Twelve: The bear’s end of the line. The long goodbye to Penny & Ashbee.

 

The two women brought high-beamed flashlights and their cellphones with them when they stepped into the early evening’s darkness. They used the flashlights to make a pathway in the snow. It felt thicker and denser in some areas than the snow in the backyard, and they struggled to reach the two men waiting next to the dead bear.

Behind the two men, Tanya could see glowing lights and what looked like a burning fire. She pointed to it as she adjusted the rifle slung over her shoulder. “What’s that, Ash?”

“There’s a clearing where we do ceremonial dances and rites. Tonight, we’ll prepare the bear for the smokehouse,” Ashbee explained.

“Where’s the smokehouse?” Tanya asked, curious as to where it was. All she saw when they drove out this morning or returned this afternoon were two-story cottages identical to the one they used and one-story cabins.

“There’s several. One is in the clearing near our sweat lodge and meeting lodge. There’s another two behind the cabins near where we are. It’s better if we use the one in the clearing. The smell of meat could attract other wild animals.”

“But we’re safe if we stay in the cottage,” Tanya argued, tramping through the calf-high snow.

Ashbee grunted then rolled her eyes. “Like maybe I don’t want to be worried all night long by another damned bear or a bunch of them trying to break into the cottage.” She kept walking toward the men.

Tanya rushed to catch up with Ashbee. Two more men emerged from the woods carrying rifles slung across their backs, pulling a large sled-like thing that resembled a large plastic oil drum cut in half. They must be getting ready to load the bear onto it. What a good idea, she thought.

Her eyes grew wide as she caught up with Ashbee and then looked down to study the bear. Its head was huge; so were its paws. They looked three times the size of her hands. Its body looked soft and fluffy like a big ole teddy bear. But those claws she flashed a light on were lethal. Now she knew what made those deep scraping marks against the gates and window shutters. She watched one of the men open its mouth. “Wow. He had front teeth, but his back teeth were worn down. Wow. What happened to his teeth?”

“Worn down from age. He’s an old guy.”

Tanya flashed a light on the man doing the talking at the same time he flashed his light on her. He had amazing blue eyes and a sturdy but taller body than his sister. “You must be Ashbee’s brother.”

“Yes, I am. I’m Jon Blue Fox,” he said, giving her an admiring look while he shook her hand then kissed it. “And you are? I mean, besides being very attractive.” He winked at her.

Tanya smiled in answer.

Ashbee shoved him hard in the chest. He was solid enough that it didn’t move him. “Jon, would you just stop flirting. Her name is Tanya Dodge, Detective Dodge from the city. She’s here looking for a woman … her girlfriend.”

“That’s because she hasn’t met me.” Jon grinned at Tanya. He had dimples just like his sister.

Tanya had a sudden insightful moment. “You two are twins, right? Which one is older?” She smiled as she looked from one sibling to the other. “Wait, let me guess. Ashbee is older by twenty minutes.”

“Ten minutes. And yes, she’s the older broad,” Jon remarked. Then he helped the three men load the huge bear’s limp body onto the sled. When they lifted the bear, his head flopped around almost as if it would fall off its thick body.

Tanya could see blood soaking through the fur around his neck and chest. “Wow! A neck shot and a heart shot too. I’m guessing that’s as difficult to do on a bear as it is on a human charging at you,” she whispered to Ashbee as they followed the four men.

“Humph.” Ashbee frowned at her. “Are you bisexual? I thought you were a straight-up lesbian.”

Tanya smiled at Ashbee then moved closer to whisper, “After yesterday and last night, you can ask me that?”

“Humph. You were flirting with him.”

“He’s cute and funny, but that’s all. I like you much better.” Tanya stopped tramping through the snow and avoiding the evergreen bushes and fallen twigs to pull Ashbee behind a broad, thick tree. She yanked Ashbee close, cupped her face then tongue-kissed her deeply. Then she unzipped Ashbee’s winter coat just enough to slip hands into unfasten her fly. She had Ashbee moaning softly when she played with her. It didn’t take long for their privates to grow hard as a boulder they were hiding behind. She thrust forward and Ashbee did too. They met in the middle.

