Savage Beasts - 18. Man or Monster

The bears remained in Calgary for another three days to be sworn-in, move into and furnish their assigned office spaces and councilmember apartments, and attend the remainder of the special session meetings for the week. The Council’s timid tailor had an entire new wardrobe of suits prepared for the five Council bears and their cubs to keep in their apartments for full-Council meeting days. Per Axel’s request, his set of suits were made from soft black and brown leather, and the white linen shirts to go with them had a stylish banded collar and no tie.

By the end of the week, the entire group were aware that the day the dababbi would be released from their huts was drawing close, and they made their arrangements to fly back to Duluth.

“Axel,” the Supreme Alpha said as they prepared to leave, “You are currently the creatures’ Master. If the ritual did not work and they remain monsters, you do not have to bear the burden of caring for them. We can prepare living arrangements for them here.”

“So, you just want to put them in prison cells?” Axel asked.

“No,” Supreme Alpha Taylor replied. “Think of it less as a prison and more like captive animals in a zoo. We would create a habitat for them to live and move around and would make sure they have fresh meat every day.”

“Their favorite meat is Boy Scout,” Axel replied, and both he and the Supreme Alpha had a good belly laugh.

****

By the time their flight landed in Duluth and they retrieved their vehicles and drove back to the Reservation, it was nearing dark. They were greeted again by the Elder and taken to his home where several of the tribe had already gathered to prepare an evening meal for their bear guests.

“How has the week been?” Gunnar asked the Elder as they sat to eat.

“Mostly quiet all week up until today,” the Elder replied. “Early this morning all the katci-to'wack'w began the most pitiful wailing. If you listen close, you can hear them in their huts even now.”

The group fell silent, and in the distance, they heard the howls of the dababbi. It was the sound of a coyote with a leg caught in a hunter’s trap.

Axel stood to go outside to investigate, but the Elder laid his hand upon the bear’s forearm.

“I understand your concern,” the Elder said to Axel, “You are still their master, but it is vital that you do not intervene at this point in the process. They howl because they are expelling the last of the bear spirit from their bodies. They are starved and dehydrated, but if they receive any food or drink now, it will only feed the beast within. This process is not a pleasant one, but it is nearly over now. Still your mind.”

Axel sat back down and picked at his dinner, but once his ears were attuned to the terrible wails of his children, he could not tune them back out so easily.

At midnight, the howling of the dababbi finally went silent. Axel sighed and rolled onto his side in the large bed provided by the Elder. Gunnar and Mike had insisted on bunking with him due to his anxiety over the suffering of the dababbi, and now as he laid on his side, he had Mike’s back pressed against his hairy chest, and Gunnar’s chest and belly pressed against his own back. Gunnar mumbled in his sleep and draped his arm across Axel protectively. Axel shifted his rear around until Gunnar’s thick tool was nestled comfortably in the cleft of his ass.

He listened hard for any sound coming from the direction of the dababbi huts, but all was now quiet. Axel closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around Mike, then drifted into a fitful sleep.

****

Axel stood alone in the center of the square of huts. He could hear a howling wind blowing all around him but could feel neither see nor feel a cooling breeze. He walked across to the first hut and laid his large hand upon the door. When he pushed it open, he saw a shape on the bed wrapped underneath a thin blanket. The shape moved and writhed, and as Axel watched, it fell from the bed to the floor of the hut, the blanket being pulled off its body as it fell.

It was neither man nor dababbi. The thing that now squirmed on the floor was six feet long and resembled an enormous white maggot. It had no eyes, but it could detect the presence of its Papa as it began to squirm in Axel’s direction.

Axel backed out of the hut, but at that moment the other seven hut doors slammed open and more giant maggots came squirming out of the doorways, searching blindly for their Papa.

He fell backwards but continued moving away from the larvae that surrounded him on all sides.

