Serpent Mound - 12. In the Village

Marcus woke up in a soft bed in a darkened room laying next to Rodney. He was nude, and after a brief scan of the room, he saw his clothing folded neatly on a chair, along with Rodney’s.

He looked at the sleeping Rodney, who was also nude. There was a large patch of gauze covering the wound on his belly from the fight with the boars, and blood had partially soaked through the bandage.

He got out of the bed and padded across the floor. They seemed to be in a rustic but well-kept cabin. He reached into the pocket of his pants and felt the square GPS device. He pulled it out and looked at it. The red light in the center, flush with the surface of the metal was flashing red, indicating that it was working and transmitting his location to Thomas. He breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the device back into the pocket before pulling the pants on. He opened the door to the bedroom and looked out into the rest of the cabin. There was an old-fashioned braided rug laying on the floor in front of a fireplace and a thrift-store set of mismatched furniture. Along one wall was a kitchen of sorts with a hand-pump for water, and a cast-iron wood stove. There was an alcove set into another wall off of the living room, and Marcus saw a nude figure laying on the bed. As he crept closer, he saw that the figure was Bill, and his hands and feet were tied to the bed.

“Bill!” Marcus whispered, running over to the bed and shaking him. “Bill, wake up! We’re in deep shit, man. I need you. Wake up!”

“M-Marcus?” Bill asked groggily, “What’s going on?”

“I think we’re in the village of those crazies,” Marcus replied. “Rodney’s still asleep in the other room. He had a bad belly wound from the attack by the boars, and I think he still needs time to heal. Are you hurt?”

“No,” Bill replied, pulling at the restraints on his arms, “I’m fine. Help me get untied.”

Marcus made quick work of the knots at Bill’s wrists and ankles, and he sat up rubbing the skin.

“Do you see my clothes anywhere?” Bill asked. Marcus looked around but shook his head.

“They undressed me and Rodney too,” he said, “But they folded our clothes and left them in the bedroom. They probably trust us more than you.”

“Why would they trust you?” Bill asked.

“Because we went with them willingly, and you had to be captured.”

“The fuck, Marcus!” Bill said, slapping the bear on the side of the head. “Why did you two give yourselves up like that.”

“Because, Mr. Hot Shit,” Marcus replied with a touch of annoyance, “We’re double agents. We’re acting like we’re joining up with these crazies, so they’ll trust us, but we’re supposed to keep Bernie safe. Also, Thomas planted GPS devices on us before the battle started so that the others can track us and come to our rescue.”

“Marcus, I’m sorry,” Bill said, ashamed at his previous reaction. “That’s really good work. I’m impressed. This is the second time you’ve saved my life and I promise that I’m not going to forget that. Do you know where Bernie is now?”

“No, I just woke up a few minutes ago myself,” Marcus said. “I haven’t even tried to leave this cabin yet.”

“Go check the door,” Bill said, “Poke your head out and see if it’s unlocked and if anybody is standing guard.”

Marcus nodded and stood up from Bill’s bedside. He briefly stepped back into the bedroom to grab his t shirt and quickly pulled it over his hairy torso before checking the door.

To his surprise, the knob opened when he tried it, and he carefully stepped out into the soft moss outside of the cabin door.

“Welcome brother!” a bold voice said to the right, on the other side of the door, and Marcus quickly closed the door behind him to see who was speaking. A tall, lean wolf was leaning against the cabin wall looking at him with a sly grin on his face.

“Uh, hi there,” Marcus replied. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the village,” the wolf replied. “Your new home. We’re very pleased that you and your Mate have chosen to join us.”

“Mate?” Marcus said, confused, “Oh, you mean Rodney? He’s my best friend, not my Mate. We shared the same Papa.”

“Well, that may change as the centuries pass,” the wolf replied with the same sly grin. “Although, I imagine that the unwilling participant we captured along with the boy might make a more desirable Mate given enough time to bring him around to our side.”

“Yeah,” Marcus replied, playing along. “I’ve been wanting to get in that cocky fucker’s pants for quite a while. Now that he’s our prisoner, he might just decide that I’m a better alternative to being tied down to a bed for the rest of his life.”

The wolf chuckled.

“We won’t keep him tied to that bed forever,” he said. “We’ll give him the choice to either join us, or he can join our old bear as a prisoner in the cave for however much longer he lasts. I don’t think Rieka is planning on keeping him alive for much longer.”

“What did you do with the boy?” Marcus asked casually.

“He’s back with the other three sacrifices, where he belongs,” the wolf replied. “We’re not letting any of them go anywhere between now and the ritual night. Rieka is doing the research now to see if we can perform the ritual sooner than the equinox or if we’ll have to keep them secure until then. She isn’t taking any more chances.”

“Can I…” Marcus began, not certain how to phrase his request without raising suspicion.

“What is it you need, brother?” the wolf asked.

“Can I see your old bear? I want to see this cave that he’s in, so I can use it as a deterrent to persuade Bill to… willingly join the rest of us.”

The wolf frowned a bit for the first time in their conversation.

