Reservoir of Power Ch. 08-09

"Sure thing sir,"

"Now, what can we do for you?" William asked of Lochlainn, once Oliver had closed the door behind him."

"Well sir..."

"Call me William or Will; there is no need to be formal."

"William, as I told you on the phone. I'm a werebear, and this is Lena, my girlfriend. We have some questions that we hope that you can help us with."

"Go on..."

"What exactly do you know about bears and how we go back and forth between the human and bear worlds?"

Will looked at the desperation in the huge man's eyes and decided to tell the truth, "Almost nothing, I'm afraid; I've only been a wolf for a few months. I grew up human, but grandfather knows more than I do."

All eyes turn to Ja-mul and he began to talk, "Well, I don't know much. I know that werebears are rarely sighted and even more rarely dealt with by the People or the Packs. You are a solitary lot, and I've never actually met one of you myself. My People have always believed that some of us go the way of the bear on occasion. Braves have sworn off their humanity and disappeared into the forests and never been seen again."

"You're not a wolf," Lochlainn asked.

"No, I'm merely their shaman. I'm a member of the People, but all of us are Xwun's."

"Xwun," Lena asked. "What's a Xwun?"

"This might be a little complicated," Ja-mul allowed. "Let me give you the short version. Xwun is the deity that I follow, and he manifests as male. The wolves follow the Lady who manifests as... well, that should be obvious. The bears follow Artio, but all three are just aspects of the same being. I couldn't tell you why he does this; some things are best kept as mysteries."

"Are you with me so far?"

Lena and Lochlainn, (as well as William and Florence) nodded their heads, though it was obvious that they all were still confused. Ja-mul hadn't expected any less, so he continued, "We're all, more or less, on the same side, even though we have different interests. Xwun sent me here to perform a ritual for you two."

"Us?" Lena said.

"Yes, I've been preparing to meet you for awhile, and I've never actually performed this ritual before. No shaman ever has."

The room was deadly silent, so Ja-mul continued, "Xwun has said that the first bears to make the jump would need this ritual in order to thrive."

"So what does it do," Lochlainn asked.

"I have no idea," the shaman admitted, "Xwun is like that; he has a nasty sense of humour."

Florence grimaced as she looked into Lena's eyes and said, "Our shamans are coyotes when we have them at all. They worship a trickster deity who claims he is on our side... somehow. Many shamans are killed by their packs."

"No they're not!" Ja-mul snorted. My granddaughter is a known liar, but despite her lies, she really does love me. And although it is true that many packs want to kill their shamans, they never do. Wolves seem to have a really poorly developed sense of humour."

"Ahem," snapped Will.

"Okay, okay, back to business," said Ja-mul with a sigh. "At any rate, Xwun has told me that you two have until December to decide, and I can perform the ritual for you at any time until then."

Lena shouted out a profanity and then slammed her hand through the thick mahogany table. "This is fucking circular; doesn't anyone have any answers for us."

Everyone in the room was stunned. They had just watched a human casually destroy a table that would have resisted a small wolf pack. None of them believed their own eyes. Florence was the first to respond, "What are you Lena? You smell vaguely human, but no human could have done that."

Her aggression was gone as soon as it had appeared and the quiet Lena was back, "I... I don't know what came over me, but it's been happening more and more. I'm so sorry about your table."

"Look at that hole in the table," Alpha Will whistled, doing his best not to excite the bear or his companion. "I couldn't have done that much damage, even if I'd given it several punches, much less just a single one. Are you sure that you're not a bear?"

Lochlainn grabbed Lena's hand desperately before addressing his response to the wolves, "This is happening more and more often. She's had a few black-outs, and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my situation, but we just don't know. It isn't like there are any other bears for me to ask."

"Okay," Florence replied, "Slowly, tell us everything you know and maybe that will spark something in our memory.

Lochlainn looked into Lena's eyes and said, "We want to get married, and maybe even have children, but then I'd probably lose my memory and Lena doesn't want that. Wait..." Lucky then took a deep breath and said, "Let me start over."

