by Tia Wilson
“Can you transform into a bear and break us out of here?” Grace asked knowing the answer even before it was uttered.
Anne slumped back against the wall and shook her head. “I couldn’t risk the transformation in my current state. I might not have enough energy to fully turn. I’m sorry Grace I can’t risk it.”
Grace crossed the room and lay down on her bed. The mattress was thin and stalks of hay stuck out through the surface. No matter what way she tossed and turned Grace could not get comfortable. “I’m afraid Anne, I don't think I can go through with another dose of the bile. I already feel like I’m going crazy. I’m seeing flashes of an alleyway. Smelling stale tobacco that overpowers me and makes me sick to my stomach. I keep feeling like I’m being followed by someone. I can feel them behind me like they are leering at me and when I turn around no one is there,” Grace said rubbing her eyes, “I nearly collapsed walking down the corridor. I can’t get an image of a gold tooth out of my mind. Its spinning around and around every time I close my eyes. I can’t do it again Anne, we need to get out of here somehow.”
Anne sat up on the bed and looked over at Grace, her mouth was hanging open in shock as she looked at her. “What is about the gold tooth you remember? Try to remember more of what you saw when under the effects of the bile.”
“Please Anne don’t make me relive it again. I feel cold chills running down my spine every time I think of the alleyway. I feel an all consuming fear, something that blocks out all other thought at the moment you know you have meet you end. I can’t do it,” Grace said.
“Grace this is important,” Anne said in a firm voice. “I’m here with you now, nothing can hurt you from the visions. Try to remember more.”
Grace closed her eyes and immediately it felt like the bed was moving under her as the room spun and tilted at sickening angles. A gold tooth spun in the blackness, glinting and shining as if under a spotlight. The darkness faded away and the tooth was sitting on the pale white palm of a young girl of maybe sixteen. Grace felt like she was floating above the alleyway as it tilted from side to side making it hard to concentrate on what was below her. A pile of blood and guts sat steaming at the far end and close to that was the body of a man ripped to shreds. The girl was looking at the tooth in her hand, rolling it back and forth with her index finger and letting the sun glint off it. The girl was smiling. Graces stomach lurched as the stench of tobacco filled her nostrils and the scene bent and warped and flipped as she rocketed down the alley to another man lying on the ground dead and eviscerated.
Grace’s eyes snapped open and she leaned over the edge of her bed feeling close to getting sick again. She groaned loudly as pain flared out from her joints and along her spine. She lay back on the bed feeling exhausted and drained. “I could see more this time,” she said through ragged breaths, “it was mostly in sequence, didn’t jump around like before. Everything was still moving like I was standing on the deck of a boat making it hard for me to concentrate on what was happening below me.” She stopped and breathed heavily trying to get her rapidly increasing breath under control.
“Take your time,” Anne said in a soothing voice, “bile can have a disorientating effect. Most of the things I have heard about what it can do sound like old stories told to entertain shifters as we huddled together in a cave.
Grace wiped her face and it felt like it was covered in a cold slick of grease, her whole body trembled from a chill running through it. “I feel like I have the flu,” Grace said, “my whole body is trembling. Parts of the vision are starting to come back to me. I saw a gold tooth. A man with a gold tooth. Everything became jumbled and then the man was gone but the tooth was still there flying through the sky, twirling and glinting from the sun.”
Anne stiffened and her eyes widened as she looked over at Grace.
“I could see a young woman. Maybe twenty years old. She was throwing the tooth up into the air and catching it. She was smiling I think,” Grace said letting out a moan and clutching her sides.
“It can’t be. It’s not possible,” Anne said coming over to Grace. She knelt beside her bed and took her warm hand in hers. Tears where streaming from her eyes as she looked at Grace. She leaned in and kissed her hand. “The stories are true Grace, you are the one to finally bring peace to all the clans. I can’t believe it,” Anne said repeating it over and over again.
