by Tia Wilson
The rest of the mongrel tribe was not so lucky with their alterations. A myriad of ways the human to bear transformation did not take, manifesting in clawed hands, elongated jaws and snouts with tufts of hair, one human and one bear eye, twisted flesh trapped in stasis between human and bear transformation, skin twisted and rutted like wax. Every mongrel was deformed in a different way. Worst of all was Ben Shoals. His mouth was opened in a perpetual snarl and one side of his face showed the emerging properties of a bear. His jaw had begun to lengthen and his teeth elongate and fur sprout out. On the other side his human face drooped, his skin pallid and pale. His eye lid hung heavy over a red ringed eye permanently looking downwards. He had a hunched back and spiky bone stubs poked though his skin from neck to ass. Clothes were not an option for him as bony protuberances all over his body tore at the material and anything touching his bare skin drove him crazy with constant itching. He towered over the other people in the crowd and his head jerked back and forth as he sniffed the air. If humans ever found him, Ben’s life would end in a lab with endless painful tests to figure out what he was.
From the barely noticeable to the twisted and gnarled bodies of the half formed creatures all the mongrels shared something in common, they could never return home to see their family, they had all been branded, and they all existed in the world between bear and human. A painful place of being that granted them nothing but suffering and confusion at what they had lost.
All eyes were on Nasak. “Today, my family, we finally return home. A life of eking out a shallow existence, living off scraps is coming to an end. I have arranged transport for us and we will travel south. We will be the first ever mongrels to return home, the first forsaken sons and daughters of the great white bear clan to be welcomed with open arms. What lies ahead is not going to be easy for any of us. We mongrels were forged in the crucible, as I look at my brethren before me I know that we will prevail,” he said raising his arms in the air.
The crowd before him erupted into roars and shouts of bestial sounds, half bear and half human. Their broken roars echoed through the forest as they prepared for the future.
12
Together
People were out on the streets enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Men and women sat on a long wooden bench outside the diner and waved and smiled when Grace and Tom walked by hand in hand. The soft strum of a guitar wafted through the air from the pagoda. Some of the younger town folks sat on the grass and listened while Trent played a jaunty upbeat piece of music. Some of the girls got up to dance and tried to coax the boys up to join them amidst much joking and pushing and pulling. Elder Franklin stood outside his hardware store his wooden pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth, a thick blue grey smoke hung above him in wispy clouds. He raised his hand and waved across as the people passed him buy.
They walked the length of main street, stopping to look in the window of the Brimmners family toy store. The husband and wife team hand carved beautiful jigsaw puzzles of the lakes and forests that surrounded Twin Rock. Everybody in town owned one of their puzzles and they were usually proudly displayed on a table for all to see. The couple made them out of love and any sales were icing.
Tom and Grace walked ten minutes out of town as the road started to slope upwards into the mountains towards the clans first real home hundreds of years ago.
“I’ve never been happier,” Grace said to Tom squeezing his hand. She could see herself growing old in the town of Twin Rock. The people had been so open to her arrival and she had never felt so welcome in any place before. Her quirks that she had used to control her life had faded into the background and were now nothing more than a distant memory. When Grace really thought about it she couldn’t believe that it was how she used to live her life, all the rules and regulations she put on her self, afraid of the very idea of anything new or exciting happening to her. Tom had changed all that for her. Shifters lived in the moment, she was starting to see that now. They felt more deeply and were more in tune with their feelings than a regular human. The melding of animal and human had somehow forged something better from the parts. She saw that now, they were not something to be feared, they should be embraced. Grace knew that their fear of the outside world was correct, regular people feared change and when groupthink took over their first instinct was to destroy what they did not understand. She knew the clan could never integrate into society, people would always be suspicious even if they showed how peaceful of a people they were.
She could feel Tom stiffen beside her as they walked. Grace turned to him and said, “What’s wrong?”
“I have to ship out again. I leave in the evening,” Tom said averting his eyes from her.
“You’re only just back,” Grace said trying her best to hide her annoyance,
“I have to go. It’s a direct order from the elders. I need to go to the border to meet someone who may have some information for us. It’s a quick overnight trip. I’ll be back sometime tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “The elder Silas and elder Franklin have called a meeting with us both for later this evening. I leave after that,” Tom said.
“Why do they need to see me?” Grace asked.
“I think they want to welcome you to the town,” Tom said. Grace could tell from his body language that he wasn't telling the full truth. “We rescued a human along with elder Silas. He’s resting in the clinic at the edge of town. The guy was close to death, we got to him just in time. Could you check in on him?” Tom asked trying to change the subject.
He turned and faced her and held her by the hips, his strong hands kneading the flesh. Graces body tingled under his touch as they looked into each others eyes. “I would do anything not to be apart from you. I feel a pain right here,” Tom said holding his heart. “I am a lesser man when I’m not with you and I would do anything not to leave your side. If the clan needs my help I have to step up and obey them for the greater good.”
