Survival

I vividly remember a murder of crows flying out of the dense, frost-covered evergreen trees. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly. I am still shaken from it to this day. I know it was my life or hers. The mother grizzly was only trying to protect her two naive cubs and charged at me with fear demonstrated deep in her small brown eyes. However, I too had my own cubs back at home and my own self-preservation. My primal instincts erupted. Adrenaline flowed like magma through conduits. I shot without hesitation. I felt relief, but remorse soon followed.