Page 36 of Polar Fates
Step by step, she makes her way through the ferals. Her head is drooping low and I’m really starting to get worried. I wish there was something I could do, but I’m just thepassenger.
One of the ferals to our right suddenly snarls and sits up from his cowering position. Alis is losing her hold onthem.
She checks on my men; they’re almost at the Portal. She takes a deep breath, then let’s go of her grip on thebears.
She starts to run, slipping down the slope, but now we’re pursued by bears, dozens of them, wanting revenge for the humiliation Alis just put them through. Maybe they want Van Deen back as well, who knows. Maybe they’re aware of what we’re planning to do. That we’re going to end their leader’srule.
Sharp fangs graze Alis’s right hind leg and she whimpers. Her pain is only an echo to me, but I know she’s hurting. The bears behind us are closing in; we’re not fast enough. Another nip on her legs, another sharppain.
The Portal is still several hundred metres away. We’re not going to make it. Alis’s vision is fading, her breath is getting shallower. Even if I tried to take over, it’s her body that’s exhausted, not just hermind.
Suddenly, a woosh of white fur races past us and into the bears behind. Torben. He claws at them, ripping at limbs and biting flanks. Another bear, a brown one. Everything is blurry, I can’t see who itis.
We slide down the hill and I’m grateful for the snow just now. It builds a cushion that we can use to get down without having towalk.
Our hind legs givein.
The Portal is soclose.
Our eyes close and wecollapse.
Thirteen
Alis
Arcas’s first shift into a human was astonishing. He’d never shown any signs of being anything but a bear cub, but one day, he suddenly started convulsing in the middle of our evening meal. I was terrified, thinking that he was ill. There was nobody I could ask for help; it was just me andhim.
I rubbed my head against his shaking little body, trying to show him that I was there for him. That he wasn’t alone. I licked his fur… and suddenly there was no fur, just smoothskin.
My cub had turned into a human boy. He was beautiful: gold locks curling around his cute little face, green eyes staring at me inquisitively, rosy lips that were smiling atme.
He immediately got up and walked on two legs as if he’d done nothing else for his entirelife.
“Mum?” he asked and held out ahand.
He spoke! He was able to speak just like a proper human. Until then, our conversations had been in our heads, that’s how I had taught him to talk. I didn’t know if all bears could communicate mentally or if that was just us, but I didn’t really care. But suddenly, my little cub had turned into a walking, talkinghuman.
I was both devastated and delighted. Devastated because he was suddenly different from me. Delighted because it gave him a future. He was going to be able to live in the human world, have friends, a normal life. I wasn’t too lonely out here in the mountains because I had Arcas, but I knew that once he turned older, I wouldn’t be enough forhim.
A minute later, he shifted back into acub.
We were both confused and when he didn’t manage to shift back, we thought it might have been a fluke. But two weeks later, it happened again. This time, he stayed human for almost an hour. By the time he turned four, he could shift atwill.
Strangely enough, he preferred to be a cub. Maybe because it was the perfect shape for running around the forests, playing with squirrels and sniffing atflowers.
He kept that playfulness throughout his youth. I had to tell him often to be less loud, less wild, but in truth, I enjoyed seeing him love life. Compared to the humans I had grown up with, my siblings, my friends, he was so innocent, so selfless. At the same time, his innocence worried me. If he ever decided to live amongst humans, they’d likely take advantage of him. Good people are rare these days and it wasn’t any different backthen.
So when he turned sixteen, I sent him to the city to stay with my father. He was the spitting image of some of my brothers and I hoped that my father would recognise him as his grandson. I told Arcas things only I would know, so he’d be recognised by myfamily.
But he was never even given an audience. Eventually, he managed to contact one of my sisters, Dia, who he managed to convince that he was her nephew. With her help, he began a new life in the same palace I’d grown up in. She organised teachers for him and slowly introduced him intosociety.
He stayed with Dia and my family for two years before he returned to the mountains he’d been born in. I immediately saw that he’d lost most of the innocence he’d had before he left. He was no longer my little cub; he’d grown into a man. At eighteen, he looked a lot older than he was. Maybe being a shifter was part of the reason for his muscles and broadstature.
He brought Raoul with him, who’d been assigned as his teacher. At first, I was furious that he’d told a human about our secret, about me. I was okay with my family knowing, but not a stranger. Luckily, Raoul didn’t stay a stranger for long. He first became a friend, then alover.
I think my son was happy for me, but he left after only a few weeks. He’d grown used to life in the city, surrounded by comforts and people. I was no longer enough for him. It saddened me, but I kept telling myself that I would have been the same at his age. He needed to explore, to live life to the fullest before he’d have to take onresponsibilities.
He’d finally met his grandfather, who’d taken a liking to Arcas and was intending to tutor him personally in the arts of politics. I was glad someone else was recognising my son’s potential. He was bright, selfless and curious; all qualities my fathervalued.