The first one to reach him touched his left arm. Its skin felt smooth and cold, almost clammy. It wrapped itself around his arm and attached itself to the back of his hand by its sucking mouth.

The other giant maggots reached Axel’s prone form on the ground, and they too wrapped themselves around his other limbs, sucking his life’s blood through mouths that were stuck to his hands and feet. A fifth larvae crawled between his legs and engulfed his genitals down its throat. Axel could feel a ring of teeth sinking into the base of his penis and scrotum, but there was no pain.

Two more crawled along his torso and attached themselves to his belly and chest, nursing on his blood like newborns. The final maggot slid over its brothers as it squirmed over Axel’s groin and stomach, passing his chest until its head was nuzzling right underneath his chin. It reared its head back and Axel saw it open its mouth, a fearsome circle filled with ring after ring of tiny yellow pointed teeth. It sucked in a breath as it held its mouth directly over Axel’s face.

“Papa,” a whispering voice emanated from the raw, red hole in the center of the rows of teeth, and then the maggot’s mouth descended to engulf his face in blackness.

****

Axel woke with a jerk and found his arms and legs tangled up in the thin sheet covering him. Mike and Gunnar were gone, and a streak of sunlight from the window over the bed created a sunny patch on the floor, where a small orange cat was curled up asleep.

He stretched a large arm out of the bed and scratched the cat between the ears. It rolled over and purred, batting his finger with its paws playfully.

Axel sat up and pulled on a pair of shorts before walking from the bedroom into the kitchen.

Gunnar was cooking up breakfast for the assembled crew of bears and visiting residents.

“It’s about time you got up!” Gunnar said playfully to Axel as he staggered into the room. “We thought you were going to sleep right through the big unveiling! You must have needed your rest.”

Axel shook his head and sat at the table. He described his dream for everyone in great detail, down to the horrible maw of the maggot that had engulfed his face at the end just before he awoke.

“I met Sigmund Freud, once,” Ezekiel said after Axel had finished describing his dream, “I think he would find this one easy to translate. You’re afraid of having to be accountable for these creatures, Axel. You’ve taken on the responsibility for them, but you aren’t ready to be a Papa to eight monsters. If the ritual didn’t work, you are afraid that they will end up sucking the very life out of you.”

“Fear not, large one,” the Elder said, patting Axel on the shoulder. “The ritual worked. When their cries stopped last night, the last of the bear essence was expelled from their bodies. They have had a good sleep, and after we get you something to eat, we will go and wake them.

“Gunnar,” the Elder added, “Please cook enough extra food for eight. We are going to have many hungry men to feed shortly.”

At 9:30 am it had been exactly seven days since the dababbi were fed the bearsbane tea and placed in their huts. Now a group of werebears and Native Americans stood in the square between the eight huts, with Axel and the Elder standing before the first door.

“Moment of truth,” Axel mumbled, and he pushed open the door.

There was a large shape laying on the bed wrapped in a thin blanket. When the door opened and the sunlight streamed into the room, the shape stirred and sat upright. It was a man. A large, muscular man, but bald and completely hairless.

He realized that there was a crowd of people staring at him and that he was completely naked, so he pulled the blanket around himself and stood up.

He looked at the Elder and at Axel standing in his doorway, and while he didn’t recognize the old Native American man at all, somehow, the shirtless, tattooed seven-foot-tall brute seemed familiar in a strange way.

“Can you tell me your name?” Axel said to the man standing in the hut clutching the blanket around him.

“I…” the man began so say. His voice was scratchy, as if he hadn’t spoken in a very long time. “I want to say that my name is ‘Enceladus’ but that’s not right. Enceladus was my name in the dream. My name… is Adam.”

“What is the last thing you remember, Adam, before your dream,” the Elder asked.

“I was in the city for the International Federation of Bodybuilders competition. Jack LaLanne and Steve Reeves were there as judges. I remember I was at a bar after the competition, and I met a man,” Adam replied. “He said his name was Christopher and that he had a hotel room nearby. I went back to his room, and we…” Adam trailed off. He was embarrassed, and his cheeks were red.