They walked on in silence for a few minutes following the road out of town that lead to the forest. Grace broke the silence and said, “Have you lived in Twin Rock your whole life?”
“No, I’m only here a few years. My family separated from the main clan a few generations ago. There was some sort of falling out that my father would never talk about. It was his great grandfather and his wife and two kids who pulled away from the clan and tried to forge a life separate from everyone else. I think it set our family on a course that ruined us. The shame of leaving weighed heavy on the subsequent generations, I always felt a sense of disconnect from who I really was and my people. My father forbade me from any contact with people of my own kind. I think its what ended up killing him, my betrayal when I decided to find my people and return to the fold.”
“How did he die?” Grace asked rubbing Toms shoulders and arms.
“He was found dead by the side of a rail line, his head bashed in. He was stinking drunk according to reports. I think the old man went down to the rail way to kill himself, he threw himself under the first train to pass by,” Tom said with a hitch in his voice.
“That’s not your fault,” Grace said trying her best to reassure him.
“It weighs heavy on me Grace, the decisions I made. Finding the clan and returning to it was a betrayal of everything that my father believed in, he thought that integration into the human world was the true future for our kind. My father believed hiding ourselves off in some pocket of wilderness was only going to speed up our eventual demise. You are making it easy for the humans he used to say, concentrating all of our people in one place was asking for trouble. The humans are rapacious, what is wilderness and remote today could soon be a bustling area of growth. He believed that no where was safe to hide. Living amongst them was the only path to a future for us.”
“And you didn't share the same beliefs?” Grace asked.
“Being apart from our clan its like losing a limb and you can still feel its presence and the phantom limb still gets itches that you can never scratch. I felt an empti
ness in my core and for years I didn't know what it was. I thought it was normal to feel that way, an eerie tug telling me there was more to life than what I was living. My father used to tell me the stories of our family breaking free from the clan and forging our own paths. The clan was always painted as a misguided group of ill informed elders stuck in ways that had no place in a changing world. You know how it is when you are young, your father is a god to you and everything he tells you had the feeling of unassailable truth,” Tom said.
“What changed?” Grace asked.
“I meet a man from the clan he was in the city trying to track down a teenage clan member who had gone missing. It was the first time I had ever had any contact with someone who lived with other shifters en masse. I was riding the subway and I caught scent of him when he boarded the train. He nodded towards me in recognition and approached. The moment was electric for me, the moment burned into my memory. We got off the train and sat in a small park and talked for hours. He wasn't anything like my father had made me believe other shifters were. He was a good and honest man and as he spoke about the town of Twin Rocks I could feel the urge to see it with my own eyes grow inside me. He wasn't forceful at all he just spoke about community, family and the peace of living with ones own kind. I agreed to meet the man the next day, I had so many questions I wanted answered,” said Tom.
“Who was the clan member,” Grace asked.
“It was elder Silas, he rarely left Twin Rocks but this time he was on an important mission. As soon as I got home that night my father knew something was different about me. I think he could smell the other shifters scent. He railed at me for hours about getting involved with others of our kind. He begged me to swear I wouldn't leave the family and reintegrate back with the original clan. When tears wouldn't work he turned to anger and began shouting at me and belittling me for every perceived failing I had. The more he berated me the more he pushed me towards joining the clan. My father wasn't to know that our time together was running out. I would walk from him within a couple of days and take the trip north with Silas. A couple of months later I heard about my fathers death. I blamed myself and spiralled down into the blackness. If it wasn't for the clan I don't think I would have got through to the other side. We are all stronger once we join the clan, I know that now, my father was wrong for keeping us separate from our heritage, I see that clearly now, Tom said.
“I’m so sorry Tom. You couldn't have known how it would turn out for your father,” Grace said taking his hand.
Tom didn't reply and they walked to the edge of the tree line and then turned back toward the town. Back in Town Elder Silas and Franklin sat on the wooden bench outside of the hardware store. When they saw Tom and Grace walking down the other side of the street Silas gestured for Tom to come over.
“Wait here a minute,” Tom said crossing the street.
Grace looked in the diner window at the bored looking waitress reading a paperback book as she sat perched on a stool at the end of the counter. Grace could see Toms reflection in the window as he gestured angrily at Franklin. Elder Silas stood up and put his hand on his shoulder and it seemed to calm him down. Grace could not put her finger on it but there was something she didn't like about Elder Franklin. The way he sat quietly looking at her over the bowl of his pipe she felt like she was constantly being appraised.
Tom crossed the street and hooked his arm around her waist and pulled Grace close to him. “The elders want to see us now. I’m sorry to do this to you again but the plans have changed, I have to leave soon, straight after our meeting.”
