Beary Tales

by Jennifer Malone Wright

Pointing to a small stream running through the property, she answered, “I’m fishing. I’m hungry. I’m sick of all these clothes. I’m sick of being human. I’m sick period. I just want to catch and eat a fish,” she cast a sideways glance at Butchy, “that hasn’t been scorched, heated, or ruined, and I want to be one with nature.”

  Understanding perfectly where her friend was coming from, Nita smiled.

  Leilanni leapt from the ground and began removing her clothes as well.

  “And what are you doing?” Nita asked.

  “She’s right. We just need to be bears for a little bit. Even if we can’t have our pelts and forms, we can still be us.”

  Butchy sputtered and covered his eyes. “You can’t just get naked in public like this! We’ll all get arrested.”

  Completely naked now, Leilanni’s arm swung out wide. “Do you see anyone around? Come on, Katya. Let’s catch some lunch.”

  Katya grinned and the two naked girls trotted off to the stream.

  Nita kicked Paul in the leg. “Stop that.”

  His head jerked to her. A broad sheepish grin spread over his face. “I kind of like being human. I didn’t feel this sense of attraction as a gator. When I wanted something, it was to eat.” His gaze moved back toward the two naked women in the stream.

  Nita kicked his leg again. “Don’t do it. If she knew what you were thinking...”

  The muscles in his neck bulged as his head tilted back. Laughing, he replied, “I know, she’d kick my arse.”

  ***

  Hunched over the water, Katya intently searched the depths for telltale signs of fish hiding in the dark crevices of the larger rocks. Her human eyes weren’t nearly as good as they could be, but at least she wasn’t completely blind. Farther up the stream, Leilanni squatted in nearly the same position. Katya’s head jerked to the side as she heard a loud splash. Leilanni had caught another one.

  “Dammit,” she hissed softly. Why did everyone have to be better at everything than she was? Just then, a small bubble rose to the surface mere inches from her right hand. That black rock had a deep crevice on its south face. A perfect hiding spot for an old catfish. Katya ran her hand through the water beside the rock and as expected, the fish darted out the other end. Moving like lightening, she brought her hands together and tossed the wriggling morsel to the bank. “Woohoo!” she hollered as the fish hit land.

  “Great job!” Leilanni called to her. “I have more than enough for everyone, so go ahead and eat it if you’re hungry.”

  Although Katya knew the statement wasn’t a slam, it felt like it nonetheless. Sighing, she worked her way across the slippery stones to reach the bank. The fish still flipped and flopped, gasping for air. She sat in the tall grass and immediately stood again. “Ouch!”

  Nita and Leilanni immediately converged on her site.

  “You okay?” Nita asked.

  “I’m fine. Naked humans aren’t meant for sitting in the wild. Their hides aren’t nearly tough enough for that.”

  Glancing over towards Butchy who was seated on a large rock, Leilanni asked, “What’s his deal?”

  Shrugging she answered, “Not sure. He’s been like this since you guys went native.”

  “Hmm. Well imagine that. The imp knows how to shut his mouth.” Turning to Katya, she queried, “Better now?”

  Smiling, Katya nodded. “Much better. I guess I just needed to unwind.”

  Expression serious, Leilanni shook her head while gazing at Paul who lay sunning himself a short distance away. “No, you were right. We need to remember we are bears. Regardless of what we look like at the moment, we are still bears. The whole point of this—whatever you want to call it—is that we need to be returned to our original forms. I think we lost sight of that for a while.”

  Nita’s lips pulled into a half smile as she looked away towards the woods. Yes, she was a bear, but thoughts of Mato filled her mind. I wonder if he’d care that I’m not really human? she thought.

  The girls wandered away and Katya happily sniffed her catch. It smelled like fresh water and meat.

  Bending the fish to the side, she took a bite out of the middle and promptly gagged. Choking, she spat the raw fish on the ground as her stomach heaved. Her eyes watered sending tears flowing down her cheeks as she fought the urge to vomit. What is wrong with me? Why does this taste so bad?

