At the sight of that black shape, Li Long forgot all about the snow lotuses on the cliff. Abandoning his sack of mushrooms, he chased after it with his gun.
It was a brown bear cub.
It was small, not much bigger than Little Black back home, and was probably a cub born that year. It was crouched beside the pile of entrails, slowly gnawing at them.
After running twenty or thirty meters closer, Li Long could see that it was more likely playing than eating.
Since it was a cub, Li Long had no intention of shooting. Small as it was, its mother was probably nearby, which made things dangerous.
Sure enough, just as he realized this, a bear roared in the pine forest. A fat, brown mother bear, nearly as tall as Li Long, emerged from the trees. She roared at the cub, then looked at Li Long.
The cub stumbled over to its mother and got behind her. Only once it was sure it was safe did it turn to look at the source of danger its mother had warned it about-Li Long.
Li Long raised his gun. The mother bear immediately sensed the threat and roared angrily at him, putting him on alert.
The brown bear he had encountered at Hot Spring last time had been closer than this and had moved incredibly fast. These creatures could do serious damage, and Li Long dared not be careless.
But while he was still holding his gun and considering his next move, the mother bear turned and shoved her cub toward the woods, then disappeared into them herself.
Li Long froze for a moment. They just ran away?
Gun raised, he hurried toward the woods-not because he wanted to shoot. These creatures seemed fairly intelligent, and he wanted