Peeking around the corner, he looked into the gaping maw of a cave. The dim light past the entrance was enough for him to just see the interior. The entrance of the cave extended about 30 feet into the mountain and was about 15 feet in height and width. After that, it opened up into a 30-foot diameter room. Lying in the middle of that area, licking its butt, was the monster bear. Observing it closely, he could tell it looked pretty worn out. Most likely from blood loss.

Quietly, he crept into the cave. Staying near the wall as he snuck in, he hoped that the shadows with the dim light would cover him for his approach. Creeping ever so slowly it took him about a minute of heart-pounding tension to cover the 30-foot entrance. Circling around the interior to be behind the bears head, he squatted down and tensed up for action.

Slowly breathing in, he erupted into action. Rushing forward he slammed the spike end of his hammer into the side of the bear's neck. As soon as his blow landed he used the side of the bear to kick off and begin his sprint back away and around it. With a hideous roar of hate and pain, the bears head snapped over to where Kael had been, biting nothing but air. Standing and turning in an attempt to catch Kael they began their original dance again.

After his third blow, he felt the animal's leg snap as it stumbled onto three. Twisting left and right in an attempt to defend its backside, the creature unleashed a frenzy of snapping bites. Kael backed off and would dart in for a swing at the other hind leg in between the bites when the bear would be swinging its head to the other side. Finally breaking its other leg, he let out a sigh of relief as he backed off.

The bear, in massive pain, rolled over onto its back and came up in an almost a sitting position, staring at the human child with raw hate. Looking at the bear and knowing it was too wounded to catch him now, he had no idea how he was going to finish it off. Backing up to the entrance of the cave they stared at each other before Kael had an inspiration.

Running outside he bashed down a tree so it would fall in the direction of the cave. He spent 20 minutes breaking off the branches from the tree. Piling them up about 20 feet into the entrance, Kael continued until the entire cave was almost blocked. Retrieving his pack, he set it on the ground near the pile of tree branches and started pulling out little packages. He found what he was looking for when he took out a fist size hide bag. Repacking his pack, he slung it over his shoulder. Opening the hide bag and looking into it, he grinned as he looked over the huge pile of tree branches. Walking back and forth in front of the pile, he sprinkled white powder from the bag all over it.

When the bag was finally empty he chuckled. Putting the little hide bag back in his pack, he went outside and collected tinder and an arm full of dry leaves. Dropping it all on the side of his branch pile, he took out his flint and began sparking it. Not long after, the tinder had a little flame going. Blowing on it to spread the flames through the twigs and leaves he waited until he had a nice little fire going. Standing up, he kicked the pile of leaves and tinder into the branches before running like hell.

When he got to about 5 feet away from the branches, he heard a loud whooshing noise and felt a blast of heat on his back. Continuing to run like a madman, he could smell burning hair. Quickly patting the back of his head, his hand came away with tiny bits of his fried hair. Fuck, I’m not even 10 and I have a bald spot.

Exiting the cave he came to stop, turned around, and looked in. He could see that Muta’s powder that he had been squirreling away did a fantastic job on the fresh wood, setting it all ablaze. Due to the wood still being fresh and all of the green leaves in the pile, a copious amount of smoke began to billow out of it. Occasional flare-ups could be seen as the fire spread to other areas that had powder still on them. In just under a minute he had to back away from the cave entrance due to the smoke coming out.

Crawling up to above the cave entrance and a little to the side, he sat down and waited for the bear. He knew it would either suffocate or drag it sorry, broken ass, out of the cave. It all depended on how much blood it had lost and how much it feared fire. After another 15 minutes of waiting, Kael finally grew impatient. Dropping off the edge of the cave's mouth, he stared into the smoke-filled entrance. Pulling a shirt out of his pack he wrapped it around his head like a ninja scarf and headed in.

When he reached his pile of branches he could see that due to the powder, more than half of it already burnt into nothing. The other half had been reduced to hot embers. Turning his hammer flat, he used it to shove a little path through the embers. Approaching the interior of the cave it was still full of smoke. Adding the smoke to the already dim light made it impossible for him to see. Swearing again to himself, he held his hammer in a reverse grip so the spike pointed forward and crept in. As the smoke swirled around he caught a glimpse of the motionless bear.

Deciding to be sure it was dead, he ran straight at its face, jumped nearly to the ceiling, and came down with a furious hammer strike. The spike landed on the bridge of the bear's nose, just below its eyes. With a crunch, it pierced through the hide and skull, exiting into the roof of the bear's mouth near its throat.