  When her trembling stomach finally settled, her appetite had completely dissipated. Feeling a bit weak in the knees, she steadied herself against a tree. A large bush further into the trees rumbled. Branches wiggled and danced and before she could stand upright, an enormous grizzly stood before her.

  He raised his nose in the air, sniffed in her direction, and cocked his head to the side.

  Now, had she been human, she assuredly would have turned and ran like crazy. However, having been a bear herself until recently, she did what came natural and stood up straight and tall. A garbled roaring scream belted from her chest.

  The bear should have backed down, but instead its head began to shake from side to side. The animal’s entire body vibrated and jiggled with what appeared to be laughter.

  Nita and Leilanni arrived at her side just in time to watch the bear transform into a very naked man who was laughing so hard tears rolled down his face.

  Leilanni’s face pinched as she yelled, “Butchy! What the hell?”

  “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” the fairy yelled back. Buzzing filled the air as he approached them. His wings came together with one last flap and he settled to the ground directly to their right. “What’s all the como--” He stopped mid-sentence and stared at the naked man. “Oh no. I did not do this. You can’t pin this on me.”

  “If you don’t mind,” Leilanni said as she pointed to her unclothed body.

  Unlike previous occasions, he simply nodded and whisked his wand over their heads.

  The man’s laughter quieted in his shock. “What is going on here? Who are you guys?” he asked.

  “Oh no,” Leilanni answered. “You don’t get to ask the questions.”

  “Right,” Katya agreed. “Why were you sneaking up on me and how did you transform into a human?”

  His gentle grey eyes wandered over Katya’s many curves. “My name is Chris. And I’m already human. Well most of the time. I’m a shifter. Due to your reaction to my presence I assumed you are the same. However, I must say I’ve never witnessed someone attempt to use bear speech in human form. That was insanely funny.”

  “What’s a shifter?” Nita asked. His scent was remarkably similar to Mato’s. Not exact, but close. Could Mato be a shifter too? Was he not fully human?

  Chris’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “So you aren’t shifters then? What are you?”

  Katya shrugged. “I don’t know what a shifter is. Maybe we are.”

  Chris rapidly shook his head as if clearing his mind. “Okay, a shifter is a human who has the ability to transform into an animal.”

  “Oh, like Daren!” Katya exclaimed.

  Nita shook her head. “No, Daren said he was a werewolf. He didn’t say anything about being a shifter.”

  Nodding, Chris agreed. “Were’s are different. Although some are born with the ability, many are changed because of a bite or exchange of bodily fluids. Being a Were is more like catching a cold than a natural occurrence.

  “What’s a cold?” Leilanni asked.

  “What are you guys? Where are you from?” Chris asked.

  “We,” Katya’s arm swept open wide, “are bears.”

  “Were bears,” Nita interjected.

  “Are bears,” Leilanni disagreed. “Just not at the moment.”

  Chris ran a large hand through his reddish blond hair. “Can you expand on that?”

  “It’s a long story,” Katya replied.

  “Sweet girl, I’ve got nothing but time,” he answered.

  ***

  The sun had moved deep into the western hemisphere before they finally answered each other’s questions and the stor
y of how the bears came to be in the meadow had been told. All the while Butchy had sat quietly by the water without participating in the conversation that had moved inland under a large oak.

  “So what now?” Chris asked.

  Katya shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “Everything that happens to us, happens for a reason. Last time it took a while before that reasoning was made clear. This time might be the same,” Nita said.

  Katya’s expression filled with sorrow as she spoke. “I hate this. All this not knowing. Not having a place to call home. It’s terrifying. I just want to go home.”

  Chris reached out and squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay. I’ll help in any way I can.”

  Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, glittering gold bands of magic began to wind around the couples’ entwined hands, moving up their arms and encasing their bodies.

  Seeing the magic at work, Butchy spouted out of nowhere. “Of course!”

