33 MMA Bears Five - Part 1

Six Shadows moved in the night. Silence was their friend, their ally. If they were caught, it would mean certain death. Now was their only chance. Forces of unspeakable power and corruption were moving against them. Darkened windows lined the streets, a cold mist in the air, and a place which had once been home now seemed imposing and unfamiliar.

The feet of those six searchers for freedom shuffled and scuffed the ground beneath, no matter how much they tried to remain silent. It was the purebloods, three of them, who were the loudest. The bear shifters, though in human form, knew more of how to walk stealthily, but still the noise worried them, for the guards would no doubt hear them as they neared.

It had been six months since the world had turned upside down. They'd hung on to the town of Swiftclaw as long as they could, but now the town and their kin had shrugged them off like fleas.

Gage raised his hand, and the five following him stopped. "Main street looks empty."

They had made it through most of the town unseen and unchallenged, but Gage knew that the most dangerous route was also the only one out of town. There was also a path to the rear of the town which went into the mountains, but under the orders of the new Elder, it had been blocked with rocks and debris.

The new Elder. That stuck in Gage's mind like a thorn. LoHawk was now Elder. His evil plans and scheming had finally come to fruition. With the real Elder dead and his blood used to power the Beaststone - that relic which could turn any shifter into a mindless slave - the Swiftclaw clan seemed powerless against the might of the rejuvenated Cabal. LoHawk used the fear of the Cabal, even though he was secretly working with them, to further his own agenda within the clan. He was voted in as Elder, though much of the voting came off the back of serious intimidation by his closest allies.

Initially, LoHawk did what all dictators do; he claimed that he wasn't one. He claimed that he was only there to safeguard Swiftclaw from dangerous external and internal threats. Then, slowly over six months, his talk of internal threats increased, until he banned all purebloods in the clan. That meant Elizabeth, Erin, and Lacey, as well as Lacey's daughter, were to be expelled, along with Bran, Marlowe and Gage for bringing purebloods to Swiftclaw.

It was Marlowe who suggested going into hiding. He believed that LoHawk and his own little cult would march them out of Swiftclaw town, only to kill them, including Gage and Lacey's child. They'd have to escape. And so, they hid in a friend's basement for a few days and waited for the right moment to get out of Swiftclaw.

That moment was now.

Quietly, the six, with Lacey holding her child in her arms, walked down the main street. They hid in the shadows, with Bran taking up the rear and Gage at the front, two champions of the Tournament ready to fight to the death to protect their family and friends.

"The bridge looks clear," said Bran.

"It's too quiet," said Gage.

"Are they waiting for us?" asked Elizabeth.

"Probably," Erin answered.

"We need to get my child out of here, now!" added Lacey, cradling her and Cage's daughter, now two years old, in her arms.

"Let's proceed with the plan," said Marlow.

Gage looked worried. He was quite prepared to risk his own life, but the life of his daughter was the most precious thing in the world to him. If they stayed, she'd be killed, if they were caught leaving by LoHawk's guards, they'd be killed. In the depths of that horrid quandary, Gage and the others had a plan. The risks were ultimate, but if it worked then they could all get to their freedom and regroup.

"Stay close to me, Lacey," said Gage, moving towards the bridge.

They all moved closer, and as they did so it became apparent that someone was standing on the bridge. It was LoHawk. He stood there tall, grinning menacingly. His eyes dark and piercing.

"Going somewhere, Gage?" said LoHawk sarcastically.

"We're leaving," Gage replied.

"I think not," growled LoHawk.

At least twenty guards appeared from beneath the bridge, standing beside their horrid leader, LoHawk. Behind, feet scrambled in the dark, and from the buildings on Main Street, another thirty or so appeared, surrounding them.

"I'll tear out your throat, LoHawk," said Bran bearing his teeth.

"You'd have to catch me first, Bran." LoHawk paced up and down as if observing his victory.

Lacey's daughter began to cry.

"Hush, young one," said LoHawk. "Your suffering will be over soon."

Gage puffed out his chest and stood with his wife and daughter. "Anyone so much as touches a hair on my daughter's head and I'll rip out their heart!" Gage's voice was booming. He was indeed the greatest warrior the clan had ever produced, and that threat carried weight.

Slowly, LoHawk's guards transformed into their bear forms and walked towards them. The circle would ensnare them, and despite their efforts, they could not hope to survive this.

"At least," said LoHawk. "I will purge our clan of pureblood scum, and wipe away the memory of your weak Elder."

Marlow, then raised his hand as if at school.

LoHawk looked at him curiously.

"I've had more than enough enjoyment out of you, LoHawk, but I'm afraid we must be going now," said Marlow.

