On the melting layer of snow, a string of messy large and small footprints was left behind, deeply imprinted into the muddy ground. Looking at these traces, with the experience of forest rangers, one could clearly distinguish that it was a massive mother bear with heavy footsteps leading several bear cubs walking unsteadily but very agilely.
Jasmine knew this forest had black bears living in it. Occasionally, standing on the castle's stone walls, she could hear roars echoing from afar. It was just that these bears had never appeared near the settlement area, so Jasmine had never seen with her own eyes what they looked like.
Black bears needed to hibernate. Pregnant mother bears would take advantage of the freezing season, when they didn't need to hunt, to give birth in warm, deep caves. Now that the weather was warming up and the ice and snow were gradually melting, the bears, having starved for months, naturally had to hurry out to forage heavily to recover their stamina.
