The Bear Shifter’s Promise

by Martha Woods

  Shaking his head and clearing it just a bit, Orson shot his foot out and crunched it into Noah’s knee, buckling him down right into a wide swing of a table leg right into his temple, a second swing bringing him fully down to the ground laying on his back. “Why are you doing this?” Orson panted, “Why… who told you to do this?”

  “You did,” Noah spat, teeth bared in disgust, “Rat.”

  “What the hell are you…” Banging against the door, more people who had heard the obvious commotion and the crashing of furniture, likely to be able to help him if he knew them as well as he thought he did. But then he remembered the looks of contempt, every one of them that he could see staring at him like he was something alien, and he realized that even if they weren’t working directly with Noah it was likely that they would side with him in a heartbeat anyway.

  In an instant they’d decided that he wasn’t one of theirs anymore.

  Seeing the door starting to splinter, Orson made the quick decision to send the leg smashing down into Orson’s chest one last time before he turned around and sprinted towards the kitchen, legs leaving the ground and sticking out in front of him as he shattered the window out and toppled to the ground beneath. He rolled with the landing, pushing himself up into a sprint and aiming himself straight out of the camp, legs carrying him as fast and as hard as they could possibly go. He ran until his lungs were burning and his legs were shaking like jelly, the swiping branches and the countless spills cutting and tearing his skin where they had struck, his clothing stuck to his body with sweat and blood.

  “What… the fuck… was that?” He asked himself, still torn between wanting to go back and ask for an explanation and just keeping his pace out into the middle of nowhere. For once, the rational part of his brain won out, and with a shake of his legs and a breath of the crisp air, he kept walking.

  The door crashed inwards, the other members of the guard troop bursting into Orson’s house only to be greeted with a groaning Noah and an absence of their target. “Where’d he go?” Herb asked, looking around the room, “Noah, did you see him?”

  “He went out the window you… fucking idiot…” Noah pushed himself up onto his elbow, before wrapping an arm around his ribs and standing up straight. “You run fast enough you might actually be able to catch up with him, but he’s fast.”

  “Don’t bother,” Came the voice from behind them, all turning to look at the one who was addressing them, “You run out there alone right now there’s a good chance he could kill you. Wait a day until he’s tired, then once he’s out of energy we get everyone to spread out and make sure that he’s found.”

  “And what do we do when we find him?” Noah asked, “You gonna let me finish the job?”

  “In your shape the job’ll finish you, but even if you were ready I wouldn’t let you. We catch him alive, I don’t do what we have to do with a light heart, he’s still my friend.”

  Noah scoffed, “Whatever you say Jeremy. Don’t let me know what you do to enemies in that case.”

  “Pray that you don’t end up being put on that list,” Jeremy said, stepping further into the room and letting the guard troop step out and tend to Noah’s wounds, leaving him standing alone in his former friend’s empty house. “I’m sorry about this Orson, but this is what I have to do to protect all of us. I… I hope you understand.”

  And then, stepping out himself, it was just the empty room left behind, with snow drifting in through the broken window.

  Chapter 4

  Waking up with her skull feeling five sizes too small and surrounded by darkness, Jennifer groaned in pain and pushed herself up onto her elbow, looking around and seeing the faint specs of light that popped in her vision, the telltale sign that at some point something had hit her in the head.

  “What the…” Stretching her neck from side to side, she stood as tall as she could manage, still hitting the top of her head on the low ceiling even as she was forced to still slump. From the brief touch it seemed to be some sort of wood, sturdy and aged, but still wood rather than stone. If she had to get out in a hurry then that was a good sign.

  Brushing her hands along the walls, her fingers slipped into the tiny holes that had been cut to allow her air, stars shining in the night sky will all the vibrancy of a thousand tiny suns. If it was night, then she’d been out for quite some time, a fact that did not quite sit well with her, nor did the reasoning for it.

  “That bitch…” She growled, clenching her jaw and stopping herself from screaming out in anger. She had to control herself in a situation like this, she’d been captured before and always managed to worm her way out, this was going to be no different. Aside from the fact that it was her own people that had put her here, with seemingly no real qualms about doing so. Maybe a few punches were in order for whoever she came across next.

  Sniffing at the air and grunting, Jennifer flexed her fingers in preparation for making her escape, sensing the others still around but preparing to change guard shifts. When they broke their lines would be the perfect time to make her move, so all she had to do was keep her ears and nose open and wait for the opportunity to reveal itself. Tamping down her urge to smash her way out of whatever box it was that they’d shoved her in and go on a fighting spree just to prove a point, she sat down in what she guessed was the middle and crossed her legs, shutting her eyes and allowing herself to be pulled by her other senses, the birds in the trees falling silent and the heartbeats of her fellow wolves beating ever steadily, until they started to tire and let their bodies slump deeper.

