"Tracy Falbe - The Rys Chronicles 03 - Judgment Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Falbe Tracy)

to come back and report. When he squatted to fill his canteen, he stared at his reflection in the
water. His blue eyes looked back at him and strands of his long blond hair clung to his short beard.
He brushed the hair away from his face and thought that he would shave soon.

Dreibrand looked up because Tytido was hurrying toward him. Dreibrand disapproved of people
moving about alone in the forest, or even at its edge, and he frowned.

тАЬWhere are the others?тАЭ Dreibrand demanded irritably, hoping that he did not have to be worried.

With a jerk of his head, Tytido indicated that they were still upstream but he put a finger to his lips,
and all of the men took notice. Dreibrand widened his eyes with his unspoken question, but Tytido
shook his head once to reply that it was not a fenthakrabi. He silently mouthed the word тАЬbear.тАЭ

тАЬHow close?тАЭ Dreibrand whispered.

тАЬJust upstream. I came to get you because I thought you might like to see her,тАЭ Tytido whispered
back.

Dreibrand nodded appreciatively and they started upstream, hugging the foliage along the bank.
Chilo and the other men were crouching behind a boulder at the waterтАЩs edge, and they joined
them. The stream at this location was a perfect place to cross except that a large brown bear
prowled the opposite bank and probed the rushing water for fish. Two small cubs, fresh from the
winter den where they had been born, toddled behind her, slapping at the water and at each
other. The mother bear was a magnificent beast, ferocious in her femininity and the very spirit of
maternal strength.

тАЬTime for a bear hunt,тАЭ Chilo suggested.

Dreibrand ducked behind the boulder and agreed. He had no overwhelming desire to kill the bear
and condemn her offspring as well, but safety demanded action. She was too close to the summer
settlement where people would be working in the new fields until the autumn. Also, bear meat was
good and he and his men could feast on it.

The men put their heads together and furtively began to plan an attack. As if overhearing their
conspiracy, the bear reared onto her hind feet and roared across the water. Gasps replaced the
whispers of the seven men, and they peeked over the boulder, much like boys interrupted from
mischief by the shout of a mother.

At her full height, the bear was impressive and her twins cowered in the shadows of her great
haunches. Another heavy scream of challenge erupted from the great animalтАЩs throat, but the bear
targeted her rage upstream of the hiding humans. With two leaps, she plunged to the middle of the
stream and then stood again to flail the air with clacking front claws.

A fenthakrabi jumped from a thicket of young willows and met her in the water. The bipedal beast
with a shaggy mane and long-snouted face looked thin next to the bear, but it did not act
intimidated by the weight difference. The shriek of the monster buried the pleasant burbling of the
snowmelt, and it snarled and swiped at the bear. They met like rival creatures out of a myth that
must always fight when their paths cross.

Without consultation the men reached a unanimous decision and fled. One man lagged because of