by Nick Stead
The bear skidded as he turned, running at me again but slower this time, cautious of putting his vulnerable flank near my jaws. He knew he needed to face me head on so that he could make use of his greater size and strength, but the one thing I had going for me was my agility and I found myself willing him to keep charging and tire himself out. It wasn’t going to be that easy, however.
My opponent was almost on me a second time and I went to dodge again, but he was ready for it and he moved with me, jaws even more impressive than my own bearing down on my head. That maw closed with bone crunching power, more than capable of crushing my skull. Somehow, I just managed to duck before he could clamp down on me and his muzzle snapped shut on thin air. I retaliated with a swift bite to his right foreleg. Maybe if I could keep nipping him and drawing blood, I might eventually wear him down enough to move in for the kill. Assuming I didn’t reach that point first. Time was not on my side, my wounded paws leaking yet more fresh blood with the harsh movements the damaged tissue was being put through. I needed to find a way to overpower the grizzly sooner rather than later, or I was going to be the one to succumb to blood loss and exhaustion – something I couldn’t allow to happen.
I’d dealt no more than a flesh wound to my rival and he roared his displeasure at the sensation of nerves sparking with the air. Rearing up again, he lashed out with his great paws and caught me a glancing blow on my side as I tried to avoid the attack, more blood welling up from the five vicious gashes his claws ripped across my ribs. A yelp of pain tore from my throat, turning to a snarl of defiance.
The bear crashed back down onto all fours but I evaded the crushing power and darted forward to sink my fangs into his other foreleg. There came another rush of air as he swiped at me, though I was already darting out of reach and escaped further injury that time. I feinted towards his foreleg again, counting on my opponent to snap at me in another attempt to crunch down on my skull and secure victory. He did as I’d hoped but I was ready for it and ducked under him, grabbing hold of his throat and clamping down with all the power I could muster in my smaller, lupine muzzle. Even with my supernatural might, while I was running on such low reserves I felt considerably outmatched by my adversary. The natural weapons I’d come to revel in suddenly seemed inadequate against his larger teeth and claws, not to mention his sheer bulk. I bit into his throat as hard as I could, shaking my head from side to side with all the violence I could muster in an attempt to sever his jugular. But his fur was so thick and his body so padded with the blubber needed to see him through the winter months of hibernation that for the first time since becoming a werewolf my fangs failed me.
Vicious black hooks ripped through muscle and sinew as if I was made of no more than paper, ripping my teeth from his flesh. I’d held on for too long, the bear rearing up again and catching me a devastating blow on my shoulder, and I fell to the floor with another high pitched yelp. My foreleg collapsed under me, the shoulder joint no longer able to take my weight. And yet more precious blood splashed across the ground in a wave of hot crimson.
My plight was becoming ever more desperate. I’d done little more than anger the bear, the blood flow from his wounds already beginning to slow and clot together, while my own wept profusely. I could feel my life force pumping from my torn flesh, my vision starting to blur and the sensation of light headedness creeping over me. But still I struggled back up onto my three good legs, trying to focus back on my rival through the dizziness.
Then my opponent followed through with another mighty blow to my skull and I was too slow to dodge, his huge paw connecting with my head and sending me crashing to the floor, somehow still conscious but dazed and close to falling into blackness, more blood running down my face. My wounds throbbed more persistently and muscles ached, my body screaming no more. It was all over. The blurred form of the bear towered over me, the last thing I was going to see through half closed eyes, my lids drooping lower with every second as I started to give in to the need to slip away from consciousness. My exhausted body had finally reached its limits and I was ready to admit defeat and succumb to the weakness of my flesh.
As I was about to slip into the beckoning darkness, an image came to me, a reminder of what was at stake. My sister’s frail body replaced the blurred image of the bear, lying as I’d last seen her in the coffin, on the point of death. The mental picture occupied my vision, almost as if I’d fallen into another reality. But the meaning was clear. My will to fight had all but died out so my subconscious was offering me a way back, and it was all I needed. I couldn’t give up; I had to win, for Amy’s sake.
Somewhere on the edge of consciousness came the sensation of the bear’s hot breath brushing across the top of my head. Even if I was willing to continue fighting, was it already too late? I was at the bear’s mercy, and he could easily finish me off with another swipe of his paws or a crushing bite. I expected to feel his fangs sink into my skull as I lay there, but the seconds ticked by while I fought my way back to the light with no further attacks from my opponent. That puzzled me but I didn’t dwell on it, instead focussing my sluggish brain on more pressing matters like survival, and the thought formed that there was only one way I was getting up and back into the fight – I had to call on the power of the transformation again, and just hope the temporary boost it granted me would be enough before the further energy drain caught up with me. Or perhaps it was more instinct than conscious thought. Either way, my form began to revert to a more humanoid shape, finally severing the flow of blood as veins and arteries fused back together and ripped flesh stretched back into a seamless whole. My thoughts cleared somewhat and the feeling of light headedness receded, my vision clear as I opened my eyes once more, summoning my rage to grant me whatever strength my body had left. I knew I needed to retain my natural lupine weapons if I was going to overcome the bear this time, and that after this second chance, there wouldn’t be a third – I just didn’t have the energy left to transform again without feeding first. So I let my body settle into its hybrid wolf man form once again. It was enough of a change to heal the worst of the damage inflicted by my rival and the spikes I’d been forced to cross, and the aches and pains I’d been suffering ebbed into mere background noise.
