Arctic Roots - 9. Life With the Old Man

Axel and Adam made good time the first day and elected to stop for the night in Fort Saint John, British Columbia, taking advantage of city comforts while they were still available. After a good rest and a hearty breakfast, they continued on the road toward the Yukon Territory.

As soon as they began driving, Axel tuned the satellite radio system to the 80’s heavy metal channel and cranked up the speakers. Adam winced a little but listened along as his Papa periodically thrashed his head and hair up and down violently along with the beat.

“This is very interesting… music, Papa,” Adam said after a while. “It sure is… loud.”

“Fuck yeah it’s loud,” Axel replied. “You can’t listen to Heavy Metal without the volume cranked way up. I didn’t get out much from my job as bouncer and manager of a secret bar for wolf lycans for the last 50 years before it closed down and I moved to Atikokan, but anytime I found out one of these bands was doing a concert back in the 1980s or 90s, I would drive up to Green Bay to see them.”

“Do you hear this band right now?” Axel said turning up the volume a little louder. “I fucked their lead singer backstage in the VIP lounge after a concert one night. He was a demon in the sack, but nothing compared to you, Cub.”

“Gotcha,” Adam said, “Do you think maybe we can turn the radio off for a while and you can tell me about your first change with Grand-Papa?”

Axel sighed and turned the volume knob down until the radio shut off.

“That’s not an easy story, but I’ll give it a try, Cub. We were nearing the beginning of the summer season in the Arctic when the days are long and the nights short. I had been hunting like mad to keep up with feeding my growing body, and also to have enough skins and furs available to make new clothes for myself after I reached my final size…

****

“Old Man,” Alexei said as he woke from sleeping, “I’m so itchy I can’t stand it. I think the mattress is infested with lice.”

“There are no vermin in my home!” the Old Man snapped, “You are just experiencing the itch that accompanies your first change. Today you will change into a bear for the first time, and then you will be fully werebear.”

“Is it going to hurt when I change?” Alexei asked.

The Old Man laughed.

“Of course it is. Your bones are going to snap and break and stretch and reform themselves into the skeleton of a bear. Your teeth will fall out to make room for your fangs, and your face will stretch. It’s all incredibly painful! You must take the pain and embrace it like a bear. No whimpering or crying like some weakling!”

“Yes, Old Man,” Alexei replied. “I understand. I’ll make you proud of me today.”

The Old Man sniffed at the bearcub’s comment but set about cooking a breakfast for him. Alexei was surprised at this gesture, because the Old Man usually expected him to do all the cooking for the both of them.

Later that day, as Alexei worked on his supply of skins and furs, he felt a strange tingle in his ears. He reached up to touch them and found that they had changed shape into round bear ears and were now covered in a layer of soft fur.

“Old Man!” Alexei exclaimed, “Look at my ears!”

“It is time, Bearcub,” the Old Man replied. “Take off your clothing and get outside, now. I will not have you changing down here and damaging my home.”

Alexei did as ordered and climbed the ladder, exiting the tent into the outdoors. The Old Man came right behind him, also nude.

“After your change,” the Old Man explained, “I am going to change into my bear and fuck you, Bearcub. That is a tradition and a right that all bears may claim their bearcub’s ass first before anyone else.”

“That makes sense,” Alexei replied, “especially since there’s no one else around.”

“No backtalk!” the Old Man snapped. “After I finish fucking you, you must watch me carefully as I change back into human form. It won’t happen automatically the first time, and it is something that your body must learn to do or else you may be stuck in bear form forever. Just follow what you see me do with your mind and you will be fine.”

At that moment, Alexei was gripped with excruciating pain, and he fell to his hands and knees, gritting his teeth to make sure that he did not scream and bring shame upon himself in the Old Man’s eyes.

Gritting his teeth proved futile after a few seconds, as they all fell out of his mouth as it expanded and stretched into a bear’s muzzle. He fell to his side as his bones cracked and shifted, his skull split in the middle and elongated. Fur sprouted all over his body and his fingernails were pushed out by long black claws as the bones in his hands reshaped themselves into paws.

