“Yes and no. I don’t want the grizzlies to get a bad name because some idiots ignored the warning signs and stayed in the area. But I don’t want to get you or me into an issue with a sow if they run across her, get too close to her cubs, or get between her and her cubs, and we have to try and get all of us out of harm’s way.”
“But with more of us there to scare off the bear, if they encounter her, it should help, don’t you think?” Kendra asked.
“As long as we stay together, no one runs, we use bear spray if we need to, and we move carefully out of the area, hopefully we’ll be alright. Do you want to wait for Patrick?”
“It might be too late.”
“Let’s go then. Patrick will smell our scents and know where we’ve headed.”
She hoped they were just being proactive and wouldn’t run into any real trouble. But she also knew that the bears would be foraging for berries. The summer and fall were important for them to build up their fat stores to get through the winter.
She also hoped they wouldn’t run into any aggressive males looking for a sweetheart. She didn’t know if any of them would pursue her when she was in her human form, even though a grizzly could smell that she was also a grizzly. She might confuse one enough that he wouldn’t bother her.
They began hiking on the roped-off trail, listening for any sounds that might indicate someone was in trouble. “Head on a swivel,” Grayson said, meaning to watch out for bears, cougars, or wolves.
“Noses in the air.”
“At least they stayed on the trail. I was afraid they might have taken a hike deeper into the forest where bears are not as easily seen in the brambles, and the men could startle them more easily.”
Kendra agreed. “I hope they’re just walking on the trail and not running.”
“Yeah, prime bear bait.”
“Exactly. A running human is the perfect prey.” She lifted her nose and took a deep breath. Then she thought she heard the faint sound of conversation. “Do you hear someone?” she whispered.
“Yeah. The two men?”
“We can hear up to 1,000 feet. One-fifth of a mile,” she said. “So they could be that far ahead.”
“Well, at least no one is shouting in panic or pain,” Grayson said.
“Which reminds me of Jurassic Park, where one of the characters said something to the effect that everyone at the park would be oohing and awwing, until the dinosaurs attacked, and then they were screaming and running.”
Grayson chuckled. “I loved that movie. Yeah, I agree. Getting a close-up photo of cubs is great until you come face to face with the momma bear and she attacks you.”
They continued down the trail when Kendra got a text and checked it. "It's from Amy."
Amy: You two are headed for trouble. So if you're with Grayson, be careful.
Kendra called Amy and put it on speakerphone. "Hey, what kind of trouble?"
"With a bear."
Great. "Grizzly or black bear?"
"Grizzly. I just see the two of you—" Amy paused. "You're in the woods. Are you in the forest now?"
"Yeah, we're trying to stop a disaster from happening in case a couple of male hikers run into an angry sow. A grizzly bear. Ranger Patrick is on his way here also."
"Okay, I don't see the men. I see the woods, the trail, no one but the two of you, and the sow comes out of nowhere."
"While we're on the trail still?" Kendra asked. What if the idiot hikers never ran into any trouble, but she and Grayson did instead, because they were trying to rescue the men?
"Yeah. I'm hoping she's just bluffing. I don't see anything after that. I asked Cedric. He said he hadn't seen anything of the vision. I think it's because you and I are such good friends."
"Well, darn. Maybe we put ourselves in harm's way when we didn't need to."
"I don't know. I wish I could tell you what happened to the men, but I'm just not seeing them in a vision. Okay, well, watch out. Be ultra-careful."
