Thats true! Mikhail confirmed, alternately massaging the soles of the feet, and said dreamily: I would like to take a nap for an hour or two! It would be good to relax a little and to begin hunting with fresh vigour!
We will catch up on sleep in the afterlife! Sergey Petrovich said mockingly. We are running out of time! Firstly, we need to set up a camp until dark! And secondly, we need to have a bite! Nobody knows when we will have time to eat! and, untying the backpack, he peevishly began to complain: Real men should eat well! One cannot be fed with sleep only! We need meat! Lots of meat! All mans strength is in meat! And we need a lot of strength today! Really! Bears eat wimps for lunch! The moment you gape, relax, and it will get you! It will grab you in the pads, and you will be dead!
Stop lamenting! We are not of the chaff too! We will be able to stand up for ourselves! Mikhail snapped, lovingly stroking the lacquered butt of the double-barrelled gun. And this gun will kill not only a bear but an elephant! A bear for my old lady is like a mouse for a cat! It will be gone in a flick of a finger!
Everything happens for the first time! Watch out! Sergey Petrovich gently mocked, glancing slyly at the new gun of his friend. Even the most expensive guns, especially the new ones, can misfire! One should not have faith in them! Certainly, your gun is impressive! Beautiful! But you have not shot it yet! You should have taken the old Berdan rifle. It is like Robin Hood hits the bulls eye! Mikhail just shrugged, not even trying to argue. But the old man instructively continued: You always need to be ready for anything! And especially for troubles! They are just waiting to stab you in the back! Old guns, like old ladies, are tested over the years, and the new ones are not! There is no guarantee! It is like a young married woman: it has everything but there is no reliability! And a bear is not a harmless mouse! It will attack you from the back in the twinkling of an eye! And to smash a man a piece of cake, as it weighs a hundred kilograms! No man can withstand this! Such beast is walking through the woods, and when some branch crackles it hides in the bushes and waits for people to pass by! And then it pops up, and the person is gone forever! To hunt for bear is not the same as to chase women! You must always be on the alert! Even experienced hunters got into troubles, becoming victims of their own overconfidence, forgetting that occasion commands fate! Only fools are treating all the animals in the same way! And animals, like people, have their own habits and tempers! Sometimes, the hare attacks the hunter! Sergey Petrovich thoughtfully ruffled his grey hair with his hand and said in a dull voice: I will tell you one story, narrated by my old friend from Irkutsk, with whom we had spent more than one night in blinds on the salt-marshes hunting for moose! The old man absently nodded, as if he immersed in the past. You know! You come to scatter before dark for the beast not to smell your tracks and, while waiting for the dusk, there is time to have a heart to heart talk! So, thats what he told me! It happened in Slyudyanka ten years ago! he began to look intently at his fellow, who was incredulously grinning, and said passionately: There is nothing funny here! Trust me, it is not a fictional story! My father, rest his soul, the old man superstitiously made the sign of the cross, told that in the old days it was a matter of honour for the hunter to go after a bear with a spear! A spear and a knife, and nothing more! Eye to eye, one on one! Thats prowess! But sometimes there were even more desperate brave men, who engaged themselves in mortal combat with a bear, wielding a knife and a hat!
It is a pity that they did not do this with a hammer and a foot wrap! Mikhail hoarsely laughed, not doubting that the whole true story was a hunting fable. You wave a handkerchief and a bear rushes from the bushes, like a bull to a red rag! You slash it on the neck and its head rolls off, like a ball! It is not hunt but a real harvest! You go into the woods to mow some meat for the winter, and then sell the skins! What a bliss! No expenses! Only profit! laughing, he continued to twist nimbly between his fingers the galvanised cartridge loaded with a lead bullet, notched slightly on top in the form of a cross. The destructive power of an explosive bullet was incredible. Entering the body as a small neat point, it could go unpredictably anywhere, taking out all the insides.
