by Maria Amor
She blew a little bit on it and watched his cock stiffen back up. He was ready. Most men needed an hour at least to get hard again. He was ready to go minutes after cumming. She began stroking it slowly, then a little faster. It was hard to pace him, but Marduke was responding. She quit stroking him and began kissing the shaft. Should she finish him this way? Maybe not; she finished by mounting him, her bad leg at an angle, and riding Marduke cowgirl style. He came hot and hard again and she squealed in pleasure. Once again, they lay in the bed next to each other and held hands.
“Is there a way you have to make it official?” she asked him. Susan wondered if the bear people had mating ceremonies. How would the rest of the clans who lived in these caves react to their love for each other?
“We’ve already mated,” he told her.
“What? You mean just now?”
“No. That was the entire point of the council ruling. I chose you. You aren’t part of the clans, so they had to approve. If you agree to stay here with me, we are automatically considered mates for life.”
She leaned over and kissed him. “Of course I want to stay here with you. I want to be with you always.”
He held Susan tightly as she wept for joy. He could feel the tears on his chest.
“We will have to inform Ursula,” Marduke told Susan. “She will have to hear the words from you alone.
*
Back at the ship, the hovercraft had proven to work better than had been imagined. Cook spent the rest of the daylight hours ferrying all the equipment the expedition would need to track and study the bears over to the ice. He would bring the Jotunn up to the loading deck of the ship, land it, deflate the skirt and sit ready for the next load. He was taking the team over as well, one person at a time. The pilot’s cabin could hold more, but he didn’t want to risk anything going wrong.
By the last load, the hovercraft was ready to be refueled. Cook touched down on the ice and sat the hovercraft flat on the frozen ground. The team was busy assembling temporary shelters to house the scientists who would be staying there long term. The plan was to keep the ice station operational until the next ship could arrive with supplies. There was some concern about the nearness to the bears, but the station was supposed to be polar bear proof.
Cook had another idea for the hovercraft: he wanted to get his balloon back. He had a considerable amount of money invested in that balloon and still planned on duplicating Andree’s polar expedition someday. He felt he could convince the expedition they should do it just to recover Susan’s body. If he approached his salvaging of the balloon as an act of humanity, they just might go along with the idea.
The balloon itself could be carried by the hovercraft. The gas bag, if it was still intact, was easy to fold and the basket and burner was one unit. He had to make an attempt to get it back. If he followed the wind patterns from the storm and calculated how much gas the burner had to use, it would be possible to find the path it took. He would be coming from a region further to the north, but recovering the balloon was still possible. All he had to do was find the right time to bring the subject up.
*
Marduke and Susan found Ursula in the outer caves, which ran close to the surface. A messenger had told them where to find her after they left the room she had been assigned. They walked down the cave passageway holding hands, going through a passage lit by dim lamps. Susan continued to be amazed at how well Marduke could find his way through these caves. It was as familiar to him as her hometown.
Ursula was sitting with her mate, a tall man named Tabor, when they arrived. They were playing a game with small bones to mark places on a board carved out of wood. She would later find out the bear people enjoyed small games as it gave them an outlet when the winter storms raged and no one could leave the caves. She stood up as they arrived, and Susan was once again reminded how small she was around these very big people.
“You have made your decision?” she asked Susan.
“Yes,” Susan replied. “I want to stay here. I want to be Marduke’s mate.”
“So it is,” she responded back. “You do realize you can never return to where you came from?”
“I understand. There was nothing for me there. I have everything I want here.” She hugged Marduke upon saying the last words.
“We will need to send a party to the boat,” Ursula said to her husband. “Can you arrange one?”
“It shouldn’t be too hard,” he replied. “Some of the young men have wanted to go outside for the past week. This will be a good opportunity for them.”
“Are you sure they can be trusted to carry out the mission?”
“Very sure. I’m going with them.”
Ursula argued with him in front of the other two. She didn’t think it a good idea to take a message to the ship with the young men. They had not been tried and tested often enough on the ice. But he had his mind made up. Three young men would travel with him in bear form until they reached the structure the southern men were building on the surface. They would leave close to it as well. Unknown to the people on the ship, they had made landfall near one of the openings to the cave system.
Susan and Marduke were able to watch the group of bear people leave the cave. They stood with Ursula and her husband as three much younger men walked into the outer room, which led to the surface. All four entered the room naked and were carrying packs with them, the same sort of survival pack Marduke had carried with him when he watched her fall.
As the door to the outside opened, the four men began to transform into their polar bear shapes. There was a flash of light and the room dropped in temperature as the energy they needed to change shape was sucked out of the surrounding atmosphere. They appeared to grow, and then slowly change form as the transformation took place.
Their bodies added extra mass, which began shifting in appearance to something else. Soon the outlines of polar bears appeared and the shapes began adding hair, teeth and claws. Before their eyes, the four men had taken the shape of full-grown bears. Tabor soon followed and transmorphed into a bear shape.
