Jess planned to come over after she got off work that evening so that they could begin “marking their territory” on the land itself. He was looking forward to seeing her more than he wanted to admit. Since the land negotiations started, he and Jess had spent more time together than they had since high school, and he enjoyed the fact that she was speaking to him again.
A lot.
He struck out into the woods, allowing the forest to swallow him up. The untouched beauty of this land really resonated with him, and he was reassured to know it wouldn’t be clear-cut to accommodate vacation condos but rather subtly altered to accommodate his and Jess’s plans. It didn’t take him long to reach the hilly area they’d been eyeing for the start of the mountain bike course.
They would need to add a small access road or path that connected to Off-the-Grid’s existing network of trails. A wide grin covered his face as he climbed the hill closest to Off-the-Grid’s existing property. Wide and flat at the top, with a sloping front, it was the perfect launching point for the mountain bike course.
Movement caught his eye, and he glanced automatically toward it. He glimpsed a patch of brown fur as the creature moved off into the woods. Hopefully it wasn’t the mama bear and cubs he and Jess had disturbed the last time they were out here. It wasn’t common for bears to hang around one place for this long and might lead to territorial disputes later on. He didn’t want that. Especially since, no matter whose name was on the deed, this land belonged to the bears and other wildlife.
He backed up and pulled out one of the orange markers he’d put in his pack, sticking it into the soft earth at the hill’s summit. He hoped to mark a rough outline for their course before Jess arrived so that he could get her blessing on it.
He made his way down the hill, marking the trail as he went. This hill led to another and then over a small ravine where they would build a raised wooden bridge for the mountain bikes. Again, there was a rustling in the bushes nearby, and again he glimpsed a furry shape in the trees.
The bear was following him.
A frisson of alarm buzzed through his system. This was not normal bear behavior. If the animal was sick or injured, it might become aggressive. Or if it had been fed by humans in the past, it might be hoping for a tasty treat. Neither option boded well, for Mark or the bear. The last thing he wanted was an encounter that might lead to a black bear being put down, which was almost always the result when a bear became a nuisance or aggressive.
Keeping eyes and ears tuned toward the creature lurking nearby, Mark abandoned the path he’d been marking and headed toward the road. He wasn’t armed, had nothing to defend himself with, and though an attack was still unlikely, the bear tracking him was displaying unusual and somewhat alarming behavior.
Better safe than sorry.
The animal darted between two bushes, and Mark’s scalp prickled with misgivings. It was small, most likely one of the cubs he’d seen last week with Jess. Was its mother nearby or had something happened to her?
He stopped, listening. A cub was unlikely to attack, but its mother was another story, especially if she decided Mark was too close to her baby.
Silence in the woods around him.
He started walking again, and immediately the sounds of the bear cub scampering through the undergrowth reached his ears. It was definitely following him and appeared to be alone. Was it injured? How had it become separated from its mother and the other cub?
He might need to put in a call to the Park Service and see how they handled orphaned bear cubs. He’d feel better if he could get a good look at the animal, but so far it had remained concealed in the dense undergrowth.
Mark started walking again, leading the cub toward a more open area of the forest, hoping to get a better look at what he was dealing with. It followed, rustling along about twenty feet away, until it reached the clearing. Mark walked on, continuing a safe distance into the clearing so that the animal could show itself without getting too close.
A brown face peered out at him from a low-lying bush, but it wasn’t a bear cub.
It was a dog.
