A sharp and joyful sound disturbed the silence lying at the front garden, which was overgrown with persistent weed. Jin looked up to the edge of the old roof above him. Some small brownish bird with a short tail was hopping there, creating the noise tirelessly. If he remembered well, it was called a sparrow.
It was quite rare to see this species in Montana, as the sparrows were imported to the United States only a few years ago and they were spread mostly around the east coast and in Canada. But this one obviously liked the place chosen for its home and was letting the whole world know about it. Jin was tempted to frighten the bird away in order to stop its noisy singing, but it felt like he had no right to do it. Not in this place. He turned away from the feathered singer and looked around the peaceful place again.
He was quite surprised, when Kame led their way here first. He didn´t know the reason either yet. His companion let him watch over their horses near the entrance of an old house, which was certainly very neat a few years ago, but needed some serious repairs now. Meanwhile, Kame disappeared somewhere behind the house, and Jin had the time to observe his surroundings curiously.
Except the house, there were also the remains of some building, which could have been a barn or stable. It collapsed years ago already, judging from bushes and grass, which took over the broken planks and rotten roof. The garden was small and full of various weeds, but there were still some beautiful flowers among them, which refused to give up their fight for the right to bloom.
The land was situated on a convenient place, under a short hill, covered by the woods closely only from one side. It looked like the sun could reach the place for most of the day in the winter and in the summer the high leafy trees on the sides of the house were surely creating some cooling shadows. It wasn´t far away from the city either - it took them only an hour of slow ride to get there.
By the time Jin heard the steps in the grass, which belonged to returning Kame, he was already very curious about whose house might it be. Kame was carrying two long rifles in his hands, with the barrels directed down to the ground. Jin observed them, impressed by how well the guns looked like.
"What´s this?" he asked in a little confused voice.
"Can´t you tell?" Kame raised an eyebrow amused.
"Of course I can, but..."
"Don´t tell me that you really intended to hunt a grizzly down with those little pistols of yours," the younger one pondered aloud.
"Well..." Jin hesitated.
"You did," Kame found an answer himself. "Well… You would be able to kill a bear cub with them, and only if you could hit the right spot. But an adult male? You would only scratch and definitely piss it off."
"I´d have figured something out," Jin objected indignantly. "A trap or something like that..."
"That´s a nice idea, but it´s always better to be sure," the younger one stated very wisely. "With these you can definitely hurt a bear seriously, if not kill it right away. And in the case you will be able to hit the heart... You can imagine the result."
Jin had to agree with that. He nodded slowly, still admiring the rifles. They were old, but well maintained and clean. Kame handed one of them over to him and Jin took it into his hand carefully. The lethal weapon was heavy, but it was a good feeling to hold a gun like that.
"They belonged to my father," Kame explained. "I´m leaving them here, it´s better that way. My mother doesn´t like guns at the house, but also I don´t want Grenet to know about them. He would want to buy them in better case..."
Jin looked up from the rifle, but Kame already turned away.
"So... This is your house?" he asked.
The younger one attached the rifle to the saddle carefully and slowly first, before he turned his face back to the building.
"No..." he answered quietly, with great sadness suddenly resonating in his voice. "It used to be my home, but... I have no official right to it."
"How is that so?" Jin looked at him surprised.
"It´s a long story... It belongs to Karnaka now, even though he was never interested in it. Nobody ever comes here and nobody cares about it. That´s why it looks like this."
Kame didn´t say anything else and Jin felt something weird inside, seeing the other one so sad. All of the sudden, he didn´t like an idea of using the gun in his hands.
"You know, Kame... I cannot accept this," Jin said slowly.
"What?" the very light brown eyes focused at him. "What do you mean?"
"You´re already helping me so much and I´m not paying back for it. And now these rifles... They are yours and I shouldn´t use it for my selfish goals. Especially, when you inherited them from your father."
Kame was staring at him without a word, when Jin reached his hand to give the gun back.
"This is too much. If I was able to pay you for it, it would be something else, but..."
Jin was stopped in the middle of his speech, when Kame moved suddenly and forced the rifle back to him roughly. The older one stumbled a little because of the sudden force Kame used and looked in his eyes confused.
"That´s enough," Kame said from such closeness that Jin could feel his warm breath on his face. The younger´s voice was different – rough and emotional. "Stop with this bullshit. I´ve already told you I have my reasons for helping you out, haven´t I? That I will do anything."
"That´s true, but Kame..." Jin gulped the next words down, seeing pain in the other´s eyes.
