Pontifex Ursa – Part 8

Okay.  Whenever anyone says that they have their live figured out, distrust them.

I tried weaning off caffeine, only to suffer through horrible sleep and other various nonsensical and horrible things.  I came back to it this morning, and I’ve found more ability to focus and less difficulty fighting my ADHD than I’ve had in a long time.

Whenever I think I have things sorted out, something like this pops up and lets me know that I know nothing.  Blurgh. 

Oh well, whatever gets the words to flow, I’m okay with.  Preferably not with the amount of excruciating torture I’ve had to deal with this year, but if that’s what it takes to get things started…

I will bleed for you.  I will horribly mangle my soul for you.  That’s just how I roll. 

EXCELSIOR! 

Pontifex Ursa – Part 8

I have known no other being to have given more for less than the Hyberian who would come to be known as the Pontifex Ursa.  The sacrifices it has made are without count.  It has forsaken all sense of home, of family, and of brotherhood to protect humanity.

    – Chief Historical Scribe Paval, The Mystery Behind the Chair

As I watched a bear larger than any building in my village shovel scoops of dirt larger than my body onto a paw quite literally ablaze, I began to doubt my sanity. 

Nothing in any of the teachings, prayers, hymns, or history books that I had spent seven years of my life studying had prepared me for anything that had happened tonight.  The only woman I had ever held any love for outside of my mother lay dead in my arms, and I didn’t even know who or what had killed her.  Beings had come out the night, flying through the sky in defiance of all logic and nature, and taken her from me.

And now this…

The large ursine was winning the battle against the fire, and unless my eyes were deceiving me, it was also beginning to shrink in the same fashion that Lilith had done before her death.  I absently stroked her silken fur through the matte of dirt and blood and tears. 

I stared at the creature as it shrank, as it pulled its paw from the dirt and flexed the large finger-like claws, flesh popping and cracking as it split.  It healed almost instantly, but the looks of pain which flashed across the creatures face meant it must’ve hurt abominably anyway. 

Eventually, the creature was no more imposing that any other two meter tall, broad-shouldered man would’ve been.  It was fully covered in a thick brown fur, and while it stood upright on two feet, and had the appropriate number of hands and feet, it was no more a man than the metal creatures had been.  I watched this fresh horror approach with a gaze devoid of all curiosity, yet unable to look away.

Again, without input, I put myself between the new creature and Lilith’s body.  Even numb as I was, I wanted to protect her still.  It was madness, but it was.  Judge me if you feel you must. 

“Fear not young one, I mean you no harm.”

The cool baritone floated out over the night, wrapping me in a silky caress of cultured enunciation and intonation.  It was a voice that commanded respect without begging or asking for it.  You could feel the strength behind the words, behind the person wielding them.  It was a voice which had seen Hell, and walked through the other side.

My jaw dropped as the subtle nuance of all the words said and unsaid sank into my being.  The power which drove the simple sounds soaked into the cracks between my bones.  I was a desert, dry and barren for too long, greedily guzzling an unexpected downpour into my soul. 

It was odd, as the creature spoke, the night seemed to grow brighter.  Brighter might not be the right word though.  The various scrubby grass and thorny bushes, the heavily knotted and spined trees all came into sharp focus as though the dark of night had turned to brightest day.  I could see the leaves sway in a light breeze, smell the horrible charred meat stink of the burnt forearm on the creature before me.  I could count the hairs on Lilith’s precious head where it lay against my arm.  I could smell her, all silken loveliness wrapped around a core stronger than stone. 

I could hear her heartbeat.  It was slow, so slow that before the strange senses took hold of me I had mistaken her for dead.  She lay against me, warmer than a dead body should be, breath coming slowly and evenly, heart beating infrequently but in a steady cadence.

She was in some sort of coma.  Given her metamorphosis, it was more likely some form of restorative hibernation.  With my new vision, I could see the charred edges of the hole cut through her midriff beginning to heal over with new flesh.  It was a slow thing; far slower indeed than the uncanny healing exhibited by the man-thing still coming towards me, but I could tell it would relentlessly replace everything which had been lost given sufficient time. 

I cried, relief and love and despair and pain and loss leaving me in great wracking sobs.  I clung to Lilith, crying a lifetime of longing for this gem of a woman I had thought lost after such a wonderful and unexpected joining of hearts and minds and bodies.  As I sat weeping, a hand descended upon my shoulder.  I hadn’t heard the creature close the distance between us, or if it had moved as swiftly as it had when it had taken the hulking metal brute in the rear. 

That hand sent waves of comforting strength through me, and I could feel the strength pool in my body, before flowing in turn down into Lilith.  I could feel her pulse quicken, her breathing increase, and I could hear the flesh actively knitting itself outward.  Her strength fed into my own, and some kind of harmonic feedback loop flowed from the creature, through me, to her, and back.

“What an unexpected pleasure.  When Priestess Lilith called upon my powers, I had no idea she would be bringing a new Kindred along with her.”

The gentle pressure of the paw was gone, and with it the singing harmony it had brought.  A spring of power had welled up within me though, and it was resonating with an impression of Lilith that felt as though it would never fade.  It was then, as I sat marveling at the newfound connection between us, that she stirred from her restful slumber. 

“H’lo Hy-bee, Paval still anoy’n yoo?”

The words were heavily slurred, but her teeth were showing with the same good humor she had always displayed, even when I thought she was dying. 

The beast laughed, a loud and rich sound equal to the power of its silken voice.  It was infectious, full of life and vigor.  Lilith chuckled very weakly, and my voice cracked as a few sobbing laughs fought their way free of my grief and elation. 

“Yes he is Lily, as I suspect he will be doing for many years to come.  Such is his nature, I suppose.”

A flash of teeth, a horrible row of sharp pointed fangs which somehow conveyed the long suffering humor of the statement. 

I stared, still slightly dumbfounded at everything that had just happened.  I looked to Lilith, who was smiling at me as though I’d just blurted my affection for her again, and then back at the smiling creature. 

“What just happened?  Who are you?  Why do you know each other?  Who’s Paval?  Why can I see everything and hear everything and smell everything?”

More questions burst through the dam of my emotions, and they began to run together as my voice climbed in registers and alarm. 

The creature made soothing noises as it sat cross-legged before me.  It rested the giant paws on the ground, somehow displaying non-violence and sending an invitation all in one gesture. 

“My name, young Kindred, is Hyberian.  You may call me what you see fit, but most of humanity knows me as the Pontifex Ursa.”

I could only stare stupidly at this revelation.

“You’re lying.”

To be continued…

Hy-beefully,
Justin