About twenty of them set out early in the morning to hunt the dire bear. Bjǫrnar brought his sons and some huskatnar; Si'gvejg came, along with Þo'rvalðr and He'lgi, and their huskatnar, and there was Ulvrin', and U'scna'bew and Na'nɨmyswa't and a few men from their band. They were armed with spears, javelins, and bows. There were also hunting dogs and a goat with them, and they were all riding horses except Ulvrin', who was riding a reindeer, and the holtmaðar, who were on foot but had no trouble keeping up.
Bjǫrnar was riding Dy'rðfaksr. Þo'rvalðr said,
“That's a very fine horse.”
“Of course.” Bjǫrnar replied with a proud smile, “You won't find a swifter or a stronger stallion in Iceland, Greenland, or now in Vi'nland!”
“Would you care to prove that?”
“What do you mean? You think he has anything to fear from any contenders?”
“My mother has several mares that'll be going into heat soon. We should have a horse fight sometime, and then we'll see if what you say about Dy'rðfaksr is true!” said Þo'rvalðr,
“You can bet on it.” Bjǫrnar grinned, then laughed and added, “and you better bet on him!”
They went to a clearing near where Si'gstelðr and his son were killed.
“He's definitely been around here.” Ulvrin' said. He dismounted and sniffed a tree. “Recently.”
“Is that man sniffing a tree?” U'scna'bew asked He'lgi,
“Yes.” He'lgi nodded, “Yes, he is.”
“Why?”
He'lgi shrugged; “Finns do that sometimes.”
“We Sa'mir,” Ulvrin' corrected, “have our ways.”
“If you say so.” Said U'scna'bew,
“Says the man who holds conversations with his dreams.” Þo'rvalðr said with amusement.
U'scna'bew ignored him and said, “Let's get started digging this hole. We don't use this trap very often. We've got better methods for hunting caribou, but for a bear, it should work.”
Orc-men with shovels got to work digging a pit deep enough to trap the bear. It took all morning and part of the afternoon. When it was done, they lined the inside with sharpened stakes. Meanwhile, Si'gvejg killed the goat, skinned him, and mounted him on a double-tipped spear, which she drove into the ground in the centre of the pit. The spear was long enough that the goat was above ground level. Finally, they evacuated the pit and covered it with branches, leaves, and grass so only the goat was visible above the foliage before retreating into the trees upwind. Some of the orc-men took the horses away some distance while the rest settled in and waited.
It took a long time for anything to happen. Some of them mimicked the sound of a dying animal. They had to chase off some foxes at one point, but nothing else of note took place until around sunset.
As they lay in wait, Si'gvejg had hid next to Ulvrin'.
“I must tell you,” She said, “that I feel the bear will be upon us soon. And I must tell you, I've had a bad feeling about your fate in this encounter.”
“I've had a bad feeling since I left my house back in Norway.” Ulvrin' sighed and looked eastward; “You Norwegians may be a seafaring people, but my people live in the forests and mountains. We weren't meant to cross the ocean.”
“Hang back and don't come close to the bear. Ylgrin' won't think any less of you.”
“Ylgrin' didn't want me coming. She's incapable of imagining anything but the worst. She'd be happy if I didn't put myself in danger.”
“Then you know what you have to do. I know it's not... manly.” she put a hand on his shoulder, “But you shouldn't place yourself in danger tonight.”
“Yeah. I know what I have to do.” Ulvrin' nodded. Si'gvejg smiled. “I have to do everything in my power to kill our quarry. I can't let the others down.”
Si'gvejg's smile disappeared and she nodded resignedly. “Then make it count.”
They were beginning to consider quitting for the night when the sun began dipping below the horizon, but that's when they saw him come shambling out of the trees. He was huge and had the shortest face and longest legs of any bear any of them had ever seen. He went up to the edge of the pit, stopped, and started sniffing suspiciously the foliage that covered it.
“My friend did say they're smart.” U'scna'bew whispered;
“What's he saying?” Asked Bjǫrnar, who didn't speak the pidgin,
“He says the bear is smart.” replied Þo'rvalðr,
“I can see that.” Bjǫrnar turned to Si'gvejg; “Isn't there something you can do? Give him a nudge or something?”
“Yes, but I can't predict what he'll do next.” She whispered
“Isn't it your job to predict what happens next?”
