Hello All! This one was finished a little early (thanks to the long weekend up here) so I figured why just sit on it till Thursday?! This tale is about Bryan. He is a character that I always felt the reader gets a sense of through his actions, without actually knowing much specifically about him in the Mercy Thompson books, so here is my take.

In this chapter I do mention firearms, ammunition, and possible harm to wild animals. It is done with the intent of personal protection as opposed to hunting for sport or meat so please don't send PETA after me!

As always, anything you recognize belongs to the brilliant mind of Patricia Briggs!

Don't Poke the Bear!

Mercy lay on her stomach in the grass of the backyard. She was watching a fuzzy black and yellow caterpillar make his way from the long grass to the tree trunk beside her. She would stroke his back every once in a while and watch his long white whiskers twitch when she did.

She had been told once that those particular caterpillars were called Spotted Tussock Caterpillars and after their metamorphosis they turn into an ugly moth that are destructive and eat fabric. Mercy took that particular statement with a grain of salt, as she knew all too well that some figured that anything that got in their way for any reason meant that they were without value and ought to be destroyed. Mercy believed what Reverend Mitchell said about everything having a purpose and she figured that was true for this fuzzy little guy as well. Good karma had to work in the animal kingdom too, right?

He had made it to the tree so Mercy rolled over and just lounged in the sun. She had dozed off in the first warm April day when she was awoken from her siesta by her foster father Bryan.

"Mercy-girl come in here I need to talk to you."

Mercy did a quick mental review and didn't think she had done anything recently to warrant getting yelled at, so she rolled over, got up and stretched, then jogged into the house.

Bryan was waiting by the door to the basement, and he did a head tilt toward it and walked down the stairs. Mercy heaved a dramatic sigh and ambled down the stairs after him. When Mercy reached the bottom she headed around the stairs to the unfinished area of the basement that Bryan used as a work area.

Along the outside walls were various meticulously placed hand tools that he used for woodworking. Bryan, like many old wolves, had saved enough over the years to not need to continually work, but his nature didn't allow him to sit around idly. Therefore his main hobby had become making custom cabinets for people. He owned and used more modern tools and machines, but he told Mercy once that wood was warm and he liked to work with it under his own two hands as much as possible. He had also made a few of the furniture pieces in the house, like the rocking chair and end tables, but that was just done for fun.

The gun safe in the corner was open and empty while Bryan's four firearms were laid out on the large island workstation in the middle of the area. Perfectly parallel across the workstation were the Remmington Bushmaster shotgun, the Marlin 444, the Model 29 Smith & Wesson, and the Sig Sauer. Mercy looked up at Bryan and quirked an eyebrow. She already knew how to break down and clean all of the guns on the table so she was now curious as to what this was about.

Bryan pointed at the three legged stool across from his own and Mercy hopped up onto it. He broke the silence and said "There have been a few black bear sightings in the last week or two, and today little Harrison was out playing with Jerome Black by the creek north of town and they stumbled onto and startled a bear taking a drink. The bear charged them but they made enough of a commotion that it got annoyed and ambled away."

Bryan was in the upper middle of the pack in Aspen Creek, and the intentness and strength he was putting behind his look at her had Mercy knowing that his protective side was out in full force. She wisely lowered her eyes to his chest.

If she hadn't caught on before to the seriousness of his intent, his next word would have definitely clued her in.

"Mercedes, it was a long and cold winter this year and the bears that have been waking up are hungry and ornery, and you are NOT to take the latter as a personal invitation for entertainment! I have never outright tried to stop you from rattling the chains of those who rattle yours, but this is different. The threat of retribution from Bran, Samuel and I will not stop a bear that you have harassed from attacking you. Harrison Sr. and a couple of the other pack members are going out to track it and drive it away from town, but there may be more in the area waking up over the next few weeks. I don't want you out looking for any more trouble than you get into on a regular day!"

Mercy looked up at her foster father. Outwardly, he was the type of person that you might look past in a crowd, but one on one he would never escape your notice. He had vibrant hazel eyes with a ring of amber around the iris that extended outward as his wolf came to the forefront. His brown hair was a few inches long and tended to fall haphazardly, however it usually covered a long scar that ran along his hairline from his widow's peak to his temple. It had been made in his youth by the splintering of the mainsail struck by cannonball.

