A/N: Short update! Getting pretty close to the prelude's end! I want to thank everyone who's been reading this far!
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Characters and universe in this fic belong to Natsume, Marvelous Entertainment, etc.
Chapter 10. An old bear - Prelude: Part 6
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"Ye're fallin' behind boy scout!"
The shouting sounded like a full home-run away,
"Ha.. Haa..."
His breathing was getting out of sync,
"Hey.. wait... wait up for a sec...!"
When Gus said he'd give him something, he certainly wasn't expecting it to be something like this.
Jack was struggling to grab a hold of whatever he could, quite unsuccessfully to his grievance. He looked up, uncertainty returning to his eyes. There were a few crooked tree branches he could reach to, in fact his lone helping hands for pulling through, but they were almost forbiddingly often equipped with disguised thorns that'd pierce through his gloves as if they were made from paper. He'd already learnt the painful way they could be deceitful helpers, not a chance he was doing that again.
...He really wished he didn't have to look back down... He had to.
His eye stretched, unable to take in what was down there. A thick vegetation housing all sorts of suspicious-looking plants, plants that would not rarely flare up to his neck. Like now. A dilating pupil delved deeper into the steep greenery, with a cornered mouth and a drop of sweat alongside it. He wondered if it were prudent of him to take a guess at what a bunch of things could be hiding inside that shifty hodgepodge of huge veiny leaves and rustling bushes. Probably nothing sort of a thing from a man-eating plant movie... right...?
He quickly related to a similar experience, how this was no different than his first trip to the sea; The farther open he'd go on the harmless shallow beach while on foot, the more he'd slowly but surely come to feel like he was getting shorter, eventually reaching a point where the deep sea was the one having power over everything. The guarding waves brushing by his nose were practically telling him that the rules of the land did not apply past this point. Either he was going to heed the warning and turn tail, or he'd stop counting on his toes and learn to go by the rules. It was all the same, except for a detail...
This wasn't the sea, and he wasn't learning how to swim either.
He didn't even know if the next blind step would find him with a root sticking out from the soil that was there to snare his foot. No doubt Gus would drop down rolling and busting tears upon discovering Jack hanging upside down in a tangled mess. No way he was gonna let that happen. The inexperienced boy had been scraping through a path that was indiscernible at best, he was walking on a really narrow tightrope to avoid nature's pitfalls, and yet he could swear he'd seen Gus breezing into this jungle-like environment like it was a stroll in the bathroom. How was he doing it?
Jack was trying to ward off a branch blocking his way, he had to push through somehow. But it was really stubborn, like it had an unbending will of its own.
"Guaah!" It lashed him in the face like a whip.
He was thrown on his back, right into the overgrown foliage he was trying to avoid as well. While laying over the dirt all four limbs were sprawled, he didn't have the strength to collect them, because this was utter defeat. He was just an enthusiastic amateur suddenly thrown into the wild. Jack hadn't been expecting to pass his hiker's test with bright colors, though neither had he imagined he'd be so bad at it as to hit rock bottom. He was just dead weight.
The sky rumbled. He couldn't see the clouds through the green umbrellas he'd been swallowed under, but they were definitely gathering up there. The weather forecast hadn't said anything about expected rain in the city, but then again, this wasn't the city... The rumbles steadily dispersed to far-flung destinations, not much later he could hear the pelting start on the leaves above. His dead weight was about to become soaking wet as well.
"...?"
The broad leaves were actually preventing the rain from pouring on him, diverting the streams to canals around his resting nest. It was a mystery, the surroundings that just a moment ago were hostile to him, were now offering him shelter. The drizzle was making a beautiful sound on the flora, different from the sound the rain would make on his window back home. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it sounded more vivid and natural, like a glass barrier was not meant to stand between someone and this sound. It was actually.. lulling him.. Jack wouldn't need a sheep count to welcome a nap, he was a fast sleeper. A strange infatuation was taking over his smiling face, he fancied he could stay there till the rain was over. Hands had already shoved under his head to make a pillow.
"..I could get used to this.. Wonder if I'd turn into a mushroom over the night though.. Hehe.." He didn't want this break to end, but he had a man to catch.
