Leonah Braxton I

Osgard Wood, the Dominion

a Lady and her Squire

The snow fell softly over the clearing in the forest. Even at the start of summer, it was cold, but Leonah Braxton was warm enough in her thick wool coat and deerskin cape. She was hard at work. As a Braxton heir of eighteen years, the Kingdom expected her to bond to her bear this season. Today, Leonah was tracking a youth. It was three days since she first saw it in the Osgar Wood that covered much of the north of the Braxton lands. The bear was a brown coat. Large, beautiful, and strong. Leonah thought it was a female but wasn't sure of that yet. By the end of the second day, it started to tire and get used to Leonah's presence.

The Braxton way was simple and brute force. Leonah remembered Druid Baoill's teachings.

Track a youth; not a cub, but not fully grown. Follow it at a distance. Make sure it knows you are there but do not get so close that it can attack. Naturally, the bears of Osgar Wood flee and eventually tire. As they tire, you begin to feed it. With the food comes trust; with trust comes the bond.

For years the Braxtons bonded to their bears using this simple method. Many common folk and lords within their small territory emulated the tactic, but few succeeded. Not none, however. Cruinn Mackays, the twenty-year-old ginger-haired son of her Father's Lord, Conn Mackays, was the latest non-Braxton to succeed.

The Braxton's didn't oppose others trying. Leonah recalled her father on the point, "We do not own the beasts, Leonah. At the end of the day, it is the beast's choice to bond with the human, not the other way around." In other words, if a bear of the Osgar Wood decided to bond to a Mackay, or a Kendrick, or a Tolmach, it wasn't for her father, the King, to intervene.

The Braxton's and their lords did not allow other kingdoms to venture into the Osgar Wood in search of the mythical bears. Braxton bears were the envy of the Dominion. The largest stood at around fifteen feet tall on their hind legs and weighed eight hundred to one thousand pounds. With some of the light armor the Braxton's perfected over the years, it made them formidable on the battlefield. While not unbeatable, the Braxton Kingdom punched far above their weight for the size of their land. The Braxtons were a small but well-respected Kingdom within the Dominion between the bears and the rich iron ore found within their borders.

Leonah watched as the beautiful beast looked back on her. She was around one hundred yards out from it. It observed her for almost a minute. Its head bowed slightly; the bear did not move so long as she kept her eyes locked on it. Slowly the bear turned back around and began to amble through the woods ahead.

Damned beast, why don't you just give in already.

Leonah did her best to live up to her father's legend, but it was difficult. Her father, Macrath Braxton, was a fierce warrior and honorable King to his people. As an Aberdew, he was a massive figure at six and a quarter feet tall. In his younger years, he had been all muscle, but a layer of soft fat began to form around his waist and thighs as he aged. Still, he was a formidable man. In addition, Leonah thought him fair. Macrath made sure the people of their territory were well fed. He was a proud man, too; he enjoyed how far above their weight the Braxton's punched in the Dominion.

Her mother Naomh never bore Macrath a son. Nor another heir, for that matter. Many Kings remarried in similar circumstances. Remarrying to ensure a male heir was practical, to ensure the line continued, and that the Kingdom would devolve into chaos due to a succession challenge.

But not Macratch, "And why in the damned hell would I remarry? I made a promise to my wife, you know," Leonah remembered him scolding an advisor, "I love that woman, and I'll be with her to our last. If you know what's right for you, you won't bring this subject up again."

Instead, Macrath took Leonah as his heir - an oddity in the Dominion. Only the other Abderew King, King Finneas Dugan, named a daughter as an heir. Of course, women weren't reliable in the battlefield or the policy room. Too unstable emotionally. Or that's what many older men confidently told Leonah.

Fucking pricks.

Macrath taught Leonah to hunt, ride, and fight. Macrath treated her as if she were his son. He spared no expense with her schooling from the Druids and insisted she would be the first woman to bond with a bear of the Osgar Wood.

Leonah thought Macrath was in denial about her potential. With all the generosity her father showered upon her came equal pressure. She was a clumsy tracker and just an average rider on horseback. Leaonah fought well in close combat but moved too slow for quicker opponents. She struggled to keep her weight down, too. Unlike her mother, small and thin, she took after her father, tall and broad. Leonah loved to eat. She was always hungry.

How does Mother do it? The woman pecks at her food like a bird pecks at seed.

Leonah continued after the bear. She walked quickly through the forest, and the thick brush on the ground tired her. There were plenty of gaps in the trees of the Osgar Wood, but within the gaps grew thorny barren brush. It pulled at Leonah's deerskin cape and slowed her down. Lucky for Leonah, this bear seemed as bad an escape artist as she was a tracker. It left deep thick tracks in the ground and moved in a straight path. If the bear was trying to evade her capture, it wasn't very good at it.