He wasn't a terribly tall man, as he had been born in an era where a lack of proper nutrition hadn't allowed many to reach towering heights. But despite his height, there had always been such a solid and strong presence to him. To those who didn't know him well, he may have come across as standoffish but really he was just very aware and few things missed his notice. He may not be prone to talking about his thoughts and feelings (I guess that British stiff upper lip of old never truly left) but he understood people, and he understood her.

Mercy nodded her head. It was true that it would have been far easier for Bryan to try and curb the fire in her that just didn't allow her to take things lying down with her belly up to the world. But he never had. He had tried to give her all the tools he could to help her keep herself safe. He had long ago taught her to shoot, and had mock fought with her in his large grey werewolf form so that she had learnt to use her speed and maneuverability to her best advantage. Bryan in his over 200 years of life had learned a thing or two about survival that he seemed intent to pass on to her. He had taught her to use her head when others were using their emotions, and to put herself in situations that capitalize on her strengths not prey on her weaknesses.

He understood that there was just enough other in her that meant no matter where she ended up in life, not always will she be able to pass by unnoticed by the supernatural world. And in that supernatural world, Mercy would always be fighting out of her weight class.

Mercy asked "So what's with the guns?"

Bryan nodded with the understanding that she had taken what he had said to heart. "I've taught you how to use these and load them for werewolf but I'm going to give you the run down on what to use if you have to use them on bear. For the Bushmaster, instead of using silver double ought buck, use the Remmington rifled slugs. For the Marlin, instead of the solid silver bullet use the Federal 300 grain hollow points. Obviously go for the shotgun or the Marlin first if you need to protect yourself, but if all you have is the handguns, for the Model 29 use the Hornady 240 Grain semi jacketed hollow points and the Winchester Western full metal jackets for the Sig. With those, aim for the face and hopefully you will hurt them enough to drive them away, but anywhere else will just piss them off."

He had pulled out each ammunition and put it behind each gun as he explained. Bryan made Mercy repeat back to him which ammunition was for which and demonstrated loading each one. The loading demonstration wasn't necessary as Mercy had long since gotten a handle it, but Bryan wasn't in the habit of leaving things unnecessarily to chance. They went over things for the next half hour or so until Evelyn called them up for supper.

Mercy did spend the next few days close by the yard or within the town limits, but after a particularly aggravating conversation with a fascist member of the town, she went for a quick run to beat down her temper under the pads of her feet. About a mile south of Charles' horse pasture, Mercy came around a patch of fir trees and skidded immediately to a stop. About 50 feet in front of her stood a yearling black bear pulling apart a rotten log to get at bugs within it.

The bear looked up at her briefly, but seemingly unconcerned went back to disassembling its meal. Mercy backed up and crouched down underneath the fir tree. Prudent thought would dictate that she should turn tail and go find a responsible adult to tell. But on the other hand, more information is always a good thing, so sticking around to observe for a bit couldn't hurt right? Also thinking logically, watching from a safe distance wasn't harassing, and it was just an adolescent bear so it wasn't as dangerous as a full grown one would be. Mercy laid down, put her head down on her paws and settled in to what she figured could be seen as a public service.

About 10 minutes later, Mercy heard a slow lumbering gate coming up from behind her. She peeked around and saw what appeared to be momma bear heading on an intercept course to her young, with Mercy between the two. Sending out a string of curses in her mind, Mercy darted out from under the tree and looped around the side of the momma bear before heading towards Charles' house. Just as she was passing, the adult bear she let out a loud bellow.

"Ah crap, someone will have heard that and now I'll be in shit" Mercy muttered internally as she headed away. She somehow didn't think she would be able to sell the public service point of view.

Thanks for reading along! Reviews always appreciated and I need some ideas for other characters to do one of these on. I have the next couple outlined in my head but after that I'm drawing a blank. Let me know in a review or PM me!

Cheers,

Megz

A/N : No animal is inherently dangerous or evil, but under the right circumstances even a quokka (if you don't know what that is, google it ) could pose some level of threat. For bears, most incidences of bear attacks have occurred when they have just woken up from hibernation and are starving or when they are acting in reaction to a perceived threat to themselves or their young.