The bears began lumbering out the door, after picking up their packs and tossing them over their shoulders. The bear, which had been Tabor, turned to them, bowed and walked with the rest out the door. He carried a letter Susan had written for the captain of the ship and anyone else who wanted to read it. It was to let them know she was safe and happy with some good people and not to try and find her.
The party had planned to approach the facility on the ice shore in bear form since it was the best way to travel on the snow and ice. Once they had sighted it, they would metamorph back into human shape, put their heavy clothes on and make contact with the expedition. It was hoped the letter would satisfy everyone. The Canadian government knew the bear people lived up north, but they’d had no official contact with them in years. If taken back to Ottawa, the government could privately confirm a settlement of some type to the north of Hudson Bay and the matter would end.
At least such was the plan.
Marduke and Susan returned to the room where she had been staying. He wanted to take her directly to his place, but she was tired. They ended up not getting much sleep as Susan tried to find out how many times he could climax before losing his ability to get hard; she never did find out.
The bear party approached the shelter from the southwest. They had located it from a hunting party that had given them precise locations where to find it. They made their way to the location communicating with paw signals, which had been developed millennia ago. In bear form, they couldn’t talk to each other.
The day before Cook had convinced the expedition to allow him to take the hovercraft and scout for the downed balloon, he had made the case for finding her body, going to great lengths to tell the expedition team what would happen to her body if a bear found it. There was no way they could leave her corpse on the snow. If the public ever found out, the outrage would jeopardize any funding they might receive in the future. They had to make
an attempt, even if unsuccessful. In truth, all Cook cared about was getting the balloon back. He fully intended to report it impossible to find her body. Even if he located it anywhere near the balloon crash site.
The expedition board finally agreed when they were contacted in Toronto. They agreed all effort must be made, even if there was no possibility of finding her alive. An attempt would look much better than callously abandoning her to the elements. If they located the body, it would give closure to any family members, although her father didn’t seem too concerned when he’d been contacted.
So, at the same time the bear party was headed toward the ice station, the hovercraft was being made ready for an over ground trip to find the balloon crash site. Extra fuel was packed in the cargo hold. Cook would travel alone, over the objections of the board. It was his hovercraft and he knew how to pilot it best. Another person would limit the range it had. All he was to do was follow the supposed path of the runaway balloon and see if he could find any sign of Susan’s fate. Under no circumstances was he to deviate from the plan. Your plan, Cook thought to himself. He had another one.
Cook fired the props up at the ice station and sent the hovercraft along its way. He had no reason to suspect any problems. No polar bear activity had been reported anywhere near his location, or where he was headed.
He was a man still in his mid-40’s with a lot to prove to the world. Cook wasn’t very large, only five foot, but he’d forced himself into excellent shape from all the outside work he’d done over the years. He’d made his fortune exploring for oil and had a knack for reading the right data. He’d never married, not willing to share any of his glory with another person. So he had no problem with using the hovercraft to get the balloon back under other pretenses.
He saw the first bear five miles from the ice station. The bear party was approaching their destination when the hovercraft swerved to intercept them. Tabor signaled to the young men to stay together; this was an unexpected development. The hovercraft came around for a better look.
“Jotunn to ship,” Cook radioed back. “I have contact with four adult male polar bears. They appear to be headed for the ice shelter. Please advise.”
The ship captain was in the control tower when the message came through. Cook put the image of the bears up on his video feed so they could all see them.
“Cook you get that hovercraft away from those bears!” the captain yelled into the radio. “We’re going to evacuate the station. I can’t have those people in the station when the bears are close. It’s not been fully assembled and the bear security system isn’t up and running.”
Now Cook was pissed off. Not only would he have to abandon his attempt at getting the balloon back, he’d be forced to play ferryman for the people in the station. But there was another way to resolve this situation. He stopped the hovercraft directly in front of the bears and shut down the engine. If they weren’t afraid of the hovercraft, there was something that would scare them away.
“Negative, ship,” he radioed back. “I’ve got a back up plan.” He turned off the radio as curses started pouring out of it.
Cook tossed open the cabin door and ran to the cargo hold. Hidden inside it, and only known to him, was a rifle specially built to handle large animals. He grabbed the gun and loaded it just in time to see the first bear lumber up to his hovercraft.
Tabor had planned to run interference while the other bears went around the craft. While it was occupied with him, they would be able to get close enough to the ice station and morph back to human form. He’d even given Susan’s letter to one of the other bears. As he walked up to the hovercraft, Cook spun around to see the face of his nightmares in front of him. An adult polar bear was rearing up next to the hovercraft.
It was either panic or a bad shot, but the end result was the same.
Cook shot Tabor point-blank with the rifle. The bear started to fall down, as if in complete surprise. His instincts taking over, Cook shot the bear a second and third time. Spewing blood, Tabor went down.
CHAPTER FIVE
The other three bears immediately turned and fled back the way they’d come. Tabor had fallen from several gunshots and they knew what those sounds meant. Each of the young bear tribesmen had been taught in the caves to avoid men in general and stay away from any of them who carried guns. While Cook was holding the rifle and aiming it at the dead bear in front of him, the others quickly retreated.
