Author Description

He saw the bear out of the corner of his eye just before it knocked him sprawling in the snow. It came around the east side of the cabin, just a few feet from him, and it came at a run. He had left his rifle and pistol inside. All he had was the knife on his belt and he went for it as the huge grizzly closed in for the kill. He saw the cloudy right eye and knew this was his bear, the one that had maimed him and the one he had blinded. Judging by it's ferocity, it remembered him too and planned to extract its pound of flesh. The bear was on top of him before he could get up, growling and swiping at him with its sharp claws, it's huge mouth gaping and filled with sharp teeth. It bit into his left arm up high and he heard the bone snap as the animal yanked it this way and that. With the knife in his right hand, he stabbed it several times in the side as hard as he could. It only seemed to infuriate the beast more and it gained a new purchase on his lower arm and broke it there, the bones grinding in the powerful jaws. Amos realized suddenly that he was screaming as loud as the bear was growling, The beast got his left shoulder in his big mouth and clamped down. He was wracked with pain and screamed out in a different note, sticking the animal time and again. He suddenly realized that the bear was going to kill him if he could not do something decisive within the next few seconds. With that, he moved the knife hand up and tried to stab it in the head, to get the brain. The point seem to penetrate the hard skull but it did not slow the beast. Feeling the last of his strength ebbing, he flipped the knife in his hand from a stabbing grip to a slashing one and struck the bear in the throat. He was rewarded by a deluge of hot blood that steamed in the freezing air and the animal seemed taken aback. It loosened the grip on his shoulder and stumbled off him, walking wobbly a few feet away, spraying a gusher of blood all the while. Amos was amazed when the animal turned back to