Grizzly Bear: Maul: Chest & Belly

The last rake goes low and deep, and the muscle wall of your belly parts like wet canvas. You feel heat spill across your lap and you do not need to look. The doctor sews you back by lamplight, layer by layer with silk, and speaks quietly of gut fever and of measuring the laudanum against your heartbeat.

• Belly sewn in layers, confined to a cot for 7 days, no riding, no laughing, no lifting anything heavier than a spoon
• Fever watch every hour: any heat in the wound means the gut was nicked and the clock is running
• /me lies grey-faced and sweating, both hands resting flat on the bound belly, breathing in sips

Recovery 7 days flat under a doctor's daily needle and carbolic, untreated, gut fever finishes you inside three·Doctor, urgently

Two claws opened your belly through the muscle but not through the lining, close enough that the doctor whistles when he lays the lamp on it. He packs the furrows with carbolic-soaked lint and settles into a stitching session that outlasts the candle.

• Forty-odd silk stitches from ribs to hip, no lifting, no riding above a walk for 5 days
• Walk bent forward like an old man; standing straight pulls the sutures and whitens your face
• /me straightens an inch at a time, one arm clamped across the bandaged belly

Recovery 5 days under a doctor's stitching and carbolic, 10 and a raging fever without·Doctor, urgently

The forepaw pinned you while the other worked, and something in your chest gave with a sound like green wood. Three ribs cracked and long furrows raked over them, so every stitch the doctor sets rides on a breath you can hardly take.

• Chest wrapped tight, shallow sipping breaths only, no rifle to the shoulder, no hauling for 6 days
• Coughing or sneezing drops you to one knee; a pillow hugged to the chest is the only mercy
• Claw furrows across the ribs weep through the bandage the first 2 days

Recovery 6 days strapped with a doctor watching for pneumonia, well past 10 if you tough it out·Doctor required

One long pull of the paw laid four furrows from hipbone to breastbone, deep enough to show the yellow fat beneath. The doctor works up them like a man mending a fence line, whiskey for you and carbolic for the wound, and neither bottle goes back full.

• A ladder of stitches up your front, bending at the waist is off the table for 5 days
• Shirt sticks to the seepage by noon; fresh dressings twice a day or the edges go angry
• Four long scars from hip to breastbone once it heals, the full signature

Recovery 5 days with a doctor's care and clean dressings, 9 hard ones without·Doctor required

A single claw found a rib and skated its whole length, and for one white moment you saw bone before the blood covered it. It wants twenty stitches and it gets them, with the doctor muttering that a finger's width deeper would have been a different conversation.

• Twenty stitches along one rib, no twisting at the waist, no heavy lifting for 4 days
• Deep ache when you breathe full; you favor that side and folk notice

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's needle and carbolic, 7 if you let it crust on its own·Doctor required

The claws dug into the meat of your chest and tore down and away, leaving furrows that gape when you raise your arms. Packed with lint and sewn, they will hold, so long as you keep your arms at your sides and your pride in your pocket.

• Chest sutured in three lines, arms stay below shoulder height for 4 days, no roping, no rifle work
• Bandages want changing morning and night; the smell of carbolic follows you around
• /me moves stiff-armed, reaching for nothing above the belt

Recovery 4 days stitched and dressed by a doctor, 8 with fever if you skip the carbolic·Doctor required

It stood on you while it decided whether you were worth eating. The claws only caught you glancing, but a quarter ton on your chest cracked a rib and pressed bruises into you shaped like the pads of its paw.

• One cracked rib and a paw-print bruise the size of a dinner plate going black across your chest
• Short breaths and no exertion for 4 days; lying flat hurts more than standing
• Glancing claw cuts across the collarbone, cleaned and plastered

Recovery 4 days rest with a doctor's wrap, 7 aching ones on your own·Doctor required

Three furrows across the belly, deep enough for silk but shy of the muscle wall, the kind of wound doctors call fortunate and you call a bear trying to open you like a parcel. The stitching takes the better part of an evening and two long pulls of whiskey.

• Rows of stitches across the belly, no lifting, no bending quick for 3 days
• Sitting up out of bed takes both elbows and a curse

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's needlework, 6 if you leave it to scab·Doctor required

Three parallel cuts run rib to rib, ugly and honest, shallow enough that the doctor calls them a warning shot. Washed with carbolic and drawn shut with sticking plaster, they will scar in neat rows you can count.

