Alexandr Keldyushov - She-bear

– Everything happens for the first time! Watch out! – Sergey Petrovich gently mocked, glancing slyly at the new gun of his friend. – Even the most expensive guns, especially the new ones, can misfire! One should not have faith in them! Certainly, your gun is impressive! Beautiful! But you have not shot it yet! You should have taken the old Berdan rifle. It is like Robin Hood – hits the bull’s eye! – Mikhail just shrugged, not even trying to argue. But the old man instructively continued: – You always need to be ready for anything! And especially for troubles! They are just waiting to stab you in the back! Old guns, like ‘old ladies’, are tested over the years, and the new ones are not! There is no guarantee! It is like a young married woman: it has everything but there is no reliability! And a bear is not a harmless mouse! It will attack you from the back in the twinkling of an eye! And to smash a man – a piece of cake, as it weighs a hundred kilograms! No man can withstand this! Such beast is walking through the woods, and when some branch crackles it hides in the bushes and waits for people to pass by! And then it pops up, and the person is gone forever! To hunt for bear is not the same as to chase women! You must always be on the alert! Even experienced hunters got into troubles, becoming victims of their own overconfidence, forgetting that occasion commands fate! Only fools are treating all the animals in the same way! And animals, like people, have their own habits and tempers! Sometimes, the hare attacks the hunter! – Sergey Petrovich thoughtfully ruffled his grey hair with his hand and said in a dull voice: – I will tell you one story, narrated by my old friend from Irkutsk, with whom we had spent more than one night in blinds on the salt-marshes hunting for moose! – The old man absently nodded, as if he immersed in the past. – You know! You come to ‘scatter’ before dark for the beast not to smell your tracks and, while waiting for the dusk, there is time to have a heart to heart talk! So, that’s what he told me! It happened in Slyudyanka ten years ago! – he began to look intently at his fellow, who was incredulously grinning, and said passionately: – There is nothing funny here! Trust me, it is not a fictional story! My father, rest his soul, – the old man superstitiously made the sign of the cross, – told that in the old days it was a matter of honour for the hunter to go after a bear with a spear! A spear and a knife, and nothing more! Eye to eye, one on one! That’s prowess! But sometimes there were even more desperate brave men, who engaged themselves in mortal combat with a bear, wielding a knife and a hat!

– It is a pity that they did not do this with a hammer and a foot wrap! – Mikhail hoarsely laughed, not doubting that the whole ‘true’ story was a hunting fable. – You wave a handkerchief and a bear rushes from the bushes, like a bull to a red rag! You slash it on the neck and its head rolls off, like a ball! It is not hunt but a real harvest! You go into the woods to mow some meat for the winter, and then sell the skins! What a bliss! No expenses! Only profit! – laughing, he continued to twist nimbly between his fingers the galvanised cartridge loaded with a lead bullet, notched slightly on top in the form of a cross. The destructive power of an explosive bullet was incredible. Entering the body as a small neat point, it could go unpredictably anywhere, taking out all the insides.

– Do not sneer, doubting Thomas! Young people always laugh! But in vain! Better make a mental note and remembered! Hunting is a serious thing! Like in school, one needs to learn! And you, simpletons, have nobody else to teach you a lesson, except for us, old people! We all are heroes by word of mouth, and once it comes to actions, we hide in the bushes! Showing off egos! One empty bravado! One does not need to be very smart to kill a bear with a rifle. One only needs cartridges and an accurate eye for this! Hand-to-hand combat is another thing! – he waved his hand dully. – Not everyone has enough spirit to cope with a bear, especially only with a knife! – The old man positively nodded, agreeing with his words. – The skin of the beast is solid and tanned, bones are strong, and it skilfully wields its pads! Hunter’s one and only chance to deal a fatal blow is to hit the heart through the ribs! It takes a special skill, honed for years! Not every hunter is good! A person must possess many qualities: bravery and self-control, as well as agility and presence of mind! Certainly, one needs to have strength! But then, one gets so much pleasure when a full-grown beast lies dead at one’s feet, defeated in a fair fight! But not everyone will make up one’s mind to do this! The coward chooses the easy way, using means that are safe for life! Traps, rifles with telescopic sights, iron hinges! He kills the beast, sometimes, not even seeing it, and then boasts of his dangerous adventures! And there is nothing to boast of, as he stayed in the bushes! A real hunter encounters danger face to face, chest to chest, eye to eye! – he sighed heavily. – But it is impossible to foresee everything! Man proposes, but God disposes! Luck is a capricious girl! – the man helplessly lifted his hands in dismay. – Sometimes, life brings us unexpected surprises! Anything might happen! And then all your hard work goes down the drain! It seems that you have done everything right, calculated every step and movement correctly! But no, there is some problem, some absurd mistake that costs you your life! It can be an unforeseen circumstance, a tragic intervention of fate that ruins all the plans! It turns out, – Sergey Petrovich significantly clicked his tongue, – there are phenomena among animals that react differently to the developed approach, in a non-standard way of behaviour! It happened with that bear-hunter! For many years, he successfully used the simplest way of the hunt: he tore off his cap, raised his hand defiantly, forcing the animal instinctively rise up on its hind pads, and abruptly threw a cap into the bear’s head! The bear involuntarily blinked, getting hit in the eyes, and the hunter, meanwhile, nimbly jumped close to it and plunged the knife in the heart with a strong blow! One blow was enough for the animal to fall dead on the ground!

– Wow! – Mikhail admiringly exclaimed, having opened his mouth in surprise. – That’s a great skill!

– He was a good man, – the old man said slowly, looking with bleary eyes as if through the time, – he killed the beast professionally, instantly, not giving time to be tormented in vain! – suddenly, angry notes began to sound in his voice. – If you cut open the bear’s belly, from the pain, it begins to reel the guts on the pad, dying in terrible agony! This is not the hunt, but the real wild fanaticism! Death should be quick and easy! – Sergey Petrovich looked at his fellow inquiringly, who nodded as the sign of agreement. – He understood that one didn’t need to be very smart to cut open the bear: one hits and retreats to a safe distance! And one only waits for the beast to tear itself apart! And there is no risk! – He dully waved his hand. – And there is no joy of victory! Low and mean! I already cannot handle a bear without a gun as I have no former strength! Even being young, I was afraid to hunt for bear with a knife! God has not given me courage! The bear-hunter honoured only fair fight and did not tolerate meanness and injustice! He left the beast a chance, which that beast inevitably used one day! He was the winner of the thirty fights with full-grown males, but the thirty-first one was fatal for him! And it happened not because of his oversight or regrettable mistake! He did everything, as usual, according to the old scheme, but it seemed that his luck left him that day! – and, having thought a little, confusedly added: – Or it was some God of bears that heard about the brave hunter and wanted to challenge him! – Sergey Petrovich, like other old men, was superstitious, convinced that even a stone had its forest soul incomprehensible to us. – One could not understand what higher powers interfered but the result was disastrous! The hunter, as usual, raised his hand, making the bear stand up on its hind pads, instinctively threw his cap and rapidly jumped to the roaring beast, ready to strike a fatal blow! And the beast suddenly hugged the man! I guess I do not need to explain to you what it means to be in an iron bear hug! It is like to get hit by a hydraulic press! A split second, and your chest becomes compressed in the bag! And before you know it, you will go on a date with your ancestors! The thing was that the beast did not deign to blink and saw the approaching hunter! The rest was the matter of technique! That’s it! The moral of the story is the following: regardless of your previous experience, sometimes, the situation goes out of your control!