“I can tell you a thousand things he might do, but at this point I can't say with any certainty what he will do.”
“Focus his attention on the goat,” Þo'rvalðr suggested, “until it's all he can think of.”
Si'gvejg closed her eyes and held a hand out toward the bear.
“If this doesn't work,” Bjǫrnar whispered to Þo'rvalðr, “you take your people and go around the left side of the pit, and I'll take mine around the right. We'll shoot him in the heart if he gives us to opportunity, otherwise we push him into the pit with our spear.”
Þo'rvalðr nodded and they both turned to tell their people the plan. Meanwhile, Si'gvejg was having an effect on the bear. He was staring at the foliage. He lifted one paw, put it down, then lifted it again and lightly pushed the foliage. It gave way and he quickly withdrew. He groaned and looked at the goat, pushed at the foliage again, and roared.
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“This isn't working. Let's go!” said Bjǫrnar. He charged out of the trees and went right while Þo'rvalðr followed seconds later, taking the left. The bear looked from one group to the other, stood up, and let out a fearsome roar that reverberated through the woods. Þo'rvalðr and others shot at him, but they were too still too far away so none of their arrows penetrated deeply enough to do any real damage.
He dropped to all fours and the orc-men approached him with spears lowered. The hunters continued to pelt him with arrows and javelins, but the bear growled and kept turning himself so they never got a clear shot at anything vital. Several orc-men came closer and jabbed their spears at him, but he swiped their weapons out of their hands and they fled, but he caught one and mauled him. The bear then charged at the break in the spear wall between Þo'rvalðr's group and Bjǫrnar's. The orc-men at the end of each line ran forward and stabbed him in the shoulders and sides, but he roared and swatted the spears away. One of the orc-men didn't get away fast enough and the bear crushed him underfoot as he made a break for the treeline.
It seemed he might get away, but a wolf—Ulvrin'—leapt underneath the bear and locked his throat in his jaws. The hunting dogs leapt on him too so the bear had to stop and try to shake them off. One was snapping at his leg, so he hit the bitch with a paw and sent her flying into a tree. Ulvrin' had his throat in a vice-grip and was shaking his head violently but his body was dragging on the ground, so the bear crushed Ulvrin''s lower body under a paw. Ulvrin' let go and yelped, and the bear snapped his jaws shut on Ulvrin''s face. There were two more hounds on his back, so the bear stood and shook them off.
As this was happening, the hunters ran around him and made a spear-wall between him and the treeline. Several archers shot at him when he stood, and one arrow sunk deep into his chest: he grunted and dropped again. He looked hurt, but he still had fight in him.
Si'gvejg stood behind the spear-wall, looked him in the eyes, and stretched out her hand. The bear whimpered and backed away from the spears while they edged closer. The pained look on his face grew worse the longer Si'gvejg held his gaze, but as he continued backing up his paw touched the edge of the pit and he snapped out of it. He looked around at the spear-wall as if seeing them for the first time. Roaring, he swatted wildly at the speartips. Some cut his paws and some were thrust into his forelegs so he started bleeding profusely, but he snapped many of the shafts and the disarmed orc-men started running all directions. While others fled, Bjǫrnar went forward and stabbed the bear in the neck.
Si'gvejg shouted and raised her staff. The bear looked at her; she stretched a hand toward him and clenched her fingers tightly. He roared longer and louder than before and stood up; Bjǫrnar pulled his spear back before he lost his grip on it. Þo'rvalðr released an arrow and it hit him near the heart. The roaring stopped and a whimper replaced it. Bjǫrnar thrust his spear into the bear's belly and shoved with all his might. A pathetic sigh escaped the bear's lips as he tumbled backward into the stakes waiting in the pit.
The canopy of branches and leaves covering the pit collapsed, and the stakes snapped under his weight. He lay still at the bottom of the pit. Several of Bjǫrnar's huskatnar poked the bear with their spear tips. He didn't move. When they were satisfied he was dead, they broke into a cheer. Grinning, Bjǫrnar and his huskatnar jumped down to stand on top of the bear with spears held high, shouting triumphantly. Þo'rvalðr too, along with He'lgi and their huskatnar beamed and cheered. U'scna'bew shouted too, but not in victory.
