When Kame woke up in the morning, something was different from usual. He felt warm and safe, despite the chilly air he was inhaling. Then he realized that this feeling was caused by another body that was clinging to his own. He opened his eyes and found himself snuggled close to Jin´s broad chest.
They were half-sitting, half-lying near the cave´s entrance, only the grey ashes left from their fire and the faint day light was flooding the space outside.
Ah, we both fell asleep in the end, Kame thought. So much for keeping the watch…
He moved away a little, intending to get up, but a heavy arm prevented him from doing that. Kame stiffened and looked at the older one´s face surprised, but Jin was still sleeping, dragging him back only sub-consciously.
For quite a long time already, Kame wasn´t used to be so close to someone with the exception of his mother. It should have been strange for him to be hugged by another man like that. But he was hit with the realization that it didn´t feel unpleasant at all, more like the opposite… It felt too good.
A sting of guilt pinched through Kame´s stomach, when he caught himself wondering what it would be like to remain in those arms and sneak up even closer. He shouldn´t think like that… He gulped down through the narrow throat and shook Jin´s arm away gently, escaping from his hug.
*
Jin didn´t want to let go of that warmness, which made him feel as comfortable as for a long time nothing else did, and tried to keep it close to him, still half-asleep. Then something moved and that warm comfort was gone. He raised his eyelids, unsatisfied with what was happening and spotted Kame, who just sat up.
Jin blinked, trying to gather his senses. So, the younger one was the cause of that good feeling? Of course, he was; they were keeping the watch and then…
"Damn…" he murmured, realizing the truth. "I fell asleep…"
His voice made Kame turn.
"We both did," he informed Jin with a faint smile. "Don't worry; everything seems to be all right."
"No bear at our doorstep? Glad to hear that."
A wave of coldness shook with Jin, when Kame put the blankets away.
"Damn it, did we sleep over the rest of autumn?" he complained sullenly. "I hate these cold mornings…"
"It´s better to limber up," Kame recommended him already standing.
"I think it´d be better if you stayed here," Jin reacted quietly, already hiding himself under the blankets again, so that only his face was seen outside.
"What did you say?" Kame looked at him uncertainly.
"Nothing," Jin mumbled into the blanket, actually surprised with himself saying something like that.
Kame was observing him for a while and looked somewhat cute with that scruffy hair and the face still dark after the sleep. Jin tore his eyes from the younger one hastily.
I must be still dreaming to think like that…
"I´ll go for the water and if you light the fire up meanwhile, we can make some coffee, what do you say?" Kame proposed and Jin immediately focused on him again.
"You have a coffee?!" he exclaimed and even peeked out from his hill of cloths.
"A little," Kame nodded. "But it can be done only if you take care of some fire."
"Of course!" Jin was already digging himself out of his shelter. "You´re a miracle, Kame. Come here, I want to hug you!"
"I think that almost whole night was quite enough for hugging," Kame reacted, already going for the bottle in the back part of their cave.
"What?" Jin thought that he overheard this time.
"Nothing important," Kame waved with his hand and headed away quite in a rush. "I´ll be right back."
*
It took approximately five minutes of walk through the forest to get to the brook, from which Kame could take the fresh water. A fast pace warmed him up and the sun, which was flooding the peaceful scenery, helped to chase the morning stiffness away. Their cave was in a place, which the sun couldn´t reach for next two hours and that was the reason why it was so cold there.
Kame unbuttoned his coat and after washing his face in the cold stream, he finally felt completely awake. However, he didn´t manage to shake away that bothering and strange feeling, which was making him think about the older one.
A cry of the buzzard looking for breakfast cut through the air and made him look up. Well, they could definitely use some view from above now. Too bad that they missed the wings for that.
Kame took the full bottle and headed back with new energy. He was almost at the place, going along the short steep hill, when he heard some loud crack from above and an angry swearing right after that. Kame stopped and started to search between the trees with his eyes.
"Jin?! Are you all right?"
It didn´t take long for a young man to appear a few meters above him.
"I swear that right after that bear I will exterminate all squirrels in this forest!" he declared loudly. "One of them just scared the hell out of me! It threw a cone on me, would you believe it?"
Grumpy Jin stopped next to one tree leaning on it, while Kame was suppressing his laughing.
"And now I can start collecting the wood again," the older one continued his complaints.
Kame wanted to react at that childish statement, but some sudden movement caught his attention and made him turn his head...
*
Jin´s heart was still beating fast. He almost jumped out of his skin, when something hit him over the head and all dry sticks he collected till that moment fell off his hands.
Stupid squirrels…
Kame was standing at the path under him, obviously amused.
"I mean it," Jin repeated. "I won´t let that little cocky animal go away with that and…"
"Silence, Jin," Kame said those two words in a forcefully calm voice.
