The sun was already setting as a wolf, who carries the name Jorun, made his way to his house. He was so worn out, having been through such a difficult shift at work, that the only thing he could think and dream about was his bed. He pulled out a metal key from his pocket, putting it in the door and turning it.

A long awaited and definitely deserved weekend was in front of the wolf as it was Friday, so once he pulled off his shoes and hung his coat on a needle stuck in the wooden walls, without even removing the rest of his clothing, he went right into bed.

Once he made himself comfortable, about to drift off to dream-land, he heard some sounds. Perking his ear, it almost sounded to him as if someone was digging through a trash can. He was about to ignore it, when he suddenly heard someone yell, "Hey, beast! Get the hell out of here!"

He then heard a roar, it was of a bear. He heard the bear running at the person, a sound of yelling coming through the wall. That was followed by the sound of a gun fire, after which he heard the animal fleeing away. Jorun closed his eyes, too tired to stay up and listen, and fell asleep.

As the morning sun shined on his eyelids, and as a rooster was loudly crowing, he slightly opened his eyes, shielding them with his left paw from the sunshine, groaning. He then crawled out of the bed, making his way to a small dining room.

He noticed that the two buckets of water he had below the table were just about to run out, only a very thin layer of water was in the second one, and as he needed to head to the river anyways, he put on his coat and boots again, grabbed the two buckets and headed out, down to the river.

It was late fall, the morning air was chilling him as he left his house. The river wasn't too far, it was about a 15 minute walk from his house.

As he finally reached the shore of the river, and dipped one of his buckets in, he heard a rather young voice from behind him, "Good morning, sir Jorun."

The wolf turned his head back, recognizing the other person, who was a 14-years old husky, as the healer's apprentice. He replied, "Good morning, Tobias," turning back to the bucket and pulling it out. As he was filling the second one, he asked, "Near my house, a bear attacked someone yesterday, does your maestro know about it?"

The husky replied as he approached the river himself, dipping a beautifully decorated ceramic jug into it, "Yes, he's already being taken care of, sir."

The adult then pulled the bucket aside and leaned in on his knees, picking up some of the ice cold water onto his paws and cleaning his face with it, rubbing out the tiredness from his eyes. He then shook his face, spraying the water around as he dried himself, after which he asked, "Do you think I could have a word with him?"

Tobias nodded, replying, "Sure, we could go there right now even."

He then raised the jug from the water, drying it off by rubbing it against his clothes. Jorun replied, "I have to first take these buckets home, I'll head to the hut right after, okay?"

The apprentice nodded, after which he headed off on his way, saying, "Well, until later."

"Later," replied Jorun, grabbing the handles of the two heavy buckets, lifting them off the ground. He then followed the younger canine to the village, the sounds of chippering birds accompanying them. They parted not far from the first couple of houses, Jorun heading home.

Once he arrived, he went right into the dining room, still in his boots and coat, laying the buckets below the table. He then grabbed a small clay jug from atop the table, dipped it into one of the buckets and had himself a drink. As his thirst was satisfied, he laid it back on the table and headed out again.

Once he reached the healer's hut, he knocked on the door. The apprentice opened the door, saying, "Oh, hello sir Jorun, please come in," hinting with his paw for the wolf to enter. He did so. It was warm in there, the air felt very moist, full of herbal scents. The healer, a very old looking ferret, was just putting some herbs into a small kettle above a fire in the middle of the room.

The old person then looked up to the wolf and asked, "Ah, sir Jorun, what brings you here?"

The wolf explained, "Sir Arnold, a bear attacked someone near my house yesterday evening, I would like to have a talk with him, if that's possible."

The ferret replied, "Oh, yes, you definitely can. Tobias, please lead our guest to the newest one, okay?"

The husky nodded, "Of course, maestro," leading Jorun to a room with several beds inside, one of which they approached. On it laid a gray wolf with several big, wet, probably soaked with an herbal brew bandages covering his body. He looked over to Jorun and asked him, "Sir Jorun, why are you here?"

Jorun explained, "I've been pretty ignorant of the bear that's been attacking us lately, but I think I've had enough. Tell me, what do you know about him?"

The other person explained, "Not much, but I've heard that he killed 6 people already."

That maddened the wolf, "6 people? Really?! The church bells have been ringing a lot lately indeed, but I didn't expect it to be this grim... The bear has to go."

The hurt wolf replied, "You're right, but no one has the balls to fight against that thing, it's huge."

Jorun replied, "I think I can handle a single bear."

Tobias suddenly spoke up, "Animals don't just go into villages for nothing, I'm sure there's a good reason he comes."

Jorun turned over to him and said, "Listen, this bear killed 6 innocent people already, and if there's something I can do to protect the village, to make sure that my fellow people can sleep without worrying about being murdered by that hideous monstrosity during their sleep, then I'll do it."

The wolf then turned around, heading out. Tobias tried to stop him, he said, "Sir Jorun, please, I'm sure the bear means nothing wrong against us, this is probably just a big misunderstanding, please don't kill him!"

