Summer was going away. Autumn was the most obvious of seasons, arriving definitively with a complete change in palette and a sudden drop in temperature; the winds shifted and the nights grew cold no matter how hard the sun beat down during the shorter days. Adriana hated saying goodbye to summer, in this climate where the season was far too short.
She figured she'd better get her fishing in before the river froze over. In winter you could break through the ice and find fat, sleepy panfish or skittish perch, but that was so much effort as to be no longer fun. It was an easier meal if you could get it then chasing a white hare across white snow, but Adriana would rather spend the winter sleeping and eating only when she had to.
It was rare that she had to share this river in the pack's territory. It was necessary to travel downstream, far enough away from the waterfall that the fish were no longer disturbed and the flow was calm enough so the water was clear. She perched herself on a large rock, still as could be, waiting for her prey to forget they'd seen her there and start moving into the shallows again.
A big, shining trout was moving her way, thrashing casually along the pebbles, and Adriana was nearly ready to pounce, her muscles tense and prepared, when something in her peripheral waded noisily into the stream. In a flash, all the fish were gone.
"What are you doing!" Adriana cried, turning to see who the intruder was. She had assumed, at first, that it was one of the stupid animals of the forest, and was surprised to see a bear cub. Immediately, she regretted her words: where there was a bear cub, there was usually a bear mother, and getting on the wrong side of a bear mother was a terrible, terrible idea. Especially here in the north, where everything was so much bigger.
The little cub (though at this point in its life, it probably weighed more than Adriana, who was no small example of her species), its muzzle dripping wet, looked up at her, and Adriana nearly lost her breath. With piercing green eyes, the most prominent marking on the black face were the brilliant orange eye spots and sharp orange markings. They almost resembled... but no, Adriana thought, it was simply a coincidence.
"I'm thirsty," she said simply, as though it were the most obvious answer in the world.
Adriana glanced behind her, trying to be casual. "Err..." She wanted very much to yell, but first wished to ascertain the location of the other bears she was sure must be around. She could not smell them, though, and bears tended to smell very... distinctive. "Where's your maman?"
The little bear dipped its snout back into the water, and Adriana was going to slink away, hoping she'd be ignored, when it looked up again, gazing right at her with that unnerving face. "Oh, she left already."
