The Bear

The last two humans, a girl and her father, live an isolated life in a house on a mountain they call the mountain that stands alone. Their existence is governed by the seasons, from fishing through the ice in winter to foraging in the spring. The girl's favorite day is the summer solstice, her birthday. On the eve of her fifth birthday, her father gives her a silver comb that belonged to her mother. This prompts the girl to ask about her mother, and the father explains that the woman struggled to bring her into the world and died the following autumn.

On the girl's birthday, her father takes her to the summit of the mountain, which has a profile resembling a bear's head, to visit her mother's grave. The grave is a cairn of rocks topped with a large flat stone. The father recounts the story of her mother's death, explaining that he built a funeral pyre on the lakeshore and cremated her body. He then carried the infant girl in a pack as he made two trips up the mountain, first to dig the grave and then to bury the ashes. As snow began to fall, he built the cairn in a fit of grief and rage. They decide to make the climb an annual tradition on the solstice.

Over the following years, the father teaches the girl survival skills, including how to hunt, fish, tan hides, and identify edible plants. He also teaches her to read, write, and navigate by the stars, using books from a long-gone civilization. He tells her stories passed down from his own father. When the girl is ten, he helps her craft a hickory bow and arrows. He gives her a brass compass, durable shoes for her eleventh birthday, and a set of flint and steel for her twelfth.

In the spring after she turns ten, a pair of geese nest on the lake. The gander becomes aggressive and attacks the girl. Her father tells her she must either avoid that part of the lake or hunt the geese. The girl chooses to hunt them, killing both the gander and the goose with her bow. The act leaves her deeply distressed, feeling remorse for the orphaned goslings. To help her process her grief, her father tells her a story about a legendary hunter named Thorn who could speak to animals and transform into a puma, an eagle, and a bear to save his people from a fire.

Shortly after the girl's twelfth birthday, her father determines they need to travel east to the ocean to harvest salt. He leaves his own bow at home, telling the girl she is a capable enough hunter for them both. Their journey takes them through mountains and boglands to the ruins of an old settlement, a place that unnerves the girl. While exploring the ruins, the father is bitten on the hand by an unseen animal.

The father's wound becomes badly infected, but he insists they continue to the coast, believing the saltwater will cleanse it. They reach the ocean and shelter in a cave he and the girl's mother once used. His condition worsens rapidly, and he develops severe symptoms consistent with tetanus, including painful spasms and lockjaw. The girl cares for him until he dies, his last words a whispered, I'll miss you. Overcome with grief and rage, the girl builds a funeral pyre on the beach. Believing she failed to protect him and feeling unworthy of the gifts he had given her, she throws the bow they made together and her quiver into the flames before collapsing.

The girl awakens a full moon cycle later to a large, talking bear licking her face. The bear explains that an eagle saw her and alerted him. He has come to guide her home. The girl gathers her father's bones and ashes from the pyre, wraps them in deerskin, and places them in her pack. They begin the long journey back to the mountain.

The bear leads her on a different path, avoiding the ruins and teaching her where to find food. He explains that all living things communicate but humans stopped listening. He tells her that trees hold the memories of everything that happens beneath them, and that the ashes she carries are the remains of her father's story. As winter approaches, the bear leads her to a high-altitude cave for shelter. He soon grows drowsy and, before falling into hibernation, pleads with her to stay and keep the fire.

The girl is left alone to face the harsh winter. A severe storm depletes her food supply. Starving and desperate, she snares a hare and, in her hunger, drinks its blood, which makes her violently ill. In a feverish dream, a spirit-bear tells her she must be hungry for more than food, hungry for what she has yet to do. With renewed determination, she travels to the frozen river to fish. While crossing, the ice breaks, and she falls in. Her pack snags on the underside of the ice, creating an air pocket that allows her to breathe long enough to pull herself out. As she lies freezing, a giant puma appears, picks her up, and carries her back to the cave.

The girl wakes in the cave between the sleeping bear and the puma. The puma provides her with a deer and tells her she is bound to the bear. It prophesies that if she survives and returns home, her story will be carried by generations of bears. The puma then departs. Using the resources provided, the girl crafts warmer clothing, snowshoes, and a new bow. After an eagle brings her a goose, she fletches her arrows with its feathers. She becomes a masterful hunter, listening to the forest and leaving offerings in gratitude for the animals she takes.

When spring arrives, the bear awakens. They spend time by the river, fishing and sharing stories, before traveling north to the high mountain pass. There, they share one last night by a fire before the bear departs while she sleeps. The girl travels the final leg of the journey alone, arriving at her home on the summer solstice.

The girl finds her childhood home overgrown and neglected but still standing. She carries her father's remains to the summit and, next to her mother's grave, digs a new one. She buries his bones and ashes and builds a second cairn, placing his compass inside. The narrative then moves forward many years. The girl, now an old woman, lives in complete harmony with nature. The house has returned to the earth. One autumn evening, she dies peacefully on the lakeshore.

The following summer, a new bear, a descendant of the first, arrives at the lake. He has been told the story of the last woman and a promise he must keep. He gathers the woman's bones, carries them to the summit, and buries them between her parents' graves, rolling a large headstone over the spot. His task complete, the bear leaves the mountain, traveling west as the cycle of life and memory continues.