The Long Hibernation

The winter had been dark and lonely. The cub had been born as if alone, with only the strong instinct for survival forcing his tiny body to burrow up through the thick fur and suckle milk from his mother’s motionless body. The blankness of sleep would overcome him when his belly was full and he would snuggle in to her warm, life sustaining pelt as he passed the first stages of his life. Her slow, infrequent heartbeat and shallow breathing were his only company during the long months of solitude.

It was late May before she began to stir and show signs of life. The cold spell had extended that year, but she had eaten plenty in the late autumn and her fat had sustained her well. As she awoke from her unconscious state, she saw her offspring for the first time. He was now almost seven months old, strong and well grown.
Her body was stiff from the cave floor where she had slept the long hibernation in a scratched out hollowing that she dug with her claws. Roughly, she pushed at the branches that had kept the mouth of the cave closed to prowlers and let the light and air flood in. Unaccustomed to the brightness at first and struggling to focus against the blinding glare, the cub was wary of the world outside and didn’t stray far from the opening of the cave.
His mother shook and stretched her huge form back into life. The hunger was now upon her, and without consideration for the cub, she dove into the underbrush’s scrabbling to find edible vegetation to satisfy the cravings of her insatiable appetite.

There was a cool chill in the early morning air, but the faint sunshine that heralded the dawn of the new day held the promise of some later warmth in its rays.
Slowly the cub became accustomed to his new surroundings and foraged further from the cave in short trips of exploration. His sheer elation at the long awaited release from the confinement of their hibernation defied caution and inquisitiveness carried him along in pure delight at his new found freedom. Within a few days he had grown used to their territory and would accompany his mother without fear on longer expeditions, bounding along at her flank and jostling her playfully.


Soon the months of summer were upon them and it was time to start the great eating that would nourish them through the coming winter. The cub, more independent now, raced exuberantly down to the river. The fresh green shoots of grass, doubled over with heavy morning dew, dampened the fur of his young feet and his pads, like skates on the wet grass, caused him to slip and slide until a youthful snort of joy escaped from him.
His mother trundled heavily along behind; her great swaying bulk brushing against the low branches of the trees, sending glistening droplets of wetness cascading onto the thick winter fur that still hung in clumps from her back.
Every now and again, having grown cautious with age, she paused to sniff the air for any signs of imminent danger. The cub, oblivious to any threat and still enraptured by his new world, bounded boisterously on down towards the water.


The mother paused nervously at the edge of the river; only faintly did she remember the rush of raging water from the flash flood at the end of the previous summer. A great lake had accumulated behind the debris of an old beaver construction. Eventually the heavy weight had won and the water had broken from its barrier; gained in its impetuous motion and flowed its destructive, crashing course down through the valley. Her male companion that summer had been washed away in the current, struggling against the raging flow. With the large salmon he had caught still gripped in his strong jaws, too good a catch to lose, he had disappeared in the foaming white water.

Now only the faint and distant shadow of a memory haunted her; a memory that had all but disappeared with the need to sleep last winter. All that remained was an unnatural reluctance to enter the calm and shallow waters, an instinct that held her back. The cub rose, consumed by his natural curiosity and placed his feet firmly on her rump, using her as a platform to gain a better view of the river's wide expanse.
The impatience of hunger, combined with the gentle push from the cub, eventually drove her deeper into the water in search of the first fish of the year. The cub followed her eagerly, hungry by instinct for his first taste of salmon.


Word Count :787