Grace tried not to show how crushed she felt. Another night spent alone in an apartment that wasn't hers was not something she was looking forward to. Her chest had felt tight as if it was bound in steel bands as soon as Tom had left on his previous mission. She would have to go through that all again as he left on another clandestine trip. “If you have to do it for the greater good of the clan, I understand,” she said. I wish he didn't have to go she though to herself, I know its selfish but I think we both deserve to be selfish for a while.
“Are you ok with this?” Tom asked.
“I have no choice do I?” She said sounding angrier than she had intended.
Tom looked away from her and broke the embrace. “Lets get the meeting over with,” he said sounding tired and spent. They crossed the street and the two elders stood and greeted Grace, Silas seeming to generate actual warmth compared to Franklins taciturn greeting. Elder Franklin lead them to a back storage room that had a table and chairs set up in the corner. Tom closed the door and the meeting began.
13
Faith
“I don't understand,” Grace said. She was sitting in a back room of Elder Franklins hardware store, Tom sat beside her with his hand on her leg and across the table was Elder Franklin and the pale and gaunt Elder Silas.
Silas crossed his hands in front of him and placed them on the table, a web of thin blue veins like the tributaries of an ancient river laced the back of his hand. “One of our ancient stories tells of a woman who will join our clan and usher in a new phase for our kind,” he said.
“And that’s me?” Grace interrupted. What do they mean I’m the one she thought to herself, saviour of a clan was not how she pictured herself. How could someone whose whole day could be ruined if she stirred her coffee too many times in the wrong direction be someone who was going to bring a new golden age to the bear clan? “You must have the wrong person, I’m just an ordinary woman,” Grace said.
Silas looked at her with great patience, while Franklin tapped out his pipe on his up turned boot and then began stuffing a fresh batch of tobacco into the bowl. Silas glanced over at Franklin and he gave him an almost imperceptible nod. “We have been searching for you for a long time. Our stories are passed down through the generations through the oral tradition, our customs forbid us from writing any of our old tales down. To do so would rob them of their power. If you would indulge an old man I could tell you part of one of our most famous tales and one we believe is the foretelling of your arrival.”,
Tom squeezed Graces hand and she looked at him, she knew her feelings for him were real but she still couldn't believe that she was any more than an ordinary woman. “Let him tell the story,” Tom said in a gentle voice. Grace nodded and Silas sat up straight in his seat and began.
“One of our legends tell us of a coming war between three tribes. We know that it refers to our tribe, the clan of the black bears facing off against the white bear clan. This we have known since the beginning, that our two paths would eventually cross and lead to the destruction of the other side. The third tribe we believe is that of the regular humans. Some of the elders believe that they are going to find out about the truth of our shapeshifting abilities and through fear and ignorance they will try to destroy us. A terrible war will ensue, pitting bear against bear, with man doing what he does best and looking out for himself. We think the humans will take the opportunity to wipe us all out while we are weakened and in the middle of a protracted fight with the other side,” Silas said.
“How many shifters are there?” Grace said interrupting. Franklin looked at her over his pipe as he lit the tobacco and sucked on the stem. He doesn't like me Grace thought to herself noticing the way he seemed to stiffen every time she talked.
“In this town, around five hundred. Around the world we think there might be as much as another five thousand clan members. The white bears we can only guess at their numbers. Estimates put them on as much as double our population. Both clans have many members that wish to live solitary lives, they avoid all contact with others of our type. While Tom was tracking you down he came across the scent of other bear shifters, he counted at least four or five in some of the big cities. Some of them like to live anonymously in the big cities, they hope that the barrage of smells will hide their scent from only the best trackers. Others choose to live a life similar to what we have built in this town, only on a small scale. There is even one of o
ur clan members who has been living in the woods all alone, living off the land and the occasional foray into remote cabins to gather supplies, for close to thirty years now. Any time we try to make contact with him he pulls back deeper in the woods and even our best cant seem to find him again. I suspect he is one of many men and women that live like that. We know some of the so called tunnel rats in New York City are actually a small group of shifters who have decided to blend into the humans world that way. They get to live within a human city with minimum contact from people and also have the protection of all the myriad scents the city supplies to hide their presence. Im sure at some stage in your life you have probably been face to face with a shifter and never even known it,” Silas said pausing to take a sip of his honeyed tea.
“Were do I come into all this,” Grace said a little impatiently. She could believe all he was saying about the secret world of shifters, as she had seen Tom change with her own eyes. She could not begin to believe a tale were a mild mannered and slightly neurotic office drone was somehow the saviour of a clan of fighting bears.
“Sorry I do get side tracked sometimes. Our legends say the coming war will be bloody and brutal with many casualties on both sides. When we are at our weakest the third tribe will use this opportunity to swoop in and destroy both clans. This is where you come in my girl. The oldest of our tales tell of a woman who will join our tribe and eventually bring peace and harmony to all sides,” Silas said.
Franklin exhaled a large cloud of fragrant smoke and closed his eyes in satisfaction. “Tell her the rest of it. The girl deserves to know what she is getting herself in for.”