“No one is supposed to visit the cave without permission from Rieka,” he replied. “She limits all contact with the old bear as part of his punishment.”

“Oh, I see,” Marcus said. “I just thought it would be… fun for him to see the bear who is his replacement in the village. That would really let him know that his time us up, you know?”

The wolf’s grin returned.

“I think you’re going to fit in around here just fine,” he said. “Okay, I’ll take you to see the bear, but don’t tell Rieka when you meet her later today. This will be our secret.”

“My lips are sealed,” Marcus replied with a grin, and the wolf slid a bolt on the cabin door, locking it securely from the outside before leading him on a path through the village and out into the forest.

****

“Thomas, what have you got?” Gary asked. He hadn’t slept since the attack and the worry was clear on his face. He had not only failed to protect Bernie, but he had lost his Mate to the invaders as well.

“The GPS trackers I gave to Rodney and Marcus came online again two hours ago,” Thomas replied. “That itself was a huge relief, because there were completely dead for the first 20 hours following the attack. I think that while they were being transported by the wights, and in that weird dream-dimension, the signals wouldn’t come through. The fact that they’ve not only come online but have remained primarily in the same location for the last 2 hours indicates that they’re probably at their final destination now.

“Just as we’ve assumed, the closest human town is Gatlinburg, where Bernie was found as a five-year-old. The GPS has them near the summit of Mt. Sequoyah, just over the border into North Carolina. Rodney’s tracker has remained stationary since coming online, but Marcus appears to have started moving around just a little bit within the last fifteen minutes.”

“That’s also a good sign that Marcus is playing his part well and getting the enemy to trust him if they’re allowing him enough freedom of movement to be picked up by the GPS,” Apollo replied. “Their performance at the end of the attack was sure Oscar-worthy.”

“I just want all my cubs back home again,” Gary replied sadly. “Do we have a plan yet?”

“Well,” Susie interjected. “We’re tearing down the camp and preparing to roll out. Any of the bears who want to come with us on the C-17 are welcome to do so. The closest landing strip that we can commandeer without attracting too much attention to park the plane and roll out the troops is the Sossamon Field-57NC, in the little town of Bryson, North Carolina. We’ll be able to get the Humvees about 11 miles from the target before we’ll have to ditch the motorized vehicles and move in the rest of the way on foot.”

“Count me in,” Gary replied. “I’ve taught entire generations of humans how to survive in the mountains, and it’s time to put my skills to the test.”

“Sam and I are with you too,” Thomas replied. “Till the bitter end.”

“You can count on the five bears from Atikokan as well,” Axel said. “We may have been tardy to the party for the first battle, but I’m pissed off and ready to kick some god ass.”

“Uh Papa,” Adam said, turning a little pale. “Maybe the rest can fly on the C-17, and we’ll just drive down?”

“Suck it up and strap your big-boy balls on, Cub,” Axel replied in a loud gruff voice for the rest of the group to hear, and then leaned in close for a whisper, “Don’t worry, I brought a supply of orpin rose with me just in case we had to fly.”

“Do we have a strategy?” Gary asked.

“Well,” Apollo said, “Similarly to when we were battling the dababbi army, we’ve found a weakness. For the dababbi, it was loud noises. For the wights, it’s bright artificial light.”

“When Axel showed up in his monster-truck with the halogen floodlights,” Susie explained, “The illusions created by the wights were temporarily negated everywhere within the lights’ beams. Our techs are working to add high-power halogens to every rifle and to our team’s backpacks to use as additional weapons. That should always at the very least give us each a clear, unmolested path directly in front of us, and will eliminate any hallucinatory enemies like the locust swarms that incapacitated the General and some of the troops.”

“Brilliant,” Gary replied. “That will give us a definite tactical advantage against the power of the wights. What have we come up with to fight and kill the gods?”

Apollo, Susie, Thomas and Axel all looked around the table at each other nervously.

“We still don’t know how to deal with that,” Thomas replied. “We may be walking right into a deathtrap.”

“We have loved-ones already in that trap,” Gary said sternly. “I refuse to let them go without a fight.”

“Affirmative,” Apollo replied. “We have the numbers on our side, and we have the best brains in the lycan world working on the problem. Even Matthias is pouring through his centuries of knowledge trying to come up with a weakness in the Tuath Dé. When the time comes, we’ll be ready.”

****

The wolf led Marcus along a gradual path uphill from the village. Eventually, they came into a rocky clearing, and as they walked around a stone outcropping, the entrance to the cave was suddenly in sight.

As Bernie had described in all his dreams, the entrance to the cave was sealed off by a set of heavy iron bars. As Marcus approached, a tall, emaciated man stepped forward leaning his forearms on the bars of his prison.

His clothing hung in rags, and his hair and beard were both long and unkempt, but Marcus could still see the handsome man that he had once been.

“You’re new,” the bear said in a cracked voice.

“This is your replacement, Karhu,” the wolf taunted. “We were successful in capturing the kindred boy again, and we were able to convince a few of his bear protectors to join us in the true path of worship of the Tuath Dé. With these new bears in the village, Rieka will have no more need to keep you alive.”

