Resuscitation
The sky was frozen white with the threat of precipitation
And the mountains sat with their backs to the world
Only the evergreens remembered color
Nothing else dared to be contrast.
He awoke lying on his side
In the freezing cold mud.
The vast lake's water lapped his skin
Speaking her intention to make him one of her own.
His limbs bare
The blood in his veins condensing
Nerves paralyzed
He thought he died.
And yet he stayed, unstirring
Conscious of his surroundings
Nothing moving
Except thin air
Thin air
The abusive guardian
The attacking serpent
Uncapturable killer.
She bites and strikes
Whips with might
Howling her rage
At the loner.
He resolved
To disappear slowly
Erased by Nature
Forgotten by the living.
And then suddenly the warmth
Like nothing he'd ever experienced before
Shooting life through him
Pleading with him to try.
He fought it
With all his strength
For it was easier to die
Than to try to live again.
But it persisted
Bringing all the feeling back
The senses
And the pain.
The human opened his eyes toward the warmth
To behold this massive force
He saw a darkly colored bulk
And could not comprehend it.
But it touched him again
And he reached forth his hand with effort
And stroked the disturbance
And found it soft.
Hours he lay there
Watching this thing
Hours
And days
And months
And years.
At last it came to him
The understanding
That the only thing that could bring him back to the living
Was the living.
It was an animal of some sort
A cougar, a fox, a hound, a horse
Or a bear.
A bear.
The beast uttered a low, pitiful sound
And pressed its paws on the human's arm.
It pushed
And he rolled over in the shallows.
He was face down in the mud
With perhaps an inch of water above his head.
He began to suffocate
And die once more.
But there was something different this time
Something inside him
That the bear had restored
Against his will.
Unwillingly
He began to thrash wildly
Unwillingly
He flipped onto his back.
He coughed and choked
On the dirty pure water
Heaving and wheezing
Until he could breathe again.
Every movement he made
Was lightning through his bones
Yet somehow he found the strength
To rise and strike the bear.
He hated the creature
For reviving him
For making him feel
The terrible aching.
The bear, thrice his size,
Barely flinched at the blow.
It gazed upon him
In his ragged state.
The human looked around him and saw
Mountains in the distance every which way
The lake's clear, still water spanning across to one
And trees everywhere else.
He did not remember anything.
No recollection of the past
No memory
At all.
Something moving caught his eye
At the bear's feet.
Upon looking closely
He saw a fish.
The bear still looked intently upon him
Its dark eyes
Watching, almost
Commanding.
He staggered up
To the bear
Reached down
And grasped the cold slimy thing.
It wriggled in his hand
Fighting for life
Yet futile...
He bit into its flesh and tore a chunk away.
He tasted the fresh blood and meat
And wondered
Why the living died
While the dead lived.
He bit again
And again
Devouring the whole fish
Even its bones.
He looked at the bear
Who looked at him
Gentle
And kind.
His senses were sharpened by this meal
And once more he took in his surroundings
And saw an orange glow on one of the mountains-
Life.
Then he began walking
Towards the light on the mountain
And at this exact moment
He gained a conscious will to survive.
He went parallel to the lake
The snow and pine needles
Crunching
Under his feet.
He walked for miles
Until the lake was behind him
And his trek
Met the foothills.
The sloping ground
Swallowed his foot
Every time he took
A step.
The light was
Itself
Turning grey and cold
Under the unchanging blanket of clouds.
The human stopped at a tree
And sat
Under it
With his back facing uphill.
As he sunk
Into the snow
It began to slowly fall from above
And he surveyed the land he'd crossed.
The lake appeared to have frozen
Which told him
This place was only getting colder
And it was not fully winter yet.
He began to thirst as he rested
So he
Grabbed handfuls of snow
And swallowed them.
Almost immediately he felt
More extremely cold than ever;
Before, he'd deadened his pain to the temperature
But now his exposed body began to convulse
Wildly jerking and
Flailing
Uncontrollably
Twisting
Until he laid still
Falling asleep
In a forced surrender
To death.
The human awoke.
All he saw at first
Was the blinding white light
Of the clouded sky.
His eyes adjusted
And he realized
That he was enclosed by
Held by
The bear.