Cook saw a flash and then the bear started to change. It began melting, shrinking in size. Soon the bear had shrunk to the general shape of a human and it began to solidify into something that was definitely a human form. Finally, Cook looked down at the form of a naked man lying dead on the ice. But he had shot a bear, one that was almost on top of him. Where did this man come from?
Beneath the man was a pack of some kind made out of leather. Cook picked it up and looked at it. The pack contained a set of clothes anyone on the ice would want to have: jacket, boots pants, extra coat and gloves. What the hell was this man doing out naked on the ice?
Stunned and confused, Cook climbed back into the cabin of his hovercraft and picked up the radio. The voice of the ship’s captain was still screaming expletives at Cook. He hit the “send” button and spoke slowly into the receiver:
“Jotunn to ship. There’s been some kind of accident out here. The bear I shot is gone. There’s a dead man out here on the ice.”
“What are you talking about, Cook?” a voice belonging to the captain yelled out of the headphones. “I told you not to get near those bears. Where are they? And what the hell do you mean a dead man? Did the bears kill someone?”
Cook suddenly had a thought. He might be able to save his ass yet. “I don’t know. I’m going out and have another look. I tell you there is a dead body on the ice.”
Cook started up the hovercraft and drove it a hundred yards away from the body. He stopped it, stepped out of the pilot’s cabin with the rifle and buried it in the snow. Then he went back to the cargo hold in the hovercraft and removed the hidden box of extra ammunition. It too went into the snow.
Cook turned and looked up to the sky. It was getting dark. Another storm would hide the sign of the gun he wasn’t supposed to have. Oh, well, the balloon was never going to be located. He’d have to find a way to finance another one. Someday, he would duplicate Andree’s attempt to reach the North Pole, just not this time.
He went back to the cabin and reported the body again. Once again, the captain demanded to know what body and where. Cook let the captain know where it was and marked the location with his GPS receiver. As long as the body stayed put, they would find it. He would have to go back to the ship and make the report.
This was very serious. An accident could be excused. A body shot at point blank range could not. There would be an investigation of some kind and it would make the news. No way was this incident going to be hushed. Cook shook his head and started up the fans on the hovercraft. Time to go back and deal with it. As the hovercraft swept across the ice toward the sea, he thought everything over. He’d shot at a bear, he was sure of it. But the body, how could he have mistaken a full grown polar bear for a human?
Cook arrived at the ship and told him his story of finding a dead man on the ice. The captain couldn’t believe it. What would a dead nude man be doing out here? To prove his story, Cook handed the captain the pack he’d found next to the body.
The captain emptied out the pack and looked at the clothes inside it. “This is all homemade,” He exclaimed. “There isn’t a single item in here store bought. Look at it: even the thread is sinew. Who still lives like this? Was the man Inuit?”
“No, he looked vaguely white to me,” Cook responded. “Hard to tell out there. Could be a little Latino in him, I wasn’t looking too carefully.”
“Kiss our work good-bye,” it was Dr. Jones. “We’ll be lucky if we even get to go home before they send the police up here. And that means dealing with the RCMP.” He sat down and picked up a book
of chart data remorsefully.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were contacted by radio. The ship and everyone on the expedition were informed they would have to sit and wait for a patrol to make its way north and launch an investigation. Unfortunately, they had no idea when it would be. Another storm was forming in the Artic and would be hitting them soon.
“So I guess we’re stuck here until the police arrive,” the captain stated. “Not much to do until then.”
*
The caves were in an uproar. The three young men, who were with Tabor when he was shot, made it back quickly and came through the opening. They transmorphed back into human form and went directly to the council chambers where another meeting was taking place. They told the elders of Tabor’s cold-blooded murder just as they were trying to contact the boat. None of them had an opportunity to assume human form when the pilot of the craft that had traveled across the ice had opened fire on Tabor.
The bear clans were outraged. The news spread through the caves in a matter of hours. While the elders where still trying to figure out what had happened, the council chamber was filled with a mob. It was impossible to come up with a plan of action while the chamber was full of screaming people.
“Tabor was a brother and friend to us all!” one man began yelling as the council was seated. “I say we leave right now and burn everything the southerners have left on the ice. We’ll show them what happens when one of our own is killed!”
The council was seated, with an empty chair for Ursula who was in mourning for her husband. Like the animals they emulated, the bear tribes only married once and it was for life. Ursula had excused herself from all council duties until her mourning had ended.
“Listen to me,” Mari, the youngest member of the council, spoke, “I know how you all feel. I have known Tabor since I was a cub. He helped my family and clan out many times. I, too, want to see justice done. But if we attack the southerners’ camp, it will be the end of us all. They have weapons that are too terrifying to think about. They could destroy these caves with one glance. The only reason we have survived so long is because we avoid them. Attack them now and the sky will fill with fire tomorrow.”