"Then stop making excuses for refusing my help," Kame said sharply.
The bartender´s hands squeezed his on the gun, before letting Jin go. Then he jumped on his mare without any other word, letting Jin stand there with the rifle still in his hands.
"Let´s go, we shouldn´t waste any more time," Kame urged and turned Ukushi away from the house.
Jin didn´t object this time. He just attached the rifle to his own saddle hastily and after the last look at the deserted house, he rode after the younger one, whose figure already entered the woods again.
***
They rode quite far to the south, with just one short stop for lunch, consisted of some smoked pork meat, onions and bread. They almost didn´t speak on the way, as Kame closed himself up in silence, which Jin, still pondering about the young man´s outburst, didn´t dare to interrupt.
It was not difficult to find the narrow stream, which Jin had already seen once, before he was kindly asked to leave the territory after running up into the Blackfeet Tribe´s Indians. After that, they continued their journey down along the creek to find a bigger tributary of the main river, because that one was too small for salmons spawning, which was supposed to attract the bears nearby.
When they reached the place, where the water was running much faster in its trough, the dusk was already coming to the wild. They set up camp for the night, below one high rock on the small hill above the stream. It was covered by some small young trees, hidden in the lee.
First, both men took care of their horses, which welcomed some rest finally and when they accomplished their divided tasks, it was dark. Fortunately, they didn´t have to build a tent or any other shelter for that night, as it looked like the rain really stopped for some time.
*
Jin brought more dry sticks to keep their small fire alive, while Kame cleaned up the dishes from their modest bean dinner in the brook. The nights were cold in the forest, colder than Jin had imagined they would be, but he knew it was safer not to keep the fire very high from many reasons. He added only a few pieces from the pile, which he was able to collect, into the flames. The sticks crackled a little and the pleasant heat flooded Jin´s face and hands. If it was not dangerous, he would like to stay so close to the fire for the whole night.
"There´s one place nearby which I´d like to show you tomorrow..." a quiet voice was heard.
Jin looked up from the fire to focus at Kame, who just sat down on the log, which they dragged there. Somehow, they worked on their camp in strange synchronism, without saying much, but definitely in unity, which would have surprised them if they had realized it.
The young bartender was holding a leather bottle for water in his hands, looking directly into the flames, which Jin had just fed.
"What place?" the older one asked slowly.
"It´s something like a meeting spot for bears," Kame explained. "Liwan led me there once. Maybe we will be lucky enough to see some possible target there."
"That would be great," Jin reacted, but stayed squatting near the fire.
There was tense silence for a while, interrupted only by their loyal animals, which enjoyed their late dinner in the form of juicy grass.
"I´m sorry..." Kame said all of the sudden, breaking that tenseness.
"What for?" Jin asked, altering the fireplace with a long stick.
"For how I burst out before..."
Jin didn´t say anything for a long minute, before he stood up and then sat down right next to Kame. He reached into the deep pocket of his long coat and took out the small flask, which he handed over to the younger one.
"Would you like a sip? Instead of that boring water..."
Kame glanced at the suspicious bottle and then at Jin.
"Do you drink every evening?" he raised up a direct question.
"Almost," Jin grinned a little, still offering him his favorite flask.
Kame put the water aside and accepted it from his hands. He let a small gulp to go down into his mouth and throat. It took him three seconds to react with a surprised huff and distorting his face.
"What is this?" he managed to breathe out.
Jin took the flask back.
"You don´t like it?" he asked honestly surprised. "It´s a secret recipe..."
"I bet you did it yourself."
A proud smile changed Jin´s face within a moment: "I did," he confirmed and took a shot too, savoring it as long as he could.
"God, it feels like burning my throat," Kame complained seeing it, but when he gulped down again during the second round, his expression changed. "Well, but it doesn´t taste bad now..."
"See?" Jin reacted proudly and hid the flask back to its place for worse times.
"All right, it´s good, I admit. Satisfied?"
"Very," the older one nodded.
A short silent pause, which followed, was not tense anymore, but calm and relaxed. Jin felt that Kame didn´t need any encouragement, so he was just waiting, if the younger one wanted to talk or not. It was only up to him. And in the end, he did spoke...
"That house..." Kame breathed out heavily, focused at the fire. "That house always brings me a lot of memories. I was living there with my family. With my parents and two brothers..."
Jin looked at the younger one´s profile with a vague feeling in his chest – it was as if he knew what would come next.
