


When a tremendous fire ravaged the forest, the bear managed to flee by swimming the flooding river and collapsed at the river's bank, to be found almost dead by Kelderek.

In the forest near his home on the river island of Ortelga, he sees an enormous bear. Kelderek is a young hunter nicknamed "Play-with-the-Children" because of his simple nature and love of small children. The story is about a hunter seeking to kill giant bear that may be a god. Maia Shardik is a fantasy novel written by Richard Adams in 1974.
