Jeremiah Stonepeak's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Jeremiah Stonepeak had chased the fire-breathing bear his whole life. He first saw it as a boy, when it burned a path through the trees behind his father's cabin. Now he crouched behind a fallen trunk and watched it drink from a stream. Smoke curled from its jaws. His only tools were his bare hands and a knife older than he was. Both were useless against a beast this size. Any move now would get him killed, and he knew it. So he did nothing. He watched. The bear lifted its head, sniffed the air, and swung toward his hiding place. Jeremiah pressed flat against the wet bark. His heart slammed. He could not fight this thing. He could not even hold it. He needed something bigger, and he needed help. He backed away slow and quiet. Then he ran for the old trainer's camp two ridges over. Aldric Longbeard was the one man who might know how to catch such a creature. Jeremiah had heard the stories since childhood. A trainer whose beard hung past his belt, who had tamed animals no one else dared touch. Jeremiah found him mending a strap outside his tent, the great beard swept over one shoulder to keep it from his work. "I found it," Jeremiah said, breathing hard. "The fire bear. It's at the stream below the tall trees." Aldric did not look up. "Men who find that bear usually don't come back to say so." "My hands aren't enough. My knife isn't enough. I need what you've got." The old man studied him. He set down the strap. "You've wanted this a long time." "Since I was a boy." Aldric grunted. He rose and dragged a heavy bundle from behind the tent. It was an iron net, woven from thick chains, so large two men could barely lift it. "This drops from above," he said. "You bait the ground. It comes to feed. Then we cut the line and let the weight do the work." He jabbed a finger at Jeremiah's chest. "You climb. You wait. You don't breathe wrong." They hauled the net into the towering trees above the stream. Jeremiah lashed it to a high branch and strung the release line down the trunk. Aldric laid a dead deer in the clearing below. Then they waited in the leaves while the light faded. The bear came at dusk. It swung its huge head, snorted flame, and stepped toward the meat. Jeremiah's hands shook on the line. He waited until the beast stood dead center. Then he pulled. The net crashed down. Chains snapped tight. The bear roared and thrashed, and a burst of fire lit the whole clearing. The iron held. The creature that had haunted his mountain since childhood lay pinned to the ground. Jeremiah dropped from the tree, grinning. Then Aldric spoke behind him, low and grim. "You caught it," he said. "Now you have to keep it. And that net won't hold for long."