“Never fucked in the snow before,” Ashbee whispered, thrusting upward. “It feels hot and cold at the same time.”

“Me neither,” said Tanya, “Oh-o-o-o, Ash. Sweetie, that’s so-o-o good. Fuck me rough and good.”

Ashbee moved quickly and drilled into Tanya. “So, deep … fucking deep.”

They both reached mutual climaxes at the same time.

Ashbee finally opened her eyes and looked around. She discovered they were alone again. “Hey? They left us. We’d better go find them.” Her eyes darted back and forth. Every bush and tree shape looked dark and evil. “This place creeps me out. Let’s get out of here.”

“I still wanna see your people skin that bear.”

Ashbee held out a hand. When Tanya grasped it, Ashbee pulled her toward the clearing. “Come on, then. Let’s go see it.”

They hustled to catch up with the members of the tribal council dragging the dead bear toward the glowing lights.

 

 

The first thing Tanya noticed in the clearing was the piles of dirty snow stacked up in a large circle with three entrances and exits. Then she saw how the piles created a circular wall of snow. They used mini bulldozers. There were two of them inside the circle of snow. One of the bulldozers was taller than the other. She also noticed small fires; four of them divided the large circle into quarters. Men who looked like they could be tribal members stood at each fire warming their hands and knives over the bright, orange flames. The dead bear’s head, legs and arms flopped over the plastic sled. His large dead body sat nearer the taller mini bulldozer. There were tall portable bright six LEDS lights stationed around the outside of the wall of snow.

Ashbee guided her to one of the entrance and exits. “Wait here. I’ll get some sage to cleanse us before we go into the circle.” She found her brother pacing outside another entrance.

“I thought you got lost in the woods or something.” Jon winked at his sister. “You did the ‘or something’ part with your new woman, huh?”

“Shut the hell up, Jonnie. Just give me the damned sage to cleanse her.”

“Humph! I should keep it and cleanse her myself.” He studied his sister’s annoyed face and the warning look in her blues. “Ah, you like her a lot. Don’t you? I bet Penny does too.”

Ashbee sighed and held out a hand. “I wish she was staying. This woman Tanya is trying to find, I can tell she means a lot to Tanya. I doubt very seriously if any of us will see her again.”

Her brother gave her two stalks of sage. “Remember, one for you and one for her, Sis.”

“I remember. Thanks.”

Jon squeezed his sister’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your new lady. She is very attractive. Maybe she won’t find this missing woman and return to you and Penny. You never know.”

Ashbee sighed. “I know she won’t, Jon. But thanks for the good thoughts. Anyway, she wants to see the skinning and the ceremony.”

“Go show her, Sis.”

Ashbee strode back to the snow wall’s entrance and found Tanya waiting for her. She lit the first stalk of sage and waved it all over her Tanya’s front and back, her face hands legs and feet. Then she gently dipped the sage into the snow wall to put the burning sage out. “Hold this while I cleanse myself.” She performed same ritual on herself. “We can go inside now.”

They stayed just inside watching a similar sage ritual performed on the dead bear as he hung from the tallest bulldozer. Then the bulldozer drove the swinging bear’s body over to a huge pot of boiling water.

Tanya frowned. “Jesus! He still has hair on him. You all are boiling him into bear soup with hair on him?”

“Wait and watch.” Ashbee sighed. “Be quiet and just watch, Tee. When we can, we scald the flesh to make it easier to remove the hair. We scrape off the hair, then we remove the skin. Gut him and save some of the inwards. We could sell some of the parts like the gallbladder, penis, spleen, kidneys, liver and heart on the black market. We could make good money doing it too. Thousands even.”

“Hey, hey! Ashbee, stop talking. I’m a cop. I could arrest your members for that.”

Ashbee sighed then stepped closer. “You have no proof. I’d say you misheard me.” She studied Tanya, noting how her eyes glowed and her cheeks were red with cold. “Anyway, if you’d let me finish. I was going to say, we don’t do that.” She sighed again. “Most of us hunters don’t do that. We won’t tonight either.” She drew closer to whisper. “You look so beautiful right now. I want to fuck you again.” She had turned her back so nobody could see she had hands in her pockets, stroking herself.