The intense pain pulled the bear back to consciousness. Throwing its head back to get away from the pain, it flung Kael who was still holding the hammer up into the ceiling. Hitting the ceiling so unexpectedly knocked the air out of him. He had just enough time to see his hammer still stuck in the bear's skull before he fell straight back down. The creature saw the falling body of its assailant and released a full strength swat at it as it fell toward him.

One moment Kael could see himself falling towards the bear. The next moment he was in immense pain and could feel himself whistling through the air much faster than when he was falling. Sudden light stung his eyes as he was knocked straight out of the cave. Flying another 30 to 40 feet before he hit the ground, he continued to roll for a good 10 to 15 feet before coming to a stop. Laying on the ground, gasping in pain, he continuously coughed up mouthfuls of blood. Gasping for breath, he heaved himself up onto his hands and knees and crawled back towards the cave.

Getting back to the pack he had left at the entrance, he dug through it for healing potions. Not entirely sure what was hurt, he took some recovery powder and a bone setting potion before falling back against the side of the cave. Adjusting his breathing, he started to build up Qi in his meridians, pushing the Qi into the areas that hurt to help them heal.

30 minutes slowly passed as Kael tried to stabilize himself. During this time he could hear the growls of pain slowly turn into whimpers, that eventually stopped altogether. Checking his body again and convinced he wasn’t about to abruptly fall apart, Kael stood up. Feeling his entire body creak as he got to his feet, he grimaced with the pain. How is getting my ass kicked supposed to help me breakthrough? Using the wall as support, he slowly made his way into the cave. Most of the smoke had thinned out, allowing him to see much more clearly.

Getting to the entrance of the large room in the cave, he could see the motionless bear hunched up near a wall. His hammer was laying across the cave on the other side. Walking over to pick up his hammer, he was way too sore to heft it up. Dragging it behind him he walked to the bear. Kicking its leg, he said, “Buddy, in your next life don’t commit acts of child abuse.”

Looking at the huge bear that was laying on its side, he started considering what to do with it. He knew it would take at least 3 days before he was 100% again so it was basically all his food. However, it was too freaking huge to move. Wish I had dad’s knife right about now.

Eventually, he decided to skin part of it first to get to the meat, then figure out what to do after. Using the blade of his hammer he cut the bear down the chest, but up and around the legs, from neck to tail. Looking at what appeared to be an awkwardly created puzzle piece, he went to his pack and got one of his wooden knives. Heading back, he used his left hand to pull the hide back while using the knife in his right hand to cut through where the meat and hide connected.

During the process of skinning it, he ended up crawling up on top of it and working the skin backwards towards himself. As he got towards the back, he had to lie on the bloody, skinless bear, while cutting and pushing the skin downwards. This thing is too fucking huge! Finally peeling the skin from the middle of the belly to the far side of the back, Kael was happy but also covered in blood.

Heading outside to find the tree he felled earlier, he chopped up the tip into large pieces. Leaving the wood by the embers to help them dry some, he went back into the cave to dig a pit. 2 hours later, with his body roaring in pain, he had a 10 foot wide 3-foot deep pit on the inside of the cave, only about 5 feet from the entrance. Throwing all his wood in it, he ended up chopping up some more of the tree just to fill it up. Using his hammer to drag the remains of the embers over, he shoved them into the pit. Finally, he looked at the mounds of dirt he had piled up outside the cave. Was it worth? He thought as his body trembled with exhaustion and pain.

Resting for a while, he drug his now mud and blood covered body back to the bear carcass. Cutting an enormous slab of meat out of the beast, he was disgusted as he saw the entrails spilling out. Looking at the huge chunk of meat that was still lying on top of the bear, he tried to figure out how to cook it. Pondering for a bit, he went back to the huge tree he knocked down earlier.

Heading to where the bottom of the tree was, he found a 2-foot thick branch. Hacking it off, he chopped it into a 20-foot length piece of wood. Dragging it over to the cave entrance he lined it up on the outside to measure it. Hacking it down until about a foot was sticking past the entrance to the cave on each side.

Walking back into the cave, he was glad to see most of the smoke was going out of the entrance. Heading over to the fire pit, he knocked the wood away from the cave wall so he could get to the wall. Standing against the wall in the fire pit, he began to knock a hole in the wall about 7 feet off the ground. Knowing this would put a big bar 4 feet up in the cave entrance, he thought of repositioning it but gave up that idea. I am too short, even with the length of the hammer, 7 feet up is the best I can do. Screw it. Chiseling out a large, foot or so deep hole in the wall, he climbed out of the fire pit and repeated the process about 4 feet up on the opposite wall.