Firmly back in reality, it was to find the bear had withdrawn, back to the other end of the room where he stood, seemingly uncertain. I didn’t know if I’d been spared because he’d thought me already dead (after all, the advice I’d always heard as a human was to play dead and I’d come across it in so many different places that I assumed there had to be some truth in it working as a method to survive a bear attack) or if it had been the onset of my partial transformation making him wary. Or maybe it was a bit of both. He soon became aggressive again when he realised we were about to go for round two though.
The thought of David’s smug face watching from the safety of some computer monitor as we fought to the death was all it took to set my anger blazing, and I rose to my now humanoid back legs, a fallen warrior returning for vengeance. The bear’s uneasiness seemed to increase at that. Not only had I seemingly returned from the dead, changed into something more unnatural, but I probably looked bigger on two legs instead of four and even more intimidating. Now he was the one who was reluctant to fight, though the circumstances would again force him to engage me in that desperate struggle for survival, since running was still not an option. If it weren’t for the fact I so badly needed to feed after this encounter before moving on to whatever else David had in store for me, and if I could have trusted the bear to keep his distance while he remained so wary, I might have left him and begun to search for a way out. But there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be the one to initiate another attack and I was well aware that the renewed strength I was feeling was only temporary, meaning time was still not on my side. So I had no option but to end it by killing my opponent, and the sooner I could accomplish that, the better.
Using the bear’s fear and uneasiness against him, I was the one to charge into our
second battle to the music of his rapidly beating heart, hammering much louder and faster than when we’d first clashed. It was all the summons the hungry predator in me needed, granting me another boost of speed and strength as I bounded into the fight. The bear stood his ground, much as I’d done when he’d first charged me. But he had no intention of trying to evade my assault and as I drew nearer he reared up onto his hind legs again, mouth open and lips pulled back to bare his fangs in a clear display of aggression. He might be in the grip of terror, but he was letting me know he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Undeterred by the bear’s sheer size, I pounced on him as if he were any other prey. Without my full strength behind it he was too big and heavy in comparison to my smaller frame to be bowled over by the impact, but I clung to his broad shoulders and sank my fangs back into his throat, trying to work the shallow wounds I’d already created and dig deeper to those tubes pumping his life force up to his brain. Still his main blood vessels alluded me and I was forced to let go before he could swat me away again like I was no more than some overgrown, annoying bug. This all happened in seconds, thanks to the boost granted to me by the rage and the chance to heal which had temporarily eased the ache of fatigued muscles. The bear was slow to react in comparison and I was able to drop back to the ground and move out of reach of those huge paws and the devastating natural weapons he wielded with every swipe. I started to circle him, looking for another opening, but the bear moved with me. He towered over my smaller frame, even with me on two legs instead of four, making any kind of wrestling match out of the question. I remembered seeing bears fight on nature documentaries in my human life and I knew they often grappled on two legs, but I was too short to attempt to subdue him with that kind of brute force. And even though I was at the perfect height to go straight for the organs in his abdomen, I felt it was too risky to move within reach of his claws when it would take more than a quick swipe of my own claws to break through all that blubber and the wall of stomach muscle to reach something vital.
So I continued our dance, darting in and out of range to nip and scratch, until he made the mistake of falling back onto all fours, growing bold enough to charge at me again. I was able to dodge to the side and leap onto his back, managing to sink my claws in just deep enough to hold on. The bear wasn’t happy to have me in a place he couldn’t easily reach and he tried to buck me off, but I held firm, worrying the back of his neck now in an attempt to reach his spine.
My mouth was full of that thick pelt, my fangs struggling to find purchase in his flesh, when suddenly my opponent reared up again and next thing I knew pain was flooding through me as he slammed us backwards, into the wall, showing an intelligence most humans probably wouldn’t have credited him with. Thankfully my body survived in one piece, with nothing more than bruising from the impact. But my claws slipped from the handholds they’d gouged at the back of his shoulders, my hands too paw-like to grip bunches of his hair and try as I might to hold on with my legs and my jaws, I was starting to slide off.
My rival crashed back down onto all fours and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t keep my position on his back, falling to one side. My maw was still locked round his flesh but I wasn’t able to keep savaging it once I’d slipped round and I was forced to let go before my opponent managed to deliver me another blow. Inwardly I cursed my body’s weakness. Even with the boost I’d been granted, I still wasn’t at full strength, or I was sure I’d have finished him off easily by then. Already I could feel the exhaustion beginning to creep back in.
I fell on my side, the bear turning to lunge at me just as I was getting back to my feet. I evaded him again and decided there was nothing for it, diving between his paws and sinking claws and fangs into his belly. My muscles were already beginning to protest but I ignored them and focussed on the anger burning within, counting on its need for violence. My mouth was filled with more fur but I worked myself into a frenzy, savaging the thick layer protecting my opponent’s abdomen until I was rewarded with patches of pink tissue and strips of bloody fur hanging down.
