I heard a loud pang followed by a terrible roar that ripped me out of a black daze. I must have passed out of sheer terror for a brief moment, because the next thing I knew was the weight of the bear smothering me and making it hard to breathe. His jaw was locked around my head and his tongue rasped against my eyeball, while his saliva covered most of my face like a sickening, stinking moisturizer. And I screamed. Oh lord, did I scream. Louder than I'd ever done, and up to the point where my vocal cords hurt.

Panicked, I wiggled around and tried to get away when it occurred to me that the bear had stopped moving. The overwhelming stench from the fur clothed beast competed with the most disgusting breath I'd ever smelled and made me retch. However, encouraged by the now seemingly lifeless body, I tried to remove its gaping jaw from my face and push him away, only to find that it didn't even move.

Once again, I screamed and gasped for air. I didn't know what happened to the bear or why it seemed lifeless, but I was absolutely sure I'd die from suffocation from the weight and pressure against my throat if I didn't get away. But I had landed on my arm, so I only had my left arm free to move, and I was simply not strong enough. An overwhelming sensation of defeat and helplessness made me even weaker than I already was, and my eyes brimmed with tears when I felt something warm and wet dripping onto my neck and chest. It was blood. Thick, sticky blood that leaked down on my chest and neck. Some even trickled down on my jaw and threatened to get into my mouth if I didn't close it.

Obviously, it must have been a gunshot I'd heard. But from who? Who shot it? The little girl? Her parents? I thought the girl was alone? Then again, who lets a little girl walk around in a forest by herself? If she was a girl and not a guardian angel or something. At this point nothing would really surprise me.

"Be careful," she'd said, and those words couldn't be truer.

I was abruptly brought out of my milli-seconds long train of thoughts when the weight of the dead bear rolled off me.

"Are you alright?" someone asked with a ragged voice. I squinted to see who this person was, but my eyes were too full of saliva from the bear to see much even though I wiped the best I could. I actually felt surprised to finally meet someone else than dangerous animals that wanted to kill me. Being near what appeared to be a normal human again almost felt surreal. However, even though a part of me was screaming with relief, the little girl's voice kept ringing in my head, telling me to be careful. That's why I only answered with a light nod.

"Big boar, this," he said casually and patted the animal's shoulder. "You were extremely lucky that I managed to shoot it before he got a proper grip. Are you hurt in any way?"

I wasn't sure. Was I? The blood that now covered half of my face and most of my torso was from the bear, wasn't it? I propped myself up on my elbows and tested if my limbs were intact, which they fortunately were. But I felt an intense pain on the side of my rib cage and winced as I sat up. With shaking hands, I touched the area, and remembered short flashes of the bear's big paw knocking the air out of my lungs, and I forced myself not to think about it.

"Are you okay to stand?" the man asked and reached out his hand to me, and I was finally able to focus enough to study him closer. He was a large man. Muscular, square-built and with a bit of a beer belly. His hair was silvery and long enough to stick out from under his rather shabby looking baseball cap, so I guessed he had to be in his fifties.

"You're not talking much, are you?" he chuckled and studied my appearance. It made me feel uncomfortable. And when I placed my hand in his and let him help me up, I actually felt a bit intimidated. I was quite tall to be a girl but compared to this man, I looked like a child.

"Don't worry. You don't have to. But I suggest you go clean yourself up in the river. You look a bit grotesque with all the blood."

He laughed louder when I wrapped my arms around my waist to cover up. A strange, barking laughter that made his already small eyes become even smaller when he grinned. His face was covered in stubbles that was borderline long enough to call a full beard, and his teeth were yellow stained, probably from tobacco and coffee.

Should I do as he said? That would mean I would have wet clothes all night through and possibly even the next day. And there was absolutely no way I would take them off to wash them properly in front of him and then hang them to dry afterwards. His mere presence made me want to cover myself up from head to toe so he would stop staring. However, walking around in dirty clothes drenched with stinking blood wasn't really an alternative, so I stepped back and almost tripped on one of the bear's paws. But I didn't fall because he quickly gripped my arm to steady me, and that's when I realized exactly how huge he was. His hands were almost the size of dinner plates, and his fingers were thick and squeezed hard around my arm like it was a small stick.

"Careful there, miss..."

He wanted me to tell my name, but my voice had left me completely and my mouth felt like it was full of sand.

"I'm Brody, by the way. But everybody just calls me Buck."

I nodded again and tried to smile, but it felt like my face was dead frozen and my smile only became an odd grimace that didn't reach my eyes. He signed for me to move towards the river, and I walked like I was in some strange kind of spell. I was almost killed by a bear. I should be relieved that he saved me, but I wasn't. It felt like I was trapped in some kind of parallel universe that was somewhere in between a dream and real life. And it wasn't a very pleasant dream.