"Ah, the smart one," said LoHawk. "The Elder always spoke of you with the highest of praise. Now you can join him."

"I think I'll pass on that offer," said Marlow, smiling.

LoHawk and his men now charged from all sides towards the shifters and their pureblood partners. "Tear out their innards!" LoHawk screamed.

"I'll pass on that, too," said Marlow. He placed his two fingers in his mouth and blew hard whistling loud.

From the sky above a great cry rang out. The air filled with the sound of thunder. But it wasn't thunder. It was the clapping of great wings, twenty feet across. From the dark vastness above, several huge eagles dive bombed at LoHawk's men. They jumped out of the way, several knocked off their feet by sharpened talons.

"Move, now!" gage screamed.

LoHawk lay on the ground and watched in disbelief as Gage and the others climbed on the backs of those gigantic birds, and then took off, flying into the bleak horizon.

They had escaped. But to what?

* * *

Bran had heard that Marlow and Gage had been contacted by a rebellious group of shifters. He even knew of Gage's plan to escape the town at the bridge using Eagle shifters. But he'd never even heard of a bird shifter before that. And, now riding on top of one, holding onto his girlfriend, Elizabeth, for dear life, his view of the world was utterly changed.

There had always been stories, that at one time the shifter clans had covered a broad spectrum of animals - almost everything imaginable. But the ancient wars were blamed for wiping them out. The very idea of a bird shifter was as miraculous to Bran as someone talking about Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. It just didn't seem real. But there he was. Riding an eagle shifter the size of a car.

After a couple of of hours, the sun began to rise in the sky. As it did so, a tall mountain came into view. Bran did not recognize it, but it was obvious by the way the eagles were flying that that was the destination. One by one, the eagles landed on a plateau which looked over a thick forested valley below.

"Amazing!" Bran shouted like a child as he hopped off the eagle. "Can we go again!?" he asked Gage.

Gage simply laughed. "We've got some important business to discuss, so let's get to that first."

The eagles quickly shifted into human form, reducing in size, and then clothed themselves. One of them, whose hair remained white, introduced himself as Prey, the Elder of the once great Eagle shifter clan. Everyone was so full of questions, but Prey simply said "all in good time, but we have a meeting first."

At the middle of the plateau there seemed to be a gathering of people… And yet, as they reached the center they realized that it was the strangest collection of people anyone had ever seen. Shifters of all shapes and sizes, boars, wolves, eagles, bears, even a few reptiles. And among them, several pureblood humans as well.

"Havoc!" Bran shouted.

"Hello, Bran my boy," said a huge rhino shifter moving towards him. "I am happy that you all made it."

"Not without some resistance," said Prey, the eagle Elder.

"Ah, Gage, you made it!" a booming voice said from behind.

Gage turned, and there standing was boar leader, White Tusk. The same White Tusk who had once come to Swiftclaw in search of a Blackblood. Gage embraced him.

"Everyone, thank you for coming," said White Tusk loudly. "Today's meeting is a special one. We welcome Gage, Lacey, their daughter Sho, Bran, Elizabeth, Marlow and Erin to our clan, if they choose to be part of it."

"Clan?" asked Erin. She was surprised by this, but as a spy for the Cabal, she needed to find out more.

"Yes, Erin Whitmore," said White Tusk.

Erin's face flushed at the sound of her second name. "Please, I don't use that name anymore."

"Do not worry," said White Tusk. "Young Marlow here has vouched for you, that you have turned your back on your family's criminal history."

She had, in fact, embraced it. But no one there was to know that. She was there to get as much information as possible about the Cabal's enemies, and then to pass this on to her uncle, Charles Whitmore, who was the highest ranking member of the Cabal.

"We already have a clan, the Swiftclaws!" Bran said, proudly.

White Tusk smiled. "Yes, you do. Every shifter here has another clan. And yet we have come together to form a new one. We call ourselves the Renegades, and our history is born out of hundreds years of struggle. Many of us have hidden our existence from the Cabal, waiting…"

"Waiting for what?" asked Elizabeth, her hair golden in the morning sun.

"Gage, you may have the floor…" said White Tusk, sitting down amongst the others.

"Some of you know who I am, others do not. I am Gage, once champion of the Cabal's Tournament, now like you all, a refugee from my home."

There were nods and grunts of approval.

Gage continued: "For too long has the Cabal held sway over all shifter kind. They have used their relic, the Beaststone, to threaten, kill, and dominate us all." Gage looked around him, his chest puffed out, his arms strong as they moved to emphasize each point. "That relic has the power to strip us all of our humanity, and to make us hideous slaves doing the Cabal's will. But without the Beaststone, they would be powerless to stop us from rising up together, and crushing them!"