Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
“Layla!” Genie shouts in disbelief. “Where are you going?”
I stop at the entrance of the forest and turn. “I just… I can’t let those hunters hurt him.”
My heart is breaking just from thinking about something bad happening to that poor bear.
“That’s insane!” Matt says, still clinging to the cliff.
It’s not. I know it’s not.
“Stay here!” Genie shouts. “Or, I’ll… I’ll… I’ll tell your mom and dad on you!”
I shake my head. “I have to go. I can’t explain it, but I have to.”
I turn to go. “Take the shotgun at least,” Peter shouts as he rushes over to the bags. It’s lying on the ground and he grabs it.
“Hurry,” I say as I rush over. He meets me halfway and hands it to me.
“In case the bear comes at you.”
The bear? I’m not bringing it for the bear. I’m bringing it for the hunters.
“Thanks,” I mutter as I turn and run toward the trees. “I’ll be back.”
They’re all shouting at me to reconsider as I run into the forest, swerving around trees and leaping over rocks.
How can I explain the determined feeling swirling through me? I can’t even explain it to myself.
The need to save and protect that beautiful bear from those heartless hunters is taking over. I can’t just let him get hurt. I have to try.
I grip the shotgun and run until my heart is pounding and my legs are burning. The vicious fighting gets louder. It’s ear-piercing. It’s horrific.
It sounds like they’re torturing that poor bear.
I make sure the shotgun is loaded as I push my legs harder. My uncle—Matt and Genie’s father—always took us duck hunting in the fall, so I know how to use a gun. I never had the heart to shoot a duck though. I always aimed way too far left before I pulled the trigger. I didn’t mind eating a vegetarian dinner while I pictured the duck I spared nice and cozy in their nest with their duck family.
A sharp yelp rips through the forest. I know I’m close.
I grip the shotgun when I see the commotion up ahead. There’s four men and three of them are pinning the bear down.
My heart aches when I see him lying on the ground helplessly, his four legs spread out and pinned by the men.
Why are they naked?
Two of them have no clothes on.
Is this a weird sex thing? Or some kind of Satanic cult?
Whatever they have planned for that bear, I’m going to make sure it’s not happening.
The fourth man is grinning as he strolls around to the bear’s head. He’s holding a long bloody Samurai sword. He says something, but I can’t hear it with the pounding in my ears.
He raises the sword and a fresh batch of adrenaline rushes through my system. I raise the barrel of the shotgun into the air and pull the trigger.
The deafening boom vibrates through my body and sends birds flying into the sky.
All four of the men turn and stare at me in shock. The Kodiak bear struggles to get up, but they keep him pinned to the ground.
“Get off him,” I say in a calm firm voice as I pump the shotgun, loading another slug into the chamber.
The man pinning the bear’s back legs shakes his head, his brown eyes big and wide. “You don’t understand,” he says with his voice racing. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
I don’t even know what the hell it looks like. It’s the strangest scene I’ve ever witnessed.
“Drop the sword,” I say as I point the barrel at the man’s chest. “Or, I’ll drop you.”
I stay on the perimeter, close enough that I can shoot them, but far enough that they can’t reach me.
“You want my sword,” he says in some kind of foreign accent, probably French, “you come get it.”
He swings it through the air as he grins at me. I grit my teeth as my finger tingles on the trigger. He thinks I’m bluffing, but if that sword goes near that bear, I’m dropping him. I won’t even hesitate.
“I got a slug for each of you,” I say as I keep the barrel locked on the wannabe ninja. “Release him. Now.”
“Listen, lady,” the man on the bear’s legs says with his hand up. “This is a dangerous bear. He needs to be taken out.”
“Of course, he’s dangerous,” I snap in an impatient tone. “He’s a bear. That’s what they are. It’s part of nature.”
“Not this one,” the man with the four scars running along his chest says. “He’s no part of nature. He’s an abomination.”
I don’t see an abomination. All I see is a poor wounded animal that needs my help.
What the hell? His leg…
“What did you do to him?” I hiss as my heart twists up into a tight little ball. Blood is pouring out of his back leg.