Savage Beasts - 14. The Prodigal Son Returns

The next morning, the bear camp began to stir at sunrise and various groups of bears emerged from their tents after a night of heavy playtime. Gunnar and Axel’s bear pile untangled from each other, and they shifted to their human forms, scratching, and stretching in the morning sun.

“Thank you all,” Daniel said to the group, “I realize now what I’ve been missing being cooped up in that stuffy house for the last hundred years with just me and Papa.

“I also understand better why Gabriel left to go live in his little village down in Tennessee, even though Christopher managed to ruin that for all of them.”

“What about your two youngest brothers?” Gunnar asked. “I haven’t seen them around here.”

“Solomon and Raphael grew bored with this life many years ago after the mines and the iron works shut down for good. I haven’t spoken with them in a very long time, but when they left, they said that they were going back home to Finland.”

“I’m guessing that Christopher doesn’t know that,” Gunnar said. “He was able to track down your oldest brother, Gabriel, but our intel says that he thinks he’s coming here to confront Archibald and three brothers.”

“I’m not surprised,” Daniel replied, “We’ve been cut off from the world and isolated since the end of the Civil War. We’ve been relying on our reputation to maintain our position within the lycan community and to give us the space that Papa has wanted. Nobody knows that Solomon and Raphael left except me and Papa.”

“Assuming that we all live through this,” Mike said, “Are you going to make some changes around here?”

“I really want to,” Daniel replied, “How long has it been since there was a large-scale gathering of werebears in this part of the country? I have the facilities and the means here at the mansion to make something like that happen. If Papa is going to be stubborn and want to keep on living here as if it’s his own private prison, then it will be time for me to follow my brothers’ lead and finally leave home as well.”

“A werebear gathering?” Thomas asked, “I like the sounds of that. We should turn that into a regular thing! If we can manage to get all the bears to come out of hiding, that is.”

“Gunnar!” Joel shouted from the side of the grouping of tents, “It’s your turn to do breakfast!”

“Ugh, right.” Gunnar groaned and grabbed Mike by the scruff of his neck. “Come on, Cub. You’re going to be my assistant this morning. We only have to cook enough pancakes and sausage for sixty-seven hungry bears, how bad could it be?”

****

The smell of pancakes and sausage drifted over the wall and across the manicured lawn to the tree line of the woods bordering the Arnold property. Christopher’s monsters smelled the cooking food and whined. It had been days since they last had a meal, and they were growing terribly hungry.

Christopher was too preoccupied with the army of wolves and bears within the walls around his Papa’s house to pay much attention to his whining children. The combined lycan communities had obviously figured out his plans and were laying in wait for him. He could still try a direct attack to storm the mansion, but they were greatly outnumbered, even more so than the attack against the wolf pack town, and these wolves appeared to be trained soldiers.

No doubt, some of the bears here now were a part of the group that helped to foil his plans to take revenge on his traitorous Cub, so they all likely knew his children’s weakness to loud high-pitched noises. All the carefully laid plans that he had been building for two hundred years from the moment when his Papa evicted him from his own home were now in shambles. In every possible scenario that had run through his mind before today, he had never accounted for an army of lycans, or his children being so easily defeated by a child’s toy whistle.

Now was not the time to give up, though. Now was the time to think on his feet. If a direct attack would no longer be the most effective strategy, then perhaps a show of force and diplomatic negotiations might be the proper course. Neither his Papa, his brothers, or the combined lycans wanted any bloodshed. If he could lay out his terms by which he would command his children to stand-down, he may still get what he ultimately wanted. All that was required was for his Papa and brothers to sign over their business empire to him legally. He would even consider allowing his brothers to stay in the mansion as his servants, but Papa must leave and never return.

Yes. It was decided. Christopher would make a peaceful entrance with his children and if Papa accepted his terms, there would be peace in Mount Savage. If Papa refused, or if Christopher was attacked, then he would send his children into Berserker mode. None of his children may survive the conflict, but they would take out as many of the rest as they could before they fell.

Having made up his mind, Christopher gathered his hungry children around him and explained what they were going to do, and how they were to respond if anyone within those walls failed to show them the respect that they deserved.