No one said anything, so Lochlainn started again. "Werebears are born as normal bears. My father believed that all bears had the gene to become human, but for whatever reason, most never do. Those of us who can change, do so at an age the roughly corresponds to a thirteen or fourteen year old human. We become human, usually accompanied by one of our parents. We live for a few years as a human and throughout this time, we can remember our time as a bear."

"Eventually though, we find that we are forced to make a choice. Either we choose to remain human-- which means that we forget we were ever a bear, or we return to the bear world, and forget that we were ever human. This means that there is no real bear society. My father told me that he could remember being human several times before he became my guide. Evidently, his children were mostly able to make the jump and each time one of them did, he became their guide, so his memories of being human were not gone forever, they were just suppressed somehow."

Ja-mul interrupted, "Ah, that explains your problem, but how does this relate to your mate."

"Bears don't mate like wolves do. Bears are not monogamous like the wolves and humans tend to be, so 'mate' isn't quite the right word for Lena. I desperately want to marry her, but this desire evidently isn't normal for a bear and I think that something is breaking down because of it. Lena is starting to act like a bear and it just doesn't work that way. You wolves, you bite a human and he or she becomes a werewolf and shares your way of life. You are the lucky ones; I can't bite Lena and make her into a bear and I wouldn't if I could, because we wouldn't remain mates once she became a bear."

Florence hissed, "That's horrible."

Lena answered, "Exactly... and that's why we are struggling with this. We love each other and he's willing to give up his memories to stay with me, but that isn't fair to him. We are not even sure if we'd be able to have children if he became fully human; and if we could, would they carry the gene and leave our world for the way of the bear once they reached adolescence? It's a nightmare!"

Lena paused a moment and then said, "We've been working together to remind Lochlainn of his heritage. He's been changing into a bear occasionally and we're hoping that this puts off his time of decision, but he says that Artio told him that we'll have to make a choice by December."

Lucky then picked up the explanation, "But while this seems to calm me, it seems to be having the opposite effect on Lena, and as your table proves, something very scary is happening. ...and come to think of it, Artio didn't say 'December', she said the 'advent of winter', whatever that means."

"So your deadline isn't even an exact date," Florence asked in concern.

Neither Lena nor Lochlainn responded immediately, so William began, "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure that there are any firm answers for you here. On the bright side, by coming here, you've made first contact with the wolves, and I mean all of us. I will contact our Alpha's Alpha and see if he knows anything more than we do. While we await his response, we'll be glad to host you here at the resort free of charge for as long as it takes.

Lena hurriedly said, "We don't want to abuse your hospitali..."

Florence interrupted before Lena could even finish, "No, that isn't a problem at all. We'd love to have you here with us, and while you are here, we can get to know each other. You guys can learn about wolves and we can learn about bears. You won't owe us a thing and I think that maybe we can become friends. You can think of your rooms here as an embassy for the bears in the wolves territory.

Lochlainn's face showed his surprise at Flo's words, and after considering them for a moment, he said, "But I don't represent all of the bears; I'm not even sure that I can represent myself very effectively."

"I don't know why not," Ja-mul said quickly. "You are the only bear that we know and we have to start someplace. So, it sounds like you've won the job unanimously!"

"You aren't listening to me," Lucky replied hotly, his irritation clear to see. "I don't want the job! I wouldn't be any good at it!"

"I'm sorry Lochlainn," William said sincerely, but you're all we've got. The Were are just now stepping out of the shadows and trying to make our own way in the modern world. You and I both know that there is an element with human kind that resents us and wants to kill us; if we don't band together, we'll lose the upcoming battles."

Lena erupted in anger, leaping from her chair and towering over those still seated. "He told you that he doesn't want the job!" Her eyes spun dangerously and it was clear that she was losing control once again. "Why don't you leave us the fuck alone?"

Lochlainn leapt to his feet as well, moving forward and grabbing Lena in a warm embrace, and whispering calming noises into her ear while he rubbed his hands along her exposed skin. His touch calmed her and her eyes slowly returned to normal and she collapsed into his arms, once again, crying over the fact that she had lost control.

