Scream of The White Bear by David Clement-Davies

Author:David Clement-Davies [Clement-Davies, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phoenix Ark Press
Published: 2019-12-02T06:00:00+00:00

13

MITHRIL

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

—William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Far to the south, Uteq and Sepharga stood in front of the huge musk oxen still, amazed they had stumbled on the Lera they were seeking quite by chance, although he was not a bear at all.

“It’s Mitherakk,” corrected the Musk Ox irritably, “and of course I’m him. I’m famous here.”

Uteq caught the scent of the creature now, strong and musky in his nostrils, and it made him hungry, then oddly ashamed. He had been searching so long, Uteq could hardly eat the creature.

“Narnooq’s voice told us about you,” he whispered. “So we thought you were a Bellarg.”

The huge ox lowed approvingly and suddenly looked rather fond.

“Narnooq of the North? The kindest Bellarg ever, who dug me out of a snow drift as a calf, on his way to find the Fellagorn. I owe him my life, and we all owe one of those.”

The other oxen stirred, and a murmur of assent went up around the little herd, especially from the female beside Mitherakk, the ox’s oldest and favourite mate called Mooqar.

“Narnooq did that?” said Uteq, realizing that the story about Narnooq going North had been true then. “But it’s against the Lore, Mitherakk. It just doesn’t happen in real life.”

“And who are you to presume to know all the laws of nature?” snorted Mitherakk. “or what really happens in life? There are many mysterious things in the Universe, bear. The Gurgai know that now. The ones fully awake, at least, or waking up. It’s their greatest power, and freedom too. Scientia.”

The strange word rang in Uteq’s mind again and he wondered what he meant by being fully awake. What lores really guided the Gurgai, for they certainly had prisons?

“For months, old Narnooq virtually reared me as his own. Not a bear at all but an ox. Bovidae, actually. Like, um, sheep, goats, er, well, certainly ruminants. A lot of that. Ruminating. Cloven hoofed.

But you said his voice, bear? What do you mean?”

“Narnooq’s dead, Mitherakk,” growled Sepharga sadly, feeling an awful emptiness inside. “But his spirit light rushed out of his mouth, and straight for Uteq. Uteq saw them first, then we all did.”

Mitherakk looked at Uteq more carefully now, noticing his black paw for the first time.

“Then spirits are appearing, just like the story says. Perhaps the North is calling us all.”

“Why should Narnooq tell us to find you though,” asked Uteq, “when you were just a calf when he knew you?”

“Just? Don’t be a dumb caribou. What did wise Goom always say? ‘Suffer the little cubs to come to me.’ Can one enter heaven unless like a cub? Besides, Narnooq of the North sensed I had The Sight.”

Uteq stepped forward, feeling very far indeed from his own cubhood now.

“The Sight?” he said. “A way of seeing among the southern Varg, that gave all the Lera a vision that Man’s really Lera too, just like us. I think Mad Mooq had it. He talked of it too, and of something harming it.

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