****

Things around the camp were just beginning to wind down after the breakfast cleanup, when a wolf on sentry duty perched on top of the wall by the gate sounded the alarm with his bullhorn.

“We have one werebear leading a group of eight dababbi monsters straight for the gate!” He shouted. “This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill! Wolves, to your battle positions!”

The bears looked around at each other, and then they scurried over to join the wolves. Daniel ran to the mansion to alert his Papa that Christopher had arrived.

“My, my!” Christopher shouted through the bars of the gate. “Papa’s garden hasn’t seen this much activity since we had the hotel in that spot right over there during the pioneer rush along the National Road!”

“Christopher,” Apollo said through his bullhorn, “We have the mansion heavily fortified with both wolf and bear troops. You are greatly outnumbered and outmaneuvered. I will give you one chance to surrender.”

“I did not come here to surrender, wolf,” Christopher replied, “But I did come to negotiate terms for the end of all hostilities. Let us inside and we can discuss further.”

“We’ll let you inside, Christopher.” Apollo said in return, “Your children will have to wait outside.”

“Do I look like I have the word ‘moron’ written across my forehead?” Christopher shouted. “I’m insulted. You should know that I go nowhere without my children. Agreed?”

“What do you think?” Apollo said dropping his bullhorn and speaking quietly to Susie, Gunnar, and Ezekiel.

“Well,” Gunnar said, “The plan was to get them all inside the walls so that we could contain them with the sonic weapons. I guess this way they’re willingly stepping right into our trap.”

Apollo nodded and raised his bullhorn again.

“Agreed, Christopher. You may enter, but your children must remain together in a group. No wandering the gardens unsupervised.”

Apollo gave the signal to the gatekeepers, and they quickly unlocked the gates and opened them, standing well back with their whistles ready in their mouths as Christopher and his eight monsters entered the grounds.

Christopher marched ahead of his creatures, flanked on either side by bears and uniformed wolves. Many of the werebears had already shifted into their bear forms to be ready for battle should Christopher break his word.

He led his brood nearly to the front door of the mansion and stopped on the grassy lawn in the center of the circular driveway. He turned and commanded his children to sit.

“We will wait here to speak to my Papa,” Christopher stated. “I assume that someone has already gone to get him?”

“Yes, Christopher,” Ezekiel replied from the side of the circle surrounding him, “Your brother Daniel has gone to get him for you.”

“While I wait, it would greatly help relations if you could see to it that my children are fed,” Christopher said to the assembled army. “You see, I had promised them a hearty meal of Boy Scouts two days ago, but that meal did not go as planned. If we can make them comfortable with full bellies, they will be much easier to control during the negotiations.”

“What do they eat?” Gunnar asked, “We’re unfortunately fresh out of Boy Scouts after our breakfast this morning.”

“Any raw meat will do. Ten pounds per child should do it.”

Gunnar and Ezekiel looked at each other and nodded silently, then they looked over and signaled Axel who was standing along the fringes of the circle around Christopher.

“Damn it all,” Axel said. “There go our burgers for lunch.”

Axel jogged back over to the bear camp and returned a minute later with a cooler perched on his shoulder. He carefully walked out into the circle and stopped in front of Christopher. He opened the lid, revealing several wrapped packages of ground beef.

“Please,” Christopher said to Axel with a sly smile, “Distribute your offering of food to my children.”

Axel took several packages of meat out of the cooler and walked up to the dababbi sitting on the grass. As he got near them, they began to growl, but Axel just growled back at them loudly and angrily until the creatures all went silent and looked down at the ground.

Axel began tossing packages of meat to the monsters and they grabbed the parcels out of the air as they were thrown. Axel made sure the meat was distributed evenly among all the creatures so that there would be no fighting, and after tossing the last one, he spoke to the dababbi.

“Okay you lot. Go ahead and eat up. That’s all you’re getting from us today.”

After receiving approval to eat from Axel, the monsters tore open their packages and began devouring the ground beef as if they had been starving.

Gunnar whispered to Ezekiel.

“Did you catch that?”

“Yes,” Ezekiel replied. “They wouldn’t eat until Axel gave them permission. Curious.”

