I'd dealt with wild animals bfore. It wasnt that hard. But seeing Ava there, starring danger in the face made me lose it. Her gaze gripped me tight, waiting for me to tell her what to do. My heart was racing for the safety of my sister. I took a deep breath in and trying to foccus.

The bear knew we where there, so there wasnt any need to worry about startling it. But it was busy eating our food, and there was no way we would be able to scare it away. I started to talk in a regular voice, telling Ava what to do.

"Ava, walk back to me, okay?" I instructed. "Just back away this way." I said.

She nodded slowly, and took a step towards me. I could see her hands where shaking, and she looked on the verge of tears. She'd never seen a bear before. This was her first time into the forest, and this was not the first impression I'd hoped would stick with her.

She gripped onto the rims of her sleeves with her fingers and she backed away. It felt like hours for her to reach me. I finally opened up my arms and reached out, curling my hands around her waist. I pulled her towards me into a hug, grabbing her hand with mine.

Once she was far enough away, I started to lead her back to camp, away from the site. She was right beside me, and I held her close with one arm.

I felt a soft, wet drop hit my arm and looked down at the tear in my arm. A pang of guilt went through me. I felt terrible for letting her get so terrified. I held her closer to me, trying to reassure her.

We made it back to camp in one piece, and I called the others over. Peter rushed over, seeing Ava's head hung low, her hair covering her face.

"What happened?" He demanded emediatley.

"There was a bear by the cash." I started. Peter started to check Ava for any injuries as soon as I said the word 'bear'. "Where fine, I found her in time, and everything's okay now." I said this mostly to Ava, kissing the top of her head.

"What's the matter, Ava? Your safe now." Jessie tried to comfort her.

Ava was stifling sobs now, trying not to show it. When you've been communicating with someone without words as long as I have, you tend to be good at reading body language, whether it's intentional or not. I crouched down to her, and held her hands, trying to read her. She squeezed my hands back with, her lips pulled in in themselves.

My heart sank. She was blaming herself for the bear getting into the cash.

"Oh, sweetie, that wasn't you fault. There wasn't anything you could do about that." I told her. I brushed her hair out of her face, which was red and puffy, her nose running.

Everyone tried to cheer her up. Jess took her out to see patch of wild flowers that she'd found the previous day. While they where gone, everyone else tried to figure out what to do about the bear.

We knew we wouldn't be able to scare it off. Brown bears where fairly aggressive, and it didn't even seem bothered when faced by my sister and I ten feet away from it.

Although we didn't want to admit it, we knew we'd just have to wait it out. But that, of course, arose another problem.

Food.