Grizzly King

Chapter 6

At dawn, Thor went to the canyon.It stood up from the clay pit, feeling a little stiff.The wound still hurts, but not as much as it did the night before.However, Thor felt uncomfortable, and this discomfort was not in the wound in the shoulder, nor in any particular place.It's sick.If it was a human being, it should be lying on the bed right now, with a thermometer in its mouth, and let the doctor take its pulse.Thor walked toward the canyon, walking very slowly.It used to be a tireless food seeker, but now it no longer thinks about food.It doesn't feel hungry and doesn't want to eat.

Thor licked the cool stream with his hot tongue from time to time, and even frequently soaked half of his body in the water while sniffing the surrounding air.It knows that the "human smell", the strange thunder, and the inexplicable "lightning" are behind.He had been on guard all night, and now he was careful.

Thor has no specific treatment for uncommon wounds. The word "zoologist" has several interpretations, and according to the closest interpretation, Thor is not a zoologist at all.But when nature created it, he appointed it to be his physician.Just as a cat looks for catnip blades, Thor looks for something when he's not feeling well.Something bitter happened to be Thor's medicine.It walked in the direction of the canyon, passing undergrowth and lush bushes, keeping its nose close to the ground and sniffing.

Thor came to a green field covered with a ground plant.The plant is two inches tall and produces berries the size of a pea.At this moment, the fruit has not yet turned red, it is green, and tastes as bitter as bile, but the berries contain blood-stopping juice, scientifically known as "ursolic acid".Thor ate some berries.

Next, Thor found "buffalo berries," also known as "soap berries."The berries grow on bushes that resemble black currants.Buffalo berries are now larger than gooseberries and are turning pink.The Indians ate these berries when they had a high fever.These berries are also bitter.Thor continued on his way after eating half a pint of buffalo berries.

Thor sniffed around the trees.It finally found what it was looking for.It was a jack pine, and fresh pine resin was oozing in places that were within Thor's reach.Pine resin is the main tonic, and bears rarely spare the resin-oozing jack pine.Thor licked the fresh pine resin with his tongue.In this way, it not only absorbs the pine resin, but also indirectly absorbs the medicine contained in this special substance.

When Thor reached the end of the canyon, his stomach was filled with various medicines.In addition, it ate about a half quart of cloud pine needles and balsamic needles.When dogs are sick, they eat grass; when bears are sick, they eat pine needles or balsam needles.In addition, bears eat these needles to fill their stomachs before entering the cave to hibernate.

Thor came to the end of the ravine, before the sun had risen.It stood for a while at the mouth of a low cave.This hole can go straight to the mountain wall.It would be impossible to tell how far back Thor's memories went, but Thor knew that in the wide world this cave was his home.The cave was less than four feet high, twice as wide and several times as deep.In addition, there is a layer of soft white sand in the cave.Once upon a time, there was a creek that trickled out of the cave; at minus 50 degrees, the end of the cave became a hibernating haven for grizzly bears.

Ten years ago, Thor's mother came here to hibernate, and when his mother waddled out of the cave to welcome the first rays of spring sunshine, there were three more bear cubs beside her, and they waddled out with her. .Thor was one of those little grizzlies.

At the time, it was still semi-blind -- the cub was five weeks old before fully seeing.In addition, it doesn't have much hair on its body, because when the cub was born, it was as naked as a newborn baby.After five weeks, the cubs open their eyes and begin to grow fur.Since then, Thor has hibernated back to this cave home every year.

Now, Thor wants to go in.It wants to lie down at the end of the burrow until its body feels better.Thor hesitated for about two or three minutes. He sniffed longingly towards the mouth of the cave, and then sniffed the wind blowing from the canyon.Intuition tells it to go forward.

To the west is a hillside, the hillside goes up, and it goes straight to the top of the mountain when it exits the canyon.Thor climbed to the top of the hill just as the sun rose.Thor rested for a moment while he looked down at the other half of his territory.