And so, the clumsy tracker followed the incompetent escape artist. They headed due north to the sea. The Osgar Wood made up almost a perfect square in the northwest corner of the Braxton lands. The woods stretched east and north from the capital at Holbeck, where the White River met the sea. The northeast corner of the square wood ended at Nosle, the logging town. The southeast corner of the wood ended at the boundary between Lawlor House and the Braxton Kingdom. Finally, the northwest corner ended at sea at the small watch town and garrison of Far Water.

Leonah watched the bear from her distance. It was young but already quite strong.

What would I do if it turned and attacked? It may be a youth, but it looks more robust than me.

Not everyone who entered Osgar Wood to bond with a bear returned in one piece. She remembered her cousin Cosgrath Braxton, who barely returned with his life. Cosgrath tracked a large black bear that was perhaps too old. According to Cosgrath, it waited for him around the corner of a bend and attacked him, slashing him across his breast and thigh. He managed to chase the bear off, dress his wounds, and barely make it back to Hadena Hall, the King's castle at Holbeck. Lucky for Cosgrath, and unbeknownst to him, the bear followed him back through the wood. It waited outside the castle for four days until Cosgrath could leave his sickbed. He was scared to face the black beauty outside the walls, but the bear stood on its hind legs and roared when he approached. The roar was the sign; the sign of the bond. Cosgrath named the beast Boreas; Boreas the brute.

Not all were as lucky. Some died that entered the wood to bond with a bear, and others simply never returned. Not many, maybe one in twenty, but Leonah worried she would be the one. She did want to end her father's line. A death in the Osgar Wood had not happened for five years. The last was one of her Father's Lord's sons, Faolan Kendrick. Faolan was a promising young man, a great rider and fighter. The boy dreamed of becoming a Druid, but his father would not have it as he was heir to the Kendrick titles. Faolan left on his eighteenth birthday and never returned. The Kendrick's and Braxton's sent a party after Faolan and followed his tracks through the Osgar Wood for two days until the tracks disappeared. Macrath joined the party himself as Lord Finna Kendrick was a dear friend and close ally. They expected to find a bloody, dead Faolan, but instead, the tracks simply ended in the middle of a clearing.

"We searched the perimeter of the clearing but found no evidence of the poor boy. When you go into that wood, Leonah, you'll bring plenty of weapons," she recalled her father telling her on their return.

Some say it was a bear that took his life, but others spread rumors of something more sinister. Leonah tried to keep the stories of the evil spirits and banshees out of her mind as she walked alone through the quiet and cold Osgar Wood.

Leonah came to another small clearing and looked up through the canopy above. She struggled to find the sun but knew it must be heading down. The night was coming. If she did not bond with the bear before nightfall, it meant another cold night alone in the woods. She would have to make a fire soon and give up until the morning. The previous night she was close to the bear, only to gain ground on her during the night. While Leonah ate cheese by the fire and slept, the bear ran ahead, and in the morning, she spent her energy racing to catch up.

Why didn't I find the lazy bear of Osgar Wood?

Leonah wished for a hot bath, a book, and a warm hearth. She wanted to drink Aulestian or Germigny wine and talk with her mother or her friends in court. The life of a princess wouldn't be so bad. If only she had been the fifth born with some older brothers. In that life, she would not be out in the cold, fumbling after a bear that could quickly kill her if it wanted to. Sure, she wasn't as beautiful as either Lawlor princess, Farrah, or Brighton. Leonah was tall and broad-shouldered. Her face was not ugly but more handsome than pretty. She was not as cultured as some of the other ladies of the Dominion either. Leonah loved to read but preferred fictional tales to histories.

"Watch that tongue, lady. You sound more like a pirate than a royal princess," she could hear her mother saying with a wry smile on her face.

If you hated it, you wouldn't hold back a smile every time I slip my tongue.

Leonah missed her mother out in the cold. She wished they were sitting together now. And yet, she was still the first and only child, and her father was still a King. Often Leonah daydreamed of marrying a prince and living a relaxed life. Bentley Lawlor, perhaps. Brazen, sure. Arrogant, maybe. But also handsome and witty, or so she was told. And tall for a Dinn. Even the homely Egbert Dimmock to the west would do. The Dimmocks weren't the noblest Kingdom, but Egbert was large and friendly. And a prince.

It would be nice to find a prince taller than me. This Aberdew blood doesn't come in handy when you're courting a prince.

