Sacred Ground. Alex Archer
she heard the terrible growl behind her.
Annja turned slowly to see a massive polar bear rearing back to stand up to its full height. It was only ten feet away from her.
And it didn’t look happy.
10
Annja stood motionless as the giant polar bear swayed slightly on its haunches. She could see the sharp teeth in its mouth and the claws of its front legs loomed large in her vision.
How in the world had this bear sneaked up on her? She frowned. She should have known better than to wander around so carelessly.
She stared at the polar bear, willing herself to look right into its eyes. She’d never seen a creature like this up close before. Usually, she saw most of her dangerous animals from behind the safety of iron bars at a zoo. Not having some type of fence between them made Annja’s stomach twist into knots.
The polar bear’s breath stained the air with mist as it stared at Annja. Clearly, she must have been trespassing on its land. But she was curious. Didn’t polar bears usually hunt closer to the water for their diet of fish? Or was this an anomaly of some type?
The bear closed its mouth. Annja wondered if she would need her sword. She could draw it in an instant, but the last thing she wanted to do was kill the bear. Even worse, if the Araktak considered polar bears as sacred animals, she could be committing a grave cultural faux pas. They’d chuck her out of the dig site and all of this would have been for nothing.
And Annja hated wasting time and effort on something only to see it falter.
The polar bear came down off its haunches. Annja relaxed further but kept absolutely still. The bear could easily kill her if she wasn’t careful. She had to play this right.
She could hear the bear inhaling and exhaling all around her as it seemed to sniff her scent.
This close, she could smell the bear. It wasn’t a good smell by any means and it reminded Annja of a wet dog that hadn’t had a bath in weeks. She wrinkled her nose and tried to breathe less.
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