Jack sat up with a crunch. Curling one knee up to his chest he shuffled the messy bangs, his readiness to take a nap in a place like this was surprising even him. Sitting with a contemplating elbow on his knee waiting for an opening in the rain's tempo to make a run, his eye was attracted by a puddle. It had been quickly forming into a small pool from a few leaves that happened to be depositing the raindrops to a single spot. He crawled over to it, maybe he could make out his reflection in the water's mirror.
Jack blinked, caught unawares. His face wasn't the only one in the reflection. The critter was making shy movements to drink water.
"Oooh! A raccoon!?"
He was thrilled. This must've been a rare kind of raccoon too, it wasn't gray like the robbers he'd seen in the city's trash bins. It was mostly black with two white stripes running along its back. It was also quite smaller-looking.
"Hey Jack can ya hear me?" It was Gus, he sounded in a hurry, "I chased off a dam' skunk, I think it fled your way!"
"A skunk..?" Jack's lack of knowledge painted on his face as he curiously observed the critter, its paw was backing off at Gus's intimidating voice.
"Don't let that thing near ya! It sprays something nasty from its ass, you'll stink for a week!"
"...Oh" Jack hesitantly looked back again... It was already aiming him with the rear, "Please don't..." His eyes begged.
The skunk's ear twitched at Jack's plea, it was actually shying its nose over to him.
Right now Jack felt like he had thrown a coin in a fortune shrine and his wish had come true, this little fella was actually...
Jack's smile turned to a blank triangle, the skunk's intentions divulged in a single cocked eye.
Apathy.
[...]
Gus was standing close to a pine tree waiting for the sky to run out. Just when he'd thought the rain was going to stop, coming down light for a few seconds, it turned on the volume again, quite the indecisive downpour. He stopped bouncing the pine cone in his hand.
"Looks like it ain't lettin' up.. Guess better go find Jack before he gets lost and—"
"SWEET HAMSTERS ON A WHEEL!—IT STINKS!"
The old man split his glance at the tall plants down the slope, they were stirring left and right like a skirmish had broken out in the lower layers. Gus's smiling mustache was making an educated guess.
"Bet ya didn't see a hamster like that comin."
Jack came out of the plants ducking, then launched an almost frantic sprint as soon as he located Gus.
"Gahaha see?" The praising grin beamed, his grandson was finally catching up, "Ya really can do it when ya put your back into—..."
Gus's nostril twitched, the shape of his left eye distorted, he was suddenly standing in the blast of a wind.
"HOOOOLY CRAP— IT BAPTIZED YA!"
He took a dive behind the pine tree as if to take cover from a grenade. Ain't no way he was messing with that shit.
Jack was sulking angrily at him with drooped shoulders. Damn... Gus had to say something, didn't he?
"Well I, uhh..." His voice was a pitch higher as he'd been pinching his nose, barely sneaking a peek from behind the trunk, "Look at it on the bright side.. No bear will dare come near us.."
Jack sighed, that was actually not making him feel any better.
"When you said we were going for hiking you didn't mention the bit about 'through the forest and up the mountain'..."
That was enough of him acting like a mouse, he stepped out of hiding with guiltily shrugging arms.
"I said I'd make a hiker out of ya, so what a man of my word would I be if I didn't make ya one?"
The drawn pout was not falling off Jack's mouth, his crafty grandfather was obviously beating around the bush with that one.
"So..?" Gus was shaping a grin, "What do'ya think?"
A grin looking with anticipation.
He knew a measly skunk wasn't going to hold back his grandson from having fun. Those stubbornly crossed arms and musing eyes, only partially successful in not breaking their secluded focus, were the living proof that Jack's genes could not lie.
"Nature sure has its own way of greeting newcomers like me, doesn't it?" He smiled up warily.
"Gahahahaha! A real charmer isn't she?" Gus invited him with a pull of his chin as he turned around, "But trust me, once ya get to know each other she'll be a skirt ya can't keep away from."
Jack frowned benignly as he followed up the hill, his grandfather was in love with nature, that was the feeling he was getting. Honestly? He was starting to see where he was coming from. The skunk's smell was god-awful, but at least it was a real and unique experience, almost a refreshing change from the everyday vapors in the city.
