Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) (3 page)

Then the three bears came to the base of my tree and sat. Like immense guards there to stop all who would threaten me. The first bear who had come to my aid looked up and tilted its head, it bared its teeth in a scary looking grin. It was such a human action that I smiled my thanks back to it.

I came down a little lower, to the crook of a great branch, exhausted as the adrenaline and terror wore off. And I just shook in silent sobs as I laid back against the trunk of the oak. I'm not even sure I know when I fell asleep.

The morning sun on my face woke me. It had been such a bad dream I had. I turned to look for mother and almost fell out of the tree. I was fully awake with a start, as the knowledge that it was not a nightmare, but reality hit me in full force. I bit back a sob and looked down.

Below me, sleeping around the base of the tree were the three humongous Kodiaks. I made my way down to the lowest branch. The smallest of the three stirred and opened one eye, looking up at me. It lifted its head when it saw me huddled there. It smiled again and sat up, making a beckoning motion with its paw.

That was disconcerting. Like last night, the bear acted more human than beast. I knew I had most likely lost my mind over the fact of losing my parents. I was just a little girl with no home or family, mad as a loon. I asked it, “I've lost it haven't I?”

The bear shook its head.

I blinked. I asked, “Can you understand me?”

It nodded and looked pleased with itself. I waited a minute, gauging my madness. Surely I had lost my mind. I didn't feel mad, but would I know if I were? What did madness feel like?

I glanced at the other two bears as they stirred and cocked their heads to look up at me. They backed off behind the smaller one who beckoned me again. I asked it, “You want me to come down there?”

It nodded.

I asked carefully, “You'll not eat me? This isn't a trick?”

I was mad as a hatter, I was talking to a bear. It shook its head. Well if I were mad, why was it responding to my questions? I scolded it, “Well if I do and you eat me, I'll be quite cross with you.”

The three bears seemed amused and actually snickered at that... if bears could snicker. I narrowed an eye at them and pointed as I asked, “Promise?”

The bear nodded, and I lowered myself cautiously to the ground, ready to bolt at any given instant. They didn't make a move toward me.

I took one hesitant step toward them, then another as the tears started flowing again. I confided in the bears, “I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Mother and father are...” I choked back a sob. “What do I do now?”

They actually looked sad. I reached out a hand slowly to touch the smallest bear. I flinched back when my hand came into contact with it's thick, reddish brown fur. It was real. It was truly there. I wasn't going mad.

I marshaled all of my courage and touched it again. It just sat there unmoving. It was all too much for me, and I collapsed onto the bear, wrapping my arms partially around its neck, and I sobbed into its fur. The intense heat from the beast seemed to wrap around me like a blanket as I sobbed out, “Thank you for saving me.”

The other bears moved in close, and we just sat there like that. Them comforting me as I just cried.

After a bit, the bear nudged me, and threw his head back, indicating he wanted me on his back. What was I supposed to do? I had nowhere to go, nobody in the world. I climbed up on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck again as he turned with the other bears and started walking down the path with me. The little girl inside of me who still hadn't broken smiled. I was riding a bear!

They brought me to the little cottage and prompted me inside. I knocked first. Maybe the owners were here and could help me, and tell me what I was supposed to do now. When nobody answered, I opened the door slowly and called inside, “Hello? Is anyone home?”

The place was a mess. I started to call out again when the three bears pushed past me inside. I scolded, “Hey, no need to be rude. It's bad form to come into someone's house without announcing yourselves.” I swear they chuckled.

The smallest nudged me toward the little table with three chairs. I got the idea and slapped his nose lightly, “Don't be pushy.”

He snorted and grinned again, showing those fangs that were longer than my fingers.

I sat as he lumbered behind a screened off area of the open space. I felt a buzzing of my skin and the hairs on the back of my arms stood on end. Then I saw some of the clothing that were draped over the screen disappear as they were pulled from behind.