I snapped out of my daze as soon as the cold water engulfed my feet, and I held my breath when it reached past my knees and up to my thighs. I felt way too uncomfortable undressing in front of the man, but I had no choice but to remove at least my cardigan so I could rinse it. I only wished I had soap so I could do it properly. Cleaning clothes that were still on your body turned out to be even more challenging. And lastly, I washed my face and hair and huffed from the biting coldness of the water and the excruciating pain from my wounds.

Buck followed me with his eyes while I walked back to him, and a sly smirk was visible in his face. It was vague and he tried to hide it, but I saw it. And I didn't like it at all.

"Don't worry. We've got dry clothes for you at the camp," he said as if he knew what I was thinking about, and I shook off the bad gut feeling. He saved me and he obviously wanted to help. I was probably just being paranoid.

"Follow me. It's not that far."

But it was far. It felt like ages before we finally arrived at our destination. It was almost pitch dark now, so I struggled hard to walk without crashing into things or tripping over stones, not to mention how badly I was shaking from the cold autumn night. So, as soon as we got to their camp, I hurried to stand in front of the bonfire that was placed right in front of two tents, a huge pile of wood and a provisional bench made out of a large trunk.

"Jared?" Buck shouted, and I heard some rummaging from one of the tents before an even taller and dark-haired man appeared in the opening.

"We've got company."

The man raised a pair of bushy eyebrows and looked surprised. He hesitated a bit before he replied, and when he finally spoke up, his voice was deep and calm.

"I can see that."

Like Buck, he had rather long hair too. It almost reached his shoulders, which probably was a proof that they'd been her for quite some time, but at least he had shaved.

"What does a young woman like you do at a place like this?"

He reached out his hand to greet me and his palm engulfed mine like a giant glove.

"I'm Jared. Nice to meet you."

He stalled for a moment when he noticed how cold I was and studied me with concern.

"I think we should find some blankets for you before you freeze to death."

"Oh, I think she needs more than that," Buck commented, and I immediately tensed up because of how ambiguous it sounded. Once again, I forced myself to relax when he quickly added:

"Her clothes are wet. Go find some dry ones."

"Of course. What happened? Did you fall into the river?" Jared asked, while walking sideways into his tent. He didn't wait for my reply, though. He disappeared for a couple of moments before he returned with a stack of clothes. "Here. You can use my tent to change in."

Reluctantly I did as he said. And while I changed, I listened to the two men's low conversation and Buck telling Jared about what happened at the riverbank. Then they started talking about going back to the bear and flay it, and I cringed.

"I mean, it's great fur and all."

"Yeah, no doubt. But I think we'll call it a day now. The woman's probably hungry. What's her name?" Jared asked. He seemed trustworthy enough, but I was still suspicious to both of them.

"I don't know. She hasn't spoken a word since I met her. So either she doesn't speak English, or she's so shocked by what happened, that she..."

"It's Skyler," I said as I stepped out of the tent, and both men turned to see me wearing Jared's way too large clothes. The unfamiliar masculine smell felt strange on my body, but I was unbelievably thankful to get out of my wet and extremely cold clothes.

"Nice name."

Both men nodded, and Jared pointed towards a thin rope hanging between two trees.

"You can hang your clothes there, but I doubt they will be dry in the morning. It's too cold and humid. But you can stay until they've dried."

Jared's eyes were curious and searching compared to Buck's intimidating staring.

"Where are you heading anyway? You're not exactly dressed to be outside."

"I don't know. Where am I?"

My answer seemed to confuse him for a moment.

"You don't know? We're in Wrangell St. Elias."

"Where?" I asked, startled. I felt dumb.

"Alaska. Wrangell St. Elias, Alaska," he explained and studied how my face turned from bewilderment to horrified.

"Alaska?!"

I felt all the blood in my veins freeze, and my stomach turned into a knot of anxiety. Why was I in Alaska? Do I live here? I literally had no idea, but I most certainly didn't live in the wilderness. That much was for certain. But which city did I live in? Or town? Or even country? Just civilization in general. How did I end up in a forest all by myself? It didn't make any sense.

"Yeah. And you're pretty far into the woods too."

Both men laughed.

"Are you hungry?" Jared asked. I liked Jared. He was kind. Buck was not.

I nodded.

"Good. You like deer? And I think we have some rice left too."

The flashback to the sudden thought of veggie pizza made me hesitate to answer immediately, even though I was hungry enough to eat almost everything. Not because I didn't want meat, but because I didn't know if I was a vegetarian or not.

"T-that sounds good," I finally stuttered, and watched Jared prepare a meal for all three of us. I noticed them both stealing glances at me now and then, but I choose to ignore it and stared into the bonfire instead while I tried to remember. Anything. But it was like everything was completely wiped off my mind, and all that was left was the last twenty-four hours that had been nothing but a long nightmare.

An hour later, we were all full and the chat between the two men had silenced. I was still lost in my thoughts, but I slowly felt my body relax as I snuggled into a thick blanket. I was warm and safe for now, but what would tomorrow bring? And why did these men give me such an eerie feeling?

The little girl's words kept ringing in the back of my mind.

Be careful.

But before I knew it, I'd fallen into deep sleep.