A chunk of muscle came free in my jaws in a warm rush of bloody ecstasy, before I was forced to move away, gulping down my prize and immediately craving more. Now my opponent’s body gushed crimson streams, running across the stone to form ever growing pools.
I could almost feel him becoming more desperate as he charged me again, but this time I dodged and lunged at his side, trying to slam him hard enough to cause some internal injuries. I wasn’t confident I had enough strength left in me to do any significant damage or I might have thought on to try that particular move sooner, but I was rewarded with a bellow of pain from my opponent. The hole I’d opened up in his abdomen seemed to be deeper than I’d realised, something important just beginning to poke through as I pulled back and prepared for another assault. I wasn’t sure if the impact of my body had been enough to dislodge it or whether he’d done that to himself when running, but either way I suddenly had something more to work with.
It seemed my rival was finally starting to feel the strain as badly as I was, his tongue lolling out between those great jaws as his breath came out in pants, threads of bloody saliva hanging from his great maw and dripping to the floor, spattering the already wet stone. And yet, he still wouldn’t give up. He charged again, though his movements were becoming clumsier and it was growing harder to keep our footing on the slick stone. In his desperation my opponent was being less careful, perhaps knowing that things were very wrong but the instinct to survive still burning too strongly to acknowledge he was mortally wounded. Without the immediate attention of a vet, I didn’t think he would last more than a few hours even if he could still muster the strength to emerge victorious. If only we hadn’t been trapped in that chamber, he would surely have backed off in the face of such damage he’d endured. But since retreat still wasn’t an option the bitter struggle would rage on till one of us ended it, and so he ran at me, probably as eager to finish it and lick his wounds as I’d been all along.
Those huge claws clacked across the stone as he ran, but his path to reach me took him directly through one of the many crimson pools and his pads lost their grip, his claws useless for gripping on the smooth surface. He slipped and crashed to the floor, landing heavily on his side and sliding along before coming to a shuddering stop, his side probably grazed and stinging from the momentum, even with the natural protection his body was wrapped in. And I saw my chance and was quick to take it, lunging for his belly again before he was able to pick himself up and plunging a paw-like hand into the hole.
The bear’s screams of pain as I dug around his insides would probably have been harrowing, if I hadn’t committed so many brutal acts before. He was too big for me to reach up to his heart even with my entire forearm submerged in the wound, so I pulled out everything I could, guts spilling out in a warm, squelchy rush. Intestines coiled round my feet like dead slimy snakes, his liver landing in a quivering lump on the stone and kidneys flopping like fish out of water as more organs piled on top of them. The grizzly was still trying to rise while I disembowelled him but he soon ceased his struggles, my claws tearing through so many veins and arteries that before long we were surrounded by a pool of his blood. The bear quickly grew quiet, his eyes glazing over as he faced the same blackness I’d almost fallen into when he’d had me at his mercy, except for him there would be no coming back from it. Death was quick to take him, his great heart beating its last and his final breath escaping in a sigh that sounded almost like relief.
My forearm was covered in blood and other fluids. I shook the worst of it off and placed one of my paw-like hands on my rival’s flank in a mark of respect, reining the anger back in now the fight was over and feeling a rare sense of remorse. The animal’s death wasn’t entirely meaningless since he would provide more than enough meat to sustain me through at least a couple more transformations, which I would no doubt be forced to undergo just to heal, the way things were going. And yet, if I could have some
how communicated to him that I meant him no harm and merely wanted to escape the room we were trapped in and be on my way, then we could have avoided a fight to the death. Even knowing that David would probably have slaughtered him anyway once he had no more use for him, I still regretted being forced into killing him. The hunger alone wouldn’t have pushed me into it, my reckless streak having become more balanced with the addition of the cautious side to my nature that had been one of the wolf’s stronger traits when we’d still existed as two separate personalities, and my self-control great enough to keep me from attacking every living thing in sight, at least for the time being. Given the choice, I would have let the bear be rather than risking a fight that I could well have lost when I’d already been so weakened from the other trials I’d been put through. But neither of us had been given a choice, and all I could do was honour the great predator by taking what strength I could from his death. He had died so I might live, and so I pushed such troublesome human emotions aside and lowered my muzzle to the feast that I’d won.
My fangs bit into warm meat, succulent and oozing blood as I pulled strips of it free and eagerly gulped them down. Waves of energy rippled through me as I ate, my strength restored at last. My body was still tired and in need of rest, even with the food rapidly filling my aching belly, but there was no time for napping when there were lives on the line. So replenishing my depleted energy reserves would have to do for the time being, and to that end I gorged myself on the bear’s flesh and lapped up the rich organs. The heart was still locked away in its cage but I ripped my way through the carcass, devouring every last morsel until I cleared a path to that juicy prize. Pooled blood in its chambers squirted out as my jaws clamped over it, sending a shiver of delight running through me, the intense taste all the more satisfactory for the hunger I’d been enduring for so long.