"It'll probably wear off in an hour."
"Huh.. What?" Jack retraced his course with a blink.
"The skunk's number on ya. It'll wash off with all that rain, so don't worry 'bout it."
"W-Whoa.." Jack was awestruck. "Did he just read my mind?" He stopped walking, he had to make sure. "Let's see... I'll try to imagine..." Something hard for Gus to read... "Right!" He knocked his palm with a fist. "Nature with a skirt!"
But how was nature supposed to look like? Would she be like a human, or maybe more like an elf with pointy ears? Nah, it had to be a fairy that lived deep in the forest. One that'd flutter her wings and magic dust would make trees grow in a jiffy.
Jack was sightseeing the stars... That'd actually be... so cool.
Gus had stopped with a lifted knee against the slope. He briefly shared the skyscraping gaze to see what Jack found so enchanting about the rainy sky. Nothing but clouds up there... Which means.. Gus looked back at his grandson, there was probably something else on a lower altitude, actually, right above Jack's head... "I'm sure that's a pretty bubble you got puffin' there, but daydreamin' can wait for later."
And the bubble burst, "I knew it!"
Jack was certain now, Gus had psychic powers.
"Come over 'ere and take a look."
Gus was shaking his thumb next to a tree, did he find something? Jack climbed the higher terrain with quick wide strides.
"See that?" He sneaked up on Jack's face from behind, who had already noticed what he should be focusing at, "Bear claws."
"Wh—! For real!?" Jack's alarms went off, "You mean you weren't kidding when you said that thing about keeping a bear away!?" He whipped his eyes around.
"GAAAHAHAHA" Gus did not expect a reaction any less hilarious, he placed the back of his wrists against his waist and pumped his back's wings, "I bet ye'd wanna see grandpa wrestlin' a bear, am I right?"
Jack stopped spinning his head, "You... You'd fight with a bear?"
A draft instantly took shape inside Jack's vivid imagination. The bear had risen on its two paws to display its towering threat, it had to, because its opponent, even though a man, was equally ferocious. Gus stood his ground with torn clothes and scratches all over his body, yet the bear's claw was still no much for his skill and cunning. He would eventually dodge a wide slash and take this opening to sink his fist right into the bear's stomach. The large predator would whimper in pain and stand down, its head bowing to surrender. Above it, a man reigning supreme.
"Wanna know how I'd tackle it?" Gus crossed his arms and turned away with a smirking eye.
Jack was waiting with bated breath, hearing it from the man himself was gonna make his imagination fall utterly short.
"I swear I won't tell anyone."
His eyes showed a responsible person, he was taking that secret to his grave.
He looked around for any overhearing walls before hunching over to Jack's ear, the secret to defeating a bear was a big deal after all.
"Here's how it goes..." The grandfather's eyes were still and sharp, defining the urgency of the situation.
The grandson swallowed a knot in his throat, any moment now he and Gus would be sharing a secret for two.
"...I'd play possum..."
Gus lost sight of Jack. He had been brought to his knees, the air around him dark and heavy... underwhelmingly heavy.
"What?" Gus shrugged his shoulders, "Y'know how a bear looks from up close? The ones they show on the box are cute compared to the real thing. Ye're better off playin' dead and hope it doesn't maul ya."
Well, it made sense... Who'd fight a bear for real anyway? Gus was a man, not the superhero from an action movie like he'd made him out be. Jack's imagination had been running a little more wild than usual today.
"This mark is old though.."
Gus's experience as a tracker had spotted small details, like how the tree's skin had mended and the light pigmentation of the scratch had naturally faded in time, blending with the rest of the tree.
"..Probably as old as me.."
His hand was caressing the trunk, its texture was rough, it reminded him of his own crusty hands... But Gus's caress was still gentle and soft...
"I bet a proud bear was around here, a very long time ago..." He stopped caressing the tree, but his hand never detached from it.
His grandfather's smile looked happy, but for some reason, those peacefully closed eyes were imparting something bittersweet as well. Was Gus reminiscing? Maybe days long gone by? This time Jack couldn't even bring himself to say 'grandpa' like he did before... Why?
It was the second time today, his heart missed a beat.
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29.04.17
End of CH.10
~TBC