  All eyes turned to the fairy who now perched atop the large boulder on one foot doing a weird sort of dance that made him look rather like a chicken.

  “What are you doing?” Katya asked.

  Butchy’s smiled widened. “Celebrating. I finally figured out our next move.”

  “Wait,” Nita interjected, “what do you mean next move? We ended up in this meadow, so isn’t this where we’re supposed to be?”

  “Yep. We were supposed to be here. Now we are not.” He leapt from the rock and flitted across the short expanse to where the group sat under the tree. “Chris, you said you drove here, correct?”

  “Yes,” the man answered.

  “And we are just a few miles from Baltimore then?” Butchy asked.

  “Yes. That’s where I live.”

  “Good. We need to go to Baltimore. Tonight if possible.”

  “But, Butchy. What about our tasks or quests or whatever?” Katya responded.

  “What about them? We need some time off girls. And I can’t think of a better place to do that than the big city. With all those people milling around, it will be very difficult for Goldalynn to find us. Almost impossible really.”

  Chris leaned into Katya’s shoulder, whispering, “I’ll take you somewhere nice for dinner. It’ll beat the heck out of cold fish.”

  Katya squared her shoulders. “I’m in.”

  “Me too,” Paul replied.

  Nita nodded in agreement.

  Sighing, Leilanni’s gaze darted between them. Exhaling, she said, “Okay, but I’m not doing the food gathering tonight.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  When they finally made it into the city proper, the streetlights had begun to twinkle. Bright neon signs glittered in shop windows and although it was dark, people still milled through the streets in droves. At least in the non-residential areas.

  Chris offered to take them to his apartment first to freshen up, but before anyone could answer, Uncle Butchy had everyone—including Chris—dressed to the nines and ready for a night out on the town.

  “Take us somewhere lavish, Chris. Somewhere we can really shine tonight,” Butchy ordered.

  Scrunched between Nita and Paul in the back of Chris’s SUV, Leilanni rolled her eyes. At least Butchy had the good sense to put her in slacks and a tank. Both were white with gold lace trim, but at least it wasn’t a gown like the other two were wearing. He’d even forgone the usual leather boots and allowed her slim gold sandals that were so comfortable it almost felt like being barefoot.

  She looked up and caught Paul staring down at her.

  His cheeks turned pink as he whispered, “You really are beautiful. No matter what you’re wearing.”

  Leilanni immediately looked away, but couldn’t keep the smile from her lips. “I don’t know how to be fancy. I hope he knows what he’s doing.”

  Paul wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Neither do I. Don’t worry. If it goes horribly wrong, at least we’ll be in it together.”

  Watching their interaction from the side, Nita felt a sudden sense of complete desolation as if she were the only person in the world without someone to hold dear. Her thoughts on Mato, she desperately tried to figure out how to get back to him. Back to that club called Wonderland. Quickly wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, she tried to focus on the man who had made her feel completely human and whole.

  ***

  Mato hadn’t lost Nita’s scent, but where once it had been strong, it was now only a whisper on the breeze. Had he somehow gotten turned around and was heading in the wrong direction? No, he was sure this was the way … he was positive.

  Worried and uncertain, he continued to run, but his doubts were quickly pushed away when he burst through the trees into a small clearing. Nestled against the trees, beyond a small, peaceful pond was a quaint little cabin. Nita’s scent wafted gently from the undersized structure and carried through the air.

  It wasn’t as strong as it should be, he thought, so she probably was not inside. But, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to check. He barreled across the clearing toward the cabin. At the very least, he may find a clue as to where she had gone.

  He slowed to a walk and ascended the steps of the porch, as he did, his body began its shift back into a man. His coarse, black coat withdrew into his skin. His bones re-formed into the bones of a human while his sharp teeth receded and his claws, big and mighty, became only fingernails once again.

  After being a bear, he always detested his human form … it was so weak and fragile. But then, the high of the shift always wore off and he was all right with being a man again. That was one of the less glamorous details of a shifter lifestyle.

