Page 61 of Moonless

I look back at her. “We couldn’t reach its back from the ground.”

Kestria’s mouth opens, then she closes it and waits.

“We’d seen it several times near a stream where we played. It was big enough for both of us. Jouni found a branch over the bank, and I took the fish while he held the sack.”

“You stole the bait too.” She points the arrows at me again.

“We couldn’t ask for it.”

She nods. “No. Someone might’ve asked a difficult question about the bear.”

I duck under a branch, and it drags across the fur on my shoulder.

“We put the fish below the tree, where it would have to come close. The wind blew toward us from the stream. We rubbed mud into our fur and climbed onto the branch.”

I can still feel the grit under my arms, drying and pulling at the fur every time I moved. Jouni had packed a lump of it inside one ear and spent the wait digging at it with his smallest claw, and I kept hissing at him to hold still.

“You thought it wouldn’t smell you.”

“We thought we’d done very well.”

She makes a small noise in her throat and lets me go on.

“It came down the bank before we’d been there long. Walked straight to the fish and started eating. We waited until it was underneath us, then jumped together.”

“Onto the bear.” Her lips press flat.

“That was the plan.” I keep my eyes on the slope.

“And it let you?”

“For the time it took to stand up.”

She laughs once, sharp enough to turn both my ears.

“I caught the fur at its shoulders. Jouni was behind me, trying to get his knees around it. Then it twisted, and he hit me on the way off. We landed in the mud.”

“Did you run?”

“I was trying to get my foot out from under him. The bear turned on us with its mouth open. I could see the fish between its teeth. It came close enough to breathe against my face. Jouni had one hand around my ankle. Neither of us moved.”

Kestria’s stopped smiling. “What did you do?”

“Lay there. It sniffed us, then stopped. After a while it backed away.”

“Just backed away?”

“Far enough for me to get up. I pulled Jouni out of the mud, and we left it with the rest of the fish.”

“Generous of you.” Her eyebrows go up.

“We weren’t going back for them.”

Her eyes go to the sack I’m carrying, and the smile starts again.

“My ankle had swollen by the time we reached home. Jouni couldn’t bend one knee. We washed in the stream, but the mud had dried under our fur. It came out of my ears for days.”

“What did your father say?” Her smile’s all the way back now.