Everflame (18 page)

The group moved on westward. The day was cooler than many of the previous had been, allowing for easier travel and less irritable dispositions. It had been almost three weeks since they had departed on that promising morning. Evercloud felt like
it could have been a lifetime.

“I still don’t see why we should fear humans,” Riverpaw shot back at his father. “We are bears. Humans fear us. So
, if we make it known that we are friendly, they wouldn’t want to anger us by being aggressive.”

“There are things you are not taking into account, Riverpaw. For example, we don’t speak to humans, do we?”

It was true. It was an unwritten law throughout the world that creatures that were not human did not speak to creatures that were human. All bears, as well as other creatures, had been told the stories from the time that they were young of the misfortunes that befell any animal that talked to a human. Riverpaw knew these stories and even Evercloud had heard them. It seemed that most humans had an insatiable curiosity to know everything, why and how. Unfortunately, when they were unable to figure something out, they would label it as evil and become aggressive against it. This was the overwhelming theme of most of the stories. Of course, the bears had hoped they might be able to change these circumstances with Evercloud as ambassador, but that plan had been tabled out of necessity.

“So pray tell, Riverpaw, how will we let the humans know that we are friendly when the very sight of us sends them into fits?”

“Evercloud will tell them.”

“Of course,” Whiteclaw said whimsically, feigning idiocy. “A man they have never seen before, filthy from travel and adorned in clothes they have never seen before, claiming that he can speak to bears, will convince the village that we are friendly. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Evercloud couldn’t help but to chuckle at Whiteclaw’s sarcasm.

“Well fine,” said Riverpaw. “Then how are we going to question villagers
about rumors of the Ancients?”

“Don’t worry,” said Whiteclaw.
“I have a plan. Let us wait until we reach a stream where we can rest and I will explain it to you.”

• • •

It was another half day before the travelers reached a stream. They dipped their heads into the cool water to refresh themselves and then drank their fill. The sun was well on its way to setting and they decided to rest on the bank until the next morning. They were all very tired from travel, but Riverpaw and Evercloud were far too curious to hear of the plan to just fall asleep. So they held Whiteclaw to his word, and as they relaxed under the cool night sky, Whiteclaw laid out his plan.

“In order to obtain any information from humans, we will need to blend into their world and not seem suspicious. And when I say we, I mean Evercloud. You and I, Riverpaw, should not allow ourselves to be seen with Evercloud. It would ruin any chance he has of seeming normal. Now, if I am correct in judging our location, we are a few miles south of a village called Yorebrook and possibly ten miles north of a village called Hendrick. In the morning, Evercloud, you are to bathe yourself in the stream and use your claw to cut off all of your hair. Try to shave the hair off as close to your scalp as possible. That should fit you with an acceptable style to the villagers, much more than the hair you have now, at least.” This did not sit well with Evercloud. He had not cut his hair in a very long time. In fact, he couldn’t remember having it cut
at all. As his hair was now, it hung to his shoulders in dreaded clumps, pulled to the back and tied off with a leather strap. He really didn’t like the idea of cutting it off, but he knew not to argue. It was necessary to blend in. “I will travel north to Yorebrook tonight and return with clothing for Evercloud to wear into the village. In fact, I should leave soon if I want to be back with enough time to rest before morning.”

“What if you are caught?” asked Riverpaw. “Shouldn’t we go with you?”

“I won’t be. Don’t worry. I want the two of you to be fully rested. We will head south for Hendrick tomorrow morning and we will have quite the day ahead of us. I must be leaving now.” And with that, Whiteclaw ran off into the night.

“I’m starting to think that my father has a bit of a communication problem,” Riverpaw said to Evercloud. Evercloud just shrugged his shoulders and then he stretched out and fell asleep.

• • •

The night was still very dark when Whiteclaw ret
urned to Riverpaw and Evercloud, who were fast asleep by the stream. Whiteclaw was panting heavily as he slowed his run and approached them.

“Get up!” he yelled, gasping for breath. “Wake up!” Whiteclaw nudged Riverpaw quite forcefully and yelled again. “Get up!”

Riverpaw rose quickly to his feet, eyes wide. “What is it? Did you get the clothes?”