Only then, Jin noticed that his companion was frozen on the spot, his head turned to the right, the eyes wide. He peeped from behind the tree to see what the hell Kame was looking at… And he gulped the incoming question down heavily.
A brown-silver mountain of muscles with four feet seemed to appear from nowhere and it was undeniably approaching the place where Kame was standing without a single move. And it was looking directly at him.
Jin was baffled seeing this picture; he assumed that the animal would make a horrible noise while moving or at least some sounds to alert them about its presence. But it was moving very quietly; only now he could hear the little stones and sticks under its paws.
"Stay where you´re," Kame whispered. "It didn´t notice you..."
How Jin wished that the same would have count also for Kame.
"You don´t have the rifle with you, do you?" the younger one asked then.
Jin was staring at the incredibly huge grizzly absolutely horrified.
"No…" he let go of a faint response.
The bear stopped its movement forward, and Kame repaid the glance of its small devilish eyes. The animal arched its back, so that a huge bulge appeared behind its ears and moved from one leg to another. That was not a good sign...
"I´ll be the bait. Go back for the rifle," Kame was still talking quietly, but very fast now.
"What?" Jin hissed. "I can´t let you go alone!"
"It sees me as an enemy in its territory. And he´s…"
The rest of Kame´s sentence was lost in horrifying uproar, which came out from the wide muzzle full of the sharp teeth. It shook Jin from head to toes; it felt like a wave of sound was pushing him to the ground.
"We don´t have another option," Kame blurted out, completely tense at his spot, ready to run off. "I´ll lead him to the stream, then down the flow."
The grizzly stood on his back feet, releasing the terrifying sound again. And Jin hated Kame´s idea at that moment...
"Kame…"
"Jin!" Kame dared to give him one short glance, which pierced Jin through. "I´m counting on you," he said hastily in a voice, which was full of thrilled tension.
The bear got down again and only a half of second before it did, Kame started to run away, leaving the water behind. He disappeared from Jin´s eyes among the trees and bushes in no time; the young bartender was fast. But what sent shivers into Jin´s spine was the pace with which the grizzly chased after him. It was like an unstoppable avalanche, leaving only disaster behind.
Jin basically jumped from the place where he was standing so far, leaving a shallow hole there, and rushed up to their camp so fast that he didn´t see anything else than the short space in front of him. Flooded with adrenalin and worries for Kame, he thought only one thing - to kill that furry creature as soon as possible.
*
The forest around him was only a blurry image of something what didn´t have any meaning. Kame focused fully on the safe movement forward, avoiding the dangerous stones and jumping over the fallen trees. Even one single mistake or stumble could cost him his life. He heard the angry chaser behind him; it was so close, as if he felt the sticky hot breath right on his skin.
So far, the grizzly was a little slower than he was, but unlike for Kame, it was not that dangerous for the animal to run around. There were not many things, which could have hurt it.
At one moment, Kame did not notice a low hanging branch and changed the direction of his run too late. It hit him over the shoulder and neck roughly. It didn´t hurt much, but he lost his balance and almost fell to the ground, losing some precious seconds from his lead. With his heart on the race, he continued to run towards the brook.
*
Kuro and Ukushi were neighing nervously in the cave, but Jin didn´t have time to calm them down. He just grabbed the rifle and the box of bullets from the ground right next to the blankets, in which they were sleeping peacefully only a while ago. In a hurry, he checked if the gun was loaded and rushed back in the direction from which he came.
It felt like the time was much faster than himself though...
*
Kame didn´t see the beauty of the place anymore. Who would be admiring the nature while being pursued by the quarter ton heavy bear?
He hesitated at the bank, looking for a better side of the stream, but then he twitched his head back, shocked by the loud sounds behind him. The grizzly was unbelievably fast… He looked around again and spotted the huge solitary rock on the other side of the stream, probably fallen from some mountain above this place decades ago.
Kame hurried to the water and with a loud spatter fought against the lively flow, which was trying to trip up his legs. A threatening roar hit his ears, when he was in the middle of it. He didn´t dare to look back, but he was sure the bear was much closer. His left feet slipped on one of the stones under the surfaces unexpectedly and he kept his balance only in the last second. But he lost some more time because of that and before he got out of the water, he could already hear the grizzly entering the stream too.
I won´t make it, Kame realized. I cannot run away far enough to gain time for Jin to catch up.
That rock looked smaller from this point of view, than from the other side of the brook, but it was his only and best chance.
*
Jin reached the small river almost out of breath from the crazy race through the woods. He checked both sides but to his horror, he didn´t see anything, which would have led him to Kame. He forced himself to calm down, stood there on the spot motionless and focused on his hearing. There had to be something what would tell him where…
A quite loud uproar resonated through the air on his left. Jin reacted even before the sound died out completely, running across the stones towards it. In less than a half minute, he spotted the place, where Kame got himself during the run from the grizzly. He was holding with all his might on the top of a huge stone covered by dark green moss on the other side of the stream.