Do not sneer, doubting Thomas! Young people always laugh! But in vain! Better make a mental note and remembered! Hunting is a serious thing! Like in school, one needs to learn! And you, simpletons, have nobody else to teach you a lesson, except for us, old people! We all are heroes by word of mouth, and once it comes to actions, we hide in the bushes! Showing off egos! One empty bravado! One does not need to be very smart to kill a bear with a rifle. One only needs cartridges and an accurate eye for this! Hand-to-hand combat is another thing! he waved his hand dully. Not everyone has enough spirit to cope with a bear, especially only with a knife! The old man positively nodded, agreeing with his words. The skin of the beast is solid and tanned, bones are strong, and it skilfully wields its pads! Hunters one and only chance to deal a fatal blow is to hit the heart through the ribs! It takes a special skill, honed for years! Not every hunter is good! A person must possess many qualities: bravery and self-control, as well as agility and presence of mind! Certainly, one needs to have strength! But then, one gets so much pleasure when a full-grown beast lies dead at ones feet, defeated in a fair fight! But not everyone will make up ones mind to do this! The coward chooses the easy way, using means that are safe for life! Traps, rifles with telescopic sights, iron hinges! He kills the beast, sometimes, not even seeing it, and then boasts of his dangerous adventures! And there is nothing to boast of, as he stayed in the bushes! A real hunter encounters danger face to face, chest to chest, eye to eye! he sighed heavily. But it is impossible to foresee everything! Man proposes, but God disposes! Luck is a capricious girl! the man helplessly lifted his hands in dismay. Sometimes, life brings us unexpected surprises! Anything might happen! And then all your hard work goes down the drain! It seems that you have done everything right, calculated every step and movement correctly! But no, there is some problem, some absurd mistake that costs you your life! It can be an unforeseen circumstance, a tragic intervention of fate that ruins all the plans! It turns out, Sergey Petrovich significantly clicked his tongue, there are phenomena among animals that react differently to the developed approach, in a non-standard way of behaviour! It happened with that bear-hunter! For many years, he successfully used the simplest way of the hunt: he tore off his cap, raised his hand defiantly, forcing the animal instinctively rise up on its hind pads, and abruptly threw a cap into the bears head! The bear involuntarily blinked, getting hit in the eyes, and the hunter, meanwhile, nimbly jumped close to it and plunged the knife in the heart with a strong blow! One blow was enough for the animal to fall dead on the ground!
Wow! Mikhail admiringly exclaimed, having opened his mouth in surprise. Thats a great skill!
He was a good man, the old man said slowly, looking with bleary eyes as if through the time, he killed the beast professionally, instantly, not giving time to be tormented in vain! suddenly, angry notes began to sound in his voice. If you cut open the bears belly, from the pain, it begins to reel the guts on the pad, dying in terrible agony! This is not the hunt, but the real wild fanaticism! Death should be quick and easy! Sergey Petrovich looked at his fellow inquiringly, who nodded as the sign of agreement. He understood that one didnt need to be very smart to cut open the bear: one hits and retreats to a safe distance! And one only waits for the beast to tear itself apart! And there is no risk! He dully waved his hand. And there is no joy of victory! Low and mean! I already cannot handle a bear without a gun as I have no former strength! Even being young, I was afraid to hunt for bear with a knife! God has not given me courage! The bear-hunter honoured only fair fight and did not tolerate meanness and injustice! He left the beast a chance, which that beast inevitably used one day! He was the winner of the thirty fights with full-grown males, but the thirty-first one was fatal for him! And it happened not because of his oversight or regrettable mistake! He did everything, as usual, according to the old scheme, but it seemed that his luck left him that day! and, having thought a little, confusedly added: Or it was some God of bears that heard about the brave hunter and wanted to challenge him! Sergey Petrovich, like other old men, was superstitious, convinced that even a stone had its forest soul incomprehensible to us. One could not understand what higher powers interfered but the result was disastrous! The hunter, as usual, raised his hand, making the bear stand up on its hind pads, instinctively threw his cap and rapidly jumped to the roaring beast, ready to strike a fatal blow! And the beast suddenly hugged the man! I guess I do not need to explain to you what it means to be in an iron bear hug! It is like to get hit by a hydraulic press! A split second, and your chest becomes compressed in the bag! And before you know it, you will go on a date with your ancestors! The thing was that the beast did not deign to blink and saw the approaching hunter! The rest was the matter of technique! Thats it! The moral of the story is the following: regardless of your previous experience, sometimes, the situation goes out of your control!
Yeah! Interesting story! Mikhail agreed sadly, feeling heavy-hearted. I also know one hilarious story, told by my friend hunter, when I was buying the license to shoot an elk! So, it was like this! One would-be hunter, he excitedly leaned forward, gesticulating frantically, decided to hunt for elk alone! He bought a license and rushed to the exploits! One day no news! Two days the same thing! Silence! On the third day, his wife became worried and went to the forestry! They organised a search party and rushed to find him
Did they find him? Sergey Petrovich asked excitedly, ceasing to disassemble the backpack for a moment.
Sure! It is for urban residents, taiga is Chinese alphabet, and for people like us, it is an open book! But if you know where to look, it is a trifling matter! The man enthusiastically waved his hands. And now imagine such a picture! A big birch of three girths and two dead bodies in it: our would-be hunter and an elk pinning him to the tree trunk with its horns! That is where the irony of fate: the hunter and the prey, frozen in the fatal embrace, and now one cannot tell, who is the hunter and who is the victim! There are no winners and no losers! The death made them equal! he perplexedly lifted his hands in dismay. I guess the hunter only wounded the beast, and the beast did not flinch and went on the man, hit him with horns, but did not rate its strength and nailed him to the tree! Maybe, he did that on purpose, instinctively feeling the approach of death, decided to take the man too! Nobody knows what happened there, as dead did not tell anything! There are many options, but the end is one! I know only one thing: five hunters barely managed to pull the horns out of the crevice! Now imagine the strength of the elk that hit the man!
Yeah, what a story! Sergey Petrovich said dejectedly, lighting a cigarette, and took a deep puff, imagining the tragic scene. Thats because fate played a cruel trick! They probably did not die immediately and, bleeding out, looked into each others eyes with hatred!