When Tanya realized what Ashbee was doing, she smacked at Ashbee’s hands. “Stop that right now. I can’t concentrate with you playing around.”

Ashbee whirled around facing the bear and the boiling water. “Happy now?” she her

Tanya watched them dip the bear’s body once into the boiling water. Some of the hair fell off, giving the bear a spotted look. Several men held sharp knives and began the initial scraping of fur. A lot of fur was scraped off. The bear’s pale skin was slowly revealed. The bear was dipped in the boiling water again.

Tanya watched them dip the bear into the boiling water. The men pulled the bear out of the water. She watched them scrape all the remaining fur off the bear’s body, face, and limbs. “He looks like a dead man with a long face and pink privates,” she murmured.

Ashbee nodded. “We all have that going on under the skin. The next part isn’t so bad.”

Tanya watched them dip the bear’s body back into the water to loosen the remaining fur. The men finished removing the bear’s hairless hide, his privates and asshole to keep them from poisoning the meat.

A table was set up to cut the bear into quarters. The men used a power saw to cut the bear in quarters and remove the head and neck. Another table was set up to butcher the bear’s quarter into units a butcher would recognize such as flank steaks, tenderloins, chops, bear hams, neckbones and ribs.

The two women watched the men chopping and cutting and packing in plastic bags for over an hour. One of the men noticed them and walked over from the table. He was as tall as Ashbee’s brother but with shoulder-length gray hair, a darker red-brown complexion and large brown eyes. He was very handsome. “You must be freezing. Ashbee, you know it’s warmer by the fire. The sweat lodge is open and very warm too. The smokehouse is also open. Take her to one of them before she’s a popsicle.”

Ashbee bowed slightly and nodded. “Yes, Chief. I know. She wanted to watch everything being done to the bear.”

The chief walked over to Tanya. “Young lady, what did you think?”

Tanya smiled. “Sir, you and your people are very efficient. It’s hard to believe the badass bear who threatened us this morning is now a piece of steak or chops ready for consumption.”

“Not exactly. The meat needs to treated with herbs, spices and plenty of salt maybe some honey and lemons. We’ll age it for a bit in the smokehouse. Then we’ll serve it. Believe me, you’ll love it.”

“That sounds like an invitation, Chief,” Ashbee remarked.

“It is.” The chief smiled at Tanya. “Your brother says you’re a bit slow around women sometimes. Especially when you like them.” He pulled Tanya’s hand and kissed it. “Whenever you’re in our neighborhood again, please come for dinner. We’ll save a spot at the table for you, Ms. Dodge.”

Tanya’s cheeks burned red from his compliment. She flushed then dropped her eyes for a moment. “Thank you so much. I’ll be sure and keep that in mind.”

Ashbee was annoyed again but waited until after he left to express it. “What is it with you? You’ve charmed every man you met tonight without halfway trying.”

Tanya yanked Ashbee close by the collar of her winter coat. “But I fucked you in the snow.” Her hand moved down to stroke then squeeze Ashbee’s hidden fly before she unzipped her ski jacket. She grunted. “I’m soaking wet … my legs dripping,” Ashbee fussed afterwards.

“Stop being so mean to me and I might help you clean up. Where’s the closest bathroom?” Tanya asked.

“If we go there, everybody will know.”

“Okay. Ask your brother for a ride back to the cottage.”

“Hell to the no! I won’t do it,” Ashbee hissed.

Tanya sighed. “Let’s go back to the cottage.” She grabbed Ashbee’s hand and pulled her along. “Tell me about not being a straight-up lesbian now? she teased.

“Too breathless to speak,” Ashbee rasped.

Tanya giggled then pulled up Ashbee’s damp boxers and lined jeans. “Come on, Girlfriend. Let’s go back to the cottage.”

Neither woman worried about bears or other wild animals attacking them that night. Nor when Tanya drove the women to work in the morning, and then she and Billy Boy left for Wickwire.