• Plastered cuts across the chest, keep them dry and don't stretch tall for 3 days
• A dull burn every time your shirt drags across them

Recovery 3 days if a doctor cleans them proper, 5 if you just pour whiskey and hope·Doctor advised

The pin knocked every cupful of air out of you and bruised the ribs without breaking them, while the claws left shallow drag-marks across your belly. You lay wheezing under a dead-weight paw until the bear lost interest, which is a long time to think about your sins.

• Bruised ribs, deep breaths sting and lifting a saddle is a two-man job for 3 days
• Shallow claw drags across the belly, washed and bandaged
• /me winces on the in-breath and lets the sentence trail off

Recovery 3 days taking it slow, 5 if you insist on working through it·Doctor advised

One claw caught your flank and tore a hand-span gash above the hip, bloody but shallow, more skin than substance. It needs a wash, a dozen stitches and a story better than the truth, which is that you froze.

• A dozen stitches above the hip, no twisting hard in the saddle for 2 days
• Belt sits wrong over the bandage; you keep hitching at it

Recovery 2 days with the stitches in a doctor's hands, 4 on your own·Doctor advised

You rolled with the pin the way the old hunters say to, and it half worked, the claws raked your side instead of your soft front. Long angry welts and one bleeding line trail from armpit to hip like a map of what nearly happened.

• One shallow bleeding rake and a family of welts down your side, dressed and stinging for 2 days
• Sleeping on that side is out for a couple of nights

Recovery 2 days with a proper cleaning, 4 if it festers along the line·Doctor advised

The paw tore your shirt open buttons and all, and took a strip of skin off your breastbone as a receipt. Bloody, shallow, and ugly enough that the man who patched you asked twice if the bear was still alive.

• Skinned strip across the breastbone under a plaster, shirt collars and rifle straps rub it raw for 2 days
• /me buttons a borrowed shirt over the bandage, missing two buttons' worth

Recovery 2 days kept clean, 4 if you let the shirt do the doctoring·Doctor advised

Four scratches across the belly, no deeper than a bramble takes, though a good deal wider between the shoulders of the animal that gave them. Whiskey on a rag and you did the doctoring yourself, hissing the whole while.

• Scratched belly under your shirt, stinging with sweat for a day or two
• You lift your hem to show it more than strictly needed

Recovery A day or two of stinging, gone inside 3·No doctor needed

The bear held you down more than it hurt you, and the bruising across your chest and belly proves the holding. Purple blooms the shape of a forepaw ripen over the next day, tender as a bad tooth.

• Deep chest and belly bruising, tender to the touch and stiff first thing for 2 days
• /me pulls the shirt open a hand-span to show the paw-shaped bruise, letting it speak

Recovery 2 days of tenderness, faded to yellow by day 4·No doctor needed

You got a paw's weight across the middle and a set of welts where the claws dragged flat instead of digging. Winded, wobbling, and wearing red stripes like a schoolhouse caning, but whole.

• Winded for an hour and welted for 2 days; tall stretches sting
• Red claw-drag stripes across the belly that look far worse than they are

Recovery 2 days for the welts to lie down·No doctor needed

Your heavy coat and the vest under it took the whole rake, you heard the canvas tear like a gunshot and waited for pain that never came. There is a hot red scratch across your stomach and a coat that now closes with rope.

• One raised red scratch across the stomach, more insult than injury, gone in a day
• Coat and vest raked open, until they're mended you dress like a scarecrow

Recovery A day, mostly for the nerves·No doctor needed

The claws gathered your shirt and the skin of your belly with it, and somehow only the shirt gave. Four rips you can put your fist through, one thin scratch beneath, and a heartbeat you can hear in your ears an hour later.

• A single thin scratch across the belly, faded by tomorrow
• Your favorite shirt is rags, you keep a strip of it as proof

Recovery Overnight, if you don't count the shirt·No doctor needed

The rake meant to open your belly opened your satchel instead, the leather flayed and your worldly goods raining across the dirt. When you tell it later, you leave out the sound you made.

• A red pressure line where the strap dragged, gone in a day
• Satchel gutted, contents scattered, the claw-scored flap makes a fine exhibit
• /me turns the flayed satchel over, poking three fingers through the claw holes

Recovery By morning, aside from the satchel·No doctor needed

You went limp under the pin the way an old trapper once swore by, and the bear pressed, huffed your hat off your head, raked your shirt to ribbons and lost interest. You lay in the pine needles a full ten minutes after it left, then got up wearing nothing but welts and legend. The shirt hangs at camp now like a regimental flag.

• Faint welts across chest and belly, gone in a day
• One shredded shirt worth more in stories than it ever was in cloth
• The right to say a grizzly stood on you and you kept your nerve

Recovery A stiff evening by the fire and you're new·No doctor needed