"One of Karnaka´s men had discovered gold somewhere on our property once. It was in the north, not far away from the house, but we didn´t know. Karnaka wanted to buy our lands, he even came in person with an offer of ridiculously small amount of money for them, but my father was insistent. He wouldn´t have let it go for a world. Moreover, he was always against Karnaka, and he wasn´t hiding it."
Jin didn´t let his eyes off Kame´s pale face, listening wordlessly.
"So, Karnaka left empty-handed then. But it didn´t take long for them to come... Karnaka´s gang," Kame continued more quietly. "They shot my father dead first, then both brothers. They hit me too, assuming I was dead and then raped my mother."
Kame´s voice was hoarse and full of pain at that moment, and Jin was horrified by what he heard.
"The Blackfeet Tribe´s Indians found us lying in own blood there. My father was their friend; he shared our food supplies with them during the tough winter seasons, as well as they helped him a few times before. If they didn´t come that time, we would have been dead too."
Kame was talking with his eyes reflecting the yellow flames, without a move, with his body totally frozen, while Jin was watching him from the side, a knee right next to the younger´s, and feeling the pain from him. He could feel it, because he knew. He knew how it felt like, when somebody destroyed your life for their own targets, not taking anything else into consideration.
"During all those years I spent in their village, my thoughts were always wandering around Karnaka... When I grew older, I thought I would go and kill him for what he did. But I didn´t do it. If I did, and I´d have been killed or arrested in the process, my mother would have stayed alone. I couldn´t do that, I couldn´t leave her. She was already broken enough. So… I was holding back for all that time, doing nothing to avenge my family. Nothing at all... And that´s why I´m helping you now, Jin," saying those last few words, Kame turned his eyes to the older one finally. "After all that time, you´re the very first one, who came here and wanted to do something against that bastard."
Jin repaid the other´s glance seriously.
"That´s why I will do anything to help you," Kame repeated firmly. "I want that man to suffer. I want him dead. But I´m worried about my mother, that´s why I don´t want anyone to know about this. You don´t have to repay it to me with money or anything else. Because just what you want to do is enough for me. I just need to do something to get a payback for my family..." Kame´s voice broke in the last part of his talk and Jin noticed, how unnaturally shiny his eyes were.
"Kame..." he said through the narrow throat and put a hand on his shoulder slowly. "I understand... And I will do everything not to let you down, all right?"
Kame seemed to loosen up a little; his stiffness went away under Jin´s touch.
"Thank you," it was only a whisper, but honest and emotional.
"There´s nothing to thank for yet," Jin smiled at him faintly. "But I´m glad you told me... I didn´t have an idea what you´ve been through."
"But I´m not the only one in this, am I?" Kame reacted slowly.
Jin´s hand took a firmer grip around the younger´s shoulder, as he replied: "Yeah... You´re not..."
*
Kame wasn´t sure, if it was really such a good idea to tell Jin about what had happened to him in the past, but he just couldn´t fight that urge to explain his attitude to the older one anymore. He already trusted him; he believed that Jin really wanted to do what he had said, especially after what was told during the meeting with the Tribal Chief. Moreover, he felt quite bad about how he burst out in the morning without Jin even knowing why.
And at the moment, when Jin placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked into those dark but warm eyes, he already knew it was right to tell him. Even more than right... Kame felt the silent understanding between them and he was sure Jin felt it as well. Only now, they could trust each other fully, when they got to know about the pain of the other one.
After all those years, which Kame spent by burying the bitter feelings of helplessness and anger, which couldn´t have been released, it was a damn good feeling to have Jin by his side. He could share all of that with him, because the older one understood. He went through something very similar and even though Kame didn´t know what exactly happened with his family, except that Karnaka had Jin´s friend´s blood on his hands, he didn´t need to know to feel like that.
Kame could see in Jin´s eyes and felt from the grip of his hand, that he was not alone anymore and it was a great relief from his dark burden. He didn´t expect that it would have such a big influence at him. Not even in his dreams...
That night was the first one after many, when both Jin and Kame spent sleeping without any bad dreams, lost in calming darkness, which was giving them the strength. And that was something they definitely needed for the following days...
***
The next morning they got up early. At least Kame did and then he had to deal with Jin, who intended to spend hours hidden in his warm coat and under the blanket, instead of going on their tracking journey.
The older one changed his mind only when Kame brought the full mug of the cold water from the brook and poured it right over his face, obviously having a great fun watching Jin shaking his head from right to left, trying to get rid of the drops in his ears. With grumpy murmuring, Jin got up and prepared to set off, calming down a little after the breakfast which Kame prepared.