Leonah carried on her way and reached the top of a crest in the wood. She looked down the slope into the forest ahead of her from the high ground. There it was, still perhaps one hundred meters ahead. Leonah had not gained much ground in the last hour despite her efforts. Above her, the clouds still lingered, and light snow began to fall. It was getting frigid.

Why do we even call it summer? It's just light winter. We have light winters in the summer. If you can't grow crops, it's not summer.

"Hey! Bear!" She found herself yelling at the beast down the slope, "You can run, but I'll be right here! I'm not going anywhere! Do you hear me?"

The brown bear looked at Leonah for a moment, only to lift its left leg and urinate on the ground. It lazily turned back due north and continued on its way.

Arrogant bastard: just like Bentley Lawlor, or so I'm told. You look more like Egbert. Well, I guess I know the gender, at least. I would be fine with a male bear. That could be fun.

The bear was still a hundred meters ahead, but it seemed to be slowing down. In the beginning, it ran from Leonah, then ambled, and now it was simply walking away. Leonah was making progress. She smiled.

Maybe I'm not so bad at this after all.

As she daydreamed about riding a bear into court, she tripped over a rock she had not noticed and almost fell over. She caught herself on some brush to her right. Her deerskin tangled with the brush, and she tore it, trying to get it out. All she could do was laugh and pick the thorns out of her cape.

Fuck me. Seriously, fuck me.

The light only lasted two and a half more hours, and Leonah paused her pursuit just in time. She found refuge under some heavy brush that grew thick around the trunk of a particularly massive tree and started a fire. The light snow stopped and wasn't sticking to the ground. It left everything a bit damp. Leonah needed close to half an hour to start the fire and used kindling and small branches to let it grow once she got it going. She unrolled her fur pouch that sealed on the bottom; it kept her warm during the cold summer nights. Dinner was more hard bread, hard cheese, and cold beans. It didn't satisfy her stomach.

Leonah looked around for signs of life, anything she could track, catch, and roast. Nothing. Leonah grabbed her pouch of barley wine, wishing it was Aulestian white or Germigny red.

If I'm going to be miserable, I might as well be a bit drunk.

She was running low.

That will be a greater tragedy than if I return without a bear. What's a greater tragedy than if I run out of wine in the cold. Perhaps that's how Faolan died out here. Faolan Kendrick, the lordling who died of boredom.

As Leonah fell asleep, the clouds began to part. She looked up through the brush and caught a glimpse of the bright stars from behind the clouds. No one knew for sure what they were. Some thought they were evidence of life after death. The Druids said they were the signs of the gods. One instructor told her they might be thousands of other places sailing through the sky like ships on the sea. She never believed that one, though. If we weren't glowing bright, why would their worlds be?

Her father agreed with the Druids. He told her they weren't anything at all; rather, they were voids, "evidence of our gods, my dear. What we call stars are simply holes in the sky, letting the light of our gods through. Ruminate on them. They can speak to us that way."

Leonah looked up at the stars. It didn't seem like anyone, or any god for that matter, was communicating to her at the moment. No, she was very alone. Alone in the dark, damp, miserable Osgar Wood, tracking a bear that might be mentally deficient. She closed her eyes and let sleep take her away.

Tomorrow. I'll get that big boy tomorrow. So long as no banshee takes me in my sleep tonight. Perhaps that would be a quick way to go.

As Leonah drifted away into sleep, she a sound nearby woke her. She jumped to her feet and grabbed a piece of wood from the fire. Frantically, Leonah raised the burning branch to look around her camp only to see the bear's head buried deep in her pack.

"Are you serious? Get the fuck out of my pack!"

Leonah ran over to the beast without a second thought and hit it in the back of the head with her makeshift torch. The bear roared and pulled its big head slowly out of the pack. It was chewing on her bread, leaving crumbs all over its fur like a fat old man spilling food on his beard. It looked at Leonah and let out a soft moan. They both paused. Its eyes locked on Leonah's.

Is it going to attack?

Her eyes moved to her sword, which she kept by her sleeping furs.

Instead of attacking, the bear shat on the ground where it stood and slowly lowered its head back into the pouch, rummaging for food.

You've got to be kidding me.

Leonah picked up a large stick off the ground in her free hand and poked the bear in the neck with it. She didn't want to anger the bear or put out her torch. But she did like the bear's attention.

If you eat the only cheese I have left, I swear I'll have nothing left to live for.

The bear tried swatting the stick away without lifting its head from the pouch. She could tell it was eating something else.

Please, not my fucking cheese.

She hit him on the head again, this time softer. The bear pulled his head out and let out the same soft moan. Not quite a roar; that would be too flattering. It seemed annoyed with her. He stared at Leonah, then back at the pack, then back at Leonah.

"Don't you even think about it? I'm warning you, smart arse."