  Jennifer’s eyes snapped open, glowing faintly in the darkness and her teeth baring in anticipation. Leaning forward and looping her fingers through the holes cut into the wall, she waited until she could hear the heartbeats grow more distant before she pulled up and towards her, bending the wood just enough to open up the tiniest of stress points, muscles tensing and jaw clenching as she opened it up little by little, cracks giving way to fissures until there was a single snap and the board fell in two pieces, the hole just big enough for her to squeeze through. With one satisfied nod at her strength, she crept slowly through the darkness, scooping dirt into her hands and pressing it across her skin, hoping to dampen her scent just that little bit more. It could be the difference between escaping and not after all.

  The box that they’d kept her in was on the outskirts of the campsite, most likely to stop from alarming many of the regular residents if she woke up screaming and swearing, which just made it all the easier to slip away. But with one thought of the woman who had put her there, the Elder who was supposed to back her no matter what, she stopped in her place, caught between the possibility of escape and the chance to let her know exactly what she thought of her betrayal.

  Minutes passed by as she stood there, every minute just one more that lowered the chances of her getting away, but she just couldn’t put it out of her mind. She’d been betrayed so casually, so easily, for a reason that didn’t even really make that much sense at all, and she was just supposed to move on from that as though nothing had happened? She’d never really been one to leave anything undone, and she could already tell that this was one of those things.

  But, she decided with a disdainful sigh as she resumed walking, now was not the time to right the wrongs against her. She had a chance to live and fight another day, she would be no more than a fool if she didn’t take that chance, and likely a dead fool at that. A task for another day, much as it annoyed her.

  Once Jennifer felt that she was a sufficient distance from the camp, being that no one had actually noticed her and was sprinting to come kill her, she crept low and shifted once more, thankful for the feeling of the wind blowing through her fur and the moonlight shining down on her face to make her feel alive once more. The pounding of her feet against the cold ground, the branches whipping and snapping against her powerful body, it was enough to make her forget for just a moment how profoundly pissed off she was, as well as the fact that she had genuinely no earthly ide
a about where she was actually going, much less what the next step in her plan was. She was just making everything up as she went along, and to be honest that was just about the best that she could do right now.

  But eventually the noises of the surrounding forest changed, from the calm slumber of the animals to the rushing of the river about twenty miles east of their campsite, her paws skidding in the dirt as she barely stopped herself from tumbling headfirst right into the water. It definitely wouldn’t have killed her, but a midnight dip in a freezing pool of water was absolutely not her idea of a good time, forcing her to slowly pad across the high rocks that she spotted after five minutes of searching. Walking further north she came to the mouth of a cave, hidden behind a curtain of vines that had somewhat recently been disturbed, but not enough to make her suspect that it was by anything other than a lone animal. Definitely an alluring place to sleep for tonight at least, even if she’d just woken up she was nothing short of completely exhausted, her muscles tight and sore, her head pounding from being forcibly unconscious for so long. Dragging herself into the mouth of the cave, she gave the air one last sniff to be sure of her own security before letting herself drop where she stood, curling into herself and falling unconscious instantly.

  The cold bite of the winter air hadn’t really hit Orson completely until night began to fall, the lack of a jacket and flimsy shield of a dress shirt doing everything it could to remind him of what a foolish decision he had made by jumping out of the window with a complete lack of planning. To be fair to himself he knew that he had very little in the way of actual time to grab the necessary supplies and make his escape before the backup arrived, but with a torso full of bruised ribs and not much in the way of medical supplies he was regretting not taking at least a second to give the room a scan.

  So here he was walking, boots trudging lines through the slowly growing frost and his arms shaking from the freezing cold, teeth chattering in his mouth with every step he took. It was tempting to shift, to be able to cover more ground and find some level of safety that way, but he hadn’t had a chance to eat, and shifting was something that took him a lot of energy to do. The last thing that he wanted was to end up freezing and starving to death just so he could cover a few more miles of endless cold. Though if they came after him, it likely wouldn’t matter in that case, they were likely to kill him before bothering to ask him any sort of questions.

  “Screw it,” He sighed, palms burning against the ground and he dropped to his knees and let the transformation take over, fur sprouting and teeth elongating, what had been slightly sharper points than the average person’s turning into something thick and pointed, a maw filled with such vicious teeth that it wasn’t hard to imagine them being able to tear a hole in just about anything. Orson’s claws extended and dug deep trenches into the dirt, a slowly growing rumble in his throat crackling the muscles in his neck and tickling at the back of his mouth, letting itself out in a quaking snarl that would shake the toughest men to the bone.

  Taking a moment to tense the muscles in his back, before standing up on his hind legs, Orson stretched out kinks and aches that he hadn’t even realized that he’d had to begin with, the magnificent form of the bear rising triumphantly above the ground even after someone had so callously tried to take his life. But this was his land, his kingdom, and even if his tribe no longer wanted him he would be damned if he allowed them to strike him from the land that he had called his own for decades now.

  Bounding through the trees, paws making heavy falls against the hard ground, he took himself in whatever direction that his nose carried him, searching for any sign of animal or settlement that could possibly mean food. If he was going to get away to safety then he was going to need food, and a lot of it, otherwise he was as good as dead. But there was not a living creature to be found anywhere nearby, nor were there any to be found further than that. It seemed that all the creatures had migrated or gone into hiding to outrun the cold, much like their food seemingly had, the woods so frustratingly silent that he could almost hear the commotion back at the camp.

  “Where is everything?” He thought to himself, growing increasingly worried at every second that ticked by without him finding a single sign of life, “Is the land really dying this much?”

  The answer to that was more obvious than he could have previously thought, the trees starting to wilt and their brilliant green long since having dulled. If the land was to survive then they would all have to focus on bringing it back to life, and they couldn’t rightly do that by focusing on growing their own food to survive as well. It was clear now that if the land had any chance, any chance at all, they would have to leave completely and allow it to heal on its own, remove themselves from its environment and only come back to focus on assisting the healing, rather than trying to live their own lives as well.

  Distantly, with his ears snapping to attention, he heard the sound of crashing and caught the scent of blood, faint and distant, but blood nonetheless. As much as it saddened him to do so, considering that the wildlife in the forest at the moment was almost zero, he turned in the direction of the scent and pushed on, prepared to do whatever he had to to ensure that he would live to fight another day. His legs carried him through miles of forest, leaping over fallen trees and through thick brush, pausing at the mouth of a wide river that was flowing fiercely. Padding his way around the edge, looking for any shallow areas that he could leap through, he soon enough found a series of rocks that he could use to cross out of danger of being swept along with the flow, only wetting his paws a little bit as he stepped out of the river and came to the mouth of a cave. The entrance had been disturbed, clearly a regular passage for any number of animals, deer, boar, whatever was likely to seek shelter for the night was going to find a home within the cramped walls of the cave, and for now so was he. Though as he stepped in he couldn’t help the sudden exhaustion that had come over him, his sprinting through the forest after such an eventful fight leaving him weak and seeing stars, nowhere near in the shape that he would have to be in to chase down and kill an animal of prey. The only thing likely to happen if he tried would be collapsing dead out in the snow to become food for those that he was supposed to hunt.

  He could go hunting tomorrow, when he had his strength back. But for now, with his body curling up on the mossy ground, shifting back into his human form just to be able to save some level of energy, he was content to let whatever animals were nearby live for the moment. Hopefully, they would extend him the same courtesy.

  The sun was peeking through the vines when Jennifer opened her eyes, a pounding headache pulsing in her temples and making her wish for the time being that she’d never woken up to begin with, but the satisfaction of being free and alive from those who would wish otherwise? That could warm her heart enough to be worth it.

  The cold though, that was something that she couldn’t quite get used to at all, even with her thick skin she was feeling the exhausting effects of the chill, making her wish to close her eyes again and go back to sleep. A certain death sentence if she’d ever known one for sure. For now she would have to make do with laying there motionless for just three minutes more, before she would force herself to get up and continue on her journey to wherever it was that she was going, a decision that she hadn’t quite finalized with herself just yet. She didn’t much care to return to the clan, she didn’t much care what happened to them at all now that she thought about it, but she knew in her heart that there were still good, innocent people that would be harmed as a result of the Elder’s actions. So determined they were to take the land that had been split equally between their two groups that they were willing to just about anything, including kill them to the last child.

  And that was it, the reason she hadn’t outright decided to just turn tail and leave the entire forest behind her for greener pastures, the people that were depending on her protection to survive. Not just her’s, but Orson’s as well, those that had no idea that an attack was coming and were just livi
ng their lives as peacefully as they could while he tried to lead them to a better future. How jealous she was to see that was an option for some people out there.

  Leaning her head back and yawning, she felt the crack as her jaw popped into place and the muscles in her back stretched, the lines of exhaustion working themselves out strand by individual strand until she was left with purely satisfaction. “Alright,” She said, reluctantly rising to her feet, “Let’s get this day underway.”

  It was then that she heard the snoring, a sound that she had initially assumed was merely the reverberation of her breathing against the cave walls, but now that she stood it was quite clear that it was coming from a source very much not of her own mouth. That, in a word, was concerning.

  Creeping low and towards the mouth of the cave where it was coming from, she clenched a partly clawed hand and held it at the ready, prepared to claw out their throat without a moment’s hesitation. Bracing herself against the corner of the wall, she counted to three and, right as another snore echoed in the small chamber, she darted around and prepared to pounce onto whoever the unannounced guest was, sliding to a halt when she recognized them instantly.

  “Orson?” She asked, utterly confused at what she saw in front of her, “What are you doing here?”

  The uttering of his name was enough to rouse Orson from his slumber, looking up at her with blearily eyes and a slack of his jaw before the reality of the situation crashed into him, eyes coming to life in an instant and his body leaping into a defensive position. He backed away towards the mouth of the cave, asking, “What are you doing here Jennifer?”