Then a moment later, a huge man, as big as father stepped out from behind the screen. He was quite muscular and had shaggy black hair and a matching beard and mustache. He wore the clothing of a woodsman. And he said in Russian, “Much better, now we can talk, da? I figured this was less stressful than speaking with a man with no clothing.”

I blinked and looked back at the partition and whispered in confusion, “Little Bear?”

The big man's face transformed when he smiled, into something warm and non-threatening. He mumbled to himself like he was trying on a new coat, “Little Bear?” His grin doubled as he nodded once emphatically to me, “Da.”

I looked at the man, not knowing what to do as the other two bears lumbered behind the screen and a minute later two bigger men stepped out behind Little Bear. I looked at the three men, not knowing what to do or say. I was lost without my parents, I had never felt so alone in my life.

I started to cry again, and the men's faces turned from curiosity to concern, they seemed to be at as much of a loss as to what to do as I was. Little Bear knelt in front of the chair and his brow furrowed in concern as he looked at me. He was so large that he was still towering over me like that, he was trying to make himself as small and non-threatening as possible as he said in a soft, kind voice, “Do not fear us tiny kotenok.”

I couldn't stop the tears as I shook my head. “I'm not afraid of you Little Bear. I just... mother and father... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I want my parents.” My tears turned into violent body-wracking sobs, and the big man engulfed me into a hug, and I buried myself into the safety his strong arms provided.

He shushed me and carried me to one of the three beds on one wall of the cottage and laid me down, the others following. He tucked me in, never leaving the bedside as he stroked my hair and offered soft words of understanding. He said, “Sleep now tiny kotenok. We can figure things out when you are rested.”

I nodded through tears, as exhaustion took away all of the fear and uncertainty. For now, there would be the peace of sleep.

I don't know how long I slept. When I awoke, my stomach was growling and the smell of bread and meat was making my mouth water.

I sat up and looked over to the table by the wood fired stove. The three men were eating a meal in the light of oil lamps. I glanced at the windows, and it was dark outside, no light filtered in through the gaps in the shutters. Had I slept all day?

The men were laughing boisterously and joking with each other. My stomach gurgled again, and they paused and looked back at me. Then all of their faces broke into huge grins. The biggest man rumbled, “Good, you are awake.”

I rubbed my eyes and slipped out of the bed. I walked over to the men and gave a little curtsy like mother taught me to do with guests. I was the guest there, but I figured it would be the same principal, and mother would have my hide if I didn't use my manners. My blood ran cold at the thought of mother. I said quietly, “Sirs.”

Little Bear slid out of his chair and motioned his chin to it as he said, “You look positively starved tiny kotenok. Sit. Eat.”

I cocked my head at him then bowed slightly and did as I was told, hopping up into the chair. I asked, “Sir, why do you call me tiny kitten? How do you know my name? Are you friends of father?”

He blinked, and the three exchanged confused glances, and he turned back to me and said, “I say that because you are tiny... like a kitten.”

I blushed. “Oh. I thought you knew my name was Katiana, and my mother called me Kat.” Then my eyes went wide, remembering all the time mother scolded me for forgetting proprieties. I blurted out, “Hello, my name is Katiana Tvardovsky. I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for saving me from the wolves.”

Little Bear waved it off and made a dismissive sound. “That was nothing. Pesky dogs they were.” His face fell a bit as he said, “I only wish we had arrived a little sooner. I'm deeply sorry we were unable to save your parents.”

I looked down at my hands as I wrung my fingers, trying not to burst out in tears at the thought of mother and father. I looked around at the cluttered space and said, “You men are messy. There is no excuse but laziness not to put things in their proper place.”

The men looked at me then each other, and they broke out into laughter.

I shook a finger at them like mother did to me on occasion and scolded, “The measure of a man is in his manners.”

They stopped laughing and had the good sense to look sheepish.

The biggest man ladled some venison stew up for me into the bowl Little Bear had been using, tearing off a chunk of bread to set in it. He slid it in front of me and dipped a wooden mug in a bucket of water beside the table and sat it beside the bowl. “Eat little Katiana.”

