At first, James thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He stepped closer, elongating his neck to fix his gaze on the far bank once more.
With this closer look, he became entirely certain.
Those two massive bears were indeed one black and one white, their starkly contrasting coats representing two absolute extremes.
The black bear brought no surprise; American black bears were a common feature across the northern continent.
But why would a polar bear manifest in this sector? Its lineage belonged strictly to the frozen Arctic wastes.
This was a damp, warm temperate rainforest—an environment completely unsuited for a polar bear's survival.
Unless...
A sudden realization struck James, and he automatically glanced down at Aurora standing by his shoulder.
If a white-furred mutant sabertooth could exist in the wild, then why not a white-furred black bear?
Driven by curiosity, James opened the system interface to inspect the profile of the mysterious white bear.
As expected!
The registered data brought a sudden gleam to his eyes. This white-furred omnivore was no polar bear; it was a unique subspecies of the American black bear known as the Kermode bear, though its common name carried far more weight—the "Spirit Bear."
A spirit bear was simply an American black bear born with white fur. The trait was not caused by albinism, but rather by a specific recessive gene locked within the local black bear gene pool.
The two bears appeared to be a mother and cub. The larger individual was the mother black bear, while the smaller white bear trailing behind her was her offspring.
Right now, they were perched atop a flat limestone boulder bordering the river, their eyes locked onto the massive volume of fat salmon darting through the current.
The seasons had aligned for the great salmon run.
Salmon were a legendary, migratory species. Born in the shallow reaches of freshwater rivers, they traveled down into the open ocean during their growth cycle, feeding and maturing within the salt-water environment.
Once their breeding cycle triggered, they undertook a grueling journey of thousands of miles, swimming upstream against fierce currents to return to the exact freshwater cradle of their birth to seed the next generation—a continuous, unbroken cycle of life.
During this epic journey, the salmon faced an array of predators. To deter threats, the male salmon would grow a hooked, jagged jaw structure during the migration, actively guarding the females.
Once their reproductive obligations were fulfilled, the exhausted, battle-scarred adult salmon would perish by the thousands.
Their decaying bodies, settling into the riverbeds, provided the primary nutrients for the newly hatched fry. Those juveniles would eventually journey out to the sea, returning years later to continue the lineage across generations.
But regardless of how tragic or legendary the salmon's life cycle was, to the local wildlife, they represented one thing: an absolute feast.
SPLASH!
The mother black bear and the spirit bear timed the current perfectly, leaping off the boulder simultaneously to plunge into the pool.
Their movements were incredibly agile, completely defying their heavy, bulky frames.
BURST.
Seconds later, the water surface exploded as their large heads broke the film one after the other.
Clamped securely between their jaws were two fat, wriggling salmon.
The mother bear and her cub settled onto the bank, instantly devouring the rich meat with absolute satisfaction.
Watching them feed, James felt a sudden hunger building in his own gut, tempted to harvest a few fish for himself.
"WHOO-OH!!"
Suddenly, a rough, booming vocalization echoed from the thick redwood stands on the opposite side of the pool.
James's ears pinned back instantly. He recognized that specific acoustic frequency—it belonged to the Clovis hunters!
There was a Clovis settlement operating in this coastal rainforest?
Within moments, a cohort of Clovis people clad in crude animal hides emerged from the deep shadow of the trees.
To James's surprise, this party carried no hunting spears or flint weaponry. The group was composed of men, women, the elderly, and children; it appeared the entire local band had mobilized.
They were hauling a live black-tailed deer, its limbs bound securely to a thick wooden pole carried across the shoulders of several young, robust men.
Tracking their posture, these Clovis humans weren't setting up a hunting grid. Their movements looked more like... an offering?
""Chuff-chuff~~"
Upon spotting the humans, the mother bear and the spirit bear didn't turn to flee. Instead, they emitted a low, familiar rumble, as if greeting old acquaintances.
Guided by an elderly female leading the vanguard, the twenty-odd Clovis people advanced toward the boulders, dropping to their knees in unison before the mother bear and her white cub.
"Honored White Bear Messenger, we bring this black-tailed deer as an offering. We pray it pleases you," the old matriarch spoke, her submissive tone directed explicitly at the young spirit bear.
The men carrying the deer quickly deposited the prize onto the gravel beach, aligning the deer's head toward the white cub's position.
Sensing the presence of its apex predators, the bound deer began to thrash and bleat in absolute terror.
"ROAR!!"
The mother black bear didn't care which of them the offering was intended for. She lunged forward, pinning the deer to the dirt with her heavy mass, and buried her teeth into its throat to collapse its windpipe.
The spirit bear trotted happily behind its mother, watching the deer fall limp as its breath cut out.
As the bears began to harvest the carcass, the Clovis people offered a final series of guttural incantations before quietly and respectfully retreating back into the timber.
James watched the entire interaction from the brush, completely stunned.
His human understanding translated their speech perfectly.
"Unbelievable. The world truly holds endless anomalies."
This white spirit bear, much like himself, had been elevated to the status of a totem deity by a local human band.
The reason behind it was obvious—its unique, snowy coat.
In the natural world, a spirit bear manifested with only a ten-percent probability, making them exceptionally rare. In the later mythologies of the Native Americans, these white bears would always be revered as sacred messengers of the divine.
The roots of that future mythology were being established right here by these Clovis ancestors.
Unable to comprehend recessive genetics, these ancient humans naturally viewed a white-coated black bear as a profound omen of prosperity.
Of course, the spirit bear itself had zero understanding of human spirituality. To its primitive mind, these strange "bipedal apes" were simply a reliable food source that regularly brought free meat to him.
It might have felt some initial caution, but over time, it had accepted the routine.
"So it is possible for some wild animals to coexist peacefully with these hunters,"James thought, his perspective shifting.
Losing interest in the bears, James guided Aurora and the cheetah down to the water's edge, intent on securing his own meal.
Catching fish in moving water required refined technique. Though James had spent a considerable period practicing his strike mechanics at his home reservoir, the skill felt somewhat rusty after months on the trail.
But there was no need to waste energy on a task that could be solved with basic intelligence.
Stepping into the shallows, James began arranging river stones to assemble a fish weir—the exact same hunting trap that had once left his mother and siblings completely mystified.