by Wilson, Tia
“Where is everybody?” Grace asked. “I don't think I’ve seen more than a handful of people out and about since I got here.”
“You have a lot to learn about us bear folks,” Anne said hooking her arm onto Graces as they walked. “A lot of us are basically solitary creatures. We spend our times either on our own or in very tight knit small family units. We don't get together a lot as a town and everyone pretty much keeps to themselves. Sometimes on warm summer days you might see small gatherings. You have probably seen some of the cabins dotting the woods at the edge of town.”
Grace nodded her head.
“The closer the cabins are to town, those are the people that can handle being in near proximity to others. We still don't see a lot of them, maybe only on once weekly supply trips. Farther out of the town is where most of the townsfolk live. Cabins hidden deep in the woods and well away from each other. That is how most of our kind like to live. Some of them we might see once a year if they come into town, others it has been maybe a decade or more. There are three brothers who live really deep in the forest that haven't come out of the woods for twenty or so years. Nobody has seen them in that whole time,” Anne said.
“Does anybody get worried about them?” Grace asked.
“That’s not our way. It would be a huge mistake for anyone from the clan to go up into those woods and try to find the brothers. We appreciate solitude and privacy above all else,” Anne said and sat down on the steps of the pagoda.
“I’m a fairly private person myself. It wasn't until Tom first spoke to me that I think I fully realised how much I had cut myself off from other people. I’d built up so many walls to try and keep people out. What about you Anne how come you live in town? Do you not yearn for the solitude of the woods?”
Anne looked ahead at the road leading out of the town and into the forrest that spread out like an impenetrable blanket from the town of Twin Rocks all the way to the range of mountains off in the distance. “I’ve made some concessions for love. We stay in town mostly because of my husband. He wouldn't be able to exist for months on end without contact with other people. When I was a young girl I always imagined myself living in some basic cabin hidden deep in the woods. You know what, that all changed when I meet my husband, love will do funny things to you. I think you know that already,” Anne said smiling.
Grace stammered a few words and Anne cut her off and said, “It’s ok. It’s obvious to me that you have fallen for Tom, and he feels the same. Shifters emotions are always heightened, we fall in love faster and get our heart broken harder than a regular human. You know what is one of the most beautiful things to happen?” she asked Grace.
“No,” Grace said.
“When a human and shifter fall in love. There is a depth of feelings between both that to be honest is a little magical. Some of the strongest couples in our clan are shifter and humans. It seems to bring the best out of both. You balance our urge for solitude and we seem to open you up more emotionally. Be ready for a whirlwind ride with Tom. My husband told me he loved me after a week together and soon after that we started living together. When shifters and humans bond like this its for life, nothing will ever break that bond,” Anne said.
“Why do you think it’s so intense?” Grace asked.
“I don't know, it’s something nearly magical that happens between the two people. It’s like we imprint on each other and then we never feel whole again if our other half is not close by us. Oh and the sex, things get wild when humans and shifters get together, “Anne said grinning. “I guess you already know that,” Anne said nudging Grace gently in the ribs.
Grace could feel her cheeks tingle and she couldn't help it when a smile spread across her face.
“It was a little wild. I felt drawn to him completely, I never felt that with a man before,” Grace said.
“It can be intoxicating and freeing for the human in the relationship,” Anne said.
“Are people in the clan against relationships with humans?” Grace asked getting up. She nodded towards the road out of town and they started to walk in that direction.
“Some of our oldest stories tell tales about humans and bears mixing together. We have always romanticised this union, its seen as the ultimate coupling by some and the only way forward for our clan to continue to exist in a world over run by people. One of our saddest tales is the story of Erlin and May. Do you want to hear it?” Anne asked.
“Yes,” Grace said as she hooked arms with Anne. She was glad she had taken her up on the offer to get out of her place. The air was beginning to warm up and being this close to nature was starting to relax her. Back home she had never had much interest in the outdoor life and now seeing the huge forest stretching off into the distance she imagined herself exploring it with Tom.
“Before America was called what it is today our clan lived all across this great continent. We live how many of us live today. Some choose to stick together in small groups and moving with the seasons. Others stayed in solitude in the woods that banded the country. There were humans here of course but they numbered so few that our clan rarely crossed paths with them. In those days we spent equal time in human form as we did transformed into bears. That would be unheard of these days. Erlin was a young shifter who travelled with his family unit across an area that would be now New York. Settlers from the old world had been starting to come to our land for a decade or so and sightings of them were becoming more and more frequent.