The valley was far more majestic than the one Langdon and Otto had rode into a few hours earlier.The distance between the mountains was two miles wide, and the valleys stretched up and down, up and down, and gold, green, and black formed a wonderful vista.From where Thor stood the valley looked like a large park.The green hillside almost reaches the top of the hill, and from the halfway up the hillside, there are spruce bushes and balsam forests scattered on the green slope, as if they were deliberately placed there.Some woodlands are as large as the groves dotted with city parks, while others span dozens of hectares.On both sides of the slope, there are rows of sparse but continuous trees, which seem to be decorative stripes.Between every two rows is soft rolling grass, with open meadows dotted with purple buffalo willow, alpine sage, thorny wild roses and clusters of bushes.A stream flows at the bottom of the valley.

Thor walked down about four hundred yards from where he stood, then turned and walked north along the green slope, through parklike patches of woodland.The woodland is above the woods at a distance of 150 to [-] yards.This height is right between the valley meadow and the exposed rock and shale on the top of the mountain. Thor often comes here to hunt small animals.

Fat groundhogs are preparing to bask on the rocks.Their long, soft, elusive whistling sound is pleasing to the ear, echoing the muffled murmur of the valley water, which sets the woods to a musical beat.Every now and then a groundhog screeches to warn its neighbors;

Alas, Thor was in no mood for hunting this morning.Twice it came across porcupines, its favorite savory treat, but Thor walked past them; and once, from the bushes came the warm, sleepy smell of reindeer , the smell was strong and fresh, but Thor did not look closely; once again, he had just crossed a deep ditch when he smelled the badger.The place was narrow and dark, like a black moat.Thor walked for two hours, up the middle of the hill to the north, and then fought his way through the woods to the creek.

The clay on Thor's shoulder hardened, and Thor waded into the shoulder-deep pool again, where he stood for a few minutes.The water washed away most of the clay.Then, Thor walked along the creek, drinking water non-stop, which lasted for two hours.After that, its stomach growled.Six hours had passed since it left the clay pit.

Buffalo berries, pine resin, cloud pine needles, balsamic needles, etc., and the water it drinks, are churned in the stomach into a potent drug.Thor felt much better.It turned around for the first time and roared in the direction of its opponent.

Thor stood there, growling, and for a long time he remained motionless.

The growl of "Rumble," coming from the depths of its chest, takes on a new meaning.It was not until last night, and even today, that Thor understood what real hatred is.It had fought other bears before, but with anger not hatred.Anger comes and goes quickly, neither breeds nor leaves hatred.While recuperating, it licked the wounds left by its opponents, feeling happy from time to time.But this time it was different, something new had grown in its heart.

Thor hated it, and he couldn't forget the opponent who hurt him.It hated "humanity," it hated the strange, white-faced thing it saw crawling over the edge of the canyon, and it even hated everything about it.It is an innate hatred, a learned experience, a sudden awakening from a long sleep.

Thor had never seen or smelled a human before.It understands that humans are its deadliest opponents, and it fears humans more than all wild animals in the mountains.It is willing to fight the biggest grizzly bear, it is willing to attack the fiercest wolf pack.It is fearless in the face of floods and fires.However, in front of humans, it had to run away!It had to hide!In the mountains and on the plains, it has to rely on its eyes, ears, and nose to protect itself at all times.

Thor suddenly realized that some kind of creature had come to his world.Incredible!The creature was the size of a gnome, but more terrifying than its known counterpart.Thor did not know that long ago men used clubs, then fire-forged spears, then flint arrows, traps, and finally guns.Humans are rulers.The Creator engraved this in the hearts of Thor's ancestors, and it will never be forgotten by its thousands of descendants.

During Thor's life, parts of his nature lay dormant.Now, for the first time, the dormant nature jumped out into admonition and vigilance.Thor gets it - he hates humans.From now on, it will hate everything with a "human touch".Moreover, with this distaste came fear for the first time in its mind.

If humans hadn't cornered Thor and his kind, the world would never have known what a ferocious Grizzly King Thor was.

Thor is still walking along the creek, sniffing along the way, moving slowly but steadily; he lowers his head and neck, and his huge hind legs undulate, which is a kind of bear, especially a grizzly bear. characteristic.Its long claws hit the stone with a "click" sound; its limbs stepped on the gravel and made a "creak" sound, leaving huge footprints on the soft sand.