The place, which Kame wanted to show to Jin, wasn´t very far away, so they left Kuro and Ukushi tied to the trees near their camping place, extinguished the fire and headed down along the brook.
Kame was leading their way and he slowed down the fast pace only after Jin stopped complaining about the mornings in the wild being damn cold.
It was very damp under the high trees, but actually, it looked like they would be lucky with the weather, as the rays of sunshine were fighting their way through the branches above them, creating the beautiful scenery at each little glade they went across.
It was already quite warm, when they reached the edge of some escarpment and a very nice view appeared under them. They could see a wide clearing, where three streams were joining their flows together, creating a little lagoon, before splitting into two brooks again. The banks of a small lake were covered with cranberry bushes, still bearing their fruits.
Jin stopped next to Kame and observed the natural scenery curiously.
"Liwan sometimes uses this place for talking with the spirits," Kame said quietly, as if he didn´t want to disturb the peace of the place.
"Does he talk with bears, too?" Jin asked amused.
Kame glanced at the older one a little offended: "No, but they come here quite often. This is something like their resort."
"No wonder, I would be able to spend whole days doing nothing here," Jin reacted.
"That would be totally not surprising of you; I would bet on it," Kame said in a sardonic tone.
"You could use some vacation too, dear Kame," the older one responded with a wide grin.
"Maybe, but definitely not now," he informed Jin stiffly. "Come on... We should check if there are any tracks and it´s a tough way down."
Kame turned away with the intention to find a secret path down the hill, when he was grabbed by the firm hand and pulled down, so he had to squat behind the high grass, which covered the edge of the escarpment.
"What are you...?" he started surprised.
"Ssh!" Jin warned him, pressing a finger over his lips and then he pointed down to the lagoon. "Look..." he whispered.
Kame didn´t immediately know what Jin meant, but after he checked the bushes down there again, he finally saw it too. He thought it was some fallen tree at first, but now he could see that the brown form was moving.
They were waiting tensely; almost forgetting to breathe when the biggest bushes at one side of the lake went apart and the impressive silhouette came out and approached the water surface. The brown bear was at least two meters long, with its firm muscles moving forward was hard to tell, but it had to weigh one hundred and sixty, maybe even seventy kilograms.
"Holy crap, it´s huge!" Jin breathed out, still holding onto Kame´s arm firmly. Not that the younger one tried to shake him away; Kame was staring at the animal with the same fascination. It was too far for a precise shot, but still they could perceive the enormous power, which was radiating from it.
"And you saw nothing yet..." Kame whispered then. "This is only a female... And they´re usually even bigger around here."
"Really?" Jin huffed out surprised. "That´s just… Wow..."
"Grenet was right in this. The Grizzly bears around here are really terrifying creatures. They can kill you in the instant, making a bloody pile of legs and arms from you. I didn´t expect we would be able to see any so soon. We have to be more careful..."
"Well, when we´re already here and armed, why don´t we try our luck?" Jin whispered a proposal.
Kame stiffened hearing that.
"No way," he hissed at Jin, who looked at him confused.
"Why not? Who knows, when we will..."
"Because she has the cubs, look," this time it was Kame showing down with his hand carefully. "On the other side..."
Only then, Jin spotted what Kame saw before him. There were some more movements in the bushes, and when he focused at it, he could see the parts of two much smaller brown furs playing with each other. It didn´t take long before the little ones appeared alongside their mother and Jin found them quite cute, as they were jumping at each other trying to put the other down.
"They´re too small," Kame´s breath tickled Jin at the cheek. "They won´t survive without her."
Jin sighed and tore the eyes off those cuties to look at Kame, who was leaning towards him. They were quite close now, interrupting the other´s personal space, but Jin realized very surprised, that he didn´t mind Kame being so close, despite the fact he usually hated when somebody was too touchy.
"So, we had to find another one..." he stated with only a little disappointment.
"Yes. Unless you really want to kill this one..." the expression in Kame´s eyes revealed hesitation and expectation.
"No, you´re right. I wanted to hunt down a male in the first place anyway."
"Fine," Kame obviously relaxed his stance. "Let´s move then, we have to search further..."
Jin released his grip and they both sneaked away from the edge of the hill, letting the bear family to enjoy their usual routine.
***
The next three days went by without any success. They were searching through both banks of now a very strong stream, but except some tracks of foxes, elks, two coyotes and one wolf, they had no luck for any bear´s trail. The salmon season already started, they could see the fishes swimming against the flow tirelessly and it was the best time of the year to find some solitary grizzly around. Despite this fact, they found nothing that would indicate its presence.