When Erlin turned twenty he split from his family unit to live alone. This is something a lot of our young men will do, they take ten or so years were they live the solitary life, before either returning to the group or continuing on living alone,” Anne said.
“That’s so sad. I cant imagine how the parents must feel if they never got to see their child again,” Grace said.
“We don't feel sadness about it the same way a human would do. A father or mother feels nothing but respect for their cub if they forge a life alone out in the wilderness. It’s is not a slight against the family if the cub leaves and never comes back, we would never even think that. We value individuality above all traits and going it alone is the ultimate expression of our bear souls.” Anne said.
“And if they come back and rejoin the family?” Grace asked.
“That is a time for rejoicing and celebration as much as if they went alone. We know that every shifter has to make that decision himself and if they choose to come back to the group we know it is because it is right for that individual. So Erlin had been off on his own for a year or so. He had been watching a small settlement spring up on the banks of a nearby river and the pull to walk down the muddy main street was a powerful one for him. He dared not to do it, he had no experience with humans at this stage. He had snuck close to the edge of town one night and hid in a cornfield, snatches of conversation carried to him as he squatted in the dirt, all in a language he didn’t understand. And then he saw her. She came out of the small shack in front of the field to dump some used water into the horses trough. She had blonde hair down to her waist. Big eyes like saucers, pale skin unlike anything he had ever seen before. Erlin lay in the field watching her fill the trough and then feed the horses some vegetable scraps. A light breeze carried her scent to him. It was like being hit by lightening, his whole body fizzed with excitement. When a scent resonates with a bear it can be even more powerful than how someone looks, shifters have fallen in love with people having only smelled their scents. It has happened to clan members who live in big cities. They get a whiff of someone and it embeds in their mind and they become obsessed with finding the person. You would not believe what we can tell from a person through their scent, and when it clicks with us we would do anything to get close to it again.”
They reached the edge of the forest and the air chilled as they stepped into the shade. Neither of them noticed the figure flush against a tree trunk and hidden within its branches. The figure observed them as they passed below.
“Do you w
ant to go on further? We can go as far as the first turn. After that the road gets very steep,” Anne said.
“I’m happy to go on. I want to hear the rest of Erlin’s story,” Grace said.
“So Erlin lay watching her and after a few minutes she went back inside the shack. He pulled himself away knowing how much danger he would be in if he was found so close to town. He crossed the open plains outside of the towns limits and climbed the rocky hill to a good vantage point. The town was a smudged outline on the horizon. Erlin stayed there for days without eating, he couldn't get the girl out of his head. Her scent had absorbed into him filling every pore of his body, her image flickering behind his closed eyelids. He felt connected to this girl even though they hadn't even met.
Thirst and hunger pulled him away from his view point. On the opposite side of the mountain was a waterfall with a crystal clear pool below it and a strip of fast moving river that was always abundant with fish. As he got close to the place were he had hunted he heard splashing and laughter. Down on his belly he moved over to the edge of the cliff side and looked down at the water fall crashing into the circular pool. Two girls completely naked frolicked and laughed splashing each other as they slowly walked into the chilly water.
One of them was the girl he had seen a few nights ago. His heart pounded in his chest and he moved down the path under the cover of some low bushes to get a closer look at them. Her scent wafted through the air and it maddened him. He would have give anything at that moment to be able to reach out and touch her, to talk to her, to simply be in her presence.
Both girls decided it was too cold and they got out of the pool. They had only waded in up to their knees. They threw their dresses on and lay in the grass drying their legs in the sun. Erlin creeped even closer taking risks that he shouldn't have. The other girl who had short brown hair got up and the two girls said something to each other. The other girl left leaving May alone. As soon as she saw that her friend had gone she stripped off her clothes and stood naked in the sun before wading into the cold water up to her shoulders. Erlin could hear his heart beat in his chest.
The girl turned and spoke directly to him, Erlin scooted back deeper in the coverings, he couldn't believe that she had seen him. She called him again in a language he didn't understand. Erlin stood up and let her see him. Their eyes met and, well the whole idea of love at first sight comes from shifter human relationships. Did you know that?”
Grace shook her head as they walked deeper into the forest.
“The first poets, or artists that ever wrote about that, they were writing about a shifter human relationship. When the chemistry is right we can know that we love someone in seconds and so can the human. There is something a little magical about the alchemy between both species. Erlin and May felt this tidal force of power between them nearly immediately. They stared across at each other and May gestured for him to come to her. He dived from his perch into the pool and swam towards her, she reached out for him. May stood out of the water as he got close to her and he rose beside her. They faced each other, not touching, a powerful spark of yearning and belonging jumping between them both. This initial imprint is so strong that it is an unbreakable bond between human and shifter lovers. He reached out to touch her and she raised her hand to meet his. A shotgun blast ripped through the air.” Anne said.