Gunnar stepped up to the doorway next to Axel.

“Adam, what year is it?” Gunnar asked.

“Why it’s 1952, of course,” Adam replied. “What else would it be?”

“Adam, come with me,” Gunnar replied. “You must be hungry. We’re going to get you some clothes and something to eat.”

“Thank you, mister,” Adam said, following Gunnar. “I could really use a cup of joe after that crazy dream.”

“1952?” Mike said, “So, Christopher turned Adam into Enceladus…”

“Over seventy years ago,” Thomas replied. “Gods… and he thinks it was all a dream.”

Axel opened the next door and was greeted once again by a hairless muscular human who tied his blanket around his waist for modesty. The Man looked at Axel as if he was somehow familiar, but he couldn’t decide where they may have met.

“Please tell me if you remember your name,” Axel said.

“My name is Alcyoneus,” the man replied.

“No,” Axel said, “That is your dream name. What is your real name?”

“My real name…?” the man said, confused and struggling to think. Suddenly, his face lit up.

“Max! My name is Max!”

“What year is it, Max?” Axel asked next.

Max surprised them all by stating the current year.

“What’s the date?” Axel asked.

“February 20^th,” Max said. “What is this all about?”

February 20^th was exactly five months earlier than the current date. Max must have been Christopher’s last child.

“What’s the last thing you remember before now, Max?” Thomas asked.

“I was on a workout date at the gym with a guy I met on the ‘Bulge’ gay dating app. We worked out and went back to my place to shower. We ended up in bed, and that’s the last thing I can remember before having the craziest dream! How did I end up here? Where am I?”

“Come on Max,” Mike said, taking the man by the arm and leading him out of the hut. “I think you’re probably just hungry. You want some breakfast?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Max replied, “I’m actually starving.”

Axel and the Elder went around to each hut, greeting and questioning each bald muscular human in turn. The oldest was Adam, who was turned in 1952, and the youngest was Max who was turned just five months earlier. In between, when asked the year, the men returned replies of 1960, 1969, 1980, 1992, 2004, and the final one before Max was turned just one year earlier. All men appeared to be around thirty years old.

The restored humans sat around the long table in the Elder’s house eating breakfast and drinking coffee and fruit juice. They noticed that the other men were completely bald and hairless, and a few of them reached up to touch their own heads to confirm that they were similarly affected.

“Did the rest of you guys have a dream that you were a monster with a hot Dom Master who kept you in a cage, and then let you out to go on rampages to kill and eat people?” one of the men said as they finished up their meal.

Heads all around the table nodded in response.

“Except, we weren’t killing and eating people…” another man replied. “I mean, they looked like people at first, but some of them turned into bears, and some of them turned into wolves.”

Max turned and looked at the crowd of large, bearded men gathered around watching them eat and listening closely.

“That… wasn’t a dream. Was it?” he asked.

The werebears looked around at each other, but Ezekiel spoke first.

“No, young man, I’m afraid that it wasn’t. The man you each met over the course of the last seventy years has been turning you into monsters. We have just changed you back.”

“This is going to take some time for you to fully comprehend,” Gunnar added. “Most of you have been missing so long that you won’t have a home to go back to. We’re going to take you someplace safe until you can adjust to your new reality.”

“Is our hair going to grow back?” Adam asked, rubbing his head.

“Yes, young ones,” the Elder replied, “Do not worry. Your bodies and heads were covered with the fur of the monster. When the monster was expelled from your bodies, the fur fell out along with it. You will now begin to grow normal human hair once again.”

The next several hours were spent answering questions and reassuring the men that even though the horrifying memories that continued to surface from the time that they were monsters were real, they were now safe and the man who had done that to them was dead and gone.

