Finches

Chapter 15 - Back To The Alcove

The journey back to the alcove seemed to take forever, though Colt knew they were making pretty good time. Shelly was still trailing behind him, and wouldn't even bring herself to walk alongside him. Every time Colt glanced back he saw a scowl on her face, and she was usually aiming her glare directly at him. They still hadn't said a word to each other the entire time, with Shelly being silent out of anger and Colt out of the fear of being attacked by her.

Colt looked down at his map as he walked. He sort-of remembered where the alcove was on the map, and if he was following their location correctly, they were getting close. They just needed to follow the path until they got to a certain large tree, and then...

Colt froze suddenly. He thought he'd just heard something move to his right. He looked into the trees, but saw nothing. Then something slammed into his back.

Shelly stumbled backwards after colliding with him and cursed. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? I ran straight into you!"

"Maybe pay more attention to what's in front of you next time."

Shelly glowered at Colt and was about to respond when Colt heard the noise again. It was a strange shuffling sound coming from the depths of the trees.

"There," he said. "Do you hear that? I heard it before, too, when we were walking."

"All I could hear was you fumbling around with that map of yours," Shelly grumbled. "I mean, you've been doing that the whole—"

"Shhh shh," Colt cut her off, shushing hurriedly. He looked slowly around at the forest, looking and listening hard for any sign of another presence. Then, finally, he heard the noise again and this time he knew exactly where it was coming from. "There!"

Colt dodged out of the way as a creature came barging out of the forest and barreled directly toward them. Colt got out of its path in time and saw it barely miss hitting Shelly. Not a direct hit at least. The creature hit her side and she fell to the ground. Colt stood back up and recognized the creature.

"Okay," he said weakly. "That's a bear. That's what's happening right now."

The giant grizzly bear heard him and turned toward him. Colt didn't waste any time as he sprinted in the opposite direction. He ran on the path a little ways, then ducked into the forest to try and better lose the bear. He found a large tree, the one he had used as a landmark on his map, and ducked behind it, using the thick trunk as cover. After a moment he heard the bear retreating back where he'd come from. Back toward Shelly.

Colt took a moment to regain his composure, then emerged from behind the tree. As he walked back toward the path, his foot hit something hard and he lost his balance and got a face full of dirt. He coughed and turned himself around until he was in a sitting position. Then he spotted what had tripped him. There was an unusually thick tree branch lying on the ground, no doubt from that large tree he had hid behind. As he stood up, Colt got an idea. He picked up the branch, which was extraordinarily heavy, and walked back where he came.

His leg still hurt from the fall, so he limped back along the path until he came upon the bear, who was currently standing over Shelly. Colt slowly but surely got closer to the bear, and as it prepared to attack Shelly, he heaved the tree branch at it as hard as he could.

The branch hit the bear directly in the head. Unfortunately, the bear did not immediately die. Nor did it fall to the ground and lose consciousness, which would have also been acceptable. It simply shook its big head in confusion and then looked up, directly at Colt.

"Oh," Colt said in a small voice. "Not good."

The bear charged at him. Colt raised his cutlass to defend, but the bear didn't collide into him like he'd expected. It simply stopped in front of him and swiped its right paw at him. Colt stepped back suddenly to avoid being hit but the paw still struck his arm. Colt lost the grip on his sword, which went tumbling off somewhere. When he looked down at his forearm he noticed that the bear had cut pretty deeply into it and there was already lots of blood.