When the searing pain pulsing through her body diminished Grace sat up on the bed and looked at Anne kneeling before her. “What’s going on. What do the old stories tell you? Please Anne you are freaking me out a little, get up off the floor, sit here beside me,” Grace said patting the bed. Am I going insane Grace thought to herself, the constant pain, the chills and now Anne breaking down in front of me, what is happening.
Anne squeezed Graces hand and then wiped the tears from her face. “The visions you are seeing. Those are of me, the young woman is me. That was me in the fifties.”
“What, that’s not possible,” Grace said not understanding what Anne was trying to say.
“The bile allowed you to see into my past. We have legends that some chosen few were able to ingest the liquid and then they could relive parts of someones life. Other stories tell of a select few that can take the bile and then see all the way back to the beginning of shifter kind. You saw a vision of me when I lived in New York,” Anne said.
“It felt like more than a vision. It was as if I was actually there reliving the whole thing,” Grace said.
Anne looked at Grace, her eyes downcast and said, “Are you going to judge me for what I did to those men?”
“I’m in no place to judge anyone. I still can’t piece together everything that happened in the alleyway. It’s like I’m flipping through a book and all I see are a handful of pages. Even the pages are out of sequence, so I can’t really tell what is going on. What I can remember is those two men wanted to hurt you real bad. Why do you think Tulimak wants me? What is his plan?” Grace said.
“I don’t know. The man is dangerous, we need to get back to Twin Rock and warn the elders. They know more about bile then I do. You can’t let Tulimak know that you saw anything from the past. There are events in both clans history that need to stay lost in time. If he starts digging around in our shared history, I don’t know what the outcome could be. He is up to something, our clan has had very little dealing with the white bear clan over the last eighty years. We have had somewhat of an uneasy peace between our two groups. The end of your World War 2 was also the start of a peaceful time between our clans. Things happened between us during that period that I think almost destroyed both sides. I’ve only ever heard whispers and rumours about how close we came to total destruction. You’ve met the elders, they are not the most forthright bunch and they strongly believe in the keeping of certain secrets in order to maintain a future for our clan,” Anne said.
“Do you know anything about this Tulimak? Is he their leader,” Grace said.
“I know very little about the other side. I think he is the son of their leader. We need to get back to the elders, they hold all the answers,” Anne said.
“How do you propose we do that?” Grace said.
Anne winced and looked down at the bandaged wound in her side and the catheter taped to her bandages for bile removal. “I can’t transform with this thing in me. If I rip it out, then maybe I can change and give us a fighting chance of getting out.”
“What about the guards? If they shift do you think you have the strength to take them on?” Grace asked. She could feel a sickening feeling in her stomach at the thought of Anne ripping the surgical tubes out of her own broken flesh.
“They are humans. I can only smell two other shifters in close proximity. Tulimak and that slicked back blonde sadist. I think this compound is run by humans under Tulimak's control. If I can over power the guards we might have a chance to make it to the nearby forest,” Anne said as she ran her fingers gently over her bandaged abdomen.
“When do we try it?” Grac
e asked.
“You can’t take another dose of the bile, so we have to try it before they come and get you. If I rip out the tubing now, I might be healed enough by the morning to attempt a transformation. We have to do this now,” Anne said looking down at her bandaged side. Blood had started to blossom in widening circles on two spots of the snow white bandage.
Grace looked at Anne, her face was set in a hard look of grim determination that Grace wished she shared. “I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. What if you bleed out during the night. Cant we try to over power the guards ourselves,” she said looking around desperately in the room for something, anything that could be used as a weapon.
Anne looked at Grace with a drawn and serious face and said, “Look at yourself Grace, you are weakened from the bile. I’m doing no better with this damn tap stuck into my guts. Do you really think we would have a chance over powering either of those guards. They looked to me like solid walls of muscle. The only chance we have is if I transform.” Anne put her hand on Graces chin and said ,”Look at me. We have to get out of here. They will experiment on you until you can take it no more. You are important to our clan, it is up to me to get you home anyway I can,” Anne said softening her voice as she saw Graces eyes begin to glisten with tears.