“I remember that,” Max said. “I remember sitting on the grass and watching Christopher’s head get ripped from his body. It rolled over to my feet and I picked it up.”

“Then we…” another man named Richard began to say, but he fell silent. They all knew what they had done after witnessing Christopher’s death.

Richard began to weep silently to himself, but Mike noticed, and sat down next to the man, pulling him into a hug of comfort. As he embraced the human, Mike unconsciously inhaled his scent as his face pressed against the man’s neck.

Lights flashed in Mike’s brain as a familiar spicy scent triggered a response.

Mike sat up straight with alarm in his eyes and turned to the man sitting on the other side of him. He grabbed that man by back of his neck and pressed his nose against the human’s throat.

“Um, hi there,” the man said with a chuckle, “the last time I let a guy take advantage of me like this I turned into a monster for forty years.”

Mike released the man and stood up looking around at his werebear brothers.

“Guys, you’re not going to believe this. They’re kindred now.”

“They’re what?” Gunnar and Thomas both said in unison.

“Check for yourselves. We may have pulled the bear monsters out of their bodies, but the bears left something behind.”

The eight human men all tilted their heads back in confusion as the werebears pressed in to check their scents.

“There’s no way they could have been kindred before, right?” Jacob said, “Or else they would have just turned into werebears and not the monsters.”

“Curious,” Ezekiel replied. “It would seem that Christopher not only figured out the way to turn human men into dababbi, but he also inadvertently learned what appears to be the first step to turn a non-kindred human into a bear kindred!”

“We can’t just go around changing non-kindred humans like that, though,” Gunnar said. “It’s unethical.”

“Agreed,” Joel replied. “The knowledge of this passes no further than the eight of us. We must not even share this information with the rest of the Lycan Council.”

All werebears nodded their heads solemnly while the eight men sat listening to their conversation in confusion.

“Gentlemen,” Ezekiel finally said to them, “We will be taking you to your new home shortly. Whether it is permanent or temporary is up to you, but the important thing is that you have a safe place to rest and recover while you come to terms with what has happened. It will be important for you to make friends with the other men living in our village. You should see if you can each find one of our brothers who you feel can be your mentor, guide, and best friend through this phase of your life. When you are ready, we will share more with you, and will allow you to make a very important choice. Until then, know that we are here to guide and help you during every step of your recovery. All the men in the village are also gay, and so you will be free to be yourselves.”

“Oh,” Adam replied. “Do you mean homosexual? I… I’m… not a homosexual.”

“Dude,” Axel said to Adam, “I’ve got some news for you. First, it ain’t 1952 anymore, and second, you’re as queer as a three-dollar bill. The sooner you face those two facts the happier the rest of your life will be.”

“Where is this place we’re going?” one of the men asked.

“Not far,” Ezekiel replied. “Just over the border into Canada. Since none of you have identities anymore, we’ll have to find a way to get you over the border without passports, but that is a small challenge compared to everything else we’ve had to overcome to get you this far.”

“Since when do we need a passport to go to Canada?” Adam said with a laugh.

“Since nine-eleven,” Max replied.

“What’s ‘nine-eleven’?” another man asked.

As the men argued amongst themselves over their different viewpoints regarding the state of world politics, the American Bears congratulated their Canadian brothers on the new additions to their enclave.

“It looks like you’ll have to bring a few of them up to speed,” Mike said. “Here’s hoping they can each find a Papa in Atikokan to guide them to become proper werebears when they’re ready. I don’t think Axel could handle having eight cubs all at the same time!”

“I don’t need one cub!” Axel replied gruffly. “But… if that Adam guy needs a father figure who still remembers the fifties pretty well, then… I guess I can take him under my wing.”

“I’m proud of you, Hair Bear,” Gunnar said with a grin. “You did very well.”

Axel’s cheeks turned pink, and he turned to the crowd sternly.

“All right you lot. Anybody heading to Canada better get their asses ready. We roll out in twenty minutes!”