Ninety Degrees Out

Jazz’s growls carried back toward the house.

Damn! Ursa must be up. Heat like this was bound to do it. No gradual warm up. Bam, the thermometer on the deck was almost at eighty degrees already.

Chayton ran like the devil was chasing him, the gun slapping his backside with each leap forward. As he came over the rise at the edge of the forest, he saw Jazz standing rigid behind the log Arimina was sitting on. Alicia was beside him her hand on his ruff, peering into the woods.

The clanging of his bell turned her toward him. But Jazz remained frozen, a low rumbling growl issuing from his throat and his tail straight out and stiff behind him.

“Grab Arimina and get behind me,” Chay ordered.

Alicia yanked her daughter off the log and pulled her back behind him. He shouldered his shotgun, and placing his feet carefully, approached Jazz where he was standing, small yips coming from his snarling jaws.

“Is Ursa up boy?”

The Malawolf began to move forward in between the tightly packed trees. Chay followed cautiously. His bell announcing his presence loudly in the sudden silence as Jazz disappeared.

Scanning the ground, he noticed fresh bear tracks. He turned to see if Alicia was behind him; spotting her at the top of the rise he shouted.

“Go back to the house. Ursa is up, and I see her tracks. She’s got cubs with her. I can’t tell if there are two or three. I’m going to track her and remind her not to come over here.”

He waited until he saw Alicia walk away with Arimina in tow and headed further into the woods. Jazz had his muzzle low, sniffing the breeze. The dog threaded his way between a quaking aspen and an alder toward a small escarpment of broken shale. Ursa’s golden brown fur glinted in the sun as she shuffled into the cave opening.

“Jazz, come here.”

Chayton wanted to observe for a few minutes. With luck the cubs would show themselves and he’d know what he had on his hands.

Ursa gave a grunting huffing woof, and he watched as her cubs scrambled out from under the black spruce hiding half the entrance to her den.

Holy hell, she’s got four!

Tinier than any he’d ever seen before, two were dark brown, one was light blonde, and the other one was white. They couldn’t be more than a month old. He watched as the blonde one stumbled and rolled head over heels after its mother and the rest of them faded into the shadowed hole in the light grey stone.

I wonder if Alicia would be interested in studying Ursa and her cubs. I’ll have to ask. If I remember.

He took his time picking his way back to the path to the canyon. He slogged through the mud, and made another mental note to order gravel, if he could get it. He didn’t want this path to turn into an unusable quagmire. As he arrived at the edge of the canyon, he noticed the overhang he created last year had dropped to the bottom, shattering into jagged boulders, and spreading across the creek. A permanent blockage replaced the ice dam which had vanished. He was going to have nice pond where the stream had rushed through for eons.

He peered over the edge, looking for the hand holds and the ladder he’d wedged into the cliff side. Gone. Freshly sheered granite glistened in the sun. He’d have to find a way down to the top of the waterfall forming as the first rills worked their way over. Talk about instant landscaping.

Reaching into his pocket, he fished out his phone and called his brother.

“Hey.” Hakan answered.

“The ice dam is gone,”

“We know the ice is breaking up and flooding the meadow behind the corral.”

“Yeah, I figured that, but the earthquake shook things up a bit. I’ve got a complete blockage of the creek. The water’s up to the top now, so things should get back to normal. I have a ten-foot waterfall at the end of the canyon where it makes the turn.”

“That’s not a bad thing. A little lake in there would be a great place to swim.” Hakan sounded like a little piece of normal would be welcome.

“I’ll have to see how safe it is. There’s still loose rock falling. Is Kanti back yet?”

“No, and we’re getting worried.”

“You might want to set up your HF rig. Dad reminded me earlier.”

“Yeah, who knows if the cell towers will stay up. I just double checked my solar cells. They’re all up and producing power.”

“Good. I’ll check mine too. Have you heard anything about where the earthquake was centered?”

“In the Aleutian Islands. Close to Dutch Harbor.”

“Tsunami?”

“No news yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The rest of the news around the world isn’t good.”

“Okay, I’m more worried about what’s going on around here. So far so good. FYI Ursa is out of her den. She’s got four cubs.”

“Shit, I’ll make sure my foals are in the barn overnight.”

“She was up turning logs, looking for grubs and fresh greens. Nothing’s growing yet but I’ll bet we get a good growth in the clearings. I might have to take down an elk or moose though. There isn’t much for her to forage for yet.” Chay considered his options. He didn’t want to shoot the grizzly sow. Bears were endangered enough.

“Good idea. Another thing, I’m declaring Kanti overdue if she isn’t back by sundown, whenever that’s going to be.”

“I think that would be about right. If she’s in trouble up on Redoubt, we need to get some help up to her. I’m half tempted to grab the Cub and go look myself.”

“Take care of Alicia and her little one first. That’s next. Kanti’s prepared. She has survival gear with her. I keep having to remind myself, she’s really good at what she does.”

“That’s where we’re heading next. I don’t think Alicia’s going to flood, but I want to check for quake damage. I’ll bring her and Arimina back to my place if she’ll allow it.”

“I’d rather have her with you if you can work it out. I haven’t been able to get hold of Killika yet.” Hakan’s worry for their middle sibling was as natural as breathing.

“I’ll try her later. I’m pretty sure she’s okay. They’re on high ground. I talked to Dad before the quake, so he’s probably alright too. They haven’t had much damage in any of the rumblings from Redoubt, so I hope this one isn’t any different.”

“Okay then, I’ll talk to you later. I’ll see if I can get our sister to answer an email” Haka said.

“Good luck, she’s really bad for ignoring it. I’m surprised our sister can keep her business going.”

“She does okay. Armaruq has our little ones down for a nap. Get your lunch and get Alicia dealt with.”

“Gotcha, talk to you later,” Chayton hung up as he arrived at his back door. Jazz stayed on the floor mat, and he headed into the house.