🐻The Tribe🐻

Prologue

A lean shadow moved silently in the silent night of the forest. Paws with thorn sharp claws moved lightly as a feather. It slipped through the curtain of lican and nettle.

“The one is coming, my lord”, it said, with a voice as hard as stone.

An icy voice, as cold as ice replied, “Good… If the one truly comes, then we shall be ready for him…”

Chapter 1

I knew it was a bad day as soon as I realized the weather forecaster had been wrong again. I was in the meadows of my most favorite/hated places on Earth: Camp Underwood. About 2 weeks ago, I made a big choice, no, a massive choice. I was doing my usual thing at school: Exchanging bear pictures with my good friends, Samirah(Sam, she liked to be called), and Jack while Mr. P. Pipi Pants, our teacher, talked about Mathematical Aspects, a word that my parents didn’t even use. Now, you could scold me(like my mom) that not listening to my teacher was a bad thing to do, but you've never heard one of Mr. P. Pipi Pants’ lectures about how dog droppings can be useful to science. But at that particular second, for the first time in my life, Mr.P. Pipi Pants’ words caught my attention.

Chapter 2

“For the field trip this semester at Hollins Creevy High School, we are going to go to Camp Underwood. Anyone who wishes to join on this trip will have to have a parent’s permission. Dismissed!”, he said. As the bell rang, students filed out of the classroom. As soon as I went outside, I sat down on the nearest bench. Sam and Jack sat next to me. They may have said something, but I didn’t listen. My mind kept going back to that day, and that moment.

Almost nobody knows that I have a brother. Well, people except my parents, Jack, and Sam. I was 3 and a half years old when I lost my brother, Leo. We were at Camp Underwood, the place where the most bear tracks were found. My brother and I always loved bears. Maybe the adult grizzlies were a little scary, but they wouldn’t attack unless something surprised them or considered a threat. One night, while we were sleeping, Leo claimed that he had heard a sound, so I followed him out of our cabin. It was the worst decision of our lives. We went beyond the camp grounds, and into the restricted section. As soon as we entered, cold hands seemed to grasp my body.

“We should head back”, I said, as a huge, black shape, with glowing, cold amber eyes crashed through the bramble thickets and ran straight for Leo.

“AAAGGGHHH!”, we said, as we ran back and shouted for help. Then, to my horror, Leo stumbled and fell. I turned back to help, but the black, thing was dragging Leo away by his collar. And right before it disappeared with my beloved brother, it said

“Remember the Pack”, in a voice as hard as stone.

Chapter 3

I made my decision. I was going back to Camp Underwood. My reasons are pure and simple. I love bears, and Camp Underwood has lots and lots of bears. At least there’s lots of tracks and footprints. Also, Leo might still be out there. It sounds crazy, but I can sense it. So I bravely went back to my house, made myself a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, and 100 Gummy Bears. Then, I made a cup of latte with extra foam for my mother. As she came back from her daily massage class, I showed her the paper she needed to sign for me to go to Camp Underwood. I knew she would never allow me to go back to the place where my brother had vanished. But I had an old trick up my sleeve. I glued the “signature required” part to a different note saying “Field trip to the Snoopy Museum''. My mom fell for it. While she drank her coffee, she signed it without hesitation. Outside, I said “Thanks mom”. Inside, I felt like all the gummybears in the world were saved. Mission Accomplished.

Chapter 4

The next day, Me, Sam, and Jack climbed onto the school bus and dozed off the entire trip. We needed the energy, because we had a plan. When everyone was asleep in the camp, we would sneak out to try to find my brother. When we arrived at Camp Underwood, we did some singing, swimming, hiking, and stuff like that. The highlight, however, came on the night. At midnight, me, Sam, and Jack met at the bone fire. We had our flashlights and hefted our sharp, pointy sticks that were lying on the forest floors. Then, we ran into the darkness. At first, I have to admit, I felt pretty good. Until that creepy sensation of cold hands closing in on my entire body came back again. I think my friends felt it too.

“Maybe we should head back…?”, Jack said. As soon as he finished his sentence, the ferns next to Sam rustled and a head, with vicious teeth emerged.As the rest of its body came out, I could see that it was… a panther?! And even more surprising, a man was on the panther’s back, Jungle book style. Sam fainted. Jack and I dropped our sticks.

“S, stay back!”, Jack said. The man on the back of the panther smiled coldly. As the man opened his mouth to reply, a crash sounded behind. The man and the panther turned as a boy, looking like our age, came crashing through the branches, riding a grizzly bear. The man on the panther turned and unsheathed very sharp looking claws that I didn't notice before. The bear rose on its hind legs and swept at the panther. But as fast as sound, the panther dodged, and the man on the panther slashed at the bear’s legs, which promptly made the bear to fall back on all 4 paws. And then, the panther rider rode the panther to the bear’s vulnerable sliced leg. I knew I needed to help. The eyes, and the expression were somehow familiar. Nevertheless, I picked up my stick, and aimed for the panther. Now, I have to admit, I’m OK at baseball. But, I never expected the stick to hit its target. The stick embedded itself in the tail of the panther. The panther howled, as the guy on the bear seized his chance and punched the panther riding man in the cheek bone. Both the panther and the man stumbled back.

“You may have escaped this time, little warrior. But the Pack will come back with full force with Black Panther at it’s head”, the panther-guy sneered. Then, he raced away into the woods. Then, the bear riding dude turned around to face us. Jack seemed to stiffen, as if ready for an attack. But I was completely at ease.

“Well, this wasn’t how I expected we would be reunited. But reunification is reunification I guess”. He smiled. “Good to see you again brother”, Leo said.

