could only mean one thing: there was something extraordinary just behind him, standing on the narrow spit of land, right between the two of them and the safety of the shore.

He turned and there before him was a sight that filled him in equal parts with wonder, awe and terror.

It was the sheer beauty of the creature that first struck Frazer. During the years he had been travelling the world with TRACKS, he had seen many bears – polar bears in Greenland, black bears and grizzlies in America, and their Asiatic cousins in the Russian Far East. He had seen sloth bears in India, greedily shovelling wasp larvae out of a nest. He had seen spectacled bears in Peru, and sun bears in Burma; but he had never seen anything like this.

Well, that wasn't
quite
true. The shape was familiar – the rounded back end, the lack of an obvious hump between the shoulder blades, the long face and the alert ears. But the colour was astonishing: a lovely pale yellow, like a jar of honey held up to the sunlight.

Just for a split second the pale colour fooled Frazer into thinking that this might be a polar bear that had somehow strayed far from its frozen homeland. But the colour was a shade too dark, and the general shape of the bear just plain wrong.

No, this was a black bear, for sure. It just wasn't, well, black.

Had the bear been on its own, Frazer would have been wary, but not scared. It was the creature behind the big bear that made him rigid with fear.

The baby.

The cub was even more enchanting than the mother: a fluffy, roly-poly ball of energy and joy, the same lovely honey colour as its mother. As Frazer watched, it tripped over its own feet, let out a little roar, looked around to see who had noticed its mishap and then ran up to snuggle at its mother's ample behind.

Cute.

But this was the one situation that all naturalists feared most: a mother bear with her cub. It transformed a relatively harmless creature – most species of bear would much rather hunt mice than men – into a potential killer.

‘DO NOT MOVE!'

The voice that rang out was so full of authority that it seemed that even the mother bear obeyed it. Frazer looked up and saw his father further along the shore. Hal's face appeared quite calm, but Frazer saw – or sensed – the tension beneath his skin, and he realized just how worried his father was. That in itself was enough to raise Frazer's fear factor by a couple of notches.

‘All she wants are the fish,' said Hal Hunt, his voice
now soft and soothing. Frazer realized how hard he was trying to maintain that veneer of calmness. ‘Throw them towards her, and then wade out to the plane and get in. Stay there till the bears leave. Got that?'

Frazer nodded. He checked out Amazon. He was expecting to see her face frozen in terror, but in fact it was shining with a radiant light.

‘They're so beautiful,' she said. ‘I didn't know that there were bears that colour …'

‘OK, Zonnie,' said Frazer, ‘we can wax lyrical about those guys when we're safe. For now, we give them our dinner and get the heck out of harm's way. One swipe of that paw and we're as dead as that big trout you've got there.'

Amazon snapped out of her trance. The three trout they'd caught were at her feet. She picked one up and threw it towards the mother bear. It flopped on to the ground in front of her, and she took a step towards it and sniffed. Frazer threw the other two fish. The bear squatted down, put her big paws on the spotted flesh and began to gorge. The little one emerged from behind her and joined in with the feast.

‘Right,' said Frazer, ‘just follow me.'

The floatplane was moored five metres off the spit, at a point opposite where the bears were now busy eating. Frazer's plan was to circle round to the far side of the aircraft and get in. He knew, as did his father, that they'd be safe in there.

He took Amazon's hand, and together they backed into the water, not taking their eyes off the bears. The water was soon up to their knees, and they began to edge their way round to the plane.

And then Frazer stumbled on a submerged tree branch. He splashed into the cold water and let out an involuntary gasp. The mother bear leapt to her feet and emitted a harsh bark, almost like a dog. She began to bustle towards the two Trackers, as Amazon helped Frazer back to his feet.

‘HA! HERE!' yelled Hal Hunt from the shore, trying to get the bear's attention. She spun to face him, pushing the cub behind her defensively. The sight of the big human made her forget the two smaller ones. He was more of a threat to her baby. Hal began to make soothing noises, and slowly walked backwards, making it clear to the bear that he had no predatory intentions towards the cub.

‘Quick,' hissed Frazer, ‘while she's not looking …'

Not even trying to be careful, they splashed noisily towards the floatplane. The water was now waist-deep. Amazon felt as though it were made of treacle, it seemed to grab and suck at her so. And, even though it was only a few metres to safety, she found it utterly exhausting.