Completing his two holes he went to drag the branch into the cave. Laying it down, he peeled off the bark until the wood was smooth. Moving the log so it was laid out diagonally across the cave. He positioned one end to be near the fire pit. Walking to the side of the fire pit, he lifted the log and jammed it into the hole in the wall. Going back to the other side, he lifted it up and wedged it into the opposite cave wall. Using his hammer, he beat it along the wall until it popped into the second hole. Looking at his work with a sense of satisfaction, he went to get his bear meat. Hauling the 500 pounds of meat out, he laid it over the suspended log, above the firepit. Even though it had been about an hour, the wood was so green the embers had just barely lit the pile up. Seeing his pit was creating more smoke than fire, Kael sighed, then went back to cut more meat off the bear. Smoked bear for dinner I guess.

20 minutes later the bear meat he could get to was hanging near the entrance to the cave. With the remains of the bear now reduced to a manageable weight, he rolled it over and finished skinning it. Laying out the rest of the decent slabs of meat on his wood beam, he went back to the skin. Wrapping up the bones, entrails, and other bits in the skin he drug it out of the cave. Leaving the hide by the cave's mouth, he chopped up some more wood for his pit, then threw a few arms full of leaves on it. Hopefully, the smell of smoke will cover most of this.

Converting the hundred foot tall and 5-foot thick tree he had cut down into 8, 20-foot sections, he slowly split them all in half. Stacking them two thick, he piled them up blocking the cave. Being sure there were enough gaps in them for air to blow in and smoke to pour out.

Looking up to see that it was late afternoon to early evening, he swore at how much time he spent cleaning things up. Moving his logs enough to stash his pack inside the cave, he covered the mouth back up before grabbing his bearskin sack. Taking a look around to get his bearing, he took off towards the way he came from this morning.

With the giant bearskin leaving a trail behind him, the best he could do was a light jog. Even that caused him to deal with a fair quantity of pain. After an hour, he could hear the sounds of water up ahead. Hearing the water he decided to stop, and dump the bones, scraps, and gross bits out of his bearskin. He took a moment to gather two femurs, the huge tusks, and the foot-long claws of the bear, before rolling them up in the bearskin and taking off again.

Arriving at the edge of the river he left his hammer and bearskin roll at the edge, while he gingerly stepped into the ice-cold water. Using sand from the bottom of the river he scrubbed all of the blood and mud off of himself and out of his hair.

Kael unrolled the bearskin, careful not to lose the treasures wrapped inside. Pulling out a wooden knife from his waist pack he began to scrape the skin. Using the water to clean the smell of blood off the skin, he scrapped it clean. When he finished, he ended up with about 1,600 pounds of wet, smelly, bear hide. Folding it in half, he then rolled up the hide with the parts he saved earlier wrapped inside. Throwing it over his shoulder and picking up his hammer, he took off back to the cave. On the way back he made sure to circle around the area he dumped the bear remains to avoid running into any other animals.

He got back to the cave an hour after darkness had fallen. Seeing that his logs were still in place was a relief. Moving two of the logs out of the way he opened up about a third of the entrance before going inside. After being gone for about three hours the fire had burnt down low. Looking at the suspended meat though, it was apparent the wood had finally caught and started a large blaze.

Although he had the idea to smoke the meat overnight, that was no longer needed as about a quarter of it was burnt, and another quarter was “well done.” Laying down his bearskin on the opposite side of the fire pit, he was mad that his internal cooking timer did not go off.

Thinking he shouldn’t waste anything, he did something he had not done in years. Activating his Internal Forging technique, he began to grab and stuff the burnt meat into his mouth. Feeling small threads of energy that was still in it seep out and into his muscle he was excited. Stuffing more and more of the meat into his mouth, he finished all of the burnt and well-done meat before he was full. With a loud burp, he patted his stomach then froze. Shit, I don’t hurt anymore. Damn it all, he never told me this would help me heal!

Feeling much better, Kael pushed the remaining meat down to the far side of his smoking pole. Unrolling his bearskin, he folded it to be 10 feet in width, with the internal side of the skin facing outwards on both sides of the fold. Grabbing four large rocks from the inside of the cave, he tossed the bearskin over his pole, making a long canopy. Using the rocks to pin the corners in place, he had a tent like canopy that extended from the wall to a little bit past the fire pit. Kicking dirt onto the wood until it was reduced from a fire to just embers, he laid down at the edge of his canopy, used his pack as a pillow and fell asleep.