CHAPTER XII
Hairless Bear Wakes
"What the hell?" John suddenly muttered. He stood and moved closer to the monitor that displayed the camera feeds from the Hairless Bear site. The three windows that displayed camera outputs appeared to be blank.
"Malfunction?" Ed asked.
"I don't think so," said White Cloud. "My wolf friends watching at the site are very upset and frightened." Indeed, the eerie sound of howling wolves erupted outside, loud enough to be clearly heard inside the lab.
"My owl friends are also upset," added Talking Owl.
John was busy at the keyboard. A window with rows of numbers and mnemonics popped up that the Mohawk scrolled through quickly. "All self-checks are positive," he concluded. The system thinks that it is fully operational."
"Maybe it's the cold," Mary suggested.
"Maybe somebody stuck chewing gum over each of the lenses," said Ed. "The images are dark but not totally blank."
"Play the last few recorded minutes back," suggested Doc.
John went back five minutes. On the monitor two infra-red and one optical view of Hairless Bear appeared. The woodpile had shrunk down to Hairless Bear hip-level, the viewers noticed, but the stone giant stood unmoving in its normal pose. There was a sudden impression of motion on all screens, and the optical camera facing Hairless Bear suddenly shook, got blurry, and then quickly became dark.
"Replay that in slow-mo if you can," said Doc.
In slow motion the astonished viewers saw something shoot out from the mouth region of Hairless Bear and strike and cover the optical camera. John replayed the event even slower. "It spat on my camera!" he exclaimed.
"Possibly water at near freezing temperatures," said Doc. "Striking the even colder camera and air it would quickly freeze into ice, covering the lens. Let the recording play further forward."
They watched as the head of Hairless Bear abruptly twisted towards the second camera and repeated its spitting actions, and then towards the third camera. Soon the feed from all three cameras was essentially blank.
"Damn!" said John. "The head moves! And it put all three of my cameras out of commission in about ten seconds!"
"It did that for a reason." said Ed. "It's up to something!"
"What I find amazing is that it apparently recognized their function and acted to effectively nullify them," said Doc. "High intelligence is definitely implied."
"Someone should hike to the site to see if Hairless Bear is still there," Mary suggested.
"Unnecessary," said Talking Owl. She stood apart from the others, with her eyes closed tight. "It is fully awake and mobile. It walks now and my owl friends follow it, as do wolves and bears. They are all very upset that Hairless Bear is attacking a tree near the site."
"Exactly where is it?" Jack asked.
"Its exact position is unclear from my conversations with animals," said Talking Owl. "But it is not far from here and near or on the path."
They heard the sound of cracking wood and the crash of a fallen tree.
"The snow and the lab walls greatly muffle any sounds," said John. "That noise had to come from nearby. Surely no more than a hundred meters."
Everyone scrambled into winter coats and moccasins, picked up flashlights, rifles, and cameras, and rushed outside. They ran to the nearby path that stretched to the Great Lodge all the way from Giants' Rest. Downhill towards the Hairless Bear site, the sound of breaking wood, hooting owls, and howling wolves shattered the stillness of an otherwise quiet winter night.
"We should warn the Lodge," said Mary, but they soon saw the light of several flashlights moving towards them from the Lodge. Distant startled voices could be heard, and it was clear that people in the Lodge were already alerted.
The crackling sound of breaking tree-limbs and the ponding sounds of monstrous footfalls came from someplace down the path towards the Hairless Bear site and was moving closer. The science team pointed all of their flashlights in the direction of the sound.
Far down the path at the edge of darkness, something monstrously large was steadily moving up the pathway. Fifty feet above the path a pair of saucer sized eyes more than a yard apart glowed red. The massive diamond scaled body below the eyes flashed multi-colored reflections from the flashlights.
"Good god!" exclaimed Mary. "It's Hairless Bear and it's coming this way!"
Step by monstrous step it moved closer!
