Poking out from the bushes was, astonishingly, a bear's head!
However, unlike the massive black bears people usually imagined, this bear's head was noticeably much smaller.
It looked up at the two uninvited guests before it, its front paws resting on the stiff branches of the bushes. Its clear, wide eyes held a touch of innocent naivety.
"So tiny." After her initial shock, Haibara Ai could not help finding the miniature black bear adorable. She cautiously approached and crouched down to its height. "It should still be less than a year old. So cute."
Jiang Xia held back the Mermaid, who wanted to go over and scare the cub, and nodded. "Indeed."
Haibara Ai really wanted to reach out and pat the cub's head, but before lifting her hand, she warily looked around. Since the cub was here, its mother should logically be nearby as well. If there really was a full-grown black bear nearby...
Bang—!!
A gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance.
Haibara Ai jolted and turned back alertly. "Could someone be hunting the mother bear?"
The cub in front of her had also been startled by the shot. Yet instead of fleeing, it suddenly ran toward where the gunshot had come from.
Haibara Ai tried to stop it but failed. Worried that the cub would be hunted as well, she hurried after it, trying to catch it.
After running ten meters or so, another bang suddenly rang out.
Someone had fired in their direction. A deep bullet hole appeared in a tree trunk less than two meters from her, sending wood chips flying.
Haibara Ai hurriedly stopped, belatedly recalling news reports about hunters accidentally killing other hunters.
The forest here was denser than around the outskirts, and the light was dimmer. She waved toward the hunter in