“Is that so?” Karhu replied. “This doesn’t look like much of a bear to me.”

“I don’t believe that you are truly bear,” Karhu said directly to Marcus now, “I don’t see the hand of Odin anywhere within your worthless skin. If you are bear, transform and show me!”

Karhu dropped his rags to the ground and began to shift. In a moment the emaciated man standing against the bars was replaced by a thin and mangy bear, looking like it had not eaten well in a very long time.

“This smelly garbage-eater has challenged me,” Marcus said to the wolf while removing his clothing. “I must respond and show him that his fate has been sealed by a true werebear!”

The wolf nodded at Marcus with wide eyes, and Marcus shifted into his grizzly form, an immensely powerful bear in comparison to the thin, mangy specimen behind the bars.

“Is what the wolf said true?” Karhu growled in the bear-language. He could speak freely now without fear that the wolf would understand what they were saying.

“I’m afraid so,” Marcus growled back, making a show of flexing his bear muscles and appearing to dominate the emaciated bear behind the bars. “Bernie has been captured, but three of us have come with him to protect him and work against these crazy assholes from the inside. Even now, we have an entire lycan army tracking our positions and are coming to the rescue.”

“I’m glad,” Karhu replied, pretending to be agitated at the other bear, “Just promise me to get the boy to safety before Rieka performs the ritual.”

“We’re getting all of you out of here,” Marcus growled in reply, “Bernie, you, and the other three sacrifices as well. By the time we’re finished, there will be no more Rieka and no more Tuath Dé.”

“If I can survive that long,” Karhu replied, “That truly is a world that I would like to see… but promise me that the boy is your first priority. If you have to choose between saving me and saving him, he is the one you choose, understand?”

“Understood,” Marcus said, and began his transformation back into his human form.

“I think this old bear knows his place now,” Marcus said smugly to the wolf. “He should know now that he has nothing much left to live for.”

When the wolf and Marcus returned to the cabin, the door was unbolted and opened so that Marcus could re-enter.

“I’ll leave you to take care of your friend’s wound and to keep an eye on the third bear. If you can turn him to the path of the Tuath Dé quickly, Rieka will certainly be pleased. Someone should come to your cabin in a few hours to bring you the evening meal.”

“I will do my best, brother,” Marcus replied. “Thank you for your warm welcome and hospitality.”

He closed the door behind him and let out a deep breath.

“What’s the news?” Bill asked, stepping out of the dark alcove. He was wearing a pair of brown woolen drawstring pants that must have belonged to Karhu before his imprisonment.

“Bernie is being held with the other three sacrifices,” Marcus reported. “The woman in charge, Rieka, is trying to find a way to perform the ritual much sooner than the equinox, so we may be running out of time.

“I saw the bear. His name is Karhu. He’s terribly thin and in bad shape. We changed into our bear forms so that we could speak confidentially in the bear-language without my wolf guard understanding us. As far as the wolf knows, I was there to taunt and tease him as his replacement. I let him know that forces are on the way to rescue us all, but he’s still mostly concerned about making sure that Bernie is safe.”

“Noble bear,” Bill commented. “Good job Marcus. I’m very impressed with how well you’re handling this situation.”

“How’s Rodney?” Marcus asked.

“Still unconscious,” Bill replied. “The wound should be easily healed, but something seems to be wrong. It’s almost as if the boar’s tusks were poisoned with bearsbane preventing it from healing properly.”

“Do you think he’s going to make it?” Marcus asked, tears welling in his eyes. “I don’t know what I would do if I lost him. He’s my brother. We’ve been together our entire lives.”

“Hey, hey,” Bill said, pulling Marcus into a hug. “He’s going to pull through just fine, you’ll see.”

Marcus clung to Bill tightly and wept onto his bare shoulder.

“Bill,” Marcus said, “I’m sorry for the way that I’ve been acting lately.”

“What do you mean?” Bill asked.

“You know,” Marcus replied, blinking back his tears, “Leering at you all the time. Acting like I want to grab you on your jogs and fuck you against your will.”

Bill chuckled.

“Marcus,” he said, “I’m just as much a part of that as you are. I’ve been teasing the two of you terribly for months now. Making sure to wear my short shorts and go running behind the cafeteria on your break when I know I smell like sex. It’s been a game we’ve played. There’s no harm in it.”

“Bill…” Marcus said, drying his eyes on his shirtsleeve.

“Yeah buddy,” Bill said, “What do you need.”

“Bill, I’m scared,” Marcus said, nearly crying again. “I’ve been trying to stay brave for you and Bernie, and Rodney and Karhu, but I feel like we’re never going to see our home or our friends again. Can you…”

“What do you need, Marcus?” Bill asked again looking deeply into his eyes.

“Bill, can you make love to me here… now? I need to be held and loved. To feel like I matter to somebody else in this world…”

Bill silenced Marcus with a deep kiss. He ran his hand down the front of Marcus’ shirt and squeezed his hardening cock through his pants.

“Marcus, there’s nothing I want more at this moment,” Bill replied. “Let’s go to bed and shut out this crazy world, at least for the next hour.”