“Her father?” Grace asked.
“Even worse, her uncle. The girls parents were dead and the uncle now thought he owned her. They both turned and looked and the uncle and two other men were running up the hill towards the waterfall. They all had guns out and were shouting and hollering. Erlin leapt out of the water and ran, glancing back once at May as he felt his heart contract into a tight fist of pain, he had never even got to touch her. The rest of the story goes that the men rounded up a posse and eventually cornered Erlin in a ravine,” Anne said.
Grace interrupted and said, “Did they think he was a native trying to steal one of their women?”
“That was part of it, but theres also something else. Humans have an uncanny way of picking up on danger from the smallest bits of information, all happening subconsciously, its sometimes miscalled a sixth sense. I think its because they are the apex predator on the planet, that they can somehow pick up when they are in the presence of a potential predator that is superior to the man. It can put people on edge when they are around a shifter and a lot of the time the person doesn't know why. This posse of men had felt this the whole time they tracked Erlin, they thought he was a demon or the devil out to test how strong their faith was. They forced him into a ravine with a dead end. He was exhausted and bloodied from days of trying to out run them. They backed him against the wall. He had nowhere to go and all four men unloaded on him. They could feel there was something off about him the closer they got to him, so they blasted him before they drew too close. The posse dragged his body back to town and displayed it in the centre to scare off any other demons that might come looking to take their women folk. Stories like this are part of our cultural DNA, elder Silas could tell you a hundred stories of love leading to the downfall of one of our kind. Our men and women will do very risky things when it comes to love,” Anne said.
“Do you think the old stories are true?” Grace said.
Anne nodded and said, “Some of them, maybe not all. All we shifters have is our stories, its forbidden to write anything down about our culture. It is one of the biggest rules you could break and would lead you to be shunned for life. We like to live a solitary life, but if you are shunned and the contact from the clan is cut off it usually leads to a very short life. We are all part of a clan, you lose that and you lose your identity. It can be a huge blow to a shifter,” Anne said.
They reached the curve in the road and looked ahead, the road curved up at an increasing incline and then took a sharp turn and disappeared into the woods.
“You continue on that way and the road becomes a dirt one after a mile or so, and then it leads deep into the forest and connects the clan members who live solitary lives to the town. Do you want to turn back?” Anne asked.
Grace looked back down the road from atop the hill they had climbed, sun dappled the dark shadows of the overhanging trees and the shadows swayed back and forth with the movements of the breeze. The vantage point looked across the tree tops towards town on one side, behind her was the gentle slope as the elevation increased towards the mountain range. She could picture herself living here with Tom, the place seemed like a slice of paradise. Wide open spaces, fresh air in abundance and a feeling of community with the people in town. This would be a perfect place to. Anne cut her thought off and said, “I’ve seen that look before. You’re imagining your future here, maybe what it would be like to raise a family, how peaceful and unreal this slice of heaven seems.”
“How can you tell?” Grace asked.
“I saw the same look on my husbands face when I first brought him up here. We were only dating a week and I brought him up this road to a spot higher up to have a picnic in the woods. I remember stopping up here and he turned around and looked back over town like you are doing now. He had this lopsided goofy grin on his face as he surveyed the land. What is it I asked him? He turned to me, and I’ll always remember the look on his face, he said he was picturing growing old here, taking hikes up this hill with our children and our grand children. Tears had begun to sting my eyes as he said this to me. He got down on one knee pretty much where are standing now and proposed to me. We were married in town three weeks later, and it’s been twenty years together. The best years of my life. I told you we shifters and the humans we fall for have intense feelings,” Anne said wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.
Grace rubbed her eyes too, it was so beautiful she thought to herself. Everything about this place made her feel good and she could feel an ache in her heart at Toms absence. Anne threw her arms around Grace and hugged her tight.
“Don't worry about Tom. He's one of the best trackers this clan has ever seen. He
can nearly sense danger before it even happens. He’ll have his team with him and be back from the border before you even know it. I know how separation from the one you love feels. In our first two weeks of dating we spent a total of three days apart. On those days I was despondent, with no energy and I felt grey. Thats the only way I could describe it. It felt like all the colour had been sucked out of me while he was gone. Once we were back together at the end of those three days apart we vowed never to do that again. We have never spent a night apart for more than twenty years now. I don't think I’d be able to handle it. If it really effects you especially at night you are more than welcome to call into my place and I can make up a bed for you to stay the night,” Anne said.