  The shift completed, Mato hurried for the front door and then stopped short when he realized that he didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. He knew his body wasn’t terrible to look at, but he was also mostly human and knew it was inappropriate not to wear clothes. With a quick glance around the porch, he spotted a flannel blanket neatly folded over the railing.

  Well, he thought, that will have to do for now.

  He lifted the blanket off the railing and then wrapped it around his lower body, tucking the corner of it in as if it were a towel. He left his chest and arms uncovered, figuring as long as his manhood was covered, that should be enough.

  Satisfied with his makeshift wrap, he lifted his hand and rapped three times on the door. He waited for a full minute and no one answered, so he knocked again. This time, when no one came to the door, he gripped the knob and gave it a turn. Surprisingly, the door wasn’t locked and it creaked open when he gave it a little push.

  He sniffed the air. She had been here, and not that long ago. “Nita,” he called out. “My beautiful Nita, it is Mato. Where have you gone?”

  Even though he called out, he knew that she wasn’t in the cabin. Her scent would have been stronger if she was there. So, even though he was not a fan of breaking and entering, he decided that he should have a poke around and maybe find a clue as to where she had gone.

  The first thing he did though, was head for the kitchen and pull a glass from the cabinet. The thirst from all that running was pretty much driving him to insanity. He turned on the water and filled the glass to the brim, drank and then repeated the process three times. After that, he was finally sated enough to look around a little bit.

  There wasn’t a whole lot in the cabin; a table and chairs, regular furniture like a sofa and a coffee table. A fireplace took up a good portion of one side of the small home and a little bathroom held a few toiletry items. What appeared to have once been a mirror over the fireplace was now shattered and spread across the floor. Random piles of blankets covered the hardwood floor in the living area. Upstairs, he found the two bedrooms furnished with beds and dressers. Other than that there wasn’t much in the place.

  He could smell her everywhere and it was killing him, obviously something had gone wrong and her trail ended here, right in the middle of the wrongness. He stalked into the living room after helping himself to another glas
s of water, and suddenly felt a wave of energy ripple through the house.

  Mato.

  It was unspoken, a thought. Somewhere, out there, his Nita was thinking of him, too.

  Then, the energy wavered and pulsed, and a burst of heat flashed through him just as the air directly in front of him suddenly appeared to tear.

  He stared, disbelieving at the growing hole forming right before his eyes. Within seconds it stopped, apparently having grown to its appropriate size. The question was, what in the hell was it?

  Then, from within the strange hole in the air, he felt the pull of the bond just as her scent burst forth from the other side. That was it, he had no other choice in the matter. Gingerly, he poked a bare toe into the darkness and watched it disappear. Feeling safer now, he gripped the blanket tightly so that he wouldn’t lose it on the way to wherever he was going, and let the rest of his body follow through.

  Inside the cabin, a burst of beautiful white light could be seen as the portal snapped shut behind him.

  ***

  Los Tres Cerditos was one of the coolest eateries in town. According to New York food critics, it was the number one on the list of best places to eat in Baltimore. No one got in without a reservation and only those with massive clout could get one on short notice. Of course, those rules did not apply to folks who could use magic to fiddle with lists and rosters.

  Promptly after checking in with the maître-de, the group was seated at the best table in the place; directly centered in the large dining room under a massive crystal chandelier and right in front of the open marble dance floor. The white linen tablecloth hung nearly to the floor. A large silver candelabra woven with tiny white daisies doubled as an additional light source as well as a centerpiece.

  The group took their seats and quietly gazed around the room at the local patrons. The women were clothed in fine gowns that varied in style from sleek and simple to elaborately ostentatious. Huge colorful jewels hung from their necks, ears, and even hair, glittering in the soft candlelight. Most of the men seemed to have shopped at the same store. With the exception of a handful, the men wore black suits with white shirts and black ties. For the girls, it was difficult to differentiate between the employees and the patrons.