by Wilson, Tia
When Cormack had awoke shivering and drenched with sweat he had looked over at his brother in the bunk across from him. Finbarr was already up and awake and sitting at the edge of his bed wrapped in a wool blanket. Cormack did not have to say anything to his brother, they both knew what they had witnessed in their dream. The following morning they set out on foot to cover the three hundred mile trek to the place in their dream. A place most clan members hoped to never have to return to.
Ashley had been on a three day excursion into her favourite part of the wilderness. Her husband and the first human she had ever fallen in love with had waved her off from the porch of their earth brick house which they had built into the side of a sloping hill. A river ran close by at the lee side of the hill and it was the last sound at night Ashley would drift off to while her husband held her tight.
Once a month she left her human side behind and lived as a bear for a few days. She loved to hunt by the riverbanks, the other bears always wary of her presence. Afternoons would be spent lying on her back in the tall grass as the light wind ruffled her fur and the flies flew in thick black clouds above her. These days apart from her husband and her humanity acted as a kind of release valve and something Ashley knew she needed after the horrors of the incident at Bilton Bay over thirty years ago.
Lying curled up at the back of a small cave with a wide mouth that looked across a gently swaying grassy plain Ashley had pawed at the earth in her sleep as long buried images flooded her sleeping mind. She awoke and padded out of the cave, her tongue hanging from her mouth as she breathed in huge gasping breaths. Her dark eyes looked to the night sky above and she bellowed at the ceiling of stars as she thought about returning to a place best forgotten.
They all made their way to the designated meeting place. Some travelling for weeks through rough terrain untouched by mans presence. Galton the mute who had not been seen for fifty years made her way across river and snow capped mountains. The Teal family, a small tight knit unit of two daughters and a human mother and shifter father, said goodbye to their father as he left them. He had told them the dream and the place he must visit. They knew he might not return and watched him leave as tears ran down their cheeks..
Each of the Elders made the voyage all knowing that this could be the last time they moved freely through their beloved wilderness. Each fearing that this was the clarion call of a clan on the brink of destruction. Each Elder knew that the dream and the images of the secret place meant only one thing. War was coming and the time for hiding was over.
To Be Continued…
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Also by Tia Wilson
Black Bear Rising
The Last Client
Black Jacks Folly
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