"Shh," Florence said softly, "I think you need our help, just as we may need yours someday. We'd be glad to be of aid, and if you are worried about the cost, stop. We operate this resort and every single business in Whiskey Lake; believe me, we have no real need for your money. What we really need are good friends. Humans, the People, or other Were: it makes no difference to us. We are trying to live peacefully on this Earth. We have no interest in building empires or destroying those around us."

"Come on out to our club house tonight," William added. "We'll introduce you to everyone. There isn't usually much happening on Mondays, but when the word gets around that there is a werebear in town, I guarantee the place will be packed. We can start reducing tensions between our two peoples. Our club is called Shunkaha, and it's always a lively place, although I may have to give everyone the day off tomorrow if it gets too crazy tonight. What do you say? Will you join us? The pack makes a wonderful nut brown ale that we only serve in the clubhouse."

Before anyone could answer, there was a knock at the door, and William immediately responded, "Come in Oliver! You've arrived just in time!"

Oliver waddled into the room just ahead of Stan, who was pushing a room service cart before him. "Sorry for the delay Alpha, but Stan knocked over the first cart, and we had to pour everything all over again. Then we had to go get another cart, and..."

"Never mind Oliver, just leave the cart and we'll be fine." Florence broke in, breaking Oliver's train of thought.

The two Omegas made their escape and after shutting the door behind them, Lucky said, "I thought all wolves were supposed to be lean warriors."

"Well, our press agent may have exaggerated a bit," Ja-mul answered with a wry grin.

"You are our press agent," William replied darkly.

"Okay fine, I may have exaggerated a bit," Ja-mul answered. "But did you really want the humans to know about those two idiots?"

Florence broke in, speaking directly to Lena, "Don't worry about these two; they fight like this all the time. Do you want the ale or the tea to go with your appetizers?"

"Wait... brown ale?" asked Lena. Bea was saying that she'd just picked up a taste for it from some friends of hers. Do you know Honey Bea? She's a derby captain."

