Bear Child (Book 1)

Chapter 21

          21. Autumnal Equinox

       It was the middle of the night and I hadn’t been able to sleep at all since the nightmare. There were possibly two hours until the others would be up and continue the hike. My eyes were wide open and not a single yawn had left my mouth. The time was passing by very slowly, so I had decided to get my iPod. I put on the headphones and started listening to music, closing my eyes and letting my mind clear up. But something didn’t feel right.

I had an awkward feeling, like if something else was here. Maybe I was just being paranoid. I turned up the music to my iPod, trying to forget the feeling. But then, I heard a rustle in the bushes near by. It’s probably just a squirrel, I thought. But then I began to hear footsteps. I opened my eyes and shut off my iPod, listening. The footsteps were getting closer, and my heart started beating faster. I felt on edge and uneasy. Then there was a growl. I held my breath, doing as Sonia said and not making any noise at all. I was getting scared.

The animal growled again, circling the tent. I could see his shadow outside, walking so slowly it was taunting. I hoped he didn’t go near the others. To my relief, the animal didn’t even seem to pay any attention to the other tents. Its attention was fully on mine. The animal stopped in front of the tent. I looked at the tent’s door flap. A bit of it was unzipped. The animal brought his head down, sniffing the ground until it found the opening. Oh, no. Its muzzle peeped into the opening, sniffing. It growled again, showing its sharp teeth. It was a bear.

My bear’s face flashed into my mind for a moment, but pushed it away. I knew it wasn’t him. This bear was much too aggressive to possibly be him. Fear dawned on me, realizing that if the bear entered the tent, it would find me, and it would kill me. Go away, please don’t come in, I begged silently in my mind. Go away . . .

The bear, with a final sniff, took his muzzle out of the tent, and began to walk into the forest. As soon as I could no longer hear his heavy foot falls, I released a shaky sigh. Tears rimmed my eyes, fear shaking inside of me. Don’t you dare cry, I told myself in my mind, my subconscious voice angry and strict. That was such a close call. What if it had entered the tent? I might have been getting mauled right now. Next time I was in a tent, I would make sure it was zipped all the way. With another shaky sigh, I closed my eyes, and tried to clear my mind for the next two hours.

The hours had passed by and my fear had settled. I still felt shaken up by the whole bear incident, but I managed to fall into a light sleep. I had a massive headache for some reason. It must have been morning already because the stupid birds kept chirping, and it was getting on my last nerves. I just wanted to scream at them and make them shut up. Maybe even through a pine cone at them, too. I was definitely not a morning person. I could faintly hear the others unzipping their tents and stepping out onto the leafy forest floor. Footsteps edged closer to my tent, and someone began to unzip it.

“Wake up, Clair!” Sonia said in a cheery voice. I groaned, pulling the sleeping bag more over my head. “Go away.” I muttered. “Sorry, can’t do that.” She said, and then she unzipped the sleeping bag and tossed it off of me. “Sonia!” I exclaimed, and I grabbed my blanket and put it over my head. “Come on, Clair! We have to get moving! Get up!” I gave a sigh. “Fine . . .” I groaned. I got up and went though my pack, looking for clothes. “Come outside when you’re done changing, okay? We need help packing up.” Sonia said. I nodded.

I grabbed some dark denim jeans and a red plaid button up shirt. I didn’t bring along anything to tight or fashionable. I mean, it was a hike. I wasn’t going to bring along designer jeans and a fifty dollar shirt. I changed into a new pair of undies and put on my clothes, putting away the pajamas. I could hear the others moving around outside while I put on my hiking boots. As soon as I had put them both on, I went out to join them.