Jin considered it as a good idea, because the stone was almost three meters high, so out of grizzly´s reach and the animal couldn´t get up there, no matter how skillful it would be in climbing on the trees. But he didn´t understand, why the rock was shaking so violently. It looked like Kame would fall over the edge any second, as he didn´t have many possibilities how to hold on to it.
Only when Jin got closer, he could see that the reason was just too clever and too strong animal. The grizzly was attacking the stone with terrifying force, trying to overturn it.
If Jin didn´t see it with his own eyes, he wouldn´t have believed it. The bear was half covered behind the stone, and Jin couldn´t shoot at him like that. In the middle of this thought, he was already on his way across the river. He overcame only two meters from it, when Kame wasn´t able to hold up to the stone anymore and fell down to the ground heavily with the faint cry of pain.
Jin froze on the spot and without hesitation; he raised the rifle up to his cheek. Everything mattered on a good aim now. That fucking bear was already approaching Kame fast, firmly on all its four legs again. Kame was trying to get away from the bear´s reach desperately, but his feet was stuck between the two stones.
Jin didn´t care if he hit the animal´s head and destroy it by that. He would stop that crazy fur at all costs. A loud shot disturbed the peace of nature. The grizzly stopped his movement and wavered, clattering in pain. Kame was staring at the animal from the ground, breathing heavily; while Jin prepared the rifle for another shot and aimed once again.
The Grizzly lord raised his head to bawl, when Jin pulled the trigger for the second time. This time the animal was hit into the chest and not the shoulder. The bear moved in the last try to reach Kame, sitting only a meter in front of him, before falling on his side with a loud thud.
Jin finished his task of overcoming the stream much slower now, stopped on the bank and loaded the rifle again first, trying not to let the bear out of his sight. He noticed that his hands were shaking as hell and he was quite amazed by the calmness with which he was able to shoot precisely only seconds ago.
When he approached the scene with the fallen king of the woods carefully, Kame was trying to get up. Dirty, out of breath and with scratches all over his face, but there was no time Jin would have seen the younger one more gladly.
Still full of adrenaline and relief at the same time, he came closer and he supported Kame by his arm, helping him to get up on his feet. Then he pulled the shaken up bartender to himself, hugging him tightly with one hand around his waist, still holding the gun in the second one. Jin felt Kame´s chest rising up and back down fast, as well as his heart still speeding rapidly in almost the same pace as his own.
At first, Kame was stiff, but then he leant to Jin gratefully with a deep breath going out. It was a short hug, but full of relief from both sides. Jin stepped back and looked at the other one´s face.
"Are you…?" he couldn´t even finished the sentence; his throat was dry and narrow.
"I´m all right…" Kame answered in a hoarse voice. "I think I just sprained my ankle a little, but it will be fine."
Jin nodded and let him go, focusing on the pile of motionless meat. With the rifle prepared, he approached the bear, which could be a very unpleasant ending for their tracking. But the animal´s eyes were blank, staring to nothing, its snout slightly open, and a pool of blood spreading around it and soaking into the soil.
Kame followed him and stayed right behind his back, looking at the dead but still terrifying animal.
"We were damn lucky that it didn´t find us during the night," he whispered.
"Yeah," Jin nodded, trying to estimate the bear´s size. "I know they say that the bears are huge here, but this…"
Kame went forward and crouched down slowly, being careful about his left ankle.
"I doubt you would find any more impressive grizzly than this one in the ten miles radius," he said quietly, evaluating the fur, teeth and claws. "It´s very old, almost at the upper edge of adulthood and the biggest one I´ve ever seen."
Jin leaned over him to look at the bear´s head from near too.
"But I don´t understand… Why was it so pissed off?"
Kame pointed out on one of the animal´s front legs.
"It had an infection in this wound, see? I think it messed up with its thinking a little…"
"So... It was even more dangerous to play cat and mouse with it than usual, right?"
Kame turned his head to Jin, and found his face close to himself, the eyebrows narrowed in concern.
"Each single encounter with grizzly is a danger, Jin," he said slowly. "Even in the case when you are not trying to cut off its head."
"Whatever," Jin retorted stubbornly, standing up straight again. "Do not ever do something like today again."
"Why are you so upset?" Kame asked looking at him from the ground. "We managed what you wanted to – you will have your bear´s head, so…"
"Fuck bear´s head!" Jin exclaimed frustrated. "I´m upset, because you could die thanks to my idiotic idea!"
Kame flinched at the sudden outburst. Jin looked in his eyes directly.
"I just don´t want you to get hurt because of me…" he added very quietly.
Kame rose up to his level and came closer limping a little.
"Look, I volunteered for this while knowing into what I´m going. It was my choice. Don't take the blame only on yourself," he reminded him.