“I’m scared Anne. I’m out of my depth here. My mind is filled with everything from the vision, the fear, the horror and the feeling of power I felt ripping those men apart. The prophecy and everything that goes with it, that I am somehow important to the clan. It’s all getting a bit overwhelming. I don't think I can step up and be the kind of person the clan wants me to be. I can’t do it Anne,” Grace said wiping away the tears from her cheeks.
“You are going to be tested and hurt by what is to come. We are entering a very dark time for our clan and all shifter kind. This is only the start of it Grace. When I look at you I don't see a rightened woman, I see someone who has reserves of strength that she doesn’t even know she contains. You are a strong person and I am going to be strong for both of us. Let’s get this thing over with so that we can both rest,” Anne said wiping a tear from Graces sodden cheek.
Anne rolled up her her t-shirt and with a sharp intake of breath Grace helped her pull it off over her head. Her body was wrapped in a layer of tight bandages and a tube with a catheter was pinned under her arm. Grace unhooked the clasps holding the bandage in place and began to unwrap it. Once the bandage was removed she unclipped the catheter from the bandage and Anne held the end of it. A tube ran from it into a long slit in her side that had been sealed shut with metal staples.The area along the two inch cut was puffy and swollen and blood oozed out from between the staples and from where the tube disappeared into her body. Annes hands were shaking as she held the catheter and she winced in pain from the movement. Grace ripped off a section of bandage and wrapped it around Annes waist and then hooked the tube and catheter onto it to hold it steady. Beads of cold sweat ran down Annes face and her skin had turned a pale ashen colour.
Grace bent in close to the wound and looked at the area where the tube disappeared into Annes flesh. She could taste a bright metallic tang like she was sucking on a penny and the flavour was coating the inside of her mouth. You have to be strong Grace told herself as she examined the wound.
“How do you think it’s held in place?” Grace said.
“It has to be stitched onto something inside to keep the tube connected for bile production. You are going to have to rip the thing out of me in one smooth movement. The sooner it’s out, the sooner I can start healing myself,” Anne said licking her lips with a dry and raspy tongue.
Grace touched the part of Annes flesh where the tube entered through the cut in the pallid skin. Anne winced at the pressure and looked away clenching her jaw tight. The skin around the wound was a sickly white and it looked as if the puckered flesh was made out of a soft wax,
Grace unbuckled her belt and pulled it free and then folded it in half. “Bite down on this,” she said passing it to Anne.
Anne took it and looked at Grace with wide and clear eyes and said, “You do this in one motion. Get a sure grip on that tube and pull that thing out of me. You can do it Grace.”
Grace nodded and the room around her felt like it was see sawing from side to side. Pull it together she told herself, one quick yank and it will all be over. Anne took the folded belt and put it between her teeth and bit down hard. She locked eyes with Grace and nodded. The cords on her neck stuck out as she readied herself. Grace wiped her hands on her trousers and held them up. They were both shaking. She balled them into fists and squeezed and the shaking eased. Anne sat sideways in the bed and Grace got up and rubbed her hands on her legs again.
“Three,” she said as she grasped the catheter and tube in her hand.
“Two,” she said as she braced her foot against the bed frame for leverage.
“One.” Grace yanked the surgical tubing and she fell backwards onto the floor as it came free with a ripping sound and a liquid squelch. She looked at the piece of plastic tubing streaked with blood dangling from her fist and then threw it across the room in disgust. Anne let out a long low rumble of a groan as her skin seemed to lose all colour. A ragged hole like a gaping toothless smile oozed blood from her side. Grace could see white spots dancing in her vision and she felt the whole room tilt and swerve.
“Bandage me back up,” Anne said sounding as if she was whispering from the the end of a long hallway.
