Topham had made his way to Russia. He was looking for something specific – something that he knew was around the edge of the Taiga. He didn’t have all the time in the world to search, and Russia was a big place after all.

After what seemed like forever, he finally found what he was looking for: The house on the edge of the woods. It was the house that stood on chicken legs, and floated one story above the ground. Perfect.

However, there was no way he could enter. Baba Yaga liked her privacy, and it had turned to face the woods, meaning nobody could enter it. Thankfully, it was pretty easy to get her attention.

“Hut, O hut, turn your back to the woods, your front to me.” Topham ordered the cabin on chicken legs, after stomping his foot on the ground.

Almost as if on cue, the chicken legs begun to shift, taking several steps as the cabin turned around, revealing the front door to the house. The door opened, revealing a very angry looking hag dressed in a babushka and old fashioned clothes.

“Ah, who’s turned my house around.” She said, looking down at the person who had commanded her house. “…Gregor Topham? How in the hell are you still alive?”

“I have my ways.” Topham responded, “I have come to seek your guidance.”

He was only given a sharp glare from the witch. Baba Yaga was rarely friendly at all, even if you came to her with a legit reason.

“You’re running the most respected cabal in the world – and you come to ask me for help? I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with your petty little problems. Now, my house, turn your back to Gregor Topham, your front to the woods!”

With the hag’s order, the house begun to turn around to face the woods, before being interrupted by Topham.

“Face me, I am not done yet.” Topham said, stomping his foot on the ground.

The house turned back to face Topham, with Baba Yaga still on the porch.

“Have you gone deaf or senile?” Baba Yaga growled, “You have all sorts of resources at your hands. You don’t need me any more than the local werebear or the Moscow Vampires do!”

“Yes, there is something you can do that I cannot have anyone else do for me.” Topham said.

“I will only answer your question if it is something that I know for sure you cannot do yourself.” Baba Yaga said.

“Can you tell me where Eileen Robertson is? I cannot scry her myself.”

Baba Yaga sighed. She could tell he wasn’t lying or trying to make excuses to get into her house.

“That is not something you can do.” Baba Yaga answered, “You win, Gregor. Come into the house and I will help you.”

Topham walked over to the cabin on chicken legs and climbed up the ladder. He could hear Baba Yaga reciting curse words in Russian, before lapsing into English to say, “Rotten Bastard” loud enough for him to hear.

Baba Yaga seemed to live in the past. She never had electricity or running water, seeming almost Luddite in her views towards technology. However, there was one thing that had changed completely. Some time, Baba Yaga had removed her stove, replacing it with one of a smaller make. A little more modern, by early 20th century standards, that is.

“So.” Topham commented, “You were serious after all. When was the last time you ate a child?”

The witch grunted, moving a stool made out of an old tree stump over, sitting it across the hand carved table from her own chair. Significantly larger than the simple tree stump, an actual chair with support for her back, something the crone always needed.

“Sit down.” Baba Yaga instructed, still shooting Topham a glare.

Topham sat down on the tree stump, while the witch sat down in her own chair. She simply gazed at him, as if trying to kill him with her eyes. Unfortunately that didn’t work.

“Well, what are you going to do to scry Eileen’s location?”

“I’m trying to get a vision of what you desire.” she said, before closing her eyes and lying back in her chair. She was silent for several minutes, before opening her eyes and looking back at Topham.

“Well? Did you find her?”

“Yes. She is at a house. I saw her with a girl carrying a stuffed animal, and a lion.”

“Could you be more specific? Where were they?”

“All I can tell you is that she’s at a house.” Baba Yaga said.

Topham sighed. Baba Yaga was almost never willing to help people out with her own power, and when she did, she would try to get them out of her house as soon as possible.

“This does not help me as much. Then allow me to ask another question – the Millers, they had a chi-“

“I do not eat children anymore!” Baba Yaga snapped as she slammed her fist on the table. Topham seemed surprisingly unfazed by her outburst.

