It was just supposed to be a walk home. All Ahlidel had to do was run a few messages for Queen Katya, and return back to the safety of the Underland territory. The Princess and her Knights were away at a Faire, Zinger was off running the Black Market, Irina and many of the Aunts were out on various tasks of their own… Even the young royals all had tasks to accomplish, which meant Ahli really did have to be the one to do this.
It was just a few messages, and the walk home.
“Be careful you don’t run into any ghosts out there, Ahli,” Shah had said helpfully when the twins had seen him off. His bright eyes were affectionate and mocking in equal measures, as was to be expected of a Cheshire on the cusp of a game. There were so many secrets hiding behind his forelock and under his hat. “Our Meru would not take kindly to you being in danger or injured, you know.”
“Unhelpful,” Ahli had snorted back, shouldering the young skele-cheshire stallion affectionately. “I don’t take very kindly to being in danger or injured, you know. Not even by ghosts.”
“You’re probably not likely to be hurt by a ghost… Considering the latest, you are far more likely to see the Spirit Bear on the darkest nights,” Esfir had explained in her usual dry whisper, a softly amused undertone to the matter of fact way she often spoke.
“‘Probably not a ghost’ she says, while telling you a ghost story…” Shah sighed, shaking his head. “Just a nightmarish shifter with the great claws and teeth of a bear. Hardly noticeable! Speaking of being unhelpful, Sister…”
“Does it count as a ghost story when he’s real?” Esfir affected an air of pondering. “He’s said to be a large, pale, spectral figure winding through the dark trees. His claws wet with blood, his maw gaping in his hunger, sharp teeth ready to rend the flesh of his victims. He is always hungry, you know. They say he can drink a river of blood and still thirst.”
“Who is the mysterious ‘they’ exactly?” Shah wondered, trying to distract her.
“Tatya has seen him, she says he was in our woods,” Esfir grinned widely. “Big and scary and hungry.”
Ahli’s sense of hope abruptly tanked. Tatyana was a Cheshire cousin, and she was surely a reputable source. Not only reputable but a winged one with means and methods of escape that none of them currently discussing happen to have.
Esfir is clearly warming up to the story, making a show of looking around as if the Spirit Bear might leap out at them at any moment and gobble them all up before they can yell for help. “She says he’s hunting closer and closer to our lands, as of late. Maybe he’s out there in the dark of the deep woods right now, just waiting for unsuspecting kittens to cross his path.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” Ahli had told his cousin, scowling at her when she gave her woodwind laugh.
“Tatya living to tell the tale is something, right?” Shah tried helpfully. “Esfir couldn’t tell you if Taty hadn’t survived.”
“Tatya can fly, Shah,” Ahli grumbled.
“Oh… Right.” Shah winced. “Apologies, Ahli.”
“So can you, if you’re scared enough…” Esfir teased with a tittering laugh. “Or at least, you can run on air enough to approximate it.”
“You’re not funny,” Ahli snapped.
“It’s just a little Ghost Bear,” Esfir said innocently. “Why so upset, hm?”
“Just a slavering, endlessly hungering, murderous, undead bear,” Shah mused. “Right then! Nothing to worry about. Alright. What did Tatya say about the Spirit Bear, Es?”
“He seemed hungry,”- Esfir began in an excited tone.
“ESFIR!” Ahli yelped. “I do not want to know this, it’s just a quick errand and then a walk home.”
“Alone, in the dark,” Esfir cheerfully replied. “Sure… Just a walk home. Nothing to worry about, of course.”
“Nothing to worry about but wandering, starving, drooling ghost bears.” Shah sighed. “I guess I better go see Meru and hold her paw if you don’t come back home. I’ll miss you, cousin.”
“... Thanks Shah.”
“You’re welcome!” Shah offered brightly, visibly grinning as he straightened up and gave a little wiggle that indicated he had taken the thanks to heart.
Shah was, as ever, an easy sort to please. He looked upon all of his family with great fondness and even the faintest crumbs of attention had the power to delight him.
***
‘It was just supposed to be a walk home,’ Ahli thinks to himself, eyes wide and rolling as he did his best to take in every inch of his surroundings all at once. Just a harmless little walk home through the dark, ancient forest… On a night of little more than a bare, slim crescent of a moon… with fog rolling in as the temperature dropped and fall announced itself. Dry whispering leaves on creaking branches, thick fog banks, bubbling clouds, biting wind.
