Baskadia

All of a sudden, it dawned on me. I remembered having read about the jugular artery, which carries blood from the heart to the brain. “If I could somehow rupture the blood vessel, maybe that would paralyze the beast long enough for me to free my hand and run?” I speculated. Mustering all the strength I had, I moved my arm towards the insides of the bear’s mouth and clenched them. With one final pull, I brought the bear’s face close to my mouth and bit where the jugular artery was supposed to be.

The bear stopped right where it was, as if not realizing what had happened. As blood began to ooze out from her wound, she slowly opened her mouth and fell back, turning her head from one side to the other and making shrill noises. I was barely able to contain my arm from falling off. As I walked towards my backpack, something crossed my mind.

I broke off a thick stick from a tree with my stronger hand and stood beside the bear. It once again looked directly into my eyes, but this time, I did not see a proud and mighty creature. I saw a helpless mother, not worrying for the fate of herself but the future of her offspring. It was a tragic moment. I almost ended up shedding a tear. But that did not stop me from carrying on what I had to do.

I hit her on her head with as much might as I could. She trembled vehemently. I still did not feel satisfied. I continued to do so, again, and again, and again. I only stopped when all my frustrations were gone. For the first time in years, I could feel that my aching heart had started to beat again.

When I approached my backpack, I saw the curious young bear growling at me. The claw marks on my backpack made me realize that he had been desperately trying to find out about its contents before the commotion around him had grabbed his attention. Seeing the plight of the innocent cub almost made me titter. I picked it up and petted it before forcing it into my backpack. I then took out my pliers and plucked out a claw from the mother bear’s paw, and put it in my pocket, following which, I took out my camera and clicked a lot of pictures of the dead mother bear.