Grace dug her nails into her palm and slowly got up from the floor. A trail of blood droplets lead across the floor to Anne. Grace tried to not look at it or focus on the thick red stream of blood running down Annes side. She took the bandages and reapplied the sodden gauze and then began to wind them around Annes body.
“Tighter,” Anne said through lips the colour of parchment.
Graces hands shook as she continued to wrap the bandages around Anne. Her fingers where slick and sticky with blood as she reapplied the clasp. She is going to die Grace thought as she finished fixing the bandages.
“Attach the catheter so no one can tell,” Anne said her voice a thin whistle.
Grace picked up the medical tubing and picked off some strands of straw. Her stomach churned when her fingers brushed against a chunk of soft flesh stuck to the end. Beads of cold sweat ran down the back of her neck as she tucked one end of the tube under part of the bandage and then secured the rest of it to Annes side. Grace leaned back and looked at her handy work, everything looked nearly the same as before. A bright circle of blood was spreading and soaking the bandages and Annes head began to swing backwards her eyes turned upwards until the whites where visible.
“I need to heal,” Anne said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Grace helped her to lie down and covered her with the rough spun blanket on the bed. She dabbed at Annes clammy forehead with the corner of her shirt, moping up the slick of sweat she was covered in. Graces hands shook as she wiped gently at Annes temples and a wave of exhaustion came crashing down on her. Annes eyes darted from side to side behind her closed eyelids and her lips moved as she mouthed silent words. I can be strong for both of us Grace thought as she bent and kissed her friends forehead. Annes skin felt like it burnt with a fever and she let out a whimper at the kiss.
On wobbly legs Grace crossed the room and collapsed into the bed across from her friend. She curled into a ball holding her legs in a tight grip as she watched her friend. If Anne doesn’t pull through I will never get to see Tom again she thought as tears began to flow. As Grace lay there holding herself and crying she felt nothing like a person of legend whose strength would bring unity to all shifters, in that moment Grace felt small, alone and broken.
18
The Mongrels
The mongrels had set up camp close to a stream and an easy escape root from the thin valley they had been calling home for the last few weeks. Camouflage tarps were set up at intervals under the canopy of the trees and the non stop rain of the last fe
w weeks didn’t seem to bother anyone. If it did, nobody complained about it. They were a hardened group, used to eking out a living in the backwoods. Moving camp when they felt it had been compromised and suffering through any kind of weather that was thrown at them.
To an outsider the twisted flesh, hunched backs, limbs trapped between human and bear transformation and the myriad of other manifestations of the mongrels curse might of made it seem like these creatures were weak, prone to illness and disease. The opposite was true of this strain of shifter. Disease was unknown in the group and no one ever suffered any kind of illness. Some of the more extreme physical manifestations could cause some mongrels difficulty in getting around. Twisted spines, or legs that seemed to bend in an unnatural way slowed the mongrel, but that was the only ailment they had. A trait they all shared was grit and determination. Every member of this group had a story to tell filled with heartbreak and loss. Through their shared pain they had forged a bond stronger than any family and closer than any shifter in either of the clans. Every member of the mongrel tribe would lay down his life to save another and would do anything to maintain the cohesiveness of the group. They were one seething mass of mutilated and broken creatures who came together under the leadership and guidance of Nasak. He was the mongrel they all believed would take them back home and allow them one more chance to see the ones who had cast them out. Then the mongrel tribe would tear it all down and start a new era in the history of this cast out and forgotten group.
The tribe was abuzz with chatter that morning as news spread of Nasak's return from his first meeting with Tulimak. This meeting was a historic moment for the tribe, the first time in over a hundred years that a mongrel spoke directly to a shifter on close to equal standing.
A ripple of cheers passed through the camp as the first of the mongrels in Nasak's group arrived and then the great leader came through the camp with his closest advisor Clarence. Nasak strode to the tree stump in the middle of the camp and stood and watched his people. They gathered around him in a tight circle waiting for him to speak.