Alexei was suffering unbearable pain, but he made no sound as his hip and shoulder bones shifted and his entire skeletal system suddenly expanded and grew to an immense size. He stood back onto all fours with his head down and eyes clenched shut against the pain as he finally felt his testicles swell, and the baculum bone form in his penis causing it to expand to an inhuman size. He finally let out a massive bear growl as he ejaculated the last of his human sperm onto the ground.

He opened his eyes, and saw the face of the Old Man, transformed to his grizzly bear form. He was surprised to find that he had to look slightly downward to look the Old Man in the eyes.

“Do you understand me?” the Old Man growled in the bear-language.

“Yes, sir,” Alexei rumbled back. “Am I finished changing?”

“I want you to stand on your hind legs,” the Old Man growled, “So that I can get a better look at you. You are grizzly, but you are also more than grizzly. I’m not sure what kind of bear you are.”

Alexei hauled himself upright to stand on his hind legs, and was shocked that he towered over the Old Man. He had thought that the Old Man in his bear form was the biggest beast he’d ever seen, but now it appeared that he was even larger.

The Old Man growled deeply in his chest and walked around behind the standing bear. With a quick swipe of his paw, he struck the bearcub’s newly swollen testicles, causing Alexei to let out a roar and fall back to the ground, doubled over in pain.

The Old Man used his bearcub’s vulnerable position to mount him from behind and penetrate him roughly. As he claimed his first fuck, he leaned forward and growled into the new werebear’s ear.

“Just because you’re some kind of freak and are bigger than your Old Man, doesn’t mean that I can’t still take you down if you cross me. I’ve taken on creatures bigger and nastier than you in my day, and I’ve always emerged the victor. Do you understand, Bearcub?”

“Yes, Old Man,” Alexei replied, tears squeezing from the corners of his eyes from the pain and the humiliation. “I understand. You are still in charge and always will be.”

As the Old Man finished mating his new bearcub roughly, he walked back around to face him again.

“This is the important part now, Bearcub,” he said. “Watch me closely and do as I do.”

The Old man slowly began his shift back to human form, and Alexei concentrated and followed along as quickly as he could. In less than a minute, the Old Man stood on his human legs, and reached down to the bear who now inhabited a new human body. Alexei took the offered hand and stood up on his new legs. His thickly muscled new legs. He looked at his arms, chest, and shoulders, and saw that he now had a massive hairy and muscular body, larger than any Cassock Warrior who ever lived. He looked up, and then immediately had to look down to see his Old Man, who stood scrutinizing him. Alexei looked like a figure sculpted from marble, and his handsome chiseled features were perfect and flawless.

“How do I look, Old Man?” Alexei asked, hoping that he would finally find something like attraction or love in return, now that he was an impressive specimen of masculinity that the Old Man could appreciate.

“Adequate,” the Old Man replied, and then looked away, turning his back on the bearcub and walking to their tent. “You should quickly make use of your furs and skins to fashion yourself something to wear before any of our Native neighbors see your nakedness.”

With that comment, he went back inside the tent and down the ladder into their underground dwelling.

****

“Papa,” Adam said, resting his hand on Axel’s thigh. “Thank you for not treating me in the same manner when I had my first change. My heart breaks for what you had to go through.”

“There weren’t any other werebears around to compare against at the time,” Axel replied. “I thought that the way the Old Man treated me was the normal way that a Papa raised a Cub. Be thankful that I had the other bears in Atikokan to show me the right way for a Papa and Cub to bond before we met! In all the years that I lived with the Old Man I never gave up dreaming that he could learn to love me like a Mate, but it wasn’t until I met bears like Gunnar and Mike, and Joel and Jacob, that I realized the dream could be a reality.”

Adam turned and looked out his window. They were in the middle of the mountains at this point in the trip and he looked at the many peaks that surrounded them right now.

“Papa, there’s a spot right up there on the side of the road. Can you pull off and park for a bit?”