Chapter 5

When we finally woke Sam, dawn was breaking.

“What about the other… kids? And our parents?”, Jack asked, as we trudged through the woods. “And where are we going?”. Leo grimaced. His bear(Leo said that her name was Fern)seemed to follow his mood. She growled and grunted the whole way.

“So, to answer your first question, I really don’t know what will happen. But your second question, I can answer easily. We’re going to the Tribe’s camp, a.k.a the Tribe’s HQ”, Leo said. Jack, Sam, and I exchanged glances.

“So… What’s the tribe? And what was that Pack, the jaguar guy talked about? And no offense, but what’s up with the bear, I mean Fern?”, asked Jack.

“Wow, that’s a lot of questions'', Leo said. “But well first off, that wasn’t a jaguar. It was a panther. And to answer all of your questions, you need to understand the history of the Pack and the Tribe. So, a very long time ago, two animals came to this very forest. They had a bunch of followers, and they tried to work together. But the thing is, they were different… rules. You could say that the Pack is, um, evil , and the Tribe is good. And you see, I don’t exactly know how the humans got to come here, but they did''. Leo shrugged. “But one fact I do know is that the humans bonded with the panthers and bears. So that basically means that a human and a bear/panther swears an oath by the River Bane, the most sacred river of all. I bonded with Fern about a year after I was… “, Leo trailed off. I put my hand on his shoulder.

“What happened that night?”, I asked in a soft voice.

“Well…”, Leo tried to say, as another voice interrupted.

“Well Leo, Fern. Looks like you accomplished your mission. Well done”, a man with a Brown bear said. Then he turned to me, Sam, and Jack.

“Welcome to the Tribe camp.”, he said.

Chapter 6

“Wow”, I said. After our group went into the camp, I was astonished by the size of the camp. I expected it to be full of trees, and bark, and branches, but it wasn’t really. It was like a city, but made of rocks, boulders, logs, and other shiny stuff that I didn’t know. Then the man spoke.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”. He turned to face me and my friends. “I am the leader of this kingdom. My name is Balder, and this is my bear, Muck Nuck.”. I could see that my friends were trying to keep in their laughter. The bear, Muck Nuck, growled.

“Muck Nuck does not appreciate people when they laugh at her name”, Balder said. “But come. We have a lot to talk about''. He led us into one of the caves that were built of one of the shiny things.

“This is velicus, enchanted silver. There are many kinds of ores that can only be found in certain parts of the forest, such as enchanted copper, iron, gold, and fire rubies. On the other side of the forest, where the pack lives, Purpled Energy Crystals were found, and that’s the stuff that created the Black Panther’s Necklace.”, Leo said.

“Wait… you mean the Black Panther in those Avengers movies?”, I asked. Leo frowned.

“I’m not sure what those are, but the Black Panther here, is the vicious leader of the Pack, which as you might have guessed, an evil bunch of people and their panthers. Every Pack/Tribe human has a weapon, but not the Black Panther. Well, he sort of does. He has this Necklace that he wears, that gives him strength, speed, and agility. He also has this suit made of enchanted silver, which is, well, almost indestructible.”.

“What do you mean by, ‘almost indestructible’?”, I asked.

“In our armory, there’s this ring, made of the rarest ore, like the Purple Energy Crystal. It is said to have the power as the Necklace. But only one person in the entire universe can hold its power. The last person who did that…”, Leo trailed off.

“Disintegrated.”, Balder finished the sentence. We all became silent. Suddenly, Balder stopped.

“This is one of the most important things in our culture”, he said. I peered around Balder’s shoulders, and what I saw astonished me. A group of cute, little bear cubs were weaving around a group of human babies. As the seconds went by, each baby seemed to focus on one, specific, cub. Then they crawled over, and hugged their ‘cub’. But I was distracted by a bird(maybe an eagle), and a dolphin with… wings(?) and a horn. But what distracted me the most, was a bear next to the strange animals. She was much bigger, and older than the other bear cubs. She(I knew she was a ‘she’) looked straight at me, and I did too.

“Whoa…”, I said.

Chapter 7

As I spoke, Fern, Leo’s bear, went over to that bear.

“That’s Fern’s sister, Moon.”, Leo explained.

“Then why is she not, you know, without her human?”, I asked.

“Well, no one here is ‘right’ for her. She’s very… aggressive. Different. If anyone gets close, …”. As Leo spoke, a child went to Moon, but froze, and turned back. I could tell that Moon was intimidating.

“Um, this is great and all, but when can we go home? I’m even starting to miss my nosy brother.”, Sam said. Leo and Balder exchanged looks.

“Well… the thing is, you can’t.”, Leo said.

“WHAT?!”, me, Sam, and Jack said at once. Sam looked shocked. Jack looked mad.

“You guys can’t just keep us in here because we just came into the woods!”, yelled Jack. Balder and Leo winced in unison.

“Well, we’d better introduce you guys to Bobby”, Leo said. Then under his breath, he said “Before you go nuclear”. Jack and Sam didn’t seem to hear that. Instead, they looked curious now.

“Who’s”, Sam started to say, when another voice interrupted.

“Did somebody say my name?”, a warm voice said. I turned around, and saw a skinny boy with a staff.

“Are you Bobby?”, I asked. The boy frowned.

“My name is Bob, but most people call me Bobby. I guess.”, Bobby said. He sighed.

“So, what’s the problem?”, he asked.

“Bobby, these are Jack, Sam, and Roy.”, Leo said. He put his shoulder around my neck.

“He’s my brother.”, he said simply. Bobby’s smile vanished, and his face went white. He pointed at me.

“You… should be dead.”, he said.

To be continued...