“Why would I ask you to do that? I am against inflicting harm to a child after all.”

Baba Yaga simply scoffed in response.

“Besides,” the witch said, “You have asked your question and I have given you your answer. Seek the girl with a stuffed animal and the lion. You have already overstayed your welcome into my house.”

“But surely, you can give me so-“

“Get out, Gregor Topham.” She said, “Do not try my patience.”

“Thank you for your time.” Topham said, standing up and turning to leave the house. It was never wise to test Baba Yaga’s patience, even if you were the head of the most powerful cabal in the world. The second his feet touched the ground, the chicken legs moved once more, turning the house’s door to the woods once more.

“Why did I even think of asking her?” Topham mumbled to himself. “Worthless crone…”

Something hard hit his head, sending a sharp pain across the side of his head. He reached up to cover it instinctively, to investigate the damage. Thankfully, whatever this was, Topham could not feel any wound or broken skin.

Topham turned his attention to the ground, where there lay a stone wrapped up in some kind of paper. He removed his hand from his head and lifted the object, looking over the paper. It was a simple stone that could have been found on the ground of any house, but there was something written on the paper.

“I heard that!” was written on the paper.

Topham looked back at the house, and then resumed his walk away from the house on chicken legs.

Back on the island, Sorrow and Despair were hanging around, waiting for their orders. Joining them seemed to be what looked like a teenager, simply lying against the wall like he was in a state of depression.

Although at the same time, they had been busy over the past few days. A clueless wizard, breaking the masquerade hiding them from some of the Twentieth House wizards, had unintentionally summoned Sorrow. Despair nearly got banished by a girl who just learned her powers. Finally, Apathy went riding inside a body whose soul had been removed by him, who he had to ditch.

“You should have followed Sloth’s killers up to that house they go in. Wrath was in there last but he got a fire extinguisher sent to his face.” Despair told Apathy, the teenage looking kid. He looked up at the two demons, showing his pure black eyes at them.

“I don’t care, Sloth was a waste. He’s been sleeping around and guarding children since the 1800s. If anything, we should have been thanking them for removing him from existence.”

“Either way, we need Torment, and Pride.”

“Pride is worthless.” Despair said, “He ran away like the cowardly fool he is.”

Someone else entered the room, someone who looked like an old woman wearing a robe that covered her face. She seemed to prefer somewhat of a grim reaper-like look with her robes.

“Doubt, just in time. How goes your capturing?”

“I have tracked down the vampires.” The woman hissed in a strange voice, “I want an easier challenge, a relief from getting Vampire Bloodlines in range… I have informed the mass-ter about a Bloodline in Hungary. Remained the ssame since Austria-Hungary…shall be easily conquered.”

“Hm, an easier challenge? That’s unusual, if not just an Oxymoron.” Sorrow responded, “perfect, I know of one touched by spirits who you can track down for me. Someone who is followed by a bear spirit. He is to be a shaman if trained. Keep him from doing so.”

“Thank you, Ssorrow.” The woman said, before appearing to sink within the shadows.

Zane entered his apartment from a day at work, a cheap studio apartment until he could save for something else.

“Welcome home, Zane,” a familiar voice said.

Zane looked over towards where his bed was, spotting a brown bear sitting on the bed. He sighed upon seeing this – it was Bear, or Aelly, as he had named her. As long as he could remember, that ursine appeared to have been with him.

“You’re still surprised that I’m here?” Aelly said.

“You say that all the time. It’s just seeing you in here tends to make the room look a bit… cramped.”

“There’s no problem with that,” Aelly said, still sitting the way a bear would, “After all, you know more than anyone that I am your mother in spirit.”

“Even then,” Zane mumbled, walking over to his desk and booting up his computer.

As if on cue, the bear’s paws rested on his shoulders.

“What’re you doing now?” Zane asked.

“Simply warning you. I’ve been able to detect something malicious nearby. Something from the spirit realm, at that. You should really take up what I said about finding the house.”