The valley it now enters has a special meaning to Thor.It began to wander, stopping from time to time to sniff the air around it.Although Thor is not monogamous, after many mating seasons, he finally meets Eskvar on a long, beautiful meadow between two mountains.Thor always expected Escovar to be waiting for it in July.Escovar also expected Thor to come to him with that strange, primal, maternal longing.Escovar is a beautiful female grizzly who comes here from the western mountains during mating season.He was tall and strong, with a beautiful golden-brown coat, so that the offspring of Thor and Eskvar were the handsomest little grizzly bears in all the mountains.Every time, the mother bear Eskova would go back with her unborn child.Still later, the cubs were born, and they lived and fought in the valley, on the far west slopes.If after many years, Thor drives his child out of his territory, or beats his child severely in a fight, it is because the Creator kindly blindfolded Thor, and did not let him It knows the truth of the matter.Thor, like most whiny old bachelors, doesn't like cubs.However, it is as tolerant of the cubs as a grumpy old woman does not dislike a pink baby.Thor never hunted bear cubs.Whenever bold cubs came into his territory, Thor just slapped them hard, and always with flat, soft palms; , just roll a few laps on the ground like a small ball of pompom.

Whenever a strange female bear and her cubs broke into Thor's territory, Thor used this unique way to express his dissatisfaction.In addition, Thor is very generous.No matter how irritable and nasty the mother bear was, Thor would never chase the she-bear and her cubs away, nor would she fight with the she-bear.Even when Thor found them eating his prey, there was nothing he could do but give the cub a sharp slap.

At this moment, Thor approached a pile of boulders, and he smelled some kind of hot and strong smell, which made him feel a little uneasy and anxious.Thor stopped, turned his head, and growled softly.Six feet away, there was a lone bear cub.The cub was lying on a pile of white sand, writhing and trembling unceasingly, like a frightened puppy, unable to tell whether the visitor was an enemy or a friend.This is a bear cub less than three months old, too young to be separated from its mother.The cub has a brown face, is small and pointed, and has a white spot on the chest, which means that it is not a grizzly bear, but belongs to the black bear family.

The cubs try to say "I'm lost and lost" or "I'm hungry and a porcupine spike got stuck in the sole of my foot" as much as possible.However, Thor gave a fierce growl, and he began to search among the stones for the cub's mother.But there was no shadow of the cub's mother, and there was no smell of her, so Thor turned his huge head and looked at the cub again.

The cub is called Masca, which is the name of the Indians.It was crawling, moving gently forward half a foot, to greet Thor.But Thor, with a low rumble of warning from his chest, seemed to be telling the cub clearly: "Don't come any closer! Or I'll knock you over!"

Muska understood.It was like a dead body, with its nose, paws, and belly stuck to the sand.Mascar was less than three feet away from Thor, whimpering softly as he squirmed.Thor raised his right palm, a full four feet above the ground, and growled, "Another foot and I'll hit you!"

Masca writhed and trembled; he licked his lips with his small red tongue, half frightened and half begging for forgiveness.Even though Thor raised his right palm, Muskar squirmed forward, advancing another six inches.

Thor's guttural grunt replaced the growl, and he thumped the sand with his right paw.It looked at the cub again, sniffed the air, and then growled again.Only a grumpy old bachelor would understand such a rant. "Where is the mother of this child!"

Muska crawled to Thor's wounded leg.It stood upright, its nose picking up the scent of Thor's open wound.Mascar's tongue gently licked Thor's wound.The tongue was like velvet, very soft, and Thor felt very comfortable.It stood there for a while, neither moving nor making a sound, while Mascar licked its wounds.Then, it lowered its huge head and sniffed the mascarpone that looked like a soft ball.It feels the friendliness of the cub.Muska whimpered like a motherless child.Thor growled again, but this time the voice was softer and less threatening.The warmth from Thor's big tongue spread to the cub's face.

"Come on!" said Thor.It continued its journey north.

Immediately behind it was a brown-faced bear cub without a mother.

(End of this chapter)