"It follows the path!" said Talking Owl.
"Of course," said John. "Why wouldn't it take advantage of the path? Otherwise it would be walking through trees and boulders."
"It's carrying something!" said Jack.
"The animals say that it moves the forest," said Talking Owl.
"It holds a tree trunk under each arm," said John, who was watching it through telescopic night-vision goggles. "It drags the trees up the path towards the Mountain! I see a dozen owls flying above it also."
"Fascinating," remarked Doc.
"Terrifying is the word I would use, Doc," said Chief Mike Talking Bear, who had just arrived from the Lodge with a dozen rifle-armed warriors. Strapped to their backs were satchels that held torches. "It's obviously too late to light the woodpile that was surrounding Hairless Bear. The woodpiles surrounding the Lodge are being readied for lighting. In the meantime we can try out our rifles and torches on it when it gets closer. We also carry Molotov cocktails. I'm telling my bear brothers to stay away; there is nothing they can do to help us. Bullets and fire may be flying soon."
"I am telling the wolves the same," said White Cloud, "while thanking them for raising the alarm."
"Why attack it?" asked John. "It is obviously bullet-proof and so far it hasn't attacked anyone."
"Perhaps the Mohawk has a good point," said Mouse, who had suddenly appeared at the side of Chief Mike.
"Right!" added Ed. "Why piss it off? So far it hasn't attacked humans and humans haven't attacked it either. You even fed it some nice tasty firewood."
"Very well, we'll hold our fire for now," said Chief Mike. "If it moves to attack us, the lab, or the Sacred Lodge, we will attack it."
"For now let's also get ourselves off the path and out of its way!" said Running Bear.
The shocked group moved towards the lab, which was fifty yards to the right of the main path to the Lodge.
Taking monstrously huge steps, Hairless Bear soon crested the lip of the amphitheater and was in plain sight of the terrified onlookers. It indeed held a massive six-foot thick tree trunk under each arm, trunks with pointy ends that looked like they had been gnawed through by a giant beaver. They were large- sized Douglass fir trees, Ed guessed. Most of the rest of each tree was dragged behind the creature, a great tangle of mangled limbs several times as long as the monster was tall.
Up close Hairless Bear looked less like a bear; its fingers and toes were too monstrously large: fingers large enough to grasp huge trees, and huge diamond-tipped toes to dig into rock for better traction in order to drag trees up the icy Mountain. It didn't look hairless either; much of it was covered with long crystals that rather looked like hair, though like the scales they were probably made of quartz or diamond or both.
It paused and looked about as though considering which way to go. Straight ahead of it the path ended at the Sacred Dome on the far lip of the amphitheater. It ignored the lab and the gathering of humans that watched it.
"It's looking mostly at the Great Lodge," said Chief Mike. "If it heads for the Lodge we're going to light up our fires and shoot it!"
"It is simply trying to carry the trees to its hungry kin upon the Mountain." said Talking Owl, "I can hear them crying out in hunger! The Lodge blocks the straightest path!"
"Yes!" Ed exclaimed. Talking Owl was at last sensing Stone-Coat feelings! "I can hear them too! Thousands of them!"
"Light a new path for it to get to the Mountain!" John exclaimed. "Don't shine your lights directly on the creature and provoke it; point your flashlights at a spot on the ridge of the amphitheater
to the left of the path!" With a large flashlight in hand, the Mohican ran off, along a side-path that led to the main path at a point ahead of Hairless Bear.
"Do as he said," seconded Talking Owl. "We must try to lead it around the Lodge and not through it! Perhaps it can be done without loss of life."
"Good plan," agreed Chief Mike. "Red Hawk and Swift Deer, take more flashlights and a pair of snowshoes to the Mohican. Lose your rifles; I doubt they would be much good anyway against a diamond-plated giant. Everyone else keep your flashlights pointed at the left rim and away from Hairless Bear. We don't want to draw him here with our lights; we want to show him a path to the Mountain that avoids the Great Lodge."