“Now that my children have eaten,” Christopher addressed the group, “Where is my Papa and my brothers? I am ready to proceed with negotiations.”

“I will go and check on them,” Ezekiel said to Gunnar, and quickly walked up to the front door of the mansion.

Ezekiel let himself into the front door and shouted up the stairs from the foyer.

“Daniel! Archibald! Christopher is asking to see you. His dababbi are standing down for now, and we have fed them a meal of raw meat to make them less hungry and aggressive. Christopher says that he just wants to discuss terms to negotiate peace.”

Archibald appeared at the top of the stairs with Daniel behind him. Daniel was bleeding from the corner of his mouth and there were several cuts and bruises on his face that had not been there at breakfast, but these were rapidly healing.

“Daniel,” Ezekiel said, “Has your Papa been beating you?”

“That is none of your concern!” Archibald replied loudly. “None of this should be any of your concern. I will handle my own cubs the way that I see fit. This cub disobeyed me and allowed our gardens to be overrun by riff raff, then stayed out all night cavorting and carousing with them. I could smell sex with many other bears all over him when he entered my chambers, and it was my duty as his Papa to discipline him for his unacceptable behavior.

“Now, we have the whole world at our doorstep to witness the return of the prodigal son. If Christopher thinks that I’m going to kill the fatted calf to celebrate his homecoming, he has another think coming.”

“I do not think that Christopher is expecting a celebration or even a lukewarm welcome from you, Archibald,” Ezekiel said, “But, he has told us that he wants to discuss terms by which he will agree to cease all hostilities with this creatures.”

“Hmmph,” Archibald grunted, stomping down the stairs, “I’m not going to agree to any terms that involve giving that ungrateful cub anything that he hasn’t earned.”

“Archibald,” Ezekiel said softly, and putting his hand on the man’s shoulder as he finished descending the stairs and stood in front of the mansion’s front door, “He just needs to talk to his Papa. Will you listen to what he has to say?”

Archibald shrugged Ezekiel’s hand off his shoulder and strode forward to throw open the door.

Ezekiel took time to ask Daniel if he were okay as the cub followed his Papa down the stairs toward the door. Daniel looked at the ancient bear with sorrow in his eyes, but he nodded, and whispered that he would be fine.

All eyes turned to the front door of the mansion as Archibald Arnold threw open the door with a bang and stood there in the doorway surveying all who were assembled on his property.

“Hello Papa,” Christopher called from his position in the center of the circular driveway. “It’s been a very long time.”

“I could have lived another thousand years and still not have wished to see your face again, Cub,” Archibald stated coldly. “Tell me why you have come here with your band of monsters after all this time.”

“We will discuss that in due time,” Christopher replied. “First I want to see the rest of my brothers. I see Daniel up there, hiding in the doorway. Where are Solomon and Raphael?”

“You mean to tell me that you were able to track down and kill your brother Gabriel, but you don’t know about Solomon or Raphael?” Archibald said, taunting him.

“What about them?” Christopher asked growing agitated. “What have you done to them you hateful old bear?”

“I did nothing,” Archibald replied, walking down the steps from the front door to the driveway, “They chose to leave on their own over a hundred years ago after the Iron Works shut down for the final time and the mines were closed. They were homesick for Finland. As far as I know they have gone back to tend to the reindeer herds once again.”

“So, you and Daniel think that you can have all the family’s wealth just for the two of you, don’t you?” Christopher said, stepping closer to his Papa, “Well, I’m here to claim my fair share once and for all.”

“Are you really that stupid?” Archibald asked. “Have you not paid attention to the state of the family business at all since you left home?”

“I know that you all went on to very great success after throwing me out of the house and cutting me out of the family business.” Christopher yelled, stepping even closer to his Papa.

“And then?” Archibald sad, with a sneer, “Don’t you know what happened to us after the Civil War?”

Christopher stopped in his tracks and looked at his Papa.

“After the Civil War, I had a Cub,” he said. “I had a Cub who was my mate. For the first time in my life, I stopped thinking about you and the family every day. For the first time in my life, I was happy.”

“If you were so happy,” Archibald replied, “Where is this Cub and mate of yours now?”

