Crossroads Devil

The Legend Of Bear-man

The thunder struck, gloom encompassed the site. Long is the sorrow in this night. It rained all hell's day. Lumber got wet, so there was not point in working. All the workers hid in the shed till sunset. Some went for whiskey, some went for cards. There, of course were brawls as Is typical in this country without many laws. Lumber camp was a place but dangerous. Yet no more than the woods. The Great Maroonie Evergreens were a sight to behold. Great firs and redwoods taller than Suez Canal Statue of Progress. One needed the week work of labour of not less than a dozen men to be cut down. Lucrative business of course. The furnaces of the east needed fuel. So the fuel would be given. Nothing will stop the lumbermills, none matter how many men will perish. Perish, under the barks, in the saws, in the dark non-forgiving glades. None matter how many mutilated by wild beasts, none matter how many lost in the woods. The operations shall continue. For the volunteers are an endless bunch. Optimists they are. Some of them stay that way for a time. But its hard to see a veteran lumberman without cynics touch. This night, had them all. Fresh meat at the lumbermill table.
When the rain has finally gone, the lumbermen with the relief of frontiersmen built a bonfire. They had to channel their rage. Their frustration. Whole day in that small cabin. Without payment naturally for no work has been done. Their expectations burned and with the vexation ascending with the flames they relaxed on around the heat. With whiskey.
- Gather, gather all. - spoke the old Foreman to the crowd. - Since we all have nothin' better in doin' we might as well teach the new meat how to handle things here.
Young kid energetically raised his head to hear better. He arrived no sooner than today's morning. No family, no possessions on back. A ghost, a victim or a legend in making. Not half a moron to that. Yet sometimes with a tongue sharp like a pack of nails.
- I know an old classic. All might want to hear. - continued the old man.
Some lumbermen had suddenly smiled or started to nod in approval. Some know it's a cautionary tale. Some like to see the fresh meat shiver.
- What ya gonna tell us? - responded the kid. - Not to walk away without mammy or daddy. Not to venture into dark alone?
Upon hearing this nonchalant take, the veterans started to laugh and chuckle.
- Well I cannot believe my ears... - started the Foreman - A fresh meat that bold enough I've seen a long time ago.
- It may not me being bold. It may be your bunch being bloody ancient. Old as the firs we bound to cut down in this forsaken forest.
- Imma tell ya somethin' kid... Fresh meat comes every, I don't know... Friday or Sunday? Somethin' like that. Now look at us an' how many are we left. Week ago we were twenty-six, now we are twenty-four. Ol' Matthew and Jermiah may their souls be rested in peace. - ended the old man while looking in the stars with his hat in the tight grip of his wearied down hands.
- That fate may fell upon ya, I don't have a plan for dying. I will survive. I know it in my bones.
Veterans fell into howling laughter. In a few places indistinguishable from the wolfs. A part of them fell to the ground akin to the trees they live in between.
- Now kid, I see ya want to be immortal, eh? - said the Foreman grinning in a smile. - I see you want to become a legend, eh?
- Pretty much, yes. - the kid shrugged his arms.
- Then I have a lesson for ya, to inspire ya. - he began, leaping of the log he was sitting on and in mere seconds, with a speed unmatching his posture and looks grabbed the kids by his collar.
The kid, got frightened, not expecting this to happen. Then the veterans started chanting. - FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT!
This stirred up the fear in the rest of the kids companions in travel. The old Foreman dragged the kid to the edge of the bonfire. Kindles and ash fell upon his hair. Flames licked his boots. Sweat started to gather on his forehead. But the old man kept smiling at him.
- Now listen! - He shouted while simultaneously pushing the kid into the fire just to pull him back a second after. - I am going to tell ya, a story, of the famous... Bear-man.
Veterans promptly changed their chanting to accommodate, - BEAR-MAN! BEAR-MAN! BEAR-MAN!
- Silence! - again, shouted the Foreman and when the cries and screams ended, he begun. - Now, listen to that what I'm bout' to say... All round the Great Maroonie Evergreens, all over Kentago Mountains, past the Ganahan Pass. They all know the Bear-man. The ferryman at the Cascadia river will tell the same story, the quarrymen of limestone hills too. They all heard of him. Saw him. Talked with him. Dangerous man. Some say not a man. An animal. There are rumours, that he is a cannibal, that he single-handedly wrestled with over a dozen bears and won with his bare hands, swam across the Cascadia river, passed the Kentago, climbed without equipment from the bottom of Alazani Canion to the top and many more. Even I do not know which is true or which is false... But there is no denying in that there is no beast or men in all over the west capable of killing him.
- I though the big foot would be the most dangerous. - interrupted the kid.
- Bear-man ate all the big foot raw! - one of the veterans responded with nods of approval of others.
The foreman promptly waited for silence again and then continued.
- Yet what I do know is that he can have mercy too. Now kid I wasn't much older than ya are when I stumbled upon him in the woods. Not so much a meeting though. I fell into one of his traps, still have the scars, still have the scars... But as I was bleeding he came from the dark, from the forest he calls home. Six an' a half feet tall! Hair everywhere. Face was hard to be seen in all that darkness an' with the fright I had. Thought I would be his next meal. Thought I'm bout' to die. Then the unexpected happened. He freed me! Such euphoria filled my veins that I stood up an' immediately ran back to the camp. I don't know whether I was simply lucky or he was still more man than a best. I only hope he didn't become the animal all the way through these years... This woods seen much, heard much, suffered much... Not an easy place to live kid, yet there are those who thrive here. Like the Bear-man. I wish ya no confrontation with that thing. For ya not know if he shall grant ya mercy or outright kill an' eat ya'.
Upon completing his story, the foreman freed the kid and sat at the log, pulled out a knife from his belt and started woodcutting. The kid on the other hand, part-time shocked, part-time scared, part-time intrigued, also sat at the log. Many more days were before him. Many more days of cutting. At least he hoped so. To clear his mind, he started drawing mindless shapes in the dirt with a stick. When this bored him, he looked at all the lumbermen surrounding the bonfire. One of them. Muscular and tall. Hairy. Was looking straight at him. This, immediately hit him. It couldn't be. He thought to himself. But before he could do anything the man stood up and disappeared into the darkness. He was not with as in the cabin... He was not with us in the cabin. Who is he? The kids thoughts were rushing.
- Hey kid! - said the man sitting next to the kid putting his hand at the kids shoulder.
The kid looked upon him. A cowboy, least to say. With a big grinning smile.
- Hope that story didn't scare ya? - cowboy asked.
- No, no, of course not. Who am I to be scared of such nonsense?
- Good, good... Do not believe that fairy tales of the old men. They live in the past, we have the present and the future.
- Ex-Exactly! That is what I think!
- Ya'll smart. I'll give ya that. Now I think ya should go to sleep now. Tomorrow's day gonna be hard. Need to repay for the slacking of today's. Am I right?
- Y-yes, yes. I think I will do just that.
The kid proceeded to leave the fireplace and head for the cabin. Yet, while laying in his bunk he could not stop thinking how unsettling the cowboy was. Weird is that, at the same time he was really charming. But the tiredness came and the kid shrugged it of to the next day. Next day he will think of that. Surely.
The cowboy meanwhile, smiling all the way kept looking in the abyss between the trees the hairy man has gone into. And after some time. He stood up and followed.