The bear paused for a long while as if in thought. Then, it grabbed the pack in its mouth and began to walk off.

Leonah sighed, "You can not be serious."

She started laughing.

"You know you're not so scary. My father's bear is massive, mean, and dangerous. Same with Boreas. Boreas the brute they call him," she sarcastically gestured quotation marks as she spoke the bear's nickname, "I suppose I wouldn't mind a sloth bear."

Surprisingly Leonah felt safe around it. The animal seemed much more interested in the bread and cheese than Leonah. She ran to catch up with the bear and began walking alongside it.

"So if I give you that cheese will you come back to Hadena Hall with me? Hello? I'm supposed to tire you out then feed you. I wonder if this counts."

The bear didn't respond. Instead, it continued to walk with the food pack in its mouth as if Leonah weren't there. Leonah poked it with the stick again, this time in its thick neck. It stopped and looked at her.

"So? What do you think, big lad?"

The bear looked annoyed. It dropped the pack on the ground. It looked at Leonah, then at the pack, then back to Leonah again. He let what seemed like a faint sigh. Slowly the bear stood on its hind legs and roared, very quietly. Almost dismissively so.

Leonah paused. The bear remained standing and cocked its head at her as if trying to read her reaction.

"Wait… wait? Was that it?"

She remembered her teachings. When the bears of the Osgar Wood consented, they would sit on their hind legs and roar. But when Boreas the brute bonded to her cousin Cosgrath Braxton, he let out a cry so loud that villagers heard it a half-mile away; or so the story was told. And her father too spoke of when his bear Terra bonded to him deep in the Osgar Wood; the roar was so loud and terrifying that he thought he was a dead man. In contrast, this young bear barely let out a noise.

Was that more of a moan? Was it whining? I'm not sure that counts.

Leonah picked up the pack. She held her torch to the bear.

"Want some of this cheese?"

The bear sat still. Leonah laughed again, almost in disbelief.

"Alright, no answer? I think you do."

She took the hunk of cheese out of her pack, keeping the torch up to watch the beast. Leonah set the torch down quickly to rip off a chunk of cheese. Almost half of what was left, about the size of her clenched fist. Leonah put the second half back in the pack and lifted the torch again. The bear still sat rooted in its spot. Slowly, Leonah reached out with the cheese in her hand, palm open.

"Here you go, big lad. Please don't rip my hand off."

The bear watched her hand closely. Once she was within reach, it slowly opened its mouth and lowered its head.

"Oh really? Am I feeding you now? You really are a lazy fucker."

The bear sat there still, mouth open.

"Fine."

Leonah reached closer and tossed the cheese into the bear's mouth. The bear let out a soft cry of delight and began to eat his cheese. It was gone quickly.

"Taste good? That's homemade, Braxton stuff. Not that Germigny shite. Give us your wine but keep your cheese, you whiny little islanders."

The bear returned to all fours and slowly walked over to the fire Leonah started. It laid down next to her sleeping furs. The bear looked over its shoulder and let out another soft cry.

"I guess you're right."

Leonah walked back over to her sleeping pouch and patted the bear on the head. It looked at her and slowly plowed its big forehead into her chest.

That's more like it.

"I suppose I owe you a name, right?"

Leonah thought back on the great stories of the realm. She remembered stories of knights of bravery and chivalry. She remembered stories of kings, noble and savage. None seemed right. Her bear seemed too slow and passive for any of the names from her stories.

Further back, she reached to the children's stories of her youth: books of dragons, krakens, werewolves, and griffins. Leonah recalled her favorite; the story of Lady Olwen, the senile old warrior queen of the wood, and her faithful but simple squire Mungan. Mungan was her favorite part of what were always great stories. He provided comic relief, usually in the means of physical humor. She remembered finding it particularly funny whenever Mungan wet himself in the face of danger. The senile but brave Lady Olwen would always save the day.

That seems right. I suppose I can always change it later.

Leonah picked up the stick she used earlier to prod the animal and stood to face her new friend. Tapping the bear on the shoulder like a lord taps a new knight with a sword, Leonah Braxton proclaimed, "I shall name you Mungan. If you serve to be half as loyal as Squire Mungan was to Lady Olwen, that will do just fine. And I will feed you plenty of cheese."

That night Leonah slept while Mungan lay next to her. As Leonah fell asleep, she watched Mungan's face. He was lying down, resting his massive head on one of his outstretched arms. He looked tired, but his eyes were open and his face alert.

He's keeping watch.

The hairs raised on Leonah's spine.

This giant beast is keeping watch over me.

She smiled; it was time for some rest. The journey home would take two more days.

Try and stop me now, banshees. I've got a big bad bear.