Ahlidel Cat flattened his ears to his skull and scowled apprehensively at the woods around him, body tight with tension and tail snapping restlessly. In his overactive imagination -or very grounded fears, however one wanted to look at it- each creaking branch and groaning trunk was a Shifter poised to pounce, every pool of shadow cast by scant moonlight housed some unexpected monster he dared not face. None of these things were as harmless as wind or the genuine nature of the dark when disturbed by faint light from distant, uninterested stars.
It was just supposed to be a walk home, but -filled with mischief as she was- Esfir had gone and told him that ridiculous ghost story about the Spirit Bear before he’d had to set out on his errand, and the waning autumn sunshine had long ago gone to rest. Things took longer than expected, and now Ahli was alone in the creaking, groaning, haunting woods and he couldn’t shake it.
“It’s probably not a Spirit…” Ahli mused as he followed the winding path around the dark trees. “Probably not a ghost…”
‘Possibly a bear.’ A voice in the back of his head that sounded like Esfir laughed when the wind stirred up again.
Unhelpful!
Maybe it was just the wind?
The next time he saw his cousin, he was going to chew on her ears.
Provided he lived past this cursed walk home with a ghost or a bear or a ghost bear in the woods.
Ahli hears the low growl and heavy tread that does speak of bear, and the noises have him freezing in place with his ears set high and quivering, straining to catch the sound. He longs to paw restlessly, to strike out with restless forelegs and give warning to whatever it is that lurks in the dark to threaten him. Tension keeps him frozen, muscles locked and eyes wide as he watches, peering around an ancient oak when another growl and heavy step reach his ears.
There is a pale shape moving amongst the trees, parallel to the path that Ahli is following, though he cannot tell yet if it is a coincidence or by design. The bear shifter is large, muscular and scarred, with blood staining the silvery-blue pelt that darkens into charcoal along his lower legs and massively dark paws. Even in the faint light he’s fit enough that Ahli hopes he won’t be on the dinner menu, should he be noticed at all.
‘Please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me,’ Ahli chants in his head, shifting as silently and unobtrusively as possible to hide behind the tree trunk and continue to keep an eye on the silvery shape. ‘Please don’t noti- oh no! Please don’t want to eat me!’
“I seek the Pale One,” the Silver Bear called Death's Door growls, turning a dark eye on Ahli where he shivers half out of sight. He can smell the fearful stallion, even above the bite of fall and rich forest loam, stronger than the faint traces of the one he tracks and hunts. “The one they call the Spirit Bear. Do you know of him?”
“I- I…” Ahli swallowed nervously. “Is he, uh… A friend of yours?”
“I hunt him,” the Silver snarled, offended at the idea they might be anything but mortal enemies. To this day his throat aches in the bite of winter, each breath strained due to old scars where his brother once tore his throat. A death blow that did not take, much to Harm's eventual misfortune... One day Death would pay him back.
“He will fall to the Death. Tell me what you know.”
‘Oh, well, that’s a relief… A friendly reunion of monster bears in our backwoods doesn’t seem to be the most relaxing thing I can think of.’ Ahli thought to himself, coughing before he timidly offered what limited information he had. “I hear tell that he was in these parts, just slightly North? Within the last fortnight. My kin ran across him, and fled.”
“Here and North?” The Silver Bear mused. “Then Northward I will go.”
“I wish that you will find him?” Ahli offered timidly. “And, ah, soon?”
There’s a snorting growl in response and then the bear-stallion stalks off, breaking sticks and brush beneath his paws as he stalks into the dark.
Ahli stands still, watching the ghostly gray shape disappear into the dark of the woods, heading North in the direction where his target was last seen. Ahli didn’t know the pale bear, thankfully, but from what he had just seen of the silver…
“Glad it’s not me you’re hunting,” Ahli mumbled, sighing in relief when he could no longer see the silver figure, and the scent of bear was only a faint lingering trace on the breeze. “I hope none I hold in affection are near when you find him, either… Just in case.”
He gave it a few more minutes and then picked up a gentle walk, moving as quietly and smoothly as he could back toward home. “Wait till I tell everyone about this… He might not have been the Spirit Bear, but he sure was scary enough.”
Total Wordcount: 1707
Ahli Wordcount: 914
Shahrivar Wordcount: 265
Esfir Wordcount: 274
Death's Door: 254
