The cave floor was remarkably smooth, and it was obvious that someone cleaned it regularly.
At the center stood a crude stone table covered with the hide of some unidentified animal.
Various bottles and jars were arranged across it.
A pile of miscellaneous items sat in one corner, most of them simple tools.
The place looked almost like the home of a hunter who had been living here for years.
After everything he had seen today, Mike had finally reached the point where nothing made sense anymore.
What the hell was going on?
He was starting to wonder if blood loss had made him hallucinate.
While his thoughts ran wild, the monster carried him over to a wooden frame.
After being tossed around for so long, Mike was lucky his body was still in one piece.
He had no strength left to resist as the creature tied him to it.
He instinctively struggled against the ropes, but it was useless.
They were tied incredibly tight.
Instead, Mike looked up at the massive monster, wondering exactly how it intended to eat him.
But the creature showed no intention of attacking.
It simply raised one of its claws.
What happened next made Mike’s eyes widen.
The monster gently dragged a claw across its own chest.
A seam instantly appeared wherever the claw passed.
Then, right before Mike’s eyes, the creature peeled the enormous bearskin from its body.
The shaggy hide slid away, revealing a completely naked man underneath.
The man had a wild, tangled beard that blended into his equally unkempt hair, making him look like some kind of savage.
He picked up the bearskin and casually hung it on another wooden frame beside Mike.
That was when Mike noticed a knife wound on the man’s arm and a bullet hole in his shoulder.
They were in exactly the same places where Liam and Goldman had wounded the monster.
Mike stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re human!
Who the hell are you?
Why are you doing this?”
The bearded man glanced at him without expression.
He said nothing.
Instead, he walked over to the stone table, picked up a skinning knife and a stone bowl, then headed into the shadows deeper inside the cave.
Mike followed him with his eyes and noticed something moving in the darkness.
He squinted, straining to see by the candlelight.
There were two bears back there.
Normal bears.
One was a massive brown bear, only slightly smaller than the bearded man had been while wearing the bearskin.
The other was tiny, huddled close against the mother bear.
It looked only a few months old.
Heavy iron chains bound their necks and limbs, securing them to the stone wall.
The man walked toward the bear cub and raised his knife.
Sensing danger, the mother bear struggled desperately to her feet and placed her body between the man and her cub.
The bearded man’s expression never changed.
Since the mother bear was blocking the bear cub, he simply turned the knife on her instead.
“ROAR!”
The mother bear let out an agonized howl.
Her enormous body swayed, but the chains kept her from collapsing.
Blood poured from the wound.
The man held the stone bowl beneath it and collected nearly half a bowl of warm bear blood.
He carried the bowl back to the stone table, grabbed a handful of dried herbs from the surrounding jars, and tossed them in.
Then he picked up a stone pestle and slowly ground everything together.
Before long, the blood and herbs had become a thick, dark brown paste.
The man scooped up a lump with his finger and smeared it over the knife wound on his arm, then applied the rest to the bullet hole in his shoulder.
The wounds, which had still been bleeding, began clotting rapidly the moment the paste touched them.
Only after finishing did the bearded man turn toward Mike, still bound to the wooden frame.
A chilling smile spread across his face.
His lips moved several times, but no sound came out at first.
It was as though he hadn’t spoken in so long that he had forgotten how.
He cleared his throat, then forced the words out.
“An ancient recipe combined with the strength of a bear.
There’s no better medicine.”
Mike stared at the lunatic in front of him, spouting complete nonsense, and felt a surge of anger break through his fear.
“You psycho!
Why go through all this trouble just to stop some bleeding?
Couldn’t you just use a bandage and something to stop the bleeding?”
The bearded man shook his head.
“You don’t understand.
Those things are useless.
The old ways are better.”
Mike was about to curse him again when a burst of noisy voices came from outside the cave.
The bearded man immediately returned to the frame where he had hung the bearskin.
He grabbed the enormous hide and draped it over himself once more.
In an instant, the bearskin enveloped his body.
The man transformed back into the two-and-a-half-meter-tall Skinwalker.
…
Outside the cave, the gangsters noisily stumbled their way to their destination.
One tall, skinny thug was panting heavily, his clothes soaked with sweat.
“Boss Mickey, are you sure this is the place?
This godforsaken forest is so quiet I can’t even hear any birds.”
Mickey, the man with an afro leading the group, stopped and glared back at him.
“Shut up.
Can’t you see the ranger’s leading us?”
“Bro, how much farther?
We’re roasting out here.”
The ranger pointed toward a cave not far ahead.
“This is it.
Look.
All the broken branches and footprints we’ve been following lead straight here.”
Mickey stared at the cave entrance.
Suddenly, he wasn’t in such a hurry anymore.
“You sure this is the place?”
He swallowed nervously.
Something about it didn’t feel right.
The ranger noticed his hesitation and tried to reassure him.
“Don’t worry.
The season when brown bears come out of hibernation looking for food is already over.
They’ve eaten their fill by now, so they’re generally not aggressive toward humans.”
That did absolutely nothing to reassure Mickey.
Just because they’d eaten didn’t mean they wouldn’t want dessert.
He glanced back at his men.
They were all staring nervously at him.
No.
He couldn’t embarrass himself in front of his crew.
An idea immediately came to Mickey.
He shoved the ranger to the front, then stepped backward behind his own men.
“You’re the expert.
We respect experts.
You go first.”
The ranger stumbled from the shove but didn’t seem angry in the slightest.
He simply shrugged.
After regaining his footing, he walked to the mouth of the cave and turned around to face the gangsters.
Something about the way he looked at them made Mickey uneasy.
“What are you doing?”
The ranger smiled confidently.
“I wasn’t expecting you people to show up here.
But ordinary men like you won’t be a problem.”
The moment he finished speaking, a roar erupted from deep inside the cave.
“ROAR!”
The ranger calmly stepped aside.
The Skinwalker burst from the darkness.
Then the ranger turned toward a nearby thicket and raised his voice.
“You’ve been watching long enough.
Come on out.”