The confused looks upon the wolves faces answered Lena's question, so she said, "Never mind, just give me a pint of the ale; it's already been a long day. Florence poured a glass for Lena and soon everyone was clustered around the cart making appetizer plates and tucking in to their ale. Business was concluded until later and everyone began to share information about their lives.

~~~

Later that night, the van rolled into the Shunkaha's dark lot, slowly driving around the silent swarm of motorcycles that stood there waiting quietly for their absent riders. Lochlainn didn't let the sight of the hogs bother him; he'd been on the inside of clubhouses before. Bikers were a rowdy bunch, but he knew that he'd always been quite a bit larger than anyone in any of the bars.

Once or twice before, he'd been forced to fight, but his ability to drop even the biggest outlaw with only a single punch generally brought things back to earth fairly quickly. He'd never gone looking for trouble and he was always willing to walk away from drunks looking to establish a reputation by taking down someone his size, but this time he knew that things just might be a bit different. He'd never met a werewolf biker before, much less an entire bar filled with them, and somehow, Alpha William hadn't mentioned that the Harleys would be here in force awaiting their arrival.

Lena hadn't grown-up among the laboring classes they way that Lucky had, so she was somewhat less comfortable with the realization of what William and Florence had meant by 'clubhouse'. The closest that Lena had ever come to meeting a club biker was watching a few episodes of 'Sons of Anarchy' with Ylva, and nothing in that show had managed to reassure her that entering a clubhouse was a wise decision. "Lochlainn, are you sure that this is the right place?"

"Yes baby... look," he said pointing at the Shunkaha sign, "this has to be it!"

"It also says, 'private club, members only'," she observed in what she hoped was a helpful tone of voice.

"Good thing that we have an invitation," Lucky replied softly, seeing the trepidation in Lena's eyes.

"Yeah... maybe," she replied distantly. Then she said, "Oh well; we're here now. I guess we ought to take a look."

Lochlainn smiled and replied, "Heck, if all of this works out, maybe we can call our firstborn child, 'Shunkaha'".

"Not a chance, buddy," she snapped back, a ghost of a smile returning to her face.

"Well, come on then," he said, opening her door. "Let's go see if their beer is cold."

"I thought you said that the browns were supposed to be served warmer than pilsners and lagers?"

"You were listening," Lochlainn replied with a generous smile upon his face. "I'm so turned-on right now. I've got a woman who listens when her man rhapsodizes about the brewing arts!"

Lena rolled her eyes at Lochlainn's silliness and swatted his arm for good measure, but somewhere during their interplay, she had managed to forget that she'd been worried about entering a large bar filled with werewolves. She smiled and looked into his eyes before she stepped through the door that he held open for her.

Her eyes quickly refocused to the dim light within the bar as she stood in the entryway briefly limned by the neon lights and the glow from the internet jukebox. It was obvious that this was not the sort of bar that she'd ever visited before. The tables and chairs weren't dainty or decorative; indeed, her first thought was that everything looked to be hewn directly from oak. She'd never seen such sturdy looking furniture in her life. Nor had she seen a tavern with a pegboard and a prize drum dominating the entryway before.

The loud music and pool tables didn't seem especially out of place, but the large bee-hive behind the bar seemed odd, even if it did seem to be safely cloaked in netting. Then she noticed that there was a large computer area equipped with a digital scoreboard. She was almost glad the place had normal barstools in front of the bar and old peanut shells littering the floors, it made the place seem more normal somehow. It's unusual that a place this large doesn't seem to have a bandstand.

Lochlainn took her hand and led her out of the entryway and toward the two suspiciously empty barstools in the direct center of the extremely crowded bar. Peanut shells crunched under their feet, as they made their way around the dozens of patrons who were wearing club colours or western wear. Other than the large number of leather jackets and vests, the inhabitants of this bar looked much the folks in Kalispell.

"We saved this chair for you," Flo said pointing to one of the barstools from where she stood behind the bar serving customers. "We had to strengthen this one awhile back for a special event and it stood up to quite a lot of punishment. Lochlainn, I think it'll hold you just fine. You look like a guy who has inadvertently broken a few barstools over the years."

Lena saw a flash of embarrassment pass over the Alpha's face at the Madam's words, but it disappeared too quickly for her to get a read on why this might bother him. She resolved to get to the bottom of that story some day; anything that would embarrass an Alpha was worth a bit of prying, but she wasn't allowed to stay on that point for long as Lochlainn held out his hand to help her take her seat.

Then Lucky sat in the proffered stool, smiled down at Florence and said, "Okay, let's try some of that special brown that you promised us; I'm ready to be impressed."

"...and for you?" Flo asked Lena.

Lena smirked, saying, "He's on his own with that dark stuff. Do you have blonde ale or maybe a Canadian-style lager?"

"At least she drinks beer," William said, nudging Lochlainn good naturedly.

"Yeah, you have no idea how happy I was about that when I met her! But then again, when she heard the words 'warmer and flatter', she lost all interest in the darker beers."

A delighted look flashed across William's face as he said, "You know your beer!"

"I'm a bar-tender, among other things. There are a few Celts in Kalispell, and all of them love their half and halves. I usually have to keep the Harp cold and the Guinness warm; by the time I pour it together, the boys seem to think they are in Valhalla.

"Among other things, you said. What else do you do?" William asked, but Lucky never had a chance to answer as Florence interrupted by dropping two large tankards in front of the two men.

She waited for the men to take a long pull from their beers before she said, "Drink up my friend, and maybe you can review our bartenders tonight. I'd love to get some feedback from a pro."

"What do you mean, 'various bartenders'? How long are we going to be here anyway? Lena and I would like to get back to the resort before it gets too late.

"Oh you shouldn't have to stay all night long for that," Florence replied soothingly. "We change bartenders once per hour. We draw names out of that hopper that you saw on the way in. Every club-member has a tag on that board and if you are drinking, your tag has gotta be in the hopper."

A voice from Lena's right said, "Except for Ja-mul, his tag keeps disappearing for some strange reason. It's funny how that works."

Florence just giggled as William sighed audibly. Then the Alpha said, "Lena and Lochlainn, I'd like you to meet my #1 Beta. This is Tristan, and the two lovely ladies seated upon him are our two newest pack members, Maria and Margarita Calvillo. These girls were born human and have only been with us a few months now. I'm sure they'll be glad to answer any questions that you might have, but you'd better be careful, my mate tells me that they bite."