“Stop!” he cried, “Stop it immediately! You'll make Bear Chief angry, and then he might send another bear after you!”
Bjǫrnar was hugging his huskatnar and asked, “What's he babbling about, Þo'rvalðr?”
“What do you mean, U'scna'bew?” Þo'rvalðr asked the man, who replied;
“You're disrespecting the bear in the way you celebrate its death. Bear Chief is the leader of the bears, and he tolerates no disrespect.” Þo'rvalðr looked at him blankly so he explained further; “Killing the bear was one thing. Cheering and dancing on its corpse is another. It was only a bear, doing what bears do, and you're treating it like a condemned criminal.”
“He killed my friend.” Þo'rvalðr pointed at the body Ulvrin', stuck in wolf form in death.
“I don't disagree with the need to put the bear down. I disagree with dancing in its corpse.”
Þo'rvalðr sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He turned to Bjǫrnar and said, “He says you've disrespected the bear, and that the god of the bears will punish you.”
“God of the bears? I serve Frøyr, what do I care about some moist bear-god?” He and his huskatnar laughed at that, then he added, “Hey, since he's the god of my namesake, maybe he thinks I'm his long-lost son and he'll forgive me!” They laughed louder at that, “If he met Frøyr though, he'd definitely be on the bottom.” They laughed loudest at that.
“What did he say?” U'scna'bew asked,
Þo'rvalðr hesitated before saying, “He insinuated that his god will rape Bear Chief if ever the two meet.”
U'scna'bew maintained his composure, but his fists were clenching and unclenching. “Let me have the head. It should be left here to appease Bear Chief, and maybe he won't be angry.”
Þo'rvalðr said nothing, scratched his beard, and looked around at the trees.
“Tell him I claim the head as my prize for my part in taking the beast down!” U'scna'bew said,
“He's not going to let you take it.”
“Tell him anyway!”
Bjǫrnar and his huskatnar were totally ignoring the conversation between Þo'rvalðr and U'scna'bew and were talking amongst themselves. Þo'rvalðr said, “U'scna'bew claims the head as his prize.”
“No.” Bjǫrnar replied without looking at him,
Þo'rvalðr looked back at U'scna'bew, who held his eyes with a steady, stern gaze. They say it was as if U'scna'bew gave Þo'rvalðr a command without saying anything.
“I took the bear down. I claim the head.” Announced Þo'rvalðr;
“Look,” Bjǫrnar said as he climbed out of the pit to stand in front of the much smaller orc-man, “I'm glad you and yours helped us out, even that man. And I'm sorry Ulvrin' was killed, I really am. I'll gladly share the meat, you can even take the pelt, but I landed the killing blow, I'm taking the head, and there'll be no further discussion.”
“You wouldn't have gotten a chance at a killing blow if I hadn't shot him next to the heart!”
“I said, little half-man,” the orc cracked his knuckles and rolled his huge shoulders. “there'll be no further discussion!”
Þo'rvalðr reached for his sword, but Si'gvejg stepped between them and looked up into Bjǫrnar's eyes.
“It's late. You're tired. It's time for us all to have some rest.”
Bjǫrnar had a dazed look in his eyes.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah.” He laid down at the foot of a tree and went to sleep.
Þo'rvalðr glowered at Si'gvejg; “I didn't need your help! No one respects an orc-man who hides behind his mother's skirt!”
She motioned him to follow and knelt next to Ulvrin''s corpse. Si'gvejg told Þo'rvalðr what she'd said to Ulvrin' earlier.
“I warned him, but he sacrificed himself to keep the bear from getting away.” She finished. “I warned Si'gstelðr too, but he did what he had to to feed his family. And I warned Gi'sli.” She looked up at Þo'rvalðr. “You will have other confrontations with Bjǫrnar. Don't face him now, when your luck is so bleak, and there's so little to be gained.”
The following morning, they had to dig a ramp into the pit so they could drag the body out to butcher it. As promised, the meat was shared all around, Þo'rvalðr took the pelt, and Bjǫrnar took the head.
Ulvrin''s body was brought back to his family's homestead. Ylgrin' recognised his wolf body instantly and broke into tears. Si'gvejg declared Ylgrin' and her children to be under her protection and would see they had nothing to fear from danger or starvation until Gjorbu came of age.