Jorun simply replied, "Don't tell me what to do, kiddo. This bear is causing more trouble than he's worth."

He then left the building and headed right to his house. Once he closed the door behind him, still wearing his coat and boots, he headed right to his bedroom, approaching a wardrobe. He opened it, picking out an old bow, which used to be his father's pride.

Together with it in the wardrobe were two arrows, he picked them up as well, thinking as he examined one of them, "It's been a while... and I only have two shots... Let's just hope I'm not too rusty with this thing."

He then put one of them into his pocket, placing the other one against the bow as he tried aiming at the window. He felt confident, so he loosened the arrow, placing it into the same pocket as the other one. Feeling that it might take him a long time to track down the bear, he headed down to the cellar, to his cooling room, and put a piece of cooked steak into a simple backpack. He also threw in a bandage, in case he got hurt.

With the backpack on his back, and the bow in his left hand, he headed over to where he thought he heard the bear the day before. It indeed was the place, a trashcan was rolled over, with trash all over the place, and the animal's paw prints were left in the ground. Jorun stood the trashcan up, after which he headed in the direction of the paw prints.

Tracking the animal was pretty easy at first, but it got more difficult as he entered the forest. Often times, he saw no traces at all, and he went by the wrong traces several times, only to realize he has to backtrack and look for another set of them.

It took a long time, but eventually, he finally saw a brown blur in the distance. Carefully walking closer, he saw that it indeed was the bear. Not wasting any chances, he pulled out one of his arrows, placed it against his bow and started aiming. He aimed at the bear's head, and as he felt pretty confident, he pulled the string a tiny bit more, after which he let it go, and the arrow flew.

To Jorun's surprise, the bear made a couple steps forward, and the arrow hit him into his left front leg, the bear standing up onto his two back legs and roaring in pain. He then fell back onto all fours, taking a run for it.

"Damn," said Jorun, having not expected the bear to move at that point. "The bear can't run for too long, he'll have to eventually stop for a rest, especially since he's hurt," went through his mind. He followed the bear's tracks again, trying not to make too much noise.

It took him about a half an hour to finally reach the bear. Just like he expected, he was lying on the ground, resting. Jorun pulled out the second arrow and aimed. He wasn't quite sure whether the arrow would make it, and since he had some time before the bear would stand up again, he started sneaking his way closer.

Once he thought he was close enough, he readied his bow again, thinking as he was aiming for the bear's head, "You won't harm another person even if you wanted to..."

Just as he was about to let the string go, he saw a bear cub nudging the big bear. He looked down, the cub seemed rather thin and weak. Looking to the right, he saw another similar looking cub, licking on an empty can of tuna. It then struck him, he remembered throwing that specific can to the trash two days ago, and he remembered the bear digging in the trash can.

His eyes widened as he made the connections. The bear was visiting the village as he, or rather she, had nothing to eat and to feed to her cubs, as the villagers have collected most of the forest's fruits and mushrooms, leaving the bears with only one painful choice.

Jorun suddenly felt guilt. He lowered the bow, throwing the arrow at the ground. Remembering that he took a piece of steak with him, he hanged the bow over his left arm, after which he opened his backpack, grabbing the piece and very slowly, he approached the mother bear and her two cubs. She stood up, noticing that the person was close, readying for a battle, fury in her eyes.

She was confused though, as she realized Jorun wasn't aiming a weapon at her, but a piece of food. She calmed down, and together with her two cubs, they curiously approached the wolf. Once they met, Jorun said, "Looks like we took all of your food, didn't we?" after which he lied the steak on the ground, adding to that, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what I was doing."

The mother bear just sniffed the steak, letting her two cubs feast on it. Jorun then went to look at the wound he caused to the mother. It looked terrible. As the wolf wanted to help her out at least somewhat, he picked out the bandage from his backpack, carefully approaching her as he said, "Don't worry now, I'm not going to hurt you, this is so that mess doesn't get into your wound."

The bear seemed to have understood, and didn't move as Jorun tied the bandage over her left front leg. As he was doing so, he said, "What's happening to you and your children, the whole starving thing, is sad. I'll try to bring you some food every now and then, but I'm afraid that even I need to feed myself."

The bear looked down at the ground. While she definitely appreciated the help, she would have hoped he would give them more. She was hungry, and also very worried that she wouldn't make it through the ever closer winter, and her cubs would have no one to turn to after that. Without knowing how to hunt at the very least, they would die pretty quickly.

Jorun then patted the bear on her back, and also per her cubs, after which he headed back home. He thought to himself as he was on his way, "I thought the bear was a monster. While that might be true, it's even truer that us villagers are way worse monsters than the poor bears. Tobias was right, I just hope they'll be okay."

From there on, every second day, Jorun headed to the forest to bring the bears some food. The bear hasn't returned to the village since. Most people thought that Jorun hilled her, only to Tobias and his maestro did he tell the truth. They were both glad.