Page 18 of Ewing

The cave, one of the largest ones he’d ever been in so far, hadn’t been investigated by the park’s people so far. Not for thousands of years had anyone other than himself and his family been in the cave that had stored so much information as that one did.

Writings on the walls were made with ash from a burnt stick. There were drawings, too, most of which he’d had to have explained to him. They’d been made and colored even with smashed leaves and berries.

He’d also been able to unearth a great many geo and hard stones that turned out to be diamonds and emeralds. Not to say that there wasn’t junk in there, too. A tree branch that had fallen on one of the little bears and killed him had been saved. There were bits and pieces of the forest that they had decided were pretty or maybe someday useful. Other things like that, as well. What depressed him the most was that they thought if they were to put things in the large cave, nothing would bother them. They’d been so wrong. Books and pictures had been put on the wayside.

Things like moles and even smaller creatures had gotten in and made a mess of things. The onething that he had thought the saddest was the wedding dress that had belonged to a long lost relative that only wanted to keep it nice for their own daughters.

They did find caves that had been homes of some of the tribespeople, humans just passing through, and even the few hundred people who had decided, for one reason or another, to live out their lives in the caves. He’d known of two such people, meeting them when he’d been out looking for information. Even as new as a month ago had he known someone who was hiding from one form of law or the other as well.

“I found the cave that you’re talking about. My dad and uncles are helping me clear it out before the park comes across it. The park will keep everything that they find, and I don’t want that to happen, at least not until I finish with them. The park will put them on display for everyone to see, but for this, our family. The things in there are family and that’s the only place that they should be. In the family.” Jameson, another of the original shifter bears had asked him if there had been any people living in the cave that they’d been using. “No, no humans. But I did find the bodies of your parents like you said that I would.”

Nodding, no one asked him if they’d moved them. They wouldn’t. Where they had lived and died was where they decided they’d stay. He likened that to having their own little cemetery in the cave. Jameson then asked him what he knew about the faerie queen.

“Nothing more than you’ve told me. I’ve met her, of course, you know that. And you all have to give me permission to ask her what she’d done that day and why. That’s the only reason that I’m asking you. So I have a good record of the day that she gave you all the magic to walk and talk with man.” Benjamin, the very first bear shifter, said that he’d give him permission, being the oldest, that would make it so. “I won’t go to her with only one of you giving me permission, Uncle Benjamin. It’s all four of you or nothing. I won’t invade any information that you might not care for me having. This is a big undertaking and I don’t want anyone to feel like they’ve been pressured into something when they didn’t want it to happen. I don’t want to ever have any of you coming back on me telling me that I did you wrong.” His uncle just nodded.

In the end, they’d all, all the generations, had given him permission to speak to the faerie queen, who had asked them to be men and bears. She wanted them to be able to live out their lives on the mountain and to show other bears, the rest of them, how to live there without being harmed. It had made it so that before, the creatures that lived there were protected by the park and had a fighting chance of surviving when man decided that they were much more useful dead than alive.

It took Billy months to gather up the information that he needed. A year of him going through dusty boxes and crates. Trunks of old pottery and finds had been the pain of his existence. He had more cobwebs in his hair, his mother told him, than most people did in the world over a weekend. But he had a desire to be able to find family information and to make it so that anyone who wanted it was able to get it, too. Then he’d been granted permission to not only speak to the queen of the faeries but to go to her realm while he was doing it. His aunt Sunny had gained him that audience, and he would forever be grateful for her doing so much for his cause.

“I so loved the bears and what they stood for when I first saw them. To think that something so large and so scary looking could be the best of parents to their young. I loved to watch their gracefulness too in climbing mountainsides as well as trees. I also was sad that so many of them were being killed off for only their coat and how it would keep humans warm. Leaving the meat behind because they thought it too much effort to at least attempt to make sure that their families were fed as well.” Lilliane, the first queen of faeries, had not just made it so that bears could walk among the humans but wolves and cats as well. “We have all learned a great deal from their counterparts. Man and beast can live together if they wish, but for a time, it wasn’t unheard of for humans to kill off their neighbor simply because they were a beast, too. Such a tragic ending that my animals had to go into hiding for so long that I feared that there would never be peace between them.”

“What kind of magic did you have to use? That’s the question that most of them ask. Not the exact knowledge, but basically why you chose some bear families over others. And what is your strongestfamily now.” He thought that an easy question but it wasn’t for the former queen. She looked out over her own fields and stared for so long that he thought her not to answer. “You don’t have to tell me, my lady. I think it was mostly for my own curiosity rather than anything else.”