“Yes, I have the clothes, but the plan has changed. We must move
, now.”

Evercloud was now on his feet. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness and neither could the bears, but their senses were better than his. He tried to look around and heard Whiteclaw to his right.

“Evercloud, get on my back. We must run.” The urgency in Whiteclaw’s voice told Evercloud and Riverpaw to not ask questions. Evercloud promptly climbed onto his uncle’s back. “Riverpaw,” called Whiteclaw. “Cross the stream and run south. Do not stop until I tell you to. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, F
ather,” answered Riverpaw.

Evercloud clung to the large bear’s back as he crossed the stream. He wondered what had happened to cause an emergency exit like this. He couldn’t see much with the exception of the moon as it reflected off the surface of the stream. He didn’t dar
e ask any questions right now. As he put his head to the side, facing north, he saw what it was they were running from. Dotting the horizon from the north were the flaming torches of a mob. Whiteclaw had not gone unnoticed and now the citizens of Yorebrook were after them.

The bears had crossed the stream and now began to run south at a ferocious pace. Evercloud kept his body low
, to cause as little wind resistance as he could, but he kept his eyes on the flames. If he could not aide in the escape, he could at least serve as a lookout, and alert the bears if they were losing ground. However valorous Evercloud’s sentiments may have been, they were ultimately futile. These men had no chance against the speed of two full-grown bears and the travelers rapidly put distance between them and their pursuers.

The bears had almost run all the way to the village of Hendrick before Whiteclaw called for them to stop.

“Enough, Riverpaw. We must take cover.”

It had been sometime since Evercloud could see the flames on the horizon. He assumed that the villagers had given up the chase. The sky had become a little lighter during their escape and Evercloud thought that he could now see l
arge clumps of trees and brush. Whiteclaw found one particularly dense group of trees and led the party inside. Once again, the travelers were shrouded in complete darkness.

“Sleep,” commanded Whiteclaw. “Make no sound. We will be safe.”

Evercloud rolled off of his uncle’s back and curled up upon the soft ground. They were all quite exhausted and no one had the least bit of trouble falling into a dreamless sleep.

• • •

“Father?” whispered Riverpaw, his jaw agape. He stood, frozen, just feet from the mountainous bear as Evercloud woke. Whiteclaw stirred briefly and then yawned. The sun was now high in the sky and the party was no longer under the protection of darkness. Whiteclaw slowly rose to his feet, and as he did, Evercloud saw what had held his cousin petrified.

Whiteclaw’s face was matted in blood and there was a deep wound where his left eye had been. Tears welled in Riverpaw’s eyes as he stared, dumbstruck, at his father. Whiteclaw looked back at his son with sadness in his one eye.

“Do you now understand, my son, why men are to be feared?”

The tears that welled upon the eyelids o
f Riverpaw never fell, but instead burned off in the heat of the young bear’s rage.

“They will pay with blood!” Riverpaw croaked. “I’ll rip the flesh from their bones for what they’ve done! I’ll crush their bodies to pulp! I’ll-I’ll–”

“Riverpaw,” said Whiteclaw calmly. “They react in fear. I knew this before I went into the village.”

“Why?” screamed Riverpaw. “Why? We have done nothing to them. We would have gladly bartered for clothes, were it not for their prejudices. We do nothing that they do not do themselves. We live our lives protecting our land and our families, no differently than they do, and yet they attack us without compassion as if we were monsters. Does a man lose his eye for theft? Does he? I hate them!”

Riverpaw ran at the nearest tree and swung at it with all of his frustration and rage. It splintered upon impact and fell to the ground. Evercloud sat, quiet as a mouse, wishing he could disappear. He knew that he hadn’t caused Whiteclaw’s wound and he knew that when Riverpaw spoke of men, he was not referring to him, but he was human and felt guilt. Whiteclaw walked over to his son and touched him with his paw.

“Channel your anger. We quest for change.” Riverpaw looked at his father and the hatred melted from his eyes. “From the moment we lef
t the Kingdom, everything that we do is for change. We quest for the knowledge and the power of the Ancients so that we can unite the beings of Ephanlarea under the knowledge of what is right. We quest for peace. We quest for our lives and our souls. Channel your anger, my son. Evercloud is our hope. We cannot fail.”

