"What the Hell..."--Part 2

I stopped dead in my tracks, a chill touching what was left of my naked soul. I turned to look down at the older woman. “Frau, how do you know that Drake is coming here? How would he know that we are even here?”

She chuckled again in the kind-hearted way that older people do when they dealing with childish questions. “Let’s call it a hunch. We figured that Drake has gained more than just your connection to the Shadow with the dratted blade of his. But, there is more to this than that, Rusty, you need to ask these questions of Cerrydwen. She’ll let you know more details of what we are actually doing here.”

With that, she started hiking up the small, shrub-covered hillside along the worn, sandy path.

I stood there for a second, glancing back to see if that damn boat was still visible, only to be disappointed by its absence. In frustration and confusion, I shrugged my shoulders and followed her up the path.

The Frau crested the hill faster than I would have thought possible for a woman of her age and obvious ailments. I was at least a minute behind her when I, too, crested the ridge. Expecting to see her waiting for me, I was surprised yet again to only see a small pile of her rumpled clothes and her shoes laying in a heap behind a nearby tree. Her footprints appeared to head off into the woods on the right side of the path, while Cerrydwen’s tracks continued down the narrow trail that led to a clearing that was just barely visible about 50 yards away.

“Frau?”

At first, my call was met with silence. Then I heard shuffling, huffing sounds of something very large moving through the woods in the general direction that her tracks had led.

I moved in that direction, wanting to make sure that she was OK. I came around a large, fallen tree trunk and found myself face-to-face with a large black bear with patches of greying fur on its massive shoulders. It looked at me with an amused look.

“Oh shit!”

My first instinct was to reach for the blade that was no longer sheathed on my shoulder. My second instinct was to try to snap my batons into place. My third instinct was to reach for the Shadow and make an easy escape. Realizing that I was without any other recourse, I took off running towards the clearing that Cerrydwen had gone to, yelling out a warning to my companions, “Bear! Frau, Cerrydwen, there’s a damn bear loose on this damn island!”

Behind me, I heard the crashing of bushes, the snapping of twigs that told me that the bear was following me. It’s wuffling breath and grunts of exertion seemed to be closing in on me from behind as I broke into the clearing.

Cerrydwen was in the center of the clearing, about twenty yards away, clearing leaves and brush away from a massive stone table that dominated the space. She looked up as I came crashing into the open space, duffle bag held out in front of me. I spun to face the oncoming bear, only to be bowled over by it as it rushed past me and towards Cerrydwen.

Trying to be careful with the urns, I rolled to the side and scrambled to my knees, shouting out a warning, only to see Cerrydwen standing calmly, hand outstretched as the bear slowed to an ambling, almost familiar gait, and sidled up to her for a scratch behind the ears.

Cerrydwen was smiling (notable, as always for the rarity of that event) and getting her face licked by the beast as I got up, stunned yet again.

“What the Hell is going on around this place? Where is the Frau?”

Hearing my voice, the bear stopped its licking of Cerrydwen’s face and turned to face me. It winked one eye at me before ambling off into the woods again.

“Is that...who...I..think...it...is?” I managed to stammer out to the bemused Cerrydwen.

“Yes. She gets so few opportunities to take that form. She really enjoys the freedom of it when she does take it. It is always hard to get her to put her clothes back on.”

I shook my head in amazement.