Gleefully waiting to see who will die first! smiling like a predator, Mikhail agreed. Maybe, the elk was happy that the enemy died faster, but I think it lasted not too long! Actually, none of them won! Both kicked the bucket!
Yes, it is wrong! The old man uttered accusingly in a sad voice. Two deaths, two crossed out fates!
Damn them! Mikhail angrily made the air blue and waved his hand. I have other things to worry about, I do not want to be concerned at all about them! Who are they to me, relatives or something?! Brothers? Matchmakers? Who?! Nobody! And if they are nobody to me, then there is no need to charge memory with trifles! Yes, there is nothing we can do for them! They cannot be brought back to life! And now they are far away from here, probably, blissfully happy! He dabbed at the sky with his index finger. Indulge in every pleasure! And much more important things to do are waiting for us than being upset about someones worthless life!
Mikhail had no the slightest idea of mercy, compassion, sympathy. He did not care about a strangers fate, he cared more about his own welfare, considering that everyone bore ones cross. And if someone was destined to die, then so be it, but he had nothing to do with this. The man yanked up and waddled to the nearby mountain stream, through the crystal surface of which one could see the sandy bottom and stones covered with green ooze. Frisky flock of silver bills fearfully recoiled from the human shadow, appearing on the surface, and quickly rushed into the thick branches, bending to the water aspen. The man crouched and, raking the cool spring water with the palm, drank from the spring in plenty. Having quenched his thirst, he rose and, stretching out with a crunch, hesitantly concluded:
Bad luck follows us, we did not find any bear trace, even the slightest sign of its existence, along the whole way! As if the beast is not here, and have never been here!
Do not worry, we will find it, and more than one! I noticed this place long ago, during the winter, when I went to set sable traps! I walked around the crevice (it is not far from here) and saw the steam coming from a small vent in the snow! Certainly, it was the bears lair in the roots of the fallen cedar. I wanted to kill it at once, but I was afraid that she-bear was with the bear-cub! The old men perplexedly shrugged. It would be OK to kill she-bear, but it was a sin to kill the bear-cub too! It was too young to die! I would not take it with me, and to leave it there meant certain death! And in the past, I gave myself a vow not to kill she-bears with bear-cubs! It is obscene to kill the child, let the cub of the animal, in the womb or when it still suckles! It is a great sin! Children are children, they walk on their two or four! For this, God will not pat on the head, but will punish, so you will regret the day you were born! And at my age, God forbid, I have no desire to sin! The nightmares do not give me rest because of the past deeds!
Mikhail sarcastically grinned. But the old hunter, having noticed a sarcastic smile, accusingly shaking his head, strongly objected:
I know what you have thought. There is no difference, if good riddance! They would grow and suddenly attack you, and you had mercy on them! And you would not have any chance! Being young, I thought the same: kill and have no remorse! But understanding comes with age. You begin to see the world with different eyes! You become more perceptive, trying not to make unforgivable mistakes that will tear you apart in the future! He sighed, once again withdrawing into himself. The past can be very vindictive! If it does not hit physically, it will hurt emotionally! Only anguish and bitterness know how much time it takes to heal spiritual wounds! And these wounds still torment me! The past takes it out on me for my carefree youth! I cannot hide from it, even at night, in my dreams! It will find me everywhere and exhaust. Sergey Petrovich nervously rubbed his sweaty palms. Every night of the past year, I have the same dream about the doe mortally wounded by me! He sighed bitterly. It was the first time I shot from the gun in the hunting field, and it was such a success! I ran up to my first trophy, thinking that my father would be proud of me! She looked at me, and there were real tears in her eyes! Under her body, there was the crashed new-born fawn, flopping in the death struggle! She just laid there and looked in my eyes, and I saw the unbearable sadness in them, not her pain, but the pain of the baby! She tried to stand up, but her legs did not obey and fell down once again! I heard the crunch of bones! The ribs of the fawn broke! In my mind, everything turned out! You will not believe it but I cried with her! I became like a stone! I felt approving pats of my father on the shoulder but I did not hear his words of praise, I only saw her and the dead fawn! My first hunters trophy brought me nothing but tormenting acute emotional pain for all the remaining years! I dream to go back in the past and to refrain from the fatal shot! Maybe, guilt would let me go! I am tired of waking up in a cold sweat, tormented by her gaze and spotted side of the fawn in the death struggle! The old mans eye glistened and he sadly said: So, the hunt is not always a joy. Sometimes it brings only the pain! And he continued in a more calm voice: So, I decided not to rush things I waited for the spring to avoid committing follies! And keeping off the sad memories, he resolutely shook his head. The past cannot be changed, and one needs to eat something! There is nothing in the shops, so I have to hunt to send gifts for children and grandchildren to the city! We can eat potatoes, as we have our own vegetable garden! They are young, and to grow they need meat! So, if it is a male, as I hope, he will have nowhere to hide!