Jin didn´t look persuaded, but didn´t say anything to object to what Kame stated.
"We should go back to the camp right now," the younger one said, looking back on their catch. "We have to deal with the corpse before other animals will find it."
"Yeah, but can you really walk?" Jin asked worried.
"I will handle it, don´t worry," Kame assured him.
*
Jin helped Kame on the way up to their camp anyway; supporting him so that the younger one could relieve to the painful leg as much as possible. They made sure the horses were safe in the cave, checking the light ropes, which hold them there. They also gave them some fodder, and then they took all necessary tools – including two long knives and axe, before heading back down to the stream.
Although Kame was trying hard to cover it, Jin could see that the sprinkled ankle caused him more and more pain. But he didn´t say anything, and just helped the younger one during walking.
It was good to see that the bear was still lying there, when they got back to the spot. Everything happened so fast, that it felt almost like a dream.
Cutting the bear´s head off was really an awful and bloody job to do and they were neither skillful nor fond of it, but it had to be done as soon as possible, to avoid any possible damage. It was the procedure, which mostly Kame did.
Knowing the theory well, he started cutting from the upper part under the first vertebra carefully, while Jin was on the edge of vomiting, despite the fact they hadn´t eaten anything yet. Kame also knew one man who was doing the taxidermy preparation of animals for many years and he wasn´t living far away from Bozeman. They just had to deliver the head to him soon enough.
It was already after noon, when they finished the task and went a little up along the brook to the deeper part, where the water was reaching their knees, to wash away the sweat, dirt and blood.
Without hesitation, both men took their shirts away and only in their pants entered the cold stream. Especially Kame breathed out deeply with huge relief, when he sat down at a stone towering above the flow and let his leg rest in the cooling water. Jin even kneeled down and put the whole head under the surface, splashing everything what could have caught during the crazy hunt in his hair away. Then he threw some water at his face and chest too, shaking like hell after that but feeling much better.
They both got used to the freezing feeling soon, as the sun was flooding the small valley with autumn warmness. Nevertheless, Jin didn´t stay in the flow for long. He made himself comfortable on the bank and faced the sun with his eyes half-closed.
His skin was almost dry again, when he heard the splashing steps of Kame going towards him.
"What about your ankle?" Jin asked.
"Much better," there was a response from the younger one, who reached the bank carefully and sprinkled some water on Jin on the way.
"Hey!" he screamed not very fond of the cold shower and peered at Kame, who was standing above him.
The younger one was completely wet, starting from hair, which was sticking to his neck and shoulders, then down across the smooth chest and narrow waist. The drops were sparkling on his skin and his eyes, changed by the light into almost bronze color, were shining in amusement. Actually, Kame looked very handsome like that…
Jin gulped down heavily, suddenly not able to focus his look somewhere else, staring at the young man, as if he saw him for the first time. Was this bartender always so... Attractive?
"It wasn´t intentional," Kame smiled innocently, which only benefited the whole image.
Then, as if he realized something, Kame broke the connection of their eyes hastily and sat down next to Jin, to let himself dry up too, with his eyes focused at the running water in front of them.
"I´m not so sure about that…" Jin grunted and turned his boots, which were put on his right, around nervously, to expose the other side of them to the sun.
Wait. Nervous? Why the hell am I nervous?
Somewhat confused Jin spotted something unusual on Kame´s otherwise smooth skin then. It was a quite big and scary scar in the lower part of his back. He saw it only now, when he changed his position, putting his hands back to lean on them.
The younger one probably realized his stare, because he turned to face him and his expression got more serious. Jin looked in his eyes, and this time Kame didn´t dodge the glance.
"Is that…?" Jin started quietly.
"Yeah," Kame nodded. "It´s from the day I was shot by Karnaka´s men."
Jin felt cold shivers on his back seeing the evidence, which almost a lethal wound left on Kame. It was really a miracle that the guy was still alive.
"I´m really glad you survived that, you know?"
Kame´s lips created such a sad smile, that Jin felt an urge to hug him. Then he looked away and the older one noticed that his expression became distant, as if he was lost somewhere else.
Crap, I didn´t mean to spoil the mood… Jin jumped up on his feet lively.
"Well, we should deal with our catch before those sneaky squirrels will steal it part after part, right?" he proposed while turning around and his eyes wandered across the bushes behind Kame´s back…
In the next second, he jumped down for his revolver, which was carefully put aside on the pile of his clothes. Jin was aiming directly at the spot, where he caught a glimpse of an unusual color, in the eye blink.
"Stay where you´re or I´ll shoot!" he stated loudly and the hasty movement in the bushes stopped.
Kame rose on his feet surprised and hissed over the ache he almost forgot about: "What is it?"
"Well, I have the same question," Jin reacted sharply, his eyes narrowed. "Come out, whoever you´re. Right now!"