“Sure, Cub,” Axel replied navigating their 4x4 over to the side of the road and coming to a stop. “You need to take a leak, or is it lunchtime?”

“It’s time for a break that I think we both need right now,” Adam replied, getting out of the truck and stripping out of this clothes.

“Cub, what are you…” Axel started to ask, but it became clear when Adam shifted into his bear form and ran up the hill on the side of the road into the trees.

“Impulsive, horny fucker,” Axel grumbled, but he couldn’t help but grin as he too got out of their truck and stripped naked, changing into his bear as well and following his cub into the mountains.

Axel chased his cub through the woods, up the side of the mountain until the land leveled out and they were given a view of a beautiful, blue mountain lake. Adam splashed into the water and called to his Papa.

“The water’s cold but it feels great! Come on in!”

Axel shambled into the water, and splashed water at his cub’s face.

“You wanted to take a break just to go for a swim?” Axel growled.

“The lake is a surprise,” Adam replied, splashing back. “What I really wanted is a good bear fuck!”

“Your wish is my command, Cub,” Axel said and mounted Adam in the bear-style as they stood in the shallow waters of the lake.

Farther down the shore, a young couple were on a hike from a nearby campground and saw the bears frolicking in the water. They froze where they were to keep from attracting the bears’ attention and pulled out their cameras in excitement.

“Is that a male and a female pair?” the woman asked.

“No, that’s definitely two males,” her boyfriend replied. “Look at the balls on them!”

“Oh yeah, I see them now!” she said. “Wow! Do you think they’re going to fight over territory?”

“Maybe,” the man said, “It just looks like they’re playing in the water right now… Wait! Something’s happening…”

“Oh my God!” the woman whispered.

“Holy shit, get a picture,” the man said, raising his own camera and starting to click away. “This is proof that homosexuality exists in the wild in the animal kingdom! Those are two huge male bears having penetrative sexual intercourse!”

“I can’t believe it!” the woman said softly after the bears had been going at their playtime for a while and they had been capturing it all on film, “The one that… mounted… the other seems to have finished, and now he’s giving the bear that he mated with a… blowjob!”

As the woman had described, the bear who had just been penetrated by the other was now standing on his hind legs in the water and the other bear was suckling at his massive penis and licking it with his long bear tongue.

The bear on his hind legs let out a growling roar and it was quite obvious that he was ejaculating into the muzzle of the other bear. As he finished, he got back down on all fours, and the two bears licked each other affectionately around their faces before exiting the lake and disappearing through the trees.

“We’re sending these pictures to National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet!” the man exclaimed. “This is going to blow people’s minds!”

“It sure gave me a few ideas,” his girlfriend replied seductively, “Get your ass over here.”

****

Back in the truck, Axel continued their journey with a relaxed grin on his face. Leave it to his cub to know exactly what he needed and when he needed it.

“Are we going to be in a hotel again tonight, or are we roughing it, Papa?” Adam asked, relaxed and content.

“We’ll see how we do on time,” Axel replied. “If we can make to Whitehorse before it gets too late, there will be hotel options there.”

“Find a place with a nice hot shower and I’ll make it worth your while,” he said with a sly grin.

“Sooner or later, we’re going to have to get you used to camping, but I suppose we’ll take advantage of modern conveniences as long as we can.”

“So, how long did you keep on living with Grand-Papa after you had your first change, and what was the thing that finally made you decide to leave?”

“Well, I lived with the Old Man for many years, because he was the only other person around for thousands of miles besides the Natives,” Axel replied. “Technically, Semyon Dezhnev and I discovered the passage from the Arctic to the Pacific, but the credit was given to Vitus Bering when he found it about ninety years later in 1741. Up until that time, life with the Old Man was a predictable routine. I would cook and hunt game each day. He would fish and forage for edible plants and other food to round out our diet and would occasionally trade with the Natives. We shared a bed, and he would fuck me each night, but that was the extent of our personal relationship.

