The Bear (Pt. 1/4)

Silence.

The pointed end of a knife was all I could see.

The creature's breathing was steady and firm. It walked up to me nonchalantly, reaching out a massive paw and swiping gently at my pants. My hand was frozen with the knife pointed at the bear's nose, which it didn't seem to care about. I felt like any move I made would result in my pounding heart falling out of my chest.

The bear sniffed deafeningly a few times, then padded away as if I was never there.

I let out an involuntary sigh of relief, and then a voluntary one as I bent over the river to vomit up my lunch.

Ever since I was a boy, and my father had taught me to fish, I had been deathly afraid of bears. It wasn't exactly the most practical fear to have when in the river-fishing business, but what could I do?

For as we all, or most of us, know, that bears tend to fish for food in rivers, much like I do, and my father did, and his father before him.

And so bears were not a strange occurrence, but none the less terrifying, at least to me.

I knew the way I handled it was not the best or the 'correct' way, but it worked, right?

Anyway, I suppose I'll introduce you to myself and get on with it.

I'm Charlie or Charles. I live in the Uncharted Lands of the Soundless Marshes, and I probably will for the rest of my life.

Now, the Soundless Marshes is not a safe place at all to live. No one really knows what creatures dwell in the deep forested areas, but I don't go there, so that's irrelevant information.

There are still things on the river lands where I live, such as the bear I encountered not too long ago. And, by the way, those bears are by no means normal bears. They are massive, bigger than the average adult polar bear, and if you get on their bad side, they are capable of unhinging their jaw so it's big enough to eat an entire small fisherman's boat in two bites. Although the typical fisherman's boat is not all that large, it is still about the size of a giant, or about a nine to ten-foot man, therefore, the bear would be eating about five square feet per bite, and that's a lot of food.

Now that I've driven home my point that there are indeed odd beings in the area, I'll tell you the story. The story of how I (almost) died.

To Be Continued...