The Great War

={Chapter 12: A Waken Foe}=

Molten slammed the axe down once more, severing another tree from it's trunk, and rolling the tree aside before moving to another healthy looking tree, beginning to hack at it's trunk, too. Molten was in the middle of another swing when he jumped at the sound of rustling behind him, and almost swung the axe into his leg, Molten quickly snapped his head around as he saw Lefty walking towards him through the tall underbrush. "What are you doing?" Lefty asked slowly with a confused tone as he looked around the area, giving the cut down trees laying next to each other a baffled expression. "Uh, would you believe me if I said nothing?" Molten replied with a slightly joking tone, but he let out a disappointed sigh as Lefty gave him a look that silently asked, 'Seriously?'. "Welp, to be honest with you, I'm building a log cabin, as much of a log cabin I can build in one day anyways," Molten stated before turning back to the tree and taking another swing at the trunk. "Why?" Lefty asked in response, his confusion only growing. "For Bryan, with Davis gone, he's likely to tell the human king about Bryan's 'betrayal', so Bryan will be living in hiding, giving him a heads start on building the cabin is the least I can do for him, since I sort of ruined his life," Molten replied with a grumble, keeping his voice in a low tone as he stepped back and let the tree topple over onto the forest floor. "O-Oh, right, here, I can help, just tell me what to do," Lefty replied with an awkward tone as he walked over and helped Molten roll the cedar tree over to the rest of the cut down trees. "Take this and cut off all the branches, try to make the tree logs as smooth as possible, but avoid cutting off the bark, I'm going to cut down a few more," Molten stated with an appreciative tone as he picked up and handed Lefty a chainsaw before grabbing his axe and heading back to another cedar tree. "Where'd you get this?" Lefty asked with a confused tone as he observed the chainsaw in his hand. "Foxy," Molten replied simply with a slight chuckle before taking a swing at another cedar tree. "Wait-, if you have a chainsaw, why use the axe?" Lefty asked with yet another confused tone, staring at the axe in Molten's hands as Molten put another pause in his swing. "Eh, I suppose I just like the challenge," Molten replied with a proud smile before swinging the axe deep into the wood, hearing the chainsaw start behind him.

As Molten heard the chainsaw Lefty was using behind him suddenly cut off, Molten took one more swing before turning around, spotting Lefty looking off into the forest, and when Molten followed his gaze, Molten saw a large, perhaps one of the largest Molten's ever seen, black bear standing on its hind legs, staring right back at the two brothers. Molten and Lefty both slowly set down their weapons in almost perfect unison before standing up straight again and remaining perfect still and quiet, wild bear encounters happened all too often for patrols, but it was also quite easy to deal with, minus the patience part. Whoever was spotted simply had to put down any weapons, to seem harmless, and then remain still and quiet, so the bear could lumber over, smell them and maybe even give a gentle test bite, although they really didn't put any pressure behind it, before they'd leave everyone alone upon realizing that they were metal, which was definitely inedible. But people were still supposed to be cautious, for even if the bears know you're metal, they're still highly territorial, and easily agitated, if they feel like it, they'll rip anything to shreds just for the sake of showing how ruthless they were over so much as speaking too loud. The bear came lumbering slowly towards them as it got down onto all four legs, as expected, and it got about fifteen foot in front of Molten and Lefty before the bear froze and jerked its head to the right, and Molten and Lefty quickly noticed yelling in the distance, gradually growing closer before Bryan ran through the bushes, waving his arms frantically and screaming at the bear as he placed himself in front of Lefty and Molten. Molten quickly grabbed Bryan by the elbow and harshly pulled Bryan back and placed Bryan behind him right as the bear stood on its hind legs and roared in agitation at the three. Molten put his hands out, palms facing the bear as it got back down onto all four legs again and walked towards the three, letting out grunts and low growls as it did so, and Lefty anxiously moved closer to Bryan and Molten, standing beside Bryan and behind Molten. Molten didn't utter a sound, and Lefty knew better than doing that too, where as Bryan was now too confused by the sight to make any noise, and Molten forced a calm expression over his face, slowly blinking and looking away from the bear, calming the bear down slowly by showing it that Molten didn't mean any harm. The bear grunted one last time, before slowly turning and walking off with a loud snort, and three bear cubs came bouldering through the undergrowth with cheerful coos and followed the much larger bear at her ankles, which heavily explained its aggression towards Bryan.