“However, after the Russians had re-discovered Alaska, they began to build settlements and establish fur trading with the Natives who weren’t immediately aggressive toward them. With the arrival of my home countrymen, it was time for a change…”

****

“Old Man,” Alexei said, “I have been speaking with some of the Natives. There is a Russian settlement now in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island. You know which island I speak of. It is the one that has the native bears who are my same species.”

“What of it?” the Old Man replied. “I have no desire to meet or trade with any Russians. As far as I am concerned, they can stay on that island along with your Kodiak bears.”

“It wouldn’t do any harm to travel and speak with them,” Alexei said. “We can’t keep living here in isolation the rest of our lives.”

“Kodiak island is 1500 miles away!” the Old Man yelled in a sudden rage, “It is not as simple as taking a little trip to say hello to the neighbors! And as for the rest of your ignorant statement, I do intend on living here in isolation for the rest of my life. If I had not had a pathetic kindred human thrust upon me ninety years ago, I would still be living a peaceful and happy life in isolation today!”

“Is my companionship so disagreeable to you that you would prefer to live all alone in the Arctic wilderness than share a home with me?” Alexei asked, upset at the Old Man’s words.

“Of course, I would!” the Old Man raged, grabbing a clay pot full of herbs and throwing it at his bearcub’s head. It missed by inches, on purpose Alexei knew, and smashed against the wall. “I had seven hundred peaceful years to myself before you came along! Do you think I would have chosen to live in the middle of the tundra if I were interested in being with other people or even other werebears?”

“Old Man,” Alexei said, recovering from the near miss to his head, “Like it or not, we’re a couple, and… and I love you. As mean and nasty as you can be, I still love you and I always will.”

The old bear snorted at his bearcub’s confession and started to laugh.

“Oh, you love me, do you?” he asked mockingly, “Should we marry and move to the Russian settlement where we can build a cozy cottage for two and live among the humans?”

“I don’t know… I…” Alexei stammered.

“I have news for you, Bearcub,” the Old Man continued, “I had a Mate once. We were together for a thousand years. He was ten times the man and a hundred times the bear than you will ever be. I have not spoken of him before now because you are not worthy to even hear his name.

“Don’t talk to me about love. I knew true love, and whatever this is between the two of us is not love. I can stand the sight of your face no longer. Take your things and leave this place. Now. Go to your Russian settlement and your precious Kodiak bears and never return.”

Alexei was devastated at the Old Man’s rejection, but he did not put up a fight. He gathered only what he needed for the long journey into his satchel and climbed the ladder leading from their underground home into the domed tent that guarded the entrance. He looked back at the hole in the ground one final time, hoping that the Old Man’s face would appear to tell him to stop, or at least to say goodbye, but when there was nothing but empty blackness staring back at Alexei, he threw open the door of the tent and left, heading south to meet his countrymen for the first time in almost a century.

****

“I am going to end this part of my tale here for now, Cub,” Axel said, staring at the road. “If I go on about my Old Man much longer, you’re just going to feel sorry for me and if we take another spontaneous sex break, we’ll never make it to Whitehorse by bedtime.”

“Okay, Papa,” Adam replied. “For the sake of a hot shower, I’ll let you listen to your… music for the rest of the way this afternoon.”

“Fuck, yeah,” Axel said, pumping a fist in the air, and he turned the knob on the radio, blasting the Heavy Metal channel once again.

Adam did his best to tune it out and leaned over against the door with his eyes closed.

Axel looked over at his cub, and when he was sure that he wasn’t watching, reached up and wiped the tears out of his eyes. Reliving the last day with his Old Man was something that he had dreaded from the moment that he started telling his history, and he was relieved that he had gotten it out without openly crying in front of the Cub. The rest of his tale was still a rollercoaster of good times and bad, but nothing else affected him as profoundly as the Old Man’s rejection of his love.

He wondered if the Old Man would remember the things he said on that day, and how he would react when they found him. There was hope that he had changed in the centuries that had passed, but he wasn’t going to count on it.

All he knew is that if the Old Man even tried to treat his Cub the way he had treated him all those years ago, there were going to be consequences for the miserable old bear this time.