with him. Little Stuben remained asleep. He continued to listen. There was no banging of things together. There was no loud shouting. Instead there were Man voices, but the voices were not the deep menacing voices of before. These voices were quieter and sounded much different. There was the sound of only one barking dog instead of many. There was a fire on the meadow his nose told him, but no smell of burning meat. This was different and he needed to know what type of danger Man posed this time.

"Both of you stay here," he told them "There is something strange here and I want to see what it is."

He would not normally move about in the daylight with Man around, but the noise was stationary and nothing alerted him. He moved down to his viewing spot and looked.

He saw two Man animals lying still near the Man cave. Outside there were many Men, but not the same as before. These were not tall, there were smaller Men, almost tiny. They were also running around together playing like new fawns. He saw one dog running after the smaller Men, but this was a small dog, hardly a threat to even a fawn. There were larger Men there, but these were also different. They wore outside skins that did not cover their bodies, and they did not have killing sticks. From here he could not pick up their scents, but from his time living with Man he could recognize these were Man doe and Man fawns. It did not look like they were getting ready to hunt.

He caught a brief scent of Balo and Stena behind him with young Delon. He got down on his knees and lay looking into the meadow. The others came up to him.

"I heard the noise," Balo said, but it was different so I came to look with Stena."

"I heard it to," he said. "Come over and lie down next to me," he said to them. "I want to show you something I have not seen for many seasons."

"Can we stay also," came Claris's voice from a distance.

He did not know what bothered him the most: that Balo brought Stena and Delon in daylight to something they knew nothing about, or that his own mates had come even after he told them to stay where they were. He let out a deep breath.

"Well you are all here now so yes, please come in and lie down. There is no danger here, I think," he told them trying to keep any trace of anger out of his voice.

As soon as they all lay down and relaxed he turned to Balo. "Very well Balo, now what do you see?"

Balo looked over the scene carefully. "These Men are different. They look differently, they wear different skins. They seem to be more playful this time. Not like the others were have seen. The dog also looks different.

He waited until he was sure Balo was finished. "What are they carrying?" he asked him.

Balo looked carefully and then he finally saw it. "They do not have killing sticks," he said.

"Correct," he told them. "I have seen this before when I lived with Man. The shorter Men with the longer fur from their heads are Man doe. The small Men are Man fawns. What you see is a Man family."

All of them looked at him in amazement. None of them have ever seen anything like this. Usually only the Man males came into the forest with killing sticks. These Men had no intention of hunting.

"Why would they bring their doe and fawns into the forest?" Claris asked him.

"I have no idea," he told them. "However these Men are not here to kill and that little dog is of no threat. I think we can still use the meadow at night. We will watch them to make sure no more join them."

"You do not think of Men having families like us," Stena said looking curiously.

"The Man fawns run around like our own fawns," Carie added.

"Yes, that is true," he told them. "Yet, Man must have families. The Men must come from somewhere. I have never seen Men fawns except near a Man cave. When I was a fawn myself, some of the Man fawns would play with me. That changed when I got older. They left me alone and put me in a very small clearing. That clearing had like vines or something else surrounding it so that I could not leave. I stayed there until one day the part of the vines the small Man came through was left open. I found a way to leave." He put his head back on the ground. "Since we are all here and there does not appear to be any danger, I plan to sleep here today. We can see more tonight."

Everyone nodded their approval. First both Stena and Carie fed Delon and Stuben and then walked them both around a while so they would empty themselves before leading them back. Stuben like his brother and sister before him would get between him and Carie and go to sleep almost immediately. Little Delon would do the same between Stena and Balo. He lay on the ground and watched the small Men run and play until he finally fell asleep.

It was the smell of a fire that woke him. He looked across the meadow. The wind direction had shifted blowing the wind into his face. With the wind came the smell of burning meat, but it was not the odor of deer, birds, or even bear. This was meat, but a different meat. He remembered the odor from when he was a fawn. One thing he was sure of, these Men did not go hunting during the day. So if they have meat, it came with them. The others woke up and looked at the scene.

"I do not care," Stena complained. "I do not like the smell of burning meat. It brings painful memories."

"Yes," Balo agreed and started to walk away.

"These Men should go into their Man cave later on," he told them. "I do not see any killing sticks so after the Man cave goes dark, it should be safe to eat on the meadow."

"We will come back then," Balo told him and led his family away.

He could not blame them. He did not like the smell either. He turned to Claris and Carie. "Both of you should go with them. I will be back tomorrow night. I want to look at something. "

Carie stared at him, a look of worry on her face. "Be careful please?" she asked. Claris said nothing; she knew better.

"I am always careful, but something here needs to be looked at closely and it is best if I do this alone," he said and walked off down the other side of the meadow.

He traveled down the bear's side of the meadow taking care not to make a sound. He stopped when he was directly below the bear's den. He let out a single low bleat before walking on. He was approaching the Man cave from the other side of the forest. Something he would never try to do if Man was present, but those were men with killing sticks. There were no killing sticks here. Something was bothering him. He had seen Man come into the forest before. Every time he had seen them, Man was there to kill something. These Men did not seem interested in killing. He wondered why. When he lived in the Man cave, there were times when killing did not happen and the Man fawns would play with him. They all seemed to have fun. Then other Men with the killing sticks would come and there was no more fun, only killing. What was the difference between the two? Why did Man turn from playful fun to deadly killing? The bear and the others killed for food. What made Man kill for pleasure? It was always the one thing he never understood and he wanted to know.

He found a spot he could watch the Man cave and he waited. Outside the Man cave the Man fawns were still running around shouting. The small dog and the large Men and Man doe would chase the small Men. There was laughter and they seem to be having fun. A short time later he heard the bushes move behind him and heard the pounding of large feet on the ground. The bear came up behind him.

"I heard you and the Men. Why are you so close to them?" the bear asked.

"No killing sticks," he told the bear. "Also look, there are Man fawns and Man doe down there running around playing. This is something I seldom see. I do not think they are here for killing."

"That is odd," the bear said in a deep growl and continued watching with him. Both of them remained silent. The Men had no idea they were there.

"I smell they are still burning meats, but I do not know what kind. Certainly not my kind or your kind," the bear went on.

"Remember when I told you that Man has others kill his meat and then gives it to them," he said quietly.

The bear just nodded his large head. The bear's fat and meat smell were almost worse to his nose than the burning meat below him.

"Well that is the smell when they ate that meat. I never knew who the meat came from."

It is not like any creature I have smelled in the past," the bear said.

Both he and the bear continued to watch them. After they finished eating it was fully dark and the lesser light rose. Soon afterwards the small Men went inside the Man cave and the larger Men stayed outside. It was then they started to light themselves on fire and drink. They continued talking to each other for some time and then finally they put out the fire and all the Men walked into the Man cave. Soon the Man cave went dark and all was quiet. By now he too was hungry.

"I am going to eat some grass over by the spring," he said. "I will stay here tomorrow. "

"There are some early berries that are coming ripe at the top of my hill," the bear said. "Then I will go over the hill and will mostly likely stay there until summer. That was interesting Stranger. I have never seen Men behave like that. It is curious, but I am still going to avoid Man as much as I can."

"That is wise" he said, "But it tells me one thing. If you see no killing sticks, then Man is not dangerous. That is something I will

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Next page