Nevertheless, Kame remained calm and patient and he managed to transfer some of this calmness to Jin, who was starting to be nervous. They always built only temporary camp and moved it every day. It was useless to build up anything permanent, when they were going through such a wide range. Luckily, it still wasn´t raining, which Jin accepted as a great gift.
Finally, on the fourth day Jin spotted something in the moss, which made his heart beat faster.
"Kame?"
His companion was on the duty of leading the horses behind them, so that they wouldn´t destroy any possible tracks of bears in the front. Jin waited until Kame let the animals stand near three closely growing pines and approached him.
"Is this what I think it is?" he asked, pointing at the deep footprint.
Kame crouched down and let go of an impressed sigh: "Yes. And it´s not very old, only a few hours."
"Is it only me, or it really seems like this one has at least three meters?"
Kame stood up again.
"Well, not three, but it is big. I think it´s exactly what you wanted."
"Sure… I´m so looking forward to seeing it," Jin murmured, though he was not so sure about it. Even that print in front of them was already quite scary.
Kame examined the trail again, thinking for a while.
"I think we should leave the horses in some shelter, in a cave at the best, so that they won´t reveal us. Just in case. Then we should try to track it."
"Agreed," Jin nodded immediately.
*
To the surprise of both young hunters, even though the animal had to be huge, all they could find during a whole day were tracks of it. The footprints, broken sticks, scratched stem and a destroyed hive of wild bees. The forest around them was strangely quiet. Too quiet for their taste. It was as if the grizzly was playing with them and Jin didn´t like it at all.
When they trudged back to the small cave, tired as hell, it was already cold and dark and they couldn´t afford to set up a big fire. It wasn´t very probable it would have attracted the grizzly to them, but it was always better to be cautious.
They were sitting at the entrance of the cave, leaning to its wall, so close to each other that their shoulders were touching, the legs covered with the thick blanket, eating the cold meat and some berries, while their horses were hidden in the back part were chewing on their daily portion of oat.
The small flames, which they dared to light up, were not strong enough to make some light in the dark, neither to warm them up properly. They were looking into the darkness, listening to the sounds of the night birds, both rifles within the reach of their hands. They were both well aware of the fact that the grizzly bears are too imponderable to let their guard down.
"We should keep watches tonight," Kame said after he finished his dinner, crouching in his coat and breathing at his hands to make them a little warmer.
"Do you really think it´s necessary?"
Jin´s voice was tired as well as Kame´s; they were wandering through the rough terrain for days already and it influenced them a lot.
"Maybe not, but... I heard many stories from my Indian friends about their encounters with bears and believe me, it´s not a visit which we would want to welcome unprepared. I´ll take the first one, you can try to get some sleep."
"All right. But I have to pee first," Jin dug himself out from the blankets unwillingly and got up.
"Just stay close," Kame reminded him.
*
Jin was back right away, not very fond of the hundreds of dark shadows under the trees and got back under the covers, which were kept warm by Kame. He fidgeted a little and then he looked at the faint features of the younger´s face, who was still observing the woods outside the cave.
"Kame?"
"What is it?"
"Would you mind if I lean on you? Just to keep warm..."
As Kame turned his face to Jin, the faint orange light of the dying fire appeared in his eyes for a second.
"Sure..." he agreed quietly. "It will be better for both of us."
"Thanks..."
Relieved Jin made himself comfortable leaning to Kame´s side and letting his head rest on his shoulder. He could also feel the younger one´s slim leg next to his own and the temperature was much better almost right away. He closed his eyes, not even thinking about if the situation was awkward or not, as it felt so good it didn´t come up to his mind…
*
Kame thought it would be weird to let Jin be so close to him, but it wasn´t. Despite all their previous efforts, he still felt cold, but only till the moment when Jin´s body attached to his. Something shivered in Kazuya´s stomach and a pleasant warmness flooded him. He could also feel the faint sense of Jin´s hair and he heard his breathing.
Kame wouldn´t have even imagined it would feel so good to have the weight of Jin leaning on him. He was almost afraid to move, in fear that it would chase that feeling away.
*
After two hours, their positions changed and even though Kame wasn´t sure, if he should do the same or not, Jin assured him it was all right, so he ended up having his nap leaning on the older one, too. He was quite surprised later, that he was able to sleep at all, but it felt safe, with Jin next to him, on the alert.
The exhaustion caught them up in the end, and they both fell asleep a couple of hours before the dawn, so close to each other as was even possible.