Riverpaw’s eyes
, once again, filled with tears and this time they fell freely to the fur on his face. He swung his head over to Evercloud and Evercloud’s heart stung with the reflection of pain that he could see in his cousin’s face. Evercloud stood and walked over to the bears, resting each of his hands upon them.

“You are my family and your pain is mine. What must I do?”

Whiteclaw took a bag from around his neck and handed it to Evercloud. Evercloud looked inside and found clothing.

“The plan continues. Go to the stream,” said Whiteclaw.

Evercloud did as he was told.

The water felt good on Evercloud’s skin. Cool and crisp. Evercloud took a stone from the stream’s bed and used it to scrub against
himself, partially because he knew that the stone would help remove the dirt from his body, but he also scrubbed himself with the stone as a sort of penance. There was no logic for it, but he felt responsible for what had happened to Whiteclaw. He scrubbed his skin until it was red, grimacing as he dragged the stone across his body. It was sobering; it somehow made him feel better. When he finished, he waded back to the bank and unsheathed his claw. He began to cut the dreaded locks from his head. One by one, he sawed them loose and watched as they floated away downstream. It took him a few minutes to cut out all of the dreaded locks of his hair, but once he had, he set to shaving off what remained. He knew that he had to do a thorough job or it would not seem convincing. His mission was to blend in, to not be noticed. He was sure that men in the village didn’t shave their heads by themselves in streams. He must not miss a spot. He dragged the blades of the claw across his scalp with precision, guiding them along with his fingers. Over and over, he dragged the blade until he was sure that he had gotten every bit. When he had finished, he ran his palm over his head, feeling the transformation. That is exactly how it felt, like a transformation. This was when everything needed to change. There could be no more failure. No more giving it your best shot. He dipped his bare head into the water and ran his hands over his smooth scalp. This was his metamorphosis.

He got out of the stream and shook what water he could off of his body. Then he reached for the bag that contained his new clothes and opened it. He pulled out a pair of leather trousers and stepped into them. As he pulled them up, he realized that they were a bit too big, but he drew the string that had been laced through the waist and tied them as tightly as he could. A pair of leather boots was also in the bag and thankfully, they fit well. Lastly, there was a brown shirt made of some rough fabric. It chafed Eve
rcloud’s skin as he put it on. He was not used to wearing shirts, especially in the heat. Thankfully, the shirt was armless. Evercloud looked at his reflection in the stream and did not seem as fearsome as he had felt after cutting his hair off. He wanted to look like a warrior, yet he looked rather common.
I suppose that’s the point
, he thought to himself.

Evercloud returned to Whiteclaw and Riverpaw to find Whit
eclaw drawing with his claw in the sand. Riverpaw was watching intently. When Whiteclaw saw Evercloud, he motioned for him to come over and sit next to him.

“I was going over the plan with Riverpaw while you were away. This i
s what we will need you to do.” Evercloud sat down and pulled at his shirt as Whiteclaw detailed the plan. “Your main objective will be to enter the village and learn whatever you can from the villagers about any rumors of the Ancients. It is important for you to learn as much as you can without raising suspicions. Be careful of how you enter into conversations with people. Most humans worship the Holy and will not take kindly to talk of the Ancients. I have heard that in some villages it is prohibited by the law to do so. That is where Riverpaw and myself will come in. When you enter the village, first go to the authorities and tell them that you are from Yorebrook and that you were assaulted by bandits just outside of the village. That should send them out of the village where Riverpaw and I will be waiting for them. This should free you to ask questions without being reported. After you have spoken to the authorities, I would suggest visiting a tavern. Humans have been known to be friendlier when imbibing ales. Also, make sure, before you leave the village, to visit a medic and purchase a salve for open wounds. My head wound should be treated and we may find the salve handy in the future. Here is some of the currency used by humans.” Whiteclaw then looked sternly at Evercloud. “Only use it on purchasing the salve.” Evercloud nodded and Whiteclaw continued. “Once the sun is roughly two hours from setting, leave the village and follow the stream south. Riverpaw and myself will catch up to you there. Have you got all that?”