Chapter 7

She woke up and she was sleeping next to a huge soft shape. It was still dark so she could not make it details of what it was. She remembered the night before when the beautiful man told her not to open her eyes before he did, so she closed her eyes. But, she put out her hand and felt him. He was soft and seemed to have very long hair. She took her hand and slid it down his back, she felt the bear skin he was wearing but now it was warm like a bear’s skin. She slid her hand down further and he woke up with a start.

Ok, my beauty, let’s eat breakfast now and get moving. We have a long walk to get you back to your village and we must start. We will eat the left over rabbit cold and then start walking. On the way we can pick more berries, I know many wonderful plants that are on this path. They picked up their packs and started walking. As they walked the girl talked about her village and the women she was picking berries with and about her family. The man said, “ Don’t be afraid, I will take perfect care of you, come my beauty.” And then he put out one hand and tapped her suddenly on her head, and then moved his hand slowly around her head clockwise and then suddenly she stopped talking about her family and forgot they existed and there was only the beautiful young man with the half red face and her berries and the walk.

This went on for some days. Each day they would walk, pick more berries, make a camp, eat rabbit, and then sleep. Each night she would not open her eyes until he was up but each night secretly she touched him gently. The first night she felt his bear skin back, the next his hands which in the total darkness felt like claws to her, the next night his face which had a cold nose that was really large. Each night as she touched him she felt happier and happier, she felt like this was her home now, he was her husband and she was his wife. Each night they snuggled closer and closer on the soft boughs he had laid for her, each night her body fit more and more closely with his until they were like one being. Each night seemed like a night to her but in was really a month so soon they had been traveling many months and autumn was beginning to arrive and it was getting cold. Each night camp was colder and colder, but for some reason, she was warm and comfy all the time with her husband.

Then he said to her, “My beautiful wife, it’s time to make camp for winter.” And that day they walked through a dark place which looked to her like they were walking under a fallen tree but they actually walked right through a mountain and they did the same the next night until they had walked higher and higher through many mountains. He said, “My wonderful wife, here is the place we will make our camp for the winter. I will dig out a big cave and you will gather branches and boughs to make a soft nest for us the sleep.” He started digging with his hands and his hands turned into huge bear claws and the small skin on his back turned into his fur and his nose got longer, and fur got longer and she knew finally in her heart that he was a grizzly bear. This made her very happy because she loved him deeply after their time together walking picking berries and sleeping together as one. And.. also she noticed changes in her body. She was growing long hair on her arms and legs and even her back and her nose was getting longer and she had longer teeth now. These changes happened very very slowly over all the days and nights they had been walking, which were really months so she had not paid much attention to them but when she saw her husband digging the cave with his huge paws and claws and saw his fur and bear skin was now his whole body and saw his nose was long and he was very very big she understood perfectly what had happened. She had married a bear.

He dug the den and she found boughs to make their bed and cover the door to the den. He told her that the boughs were not good enough, she had to cut bigger ones and hide the cuts so no one would find them in the winter when they slept in the den. That gave her an idea which she had not had and made her think again of the family she had left behind when they started to pick berries long ago. Even though it was from a different life suddenly she found herself remembering her brothers and she remembered that they hunted bears in the spring. When she looked around at where they had made their winter den suddenly she noticed that it was the very place she had come with her brothers to hunt bear and she knew they would find her.

Now this was getting complicated in her girl mind/bear mind which were she found were both there but for some reason separate. One moment she was back to a girl, the next back to a bear, then both at once and then none at all. So when she picked the boughs and put them next to the door for her grizzly bear husband to close, she rubbed her smell all over the boughs and put little cuts on them so they would be seen by her bothers when they came in the spring which she knew they would. Now, this was not really thought out she did not know the implications for her actions in her conscious mind, she did not think about the consequences and what would happen in spring if her brothers found her but she did it as if in some kind of dream. It was clearly as if some force beyond her was driving her and in fact this whole story was the dream of that being.

For days and nights her husband hunted rabbit and bought the freshly killed rabbits home and cooked them on his non fire of magic stones and they ate and slept and were together and hunted ate slept and this went on for many days. During this time, she was very very happy. She loved her grizzley bear husband more than life itself, she loved her new fur and long claw like nails, she loved being able to smell things everywhere. She loved how strong she had become and simply loved being a grizzley woman wife more than life itself. And as a grizzly wife to him her bear husband she began to see, smell, feel, hear new things. And she could love her husband in a new way that was intense and physical and her animal would come out of her and make wild love with him and his animal would come out of him and he would love her beyond her imagination and it was mythical and wonderful.