“When the Depression began in 1929,” Christopher said, his face drawn down with years of sadness, “My thoughts turned again to you and the family wealth. It wasn’t fair that you bred me to be your Cub, but then tossed me away so harshly. It was then that I began the first attempts at breeding my children here and planning my revenge. My mate did not approve of my actions or my methods, and he left me. He ran out on me in the night and just abandoned the sixty years that we had spent together.”

“Would that be the mate that you tried to kill two days ago?” Archibald asked, “Some Papa you are.”

Christopher’s face perked back up with amusement after hearing that comment.

“Oh ho! If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black! So, tell me, Papa, if business went bad after the war, what exactly do you have left of the family fortune?”

“Look around, Cub. This is it,” Archibald replied stretching out his arms to indicate the house and gardens. “Daniel and I have this house and a small brickworks in town that gets us by and pays most of the bills. Is that what you want? Do you want the house all to yourself for you and your monsters, and to force me and your brother into homelessness as your revenge?”

“I thought I was going to have you sign over the house and business to me,” Christopher confessed, “And then I was going to feed you to my children. That was going to be my revenge. But now, it just seems that allowing you to live this sad, lonely existence may be all the revenge that I need. You can’t possibly be happy, having conquered the industrial world only to lose everything.”

Archibald just frowned, and Christopher looked up at Daniel who was still standing at the front door with Ezekiel.

“Brother,” Christopher said, “Has your life here with Papa been a happy one?”

Daniel tried to remain stoic and unemotional as Papa would expect, but it was all too much for him. His head drooped and tears began to run down his cheeks.

“No, brother,” Daniel said, “It has not been a good life for the last hundred and fifty years. It was not until this army of bears came to us yesterday and showed me how true werebears live that I was reminded how much life I’ve missed out on, trapped behind these walls like a bird in a golden cage.

“I vow to you, brother, that after today, I will no longer live here under Papa’s heel in misery for eternity, and if you are wise, you will not choose this life for yourself either.”

Christopher stood looking at his Papa and brother, the focus of so much of his anger for so many years, and all he could feel now was pity.

“I see now that this has been a mistake,” Christopher said, the tears falling down his cheeks as well. “I have wasted so much of my life in the pursuit of revenge that wasn’t needed, because Papa’s own miserable life was revenge enough. I should have been happy being free from him, but I couldn’t see that until now.”

Christopher turned to the assembled army of wolves and bears.

“I’m truly sorry for all that I’ve done. I will go now and cause no more trouble for lycans or were-kind. Please allow me to take my children and leave in peace.”

Apollo bristled, knowing that the Lycan Council did not want this criminal to simply be granted a full pardon for his crimes, but Archibald spoke up before he could object.

“Cub, before you leave, please… grant your miserable old Papa one last kiss.”

Archibald stood alone in the driveway with his arms outstretched. Christopher stood regarding his Papa for several long seconds, and then with a sigh, he relented and walked across the circle to where Archibald waited. He embraced his Papa and kissed him one last time on the lips. A kiss that would end their relationship as Papa and Cub for good.

Gunnar saw Archibald’s hands on Christopher’s back turning into claws and knew what the old bear was about to do, but before he could even cry out, the deed was done.

Archibald reached up with his clawed hands and ripped them across the front and back of Christopher’s neck, completely severing his head from his body.

The crowd in the circle stood in silent horror as Christopher’s head bounced and rolled across the driveway and grass, coming to a stop in front of his children, still seated in a group on the lawn. Alcyoneus, the youngest of the dababbi, picked it up and stared into the Papa’s dead eyes. He turned to look at his brothers, and then they all stared straight at Archibald Arnold with a savage hatred in their eyes.

In a flash, all eight monsters were upon Archibald, ripping his flesh apart and separating his limbs from his body. After tearing the old bear to pieces, they turned their bloody faces toward the stunned army still gathered around them in a half-circle and roared. It was a sickening, wailing cry. Werebears who hadn’t already shifted into their bear forms did so now, as the eight dababbi who no longer had a master in control charged at them with all the wild fury of the Viking who lived and died a thousand years before.