John Running Bear cut across to the path beyond Hairless Bear, and then trudged with difficulty through deep snow to a point on the amphitheater rim to the left of the path. He was gasping for breath when he shined his flashlight into the Face of Hairless Bear and blinked it on and off while shouting at the top of his lungs. Hairless Bear had no visible ears; could it hear him shout? Maybe not; but it didn't hurt to try!
The Stone-Coat turned its red eyes towards Running Bear as Red Hawk and Swift Deer reached the Mohican. Red Hawk slipped snowshoes onto him while Swift Deer mimicked his flashlight efforts. Soon the three snowshoe clad men moved off together along the left rim of the amphitheater, occasionally flashing light at the monster's red eyes. Meanwhile the flashlights of the others made the entire snow-covered left-rim dimly visible in the darkness.
The creature suddenly began to move, towards the fleeing flashing lights to its left along the rim! The creature took huge strides, and soon the three humans that led it had trouble staying ahead of it.
Just when the onlookers feared that the tree-hauling giant would overtake and run over the three men, their flashlights went dark. Without pause the Stone-Coat Ice Giant and the trees it dragged continued beyond the amphitheater, up the Mountain and out of sight.
Happy cheers erupted from the lab crew and from the direction of the distant Lodge. Mouse immediately wanted to powwow in the warm environment of lab, but Chief Mike and his daughter Talking Owl would not go inside until the Mohican and his two Mohawk companions returned, looking a bit weary but otherwise in good health and great spirits. Chief Mike greeted them all with hearty hugs and back-slapping. Talking Owl looked like she might want to give the Mohican a hug herself, but managed not to. "That was fast thinking, John," she instead told him.
"It was mostly your fast thinking, Princess," he replied. "When you said that the Stone-Coat was merely seeking a path to the Mountain, the solution became obvious. Of course on its own the Stone-Coat could have already observed that the lodge obstructed its path and decided to walk around it. Or it may have also noticed that to travel across the amphitheater would take it down and up again needlessly, and that passage along the amphitheater rim would be more energy efficient."
"Your solution wasn't very obvious to me," Ed remarked. "I was mostly too damned scared to think at all."
They crowded into the small lab building. To Ed it felt wonderful to be still alive and out of the cold, and he would love to talk about the astonishing thing that had just happened, but right now had other immediate needs. He rushed towards the small lab bathroom but as usual, Mary beat him to it. He felt some satisfaction however, that a small line formed behind him. At least he was second. "Who's the new kid?" he asked White Cloud, who stood behind him in line. Near them a young boy of perhaps fifteen years sat before a computer terminal and was watching the Bear Claw monitor while he made entries at the keyboard of a laptop.
"That's my cousin Frank Grey Wolf who was raised in Brooklyn by his steel-working dad. He even took some CUNY computer science classes last year. He's the computer whiz that sat up the computers for the lab and Wi-Fi for most of the Reservation. I added him to our science team. Right now he's going to use copper wire to measure electric conductivity through one of the scales of the Bear Claw. Our experiments must continue."
"Absolutely," Ed remarked, before taking his turn in the bathroom.
"The heroics of the Mohican and our men at least bought us some time," Chief Mike was saying, when Ed joined the gathered leadership and science groups. "But we don't know what will happen next."
"Hairless Bear will continue to feed the hungry ones," said Talking Owl.
"That is very likely," agreed Doc. "And if there really is a whole Mountain full of Stone-Coats, that could take a lot of trees.
"The legends say that they eat everything in the area when they wake," said Mouse. "That could include us and our lodges."
"Hairless Bear didn't seem hostile tonight," remarked Running Bear. He was sitting comfortably close to Talking Owl, Ed noticed. "It seemed to be mostly just avoiding our interference. It covered my cameras with ice and then later it avoided the Lodge, the lab, and us. It could have iced us like it did the cameras or crashed us like bugs, but it didn't. Of course, it could consider us to be insignificant or be merely waiting until more of its kind wake before it attacks us."