I looked at each of them before starting to wolf the food down greedily. It felt like I hadn't eaten in ages.

I slowed down when I noticed they were all staring at me. I noted that they all looked similar, they had to have been related. Little Bear said, “Sorry. Do not mind us. We do not get many visitors.” Then he wiped his hand on his shirt and offered it to me. “Pavel. Pavel Inanov. My brothers Andrei, and Vladimir.”

I bowed my head slightly as I shook his hand since I was sitting and couldn't curtsy. “A pleasure gentlemen.”

The largest man, Andrei, snickered at that then straightened when I narrowed my eyes at him. He held up a hand in surrender and said, “Forgive me. You just seem so formal and proper for such a young one.”

I stated plainly, “There is no excuse for bad manners.”

Vladimir belched, and the three burst out laughing until they saw me glaring at them.

They quieted, and Vladimir looked down in embarrassment and said, “I apologize, please pardon me.”

I gave him a beaming smile that put a toothy grin on his own face. Then I ate as they seemed to examine me.

I paused and looked at my spoon then asked in the smallest voice I had heard from myself, “What am I to do now? Without mother and father? How am I to live?”

Little Bear asked, “Do you not have relatives who can take you in?”

I shook my head still looking at the spoon. Would I be like the street waifs from my hometown, begging for scraps to survive, sleeping in the alleyways at night and in the church on Wolf Moons?

There was silence for a moment then Andrei said in an encouraging tone as my tears started to flow again, “Then we will see to you little Katiana. We do not have much, but what is ours is yours.”

I blinked tears out of my eyes as I looked around to the impossible bears that came to the aid of a child they did not know. They would take the burden of one not of their blood? I asked in disbelief, “Truly?”

The other two looked at him then at me and nodded in assurance. Little Bear said, “Our own mother would never forgive us for turning away one in need.”

I smiled as I looked around at my protectors, then at the little cottage that was so similar to the one my family had left behind to take this journey to Romania. I scowled and said, trying to mimic my mother's tone, “Right then. First thing we need to do is to tidy up. A cluttered home is for the slovenly.” I didn't know what slovenly meant, but it was one of mother's favorite lines.

The brothers all laughed heartily, causing me to smile in spite of myself. I started eating again, feeling some of my panic and anxiety ebb. Then Pavel asked as he stole some bread from Vladimir and tore the crust off, “You seem not to be shocked with the impossibility that we can change into bears. Are you not afraid?”

I paused and looked at him and shrugged. “Do not men turn to wolves three nights a month? If that is possible, and there are maidens who can turn into crows and lords that can turn into stags, then why not men into bears? And if you were going to eat me then you would have done so already, Little Bear.”

I drank some of the water then furrowed my brow in thought and asked, “Are you bears who turn into men, or men who turn into bears?”

Little Bear asked, “Does it matter?”

I looked around the cottage at the disarray and mess, with clothing strewn all over every surface. I said plainly, “Well if you were bears that turned into men, it would explain this mess.”

The men laughed long and hard at that, causing me to grin uncontrollably. The Inanovs certainly were a happy bunch.

I furrowed my brow again and asked, “Does this mean I am an Inanov now?”

The men all stopped laughing, and suddenly their mood was somber. Little Bear reached out from where he stood by the table and laid a hand gently on my shoulder and said in a soft tone, “If you want to be tiny kotenok.”

I pondered that a moment. My life had ended the prior night when I lost everything I had ever known and loved. I found myself slowly nodding, refusing to let another tear fall for the death of Katiana Tvardovsky, who died with her parents that terrible night, and the start of my new life as Katiana Inanov.

I exhaled and then stood, gathering the dishes from the table as the men watched me. I looked around and said, “Right then. Where is the basin or well? We'll start by washing your dishes and then we can tend to the rest of this mess.”

Andrei's laughter boomed out, and the others quickly chimed in as I saw the first rays of sun filtering through the windows.