“This is some other attempt to get me to do that whole spiritual communing? Because if it is, you know what the answer is. I don’t like that whole bear thing.”

“You still reject it? You’ve been able to attain your true spiritual form since a young age, I’ve taught you.”

“I don’t like losing all of my clothes you know,” Zane said.

“You will still have to eventually.”

“You’ve said that a lot.” Zane mumbled.

The next morning, Zane snuck out while the ursine spirit still slept. For some odd reason, it had become quite foggy, almost suspiciously so. Strange, where was everybody else? Normally there should have at least been a few joggers, dog-walkers, or cars out at this time.

It was such a relief to see someone in a jogging suit outside. Although the jogger seemed to slow down a bit, as if they were becoming winded. Maybe they weren’t used to Jogging, Zane thought. But he recognized the person who was jogging. He didn’t know the guy, but it was somebody whom he had seen numerous times jogging. Why were they out of breath now, when they never seemed to stop before?

Zane walked over to this jogger to see what had gone wrong. The jogger seemed to be bent over, clutching his knees, panting hard.

“Dude, you okay?” Zane asked him.

“I should be,” The jogger said, “I just… don’t think I can do this anymore. It’s too foggy and it’s too much… I can barely do it.”

“Well then just walk home,” Zane said.

The jogger didn’t respond, simply got to his feet again and walked right on off. That was strange; he didn’t even thank Zane for his concern at all. Zane simply shrugged and got back to his normal morning ritual. At least he didn’t have that damned spirit bear following him around again.

Zane immediately opened his car and slid his key into the slot. For some horrible reason, the car kept stalling. He jammed the key harder and harder to get the car to start, but it wouldn’t. He tried even harder still, and still kept stalling.

He glared at the dashboard. What the hell could have been wrong? His gas tank was above the middle line, so it couldn’t have been that. It wasn’t cold out; it couldn’t have been that, either. He had just taken this thing out of the shop to have its tires rotated. Did the damned mechanics stiff him, like the ones in Michigan tried to?

Zane suddenly had a strange feeling that there was something horribly wrong. He looked up at the rear-view mirror and gasped. There was somebody in the car! Someone who looked like an old lady, like those fundamentalist religious ladies who dressed like the grim reaper! He immediately hopped out of the car and turned to the car. Had he been seeing things?

Unfortunately for him it wasn’t, as the strange grim reaper lady opened the car and stepped out, facing him. Zane cursed that he didn’t have his keys with him – he could have simply used a keychain or the keys himself to stab her if she was trying to mug him. Wait, why would an old lady try to mug him?

“Who are you?” He asked.

“You don’t need to know,” The lady responded, walking closer to him, “All you really need to know is that you will be part of a glorious future.”

She tried to reach out to him to grab him, possibly his neck or just his chest. Instinctively, Zane hopped back, but lost his balance on the curb, starting to fall to the ground. Time seemed to slow down for a brief moment as he fell on the ground. When he landed on his back, he half expected the old lady to be on top of him somewhere.

Instead he heard her cursing something. Zane stumbled to his feet but lost his balance, falling down onto his rear. Right there was the old lady, having been pushed against the car by none other than Aelly. The old woman was cursing the spirit for having been active. Zane would have questioned how Aelly had even come to him so fast, when he knew she was ‘asleep’, but he wouldn’t have said no to her helping out.

“Zane! Change to your true form now!” Aelly shouted.

“What? How can I?” He asked, “Do you mean-“

“Now!” She growled, trying to push the woman down on the car again, “None of you try to hurt my cub!”

“Your cub? Oh I get it,” the old woman said, reaching through to the ursine spirit’s throat. She attempted to choke the spirit, to release its hold on her.

“Stop it!” Zane shouted.

“If you don’t want her to die, then you come with me.” The grim reaper woman said, “Simple as that. I know the master can use the both of you.”

“Zane! Cast off your flