Plucking the spear out of the ground, I sighed as I spun it around my wrist and brought it at rest upward.
I glanced the spear up and down, but knew I'd not find anything upon it… and I didn't. Not only did it not have a speck of dirt on it, even though it had half dug into the earth, it also didn't have a drop of blood or a piece of flesh.
Like always it was perfect. Looking just as the day it had been placed in my hand by my mother. Untouched.
"At least you don't ever betray," I said softly as I spun it again. I glanced around at the darkness that surrounded , twirling the spear a bit just to give myself sothing to do.
I wasn't in the mood to return to the others just yet. I had left Renn and Lilly's family at the bear's carcass. Lilly knew what to do when collecting materials from a beast, even one of monarch descent, so I wasn't really needed… but at the mont the real reason I didn't want to return to help was because I didn't want to have to be near anyone.
I was in a foul mood, though I was honestly not as angry as I expected myself to be.
Sohow, deep down, I had expected such news. I had been waiting for sothing like this… now that they were all back. Now that the gods were once again active. But… Tor? Such an odd betrayal. Especially since he was finally going to get what he wanted… unless of course the act of betraying happens upon my handing him his ancestor's heart.
Or maybe it is to happen now because I don't give it to him, since now I assu giving him the heart is what causes the problem in the first place.
"Or it's sothing else entirely…" I mumbled as I twirled the spear and looked around again.
I was alone, but only within reason. Not too far, a bit farther than shouting range, was everyone else.
Even in the darkness I could make out the silhouettes of Renn and the rest, off in the distance where the bear had died. We were pretty far from the Owl's Nest, about half an hour at a leisure walking pace, and it seed…
Turning away from the direction of the bear's carcass, and the owl family who was currently chopping it up, I frowned at the lone structure here in the darkness.
Life didn't grow well in this darkness. Though occasionally there were patches of grass, and even sotis a tree or two, it was mostly barren. Especially here where the darkness was thickest.
Yet not far from , not far from where the spear had landed… was a mound. A large burrow.
"Can't be," I whispered as I walked towards it.
I felt no divinity here. Even in the bear the only divinity I had felt had been from an outside source. It itself had no divinity, no mana, it had simply been touched by the stuff.
Yet this mound…?
Walking up to it, I frowned as I studied the very dark hole in the ground. The mound was sitting above a very big hole, one that looked deep and dark. I didn't need to sll the obvious stink coming from it to know what was within.
This was the bear's den. I wasn't sure if I had slain it as it was entering it, or leaving it, but there was no denying this hole's purpose. The thing was obviously a huge hole that it had dug out, and… was I hearing what I thought I was?
I turned my head a little, as to make sure I was hearing the sounds from the hole and not from Renn and the rest. It didn't take long to verify that I was in fact hearing little noises from deep within the hole. Ones that were of a certain kind of pitch, which was why I had at first questioned if they had been the voices of Renn and the rest on the wind.
"How'd it have children…?" I whispered as I tapped my head with the spear.
The hard tal rang my head a bit, and I wondered if I was mistaken.
Had another bear sohow made a nest here…? Surely not. The shadow bear had attacked anything and everything, it had been super territorial. But…
The shadow bear couldn't have had children on its own. It was a creature of normalcy, at least the kind that shouldn't have allowed it to propagate without help. But the idea of it mating with another bear was ridiculous… not only did it attack anything on sight, it had been huge. Far too big to have been able to mate with a normal bear, even the great big brown ones found here in the north.
But there was no denying the sounds I was hearing. The faint, little, cries from sothing inhuman.
"Odder things happen," I whispered as I stepped into the hole.
The hole, like the bear, was bigger than it seed. I had to duck a bit as I went deeper, but as the slope into the den evened out I was able to stand up fully. The den was as dark as could be, sohow even darker than the world outside of it, and was strangely warm. The temperature down here was sothing fierce, as if there was a fire down here or sothing.
There wasn't though. There were only large dug out caverns, one of which near the end I found was occupied.
In the utter darkness, since my eyes had yet to adjust, I could only make out faint silhouettes of the creatures on the ground. Small bundles of movent were rolling and crawling around near the end of one of the den's caves, and as I stepped into the cave the creatures beca a tad bit noisier.
Small cries, from multiple sources, filled the den as they noticed my presence. The cries were unmistakable, as were their shapes in the darkness, but they didn't sound panicked or angry. If anything…
"Hungry," I whispered softly as I recognized the cries for help.
Were they mistaking for their mother, co ho to nurse? It seed so… since one of them was crawling towards .
As what looked like the largest of the cubs crawled my way, my eyes began to adjust enough to make out finer details. The dark fur of the small cubs, and the extra set of legs, quickly verified my assumptions. These were the shadow bears cubs… and there were three of them.
Or at least, three that still lived.
I frowned as I stepped around the cub that had been crawling towards and over to one corner of the cave. I used the butt of my spear to nudge a motionless bundle of fur… and could tell by the thing's firmness and the lack of heat it was radiating that it was dead.
Quickly counting three similar unmoving cubs, I wondered what had happened. I slled no blood, at least not enough to tell they had died from wounds of any kind. Yet I couldn't tell in this darkness if they had died from malnutrition or not. They looked as big and fluffy as the others did, the ones still rolling and crawling around, but I knew such large creatures could starve to death rather quickly if not careful. Especially bears.
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Turning to look back at the cubs that still lived, I found myself looking down as one of them crawled into . A heavy, and hard, head thumped into my left shin… and it let out a tiny cry of a roar as it started to touch with its already large paws. Ones that felt bigger than my own hands already.
It wasn't trying to attack , even though its little cries sounded angry… but I could tell by how strong it was pushing against as it tried to claw up my leg that it was not so normal bear. It was strong, even as small as it was.
"Yet no divinity," I said softly as I bent down. I grabbed the cub by the back of its neck and lifted it. The thing let out a new cry, this ti one that actually sounded stressed and alard, but it didn't seem to wiggle or fight much as I lifted it up to my eye level.
Although my eyes had started to adjust, I could only make out a few of its finer features in this darkness. I saw the multiple eyes, gleaming in the dark. I saw sharp teeth, not white but pure black. Sa with its claws. Its fur though didn't seem to be as dark as its mother's had been.
The cub let loose a whine of a cry at as I studied it, and I sighed as I lowered it to my side… though I kept hold of it by the back of its neck.
With its cries, the other two cubs that still seed to be alive began to move this way. They didn't crawl as fast as the one I held had done, but I couldn't tell if it was because they were being cautious or if because they were weaker and younger than it. One of them did look half the size of the others.
As they crawled towards , I glanced around the dark den… and knew this was an opportunity.
They were the shadow bear's spawn. There was no denying that. Their appearance alone verified it, and the darkness of this cave further proved it. This cave was too dark, even in this absolutely dark forest, to be natural. Which ant these bear cubs were resonating with the leftover mana in this forest, as their mother had done.
"But will you be any less a threat?" I asked them as I bent down to pick another one up.
This one was startled by my grabbing it. It bit into my forearm, a bit angrily, as I hefted it alongside the other. I ignored it though as I then stepped over to pick up what seed to be last surviving cub, and also the smallest of the three.
I had to hold them a tad awkwardly, since I carried my spear and since they weren't small in the least. But I got all three in my arms, and huffed at them as they cried out in annoyance. The one biting my forearm stopped, but only to then go about biting my left shoulder.
Heading for the exit, I held back the small urge to just… squeeze the creatures. To both put them out of their misery, and to rid the world of the unnatural.
But the thought of doing such a thing left my mind as quickly as it ca… especially as I stepped out of the den and back out into the dark forest. A forest that now felt a tad brighter, thanks to my eyes having adjusted better to the dark.
One of the bears placed a paw on my face, right over my nose and mouth, as I glanced towards Renn's direction. I could still see them over there, working on the cub's mother. Now with my eyes better adjusted I could see that they had already skinned most of the bear.
Closing an eye as the cub's paw slid downward, scraping my cheek and lip as it did, I sighed as I felt blood start to drip down my face. "Sharp," I noted.
Studying the cubs in my arms, I realized they really were malnourished now that I could see them a tad better. They looked gaunt, even for odd bears, and the smallest of the three sohow looked the healthiest. Though that might simply be because it was a female, or possibly the runt of the litter, and not because of nourishnt.
I walked a bit away from the den, as to make sure they couldn't run back into it easily, and bent down to drop them. The two larger ones slid out of my grasp easily enough to the ground, but the smaller runt clung to my arm rather strongly. It let loose a whine as I gently shook my arm and tried to unhook it from .
By the ti I finally got the cub off , and it landed next to its siblings who were looking around and sniffing the air… A quiet, almost unnoticeable, wing-beat ca from above.
Sap landed a few feet away, and I watched the cubs closely as she slowly approached. They all noticed her, but didn't seem too worried or startled by her sudden appearance. In fact one of them suddenly found my boot far more interesting, and started to gnaw on the tip of it. Another sign to their hunger.
"Vim… what…" Sap spoke quietly as she paused a few feet away, and I could hear her concern. She wasn't sure what to say or ask.
"Found them in the den," I said simply with a small point to it.
Sap's wings furled up a bit. "Cubs…" she whispered, understanding what was happening.
I nodded and sighed. "Hungry ones. The two bigger ones are so malnourished its concerning," I said. The runt had noticed its sibling had found sothing to chew on, my boot, and was trying to crawl over as to share in the delicacy but the other one was looking up at the sky… as if transfixed by distant stars, or the moon, though they couldn't be seen here in the darkness.
"We um… we're getting ready to go back. We've finished harvesting what we could, we think, and…" Sap spoke quietly, as if afraid to startle the bears.
"I'll co help. Or well… maybe not. I might carry these back first," I said as I shifted my foot ever so slightly. The bears had started to really gnaw on my boot, and had started to tear it apart. The damage was likely already done, but I didn't want them to eat the leather. Even if it wouldn't outright kill them for doing so, in their condition it might do far more harm than good.
"Uh…" Sap wasn't sure what to say about that as I glanced out at the distant carcass, and sure enough could see everyone else in a small group near it. They were likely waiting for Sap to return.
I wonder why Sap had co over and not Renn. By now, with her heart, Renn really should have good enough eye sight to have been able to keep track of from this distance. Especially now that she could sll too.
"I know what my wife will say, but… what do you think, Sap?" I asked the young owl.
Sap stood up a bit straighter thanks to my question, and I heard her gulp as her wings unfurled a little. "…?"
I nodded. "Should I just… end them here and now? Or should I, should we, take the risk?" I asked her.
The owl lightly coughed as she glanced down at the bears, now all three were focused on my feet. Each trying to eat my boots. "They're… all shadow bears?" she asked.
"Cubs, but yes. Their den was basically an abyss. They likely share in their mother's ability, at least in part," I said.
Sap glanced at the nearby mound, and nodded. "You an then to spare them. To see if they can replace their mother," she said, understanding my aning.
"It's an idea, at least," I said. Even if they weren't as strong, or as connected to the divinity in the land that their mother had been… there were three of them. They'd make up in numbers what they lacked in singular ability. And, as of this mont, none of them had any mana within them. Not a one was disturbed by outside influence as their mother had been. And although it was possible they too could be afflicted as their mother had been, I wasn't going to justify needless slaughter and sothing that wasn't guaranteed. At least... not before first considering all options.
"I uh… for what it's worth I'd be willing to try it. It's better than just losing our ho without a fight, a least," Sap said.
I nodded, glad to hear it. "Then here, if you would," I asked her to take my spear as I held it out to her.
Sap hesitated, but only for a mont. She stepped over to and took the spear, and I nodded as I then bent down to pick the cubs back up.
Now without my spear it was easy to get a hand on all of them. They fought a tad harder this ti, though only because they had thought they had found sothing to eat. They made small groans and annoyed roars as I hefted them. "They stink a little," I said.
"They do, yes…" Sap agreed.
"Let's be off," I said as I stepped towards the bear's mother. Or rather, her carcass.
"Should you take them near… her?" Sap asked as she hurried to keep pace with . It seed she was going to walk back with , not fly.
I humd at that as I nodded. "Good point… I'll round it, then. Would you let the others know?" I asked.
"Sure…" Sap agreed, though sounded a tad resigned as she did.
As she flew off, I smiled at the owl who flew with haste. "She must think you guys are cute," I said to the cubs. She had wanted to linger.
Renn will think they're cute too. Hopefully the others do too… else I'll be forced to endure my wife's tears.
"One step forward, two back," I said softly as I headed back to the Owl's Nest… carrying lives while ending others.
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