69 The Silver Bear (Part 2)

The normal bears didn't stay idle though. Two of them approached Shelly, while the other two made their way towards me. I grabbed a handful of daggers from my bag, and threw them. My strength was already fading. There was no way I could kill those bears from such a distance, but that wasn't my intention. My intention was to slow them down. "Shelly! I know it hurts, but come here... Please move!", I exclaimed while constantly throwing my daggers.

Shelly struggled to pick itself up and move, the situation didn't look great at all. The bears got closer and closer, thankfully my daggers managed to slow them down considerately. "Tsuk", one of my daggers pierced the bear's eye, making it fall to the ground, dead. The other bear coming after Shelly didn't fare any better. With all those daggers piercing its body, the bear finally collapsed to the ground. It was still alive, but no longer a huge threat.

The other two bears were injured, but not to such degree. They were moving towards us, releasing roar after roar from the pain. My throws became weaker, and weaker. There was no point throwing anymore, this only wasted my valuable energy.

The poisonous cloud was just next to us, with the silver bear already consumed by it. We were in deep shit. "You fucking bears!", I cursed loudly, trying to move closer to Shelly. "Mah!", Shelly exclaimed suddenly, then leaped forwards a few times. "MAAAH", another painful cry escaped Shelly's mouth, but we made it. We were together again. The bears were close already. There was no way out for me, but Shelly… At least Shelly could survive. I dropped to my knees, while shakily retrieving a bottle of the best medicine in my possession. "You.. You go on without me... I will... protect you until the very end", I said with a smile, even though my body felt like falling apart.

I poured the medicine over Shelly's cracked shell, then used my body to shield it. "Mah!.. Mah!", Shelly cried, but there was no use anymore. The two bears finally arrived. "Bam! ARGH.. Cough!", I screamed and coughed out blood, when the bear slammed its paw into my back. "Roar! Bam!", another bear roared before swiping its paw from the side.

The strike was powerful enough to fling me away. My only wish was for Shelly to run. That's all I cared about. "Mah! Mah!", Shelly's unique noise sounded in my ears, but then a few roars of the bears reverberated through the area. 'Just run... don't fight... Go...', I was unable to voice my thoughts anymore. That's when I heard one "Bam", followed by another. 'No.. Shelly... why didn't you run?...', I ask myself, as the tears began rolling down my eyes.

I could feel anger awakening deep inside me. I felt pure hate towards those bears. 'I... want to destroy them... I want to kill...', just as my thoughts reach that stage, a loud "Mah!" sounded next to me. "Un!", a surprised grunt left my mouth. Something, no Shelly was draggin me away. I had no strength to speak, but the hate quickly disappeared, being replaced by happiness. Shelly was alive, therefore the bears had to be dead.

Shelly dragged me away from the spreading cloud, away from the battlefield littered with carcasses. "Mah, mah... Mah!", Shelly's voice sounded again, but I was too tired. I needed some rest. My mind drifted away into the land of dreams, but not just any dreams. The same dream I had a few times already. The dream where a figure of some sort spoke incoherent words to me, before punching me awake. This time, it was different. The dream felt more real, more defined.

The figure wore a long black robe, with a hood that covered its whole head. The voice seemed to belong to a male, while the words made no sense to me at all. I tried speaking out, but my voice seemed distant and inaudible. Then all of a sudden, darkness enveloped everything. I was awake, the darkness was there, because my eyes were shut.

"Ungh... My head hurts...", I said quietly to myself. Not only my head, my whole body hurt like hell. Breathing was a bit difficult as well. "Grumble...", my stomach demanded food, I was starving. Shelly laid next to me, but asleep and not dead. The poisonous mist disappeared a long time ago, the carcasses were still there though. 'We survived somehow, but this was too close of a call. We need to get stronger, or we'll be doomed... No wonder the forest was so quiet. With such a beast roaming around it, other animals hid themselves', I thought while trying to locate my bag.

If not for the poison, we would die. There was no doubt about that. Moreover, I had a guess why that silver bear went after us. The lone bear I hunted beforehand, must've belonged to its sleuth. 'I'd prefer to face two or three silver-grey wolves, than one of such bears again...', I said to myself. Fortunately, the bag was close by. "Grumble...", my stomach sounded again as soon as I took out a piece of roasted meat.

The roasted meat in my bag wasn't enough to quell my stomach. "Umh... At least there are a few bears here... Shelly... Shelly, are you alright?", I asked while patting its head. Shelly would usually wake up, but this time remained asleep. The shell seemed to be better, even though faint crack marks were still visible. "You saved both of us... Thank you, Shelly", I said while taking out another bottle of medicine, and smeared it all over the shell.

"This should heal in a while. Agh... my back. I'm lucky though, only a few of my ribs are broken... My back seems to be fine, except the pain. The leather armour on the other hand… Well, it's a bit ruined. A hole here, tear there... It's still usable, at least for now", I said to myself while walking towards normal bears. The silver bear's meat was no good, but its fur was a different story. I planned to skin it, then use it to make myself additional armour. Tanning was not something I knew how to do, but there was no need for that. The fur itself was really tough. My plan was to use pieces of that fur, and add them to my existing leather armour. That had to wait for a while, since my stomach demanded more food.

A huge meal later, I checked up on Shelly again. 'Its sleeping peacefully, no other damage is visible... That's a relief', I thought then took care of my own injuries. Fortunately, the few broken ribs didn't cause internal damage. I applied some medicine to my skin, drinking the rest of it. With my injuries mostly addressed, I picked Shelly off the ground and carried it back to the shack.

Other than collecting the fur, I had to extract the meat from other bears. Skinning the silver bear was difficult. Most of the toughness remained, even though the bear died. A bit of straining and struggling later, the fur was mine. The sheer weight of that thing was something else. With my weakened body, I had to drag the fur back to our shack. "Haa... Haah... With that, the most annoying task is done... Just the meat, and I can finally rest properly", I said to myself.

All of that work took quite some time, but everything was done by the evening. "No more bears please... I need some rest", I said to myself quietly, after laying down in my makeshift bed.