"Is this the usual way that Stone-Coat awakenings begin?" Mary asked. "And what should happen next? What do the legends say?"
"The legends say that a few Stone-Coats wake first, and those first ones are to be attacked by Tribe warriors using torches," said Talking Owl. "Obviously we skipped that part. The alerted Tribe is then to burn great fires that cause the aroused horde of Stone-Coats to retreat to the cold sanctuary of the Mountain."
"The Tribe has been alerted," added Chief Mike. "They will soon march from Giants' Rest three-thousand strong. There are woodpiles that surround the Mountain that we will light when the time comes."
"Of course in the past the Mohawk had no clever Mohicans with flashlights or scientists to help them, but the Stone-Coats were contained anyway using fire and the warmth of the coming of spring," said Mouse. "We could do that again this time, but we would likely lose many lives by merely following the path of our ancestors."
"Yes, when they were opposed by us the Stone-Coats fought the Mohawk and killed many of the Tribe," explained Talking Owl. "Talking Turtle had hoped that some other way could be found."
"In my opinion we're at a decision point now," said Running Bear. "Either we facilitate the Stone-Coats or we attack and try to stop them."
"Facilitate them how?" Chief Mike asked.
"Give them what they want," Running Bear explained, "or at least don't impede them. They want to eat trees, so let them eat trees. Let them eat your woodpiles instead of lighting them on fire."
"With what consequences?" Chief Mike asked. "To make them stronger so that they can more easily kill us? What you suggest seems like too big a gamble."
"Good point," acknowledged Running Bear. "We have no idea what they will do if we let them freely feed. The results of that path are unknown. On the other hand, if we fight them your legends say that they can be stopped. That seems to be the more certain path, though it would also likely cost many Tribe lives. Perhaps hundreds or thousands of Tribe lives."
"And that's the usual way of Man, isn't it?" added Talking Owl. "We fear and seek to destroy what we do not understand."
"It is a natural reaction for people to seek their own preservation by destroying a powerful force that could kill them," Chief Mike countered. "We must seek to preserve Tribe lives, Daughter. I am Tribe War Chief. We will gather our warriors and weapons and make ready to attack the Stone-Coats. While the rest of you seek understanding I will go to Giants' Rest to rally our fighting men." The Chief and the two warriors with him quickly left the lab, leaving the others.
"That was a shorter meeting than I figured on," said Ed.
"Talking Bear has no other choice now, he must prepare for war," said John. "Here we should try to find him another choice; either a choice for peace or a better choice of weapons, if war remains the only choice possible. I sensed intelligence behind Hairless Bear's actions. Communications with the Stone-Coats could be very useful. What do the Stone-Coat talkers sense?"
Both Ed and Talking Owl closed their eyes and sat quietly for several minutes while the others patiently waited. "I sense only their hunger," said Ed at last.
"As do I," agreed Talking Owl. "And my owl friends tell me that Stone-Coats return from the Mountain. I can hear them each chattering. There seems to be five of them."
"Yes," said Ed. "I sense five of them also, and they are getting closer." confirmed Ed.
Most of the company hurriedly put on their coats and rushed outside, where they saw five pairs of glowing red eyes moving down the mountain along the route earlier taken by Hairless Bear. The sound of their monstrous footfalls filled the air.
"Yes, there are five of them now!" exclaimed White Cloud. "Each is as large as Hairless Bear or larger!"
"Keep your flashlights off!" John implored. "Let them walk past us without unduly getting their attention."
Indeed the five stone giants were following the path originally taken by Hairless Bear, which avoided the Lodge and lab. Ed could sense the relief felt by the humans that stood with him watching them pass, along with their continuing fear and astonishment. Each giant was a copy of Hairless Bear, but three were twice as big, and the ground shook with each monstrous step that they took.
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