Frazer made it to the plane first, and hauled himself up on to the float, which made the whole fragile aircraft rock in the water. He dragged Amazon dripping from the lake, and wrenched open the door.
Amazon looked back over her shoulder, convinced that she was going to see the bear pounding after them. The mother, however, was still glaring at Hal, guarding the cub between her massive front paws.

Amazon slammed the door behind her, and suddenly felt completely safe. Something about the look of the busy console with its dials and switches, the joystick, that earlier today her Uncle Hal had gripped to guide them here, even the smell of the plastic seats, just felt so civilized. The worn and familiar interior banished the idea that it was even remotely possible that she could be killed by an angry bear in the wilds of Canada.

They both glanced out of the grimy window. The mother and cub were now tucking into the fish, looking very relaxed. Hal had retreated further, and was squatting down on his haunches, observing the scene.

‘That was pretty, er, tense,' said Frazer.

‘Yeah, I could hardly bear it …' said Amazon with a slight smile creeping across her face.

Frazer looked at her. ‘That is the worst joke I've ever heard, and hanging out with Bluey means that I've heard a fair few,' he said, but his mouth was already twitching. The joke hit their funny bones like a sledgehammer, and they both started first to giggle, and then they burst out into peals of laughter.

‘If you're so clever, you think of a better bear joke,' gasped Amazon.

Frazer wiped his eyes on his sleeve. ‘OK,' he said, ‘I've got one for you. There's a bear and a rabbit walking together through the woods. The bear's looking thoughtful. He says to the rabbit, “Do you have trouble with poop sticking to your fur?” “Nope,” says his little friend. “That's good,” says the bear and wipes his butt with the rabbit.'

That set them off again, and it was a couple of minutes before they thought to look out of the window to check on the bears' meal.

The mother and cub had finished the three trout they'd been thrown. Now the mother was sniffing the air, her nose held high.

‘Guess she's still hungry,' said Frazer.

And then, to their dismay, the big female began to wade out towards the floatplane.

‘This is not good,' said Frazer.

‘Where's your dad gone?' asked Amazon. She'd just noticed that Hal Hunt was no longer watching them.

Before Frazer had the chance to answer, the bear reached the plane. She disappeared from their view for a moment as she clambered up clumsily on to the float and then her huge head reared up right in the window. Amazon and Frazer both managed to strangle their screams, but they could not resist the primal need to cling on to each other.

The bear shoved her nose against the window and sniffed.

‘I don't get it,' said Frazer. ‘We're no threat to her or her baby while we're in here. This isn't usual bear behaviour at all. Unless …'

‘Unless what?'

‘Well, I suppose it's possible that she's not really
concerned about her cub's safety. She might just be hungry and sees us as the second course.'

‘But surely bears don't eat people …?'

‘Nope, not usually. Mice and berries are more their thing. But there are times when a bear just decides that it wants to try something new.'

It was then that Hal came back. He was carrying his rifle.

‘Your dad's not going to shoot the bear, is he?' said Amazon, her face full of apprehension.

‘No! Well, I hope not. It would only be if we were in real danger.'

‘But you just said that the bear might want to eat us …'

‘Yeah, but I don't think the bear can …'

Frazer was going to say, ‘get in here', but then the bear started beating on the door of the plane with those powerful clawed feet.

The whole plane began to rock from side to side again, and now it was impossible for the two young Trackers not to scream. The sound just seemed to encourage the bear. Amazon saw Hal step forward. He pulled back the bolt in the old rifle, chambering a round.

And then Frazer saw it sticking up out of the top of one of the big pockets on Amazon's jacket.

‘Zonnie, is that what I think it is?' he said, pointing at the protruding tail.

‘What? Oh well, I … look, it was the first time I've ever been fishing, and I didn't want to give
everything
to the bears. I just wanted one to show …'

Frazer didn't wait for her to finish. He just pulled the fish from her pocket and jumped into the back seat of the aircraft. From there he pulled open one of the windows. The bear's head shot in his direction. He waved the fish in front of her nose, and then hurled it out into the lake. The bear dived straight after it, sending out a wave that rocked the little plane.

‘Now!' Frazer yelled. ‘Run for it.'

Together they jumped from the plane and splashed to the shore. Hal ran to meet them. The little cub, still halfway up the spit, gave a fierce little roar in their direction, which brought the mother bear thundering back.

‘OK, we back off,' said Hal, still holding the gun, ready to fire. ‘Nice and slow.'

The others didn't need any further instruction. Staying close together, they edged away from the lake and the bears and, unharassed by the grumpy mum, they stumbled back to camp.