“It’s all right, young Billy. I shall answer.” She smiled at him then. “Hands down, my greatest creation would be the Cross bears. Not only did they take the magic that was given to them and make it better, but they never harmed others or other families with the knowledge that they had. Also, they would help any of the other creatures. Be they bear or cougar, the Cross bears were one that could be depended on. All throughout the years.” It made him proud to be known as a Cross bear.

Even though he’d been changed when he’d been nothing more than a small child, his pride was there. It was the only thing that had saved him, everyone thought when they heard the story of his coming to the family.

It took him several months to get all the information in order. Pictures, too, were put aside that he wanted for the book. No one would read it, he thought, but for the family. He was fine with that, too. So long as the words were put out there where anyone and everyone with the last name Cross could see where their family had come from and how they’d prospered over the decades.

The pictures were his friend. Since he could go back and talk to the people in them, he had a firsthand accounting of the day. Sometimes, they’d put someone up for the night as they were thinking to get pictures of the falls they’d only heard about. The price of a picture would be a great deal to those that had wanted one so to be able to trade for it made it seem all the more special.

Once word got out about the hospitality of the Cross Mountain people, others showed up for a night’s stay for the price of whatever wears they’d been hawking. A pretty tin can with candies in it. Yards of fabric that the man was going to sell to the tribes once he made it to them. Even though they had all the meat that they wanted, they would trade for a night’s stay with a meal for some fish caught in the many lakes and rivers.

Seeds were a big thing too to trade. That was how the family still had tomatoes and corn, trading with the tribes when they were able to get them. Furs, too, of other animals around were traded for wood to light a couple of fires. Even magic was traded from one person to the next and had value like nothing else.

Billy took an entire year to write the first installment of the Cross family. He’d been thrilled, too, when he’d unearthed a cookbook written in the hand of the person who had perfected the recipe. Other tidbits as well. How to get molasses and honey. The best way to light a fire without smoking yourself out. How to mend pants and shoes. The best way to sharpen a knife. It was all in there. Every bit of the information that he found and was able to shed some light on, he put it in the book.

Alas, he’d been sad when it all wouldn’t fit into the first book. His partner had been excited when he’d been upset about how much stuff was left untold. She wanted him to write many books, some of them with only information about the first bears and their families or simply a book of recipes that he’d been given on how to make a year’s worth of living and eating from his finds. Bits and pieces of it had been there in the first book with just enough information.

~*~

Twenty more years later.

Billy didn’t touch the box that was on his table. It had been delivered about an hour ago and sat there where he’d put it since then. He knew what was in it, the ‘from’ address as clear as it was to him who was to receive it. There was a box knife sitting next to it, along with a small trash bag for whatever trash might be in it. Mostly, it would be packing material, but he didn’t want to make a mess when opening it after his guest arrived.

“Do you think she’ll come to see you today? She didn’t come the last time you had a box.” He looked at his wife and mate of eleven months and told her that she would be there. That the other box hadn’t had much to do with her. And that she would know today’s delivery was a big deal for themboth. “I hope you have a good visit with her. I know how much you miss getting to see her.” She kissed him on the mouth quickly. “I’ll be back this evening. I have a great deal of paperwork that needs to be done, as well as some filing on the sale sheets that we’ve made this week.”

After telling her that he loved her, hugging both her and their child that Margo still carried, he made his way back into the kitchen to wait. He thought that the waiting was much better than it used to be before. He supposed it was because they’d been together so many times that he felt like she’d never leave him.

He knew that he’d never leave her.

The two of them had formed a bond long before he’d been living with the Cross family. He wasn’t even a day old. Billy also thought that he’d had one with her long before that, even before he’d been born. But now it was different. He could speak to her now, and he loved that more than anything in the world. Besides his wife and soon-to-be child coming to him.

He looked around the room, the room that had been here for longer than most of the other nineteenth generation of Crosses. The meeting place in all the homes that were built on the mountain. That’s what made this one so special. It had been meeting and greeting people for more generations than most of the people around here even thought about anymore.

And he knew them all now. Billy had talked to most of them even before the idea of a book had come to them. It became just what he wanted it to be. A history of not just the people that were living on the land now but all the generations back of Cross bears and how they had become the first shifter bears that were ever. His family.

The tightening of the room had him smiling. The power that it took to bring her to him no longer surprised nor harmed him. Turning in his seat, Billy looked at the magic that was bringing his favorite person to him, to all the people on the mountain, both gone and present.

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