I can still remember when I was born in the spring of 1994. Immediately after I came out of my mother I began to learn to walk. I got the hang of it after falling a couple of times. Feeling proud about learning how to walk, I started walking around in the meadow where my mother and I and a couple of other moose were eating. Not too long after exploring my surroundings and getting familiar with everything I soon became hungry. I hurried back to my mother to drink her warm milk. It gave me more energy but also made me very tired, feeding like that. Right after I drank my milk, my mother and I walked into the trees where she said we'd be harder to see, and that's where we took our nap. I didn't understand who she wanted to hide from until four months later.

During those four months, all my mother and I did was roam around the countryside eating and sleeping. Life was going so well until the season when the leaves fall from the trees. After eating some bark from aspen trees my mother and I were walking to the river to get a drink when we heard an annoying noise. We stood still for a while to listen to what it might be. Soon it disappeared and we continued our walk to the clear, thirst-quenching water, which I later heard from older moose was part of the great Yukon River. As we were drinking water, the noise suddenly started up again and startled my mother and me. We were so surprised that we didn't know what to do, and just stood there hoping the noise would disappear again. Soon, another moose came by. He was about my age or a little older, but he looked different, like he'd seen something he would never forget. My mother noticed it too and motioned for us to run into the trees to hide and not come out until we heard her call us. We did as we were told and hid so deep in the trees that we couldn't see her. As the annoying noise grew louder, I began to have the feeling that something bad was about to happen. I really wanted to check on my mother, but since she didn't call for us, I didn't move.

About five minutes later I heard a loud bang, and I heard my mother grunt like she was badly hurt. The young bull and I ran just far enough out of the trees to see what was happening, but it was too late. My mother was bleeding from the side of her body, and there were a couple of two-legged creatures down near the river carrying sticks. After I saw all this, the annoying noise stopped. It was quiet for a while. I guess everyone, even the stick-carrying two-leggeds were caught up in the moment. I know I was. That was my mother lying there on the ground, dying. I was so frightened, I didn't know what to do. The only thing I could think of was to run away. As I ran, I never looked back even once.

That was a long time ago. I don't know why, but I still remember that same bad feeling vividly, like something terrible is suddenly going to happen without warning, as it did after I heard the loud bang. I haven't seen any of those strange two-legged creatures again and I hope I don't get to. I've already had a couple of children, but they've grown up and I had to force them to leave me so they could learn to survive on their own just as I had to. I'm back in the same meadow my mother was killed in, and this is the first time I've been here since I saw her lying on her side waiting to die. I'm feeling very mournful just thinking about my mother, and feeling guilty for just abandoning her when I should have run up and asked her if there was anything I could do for her. While thinking these thoughts I slowly dozed off and fell into one of my deep sleeps.

When I woke up I thought I was still dreaming because I could hear that same annoying buzzing noise I did before my mother was killed. Then when I saw those strange two-legged creatures running toward me with their fire sticks, I felt a surge of anger boiling up inside me. I think it was because I'd never really gotten over my mother's death and I wanted to revenge her. I didn't care if they were pointing their fire sticks at me, I ran straight at them and didn't stop until I knocked them down and kicked them. I heard a loud bang just like the one I'd heard before my mother lay bleeding on the ground. My knees got weak and I almost fell to the ground, but when I realized nothing was wrong with me I got up and looked around for the two-legged creatures. When I saw that one of them was still alive I charged over and, with no mercy, crushed its head with my hoof. Then I stayed in the meadow for a long time, thinking that I was no better than the creatures I had just killed. Meanwhile, a lot of birds and little ground critters came by and started eating pieces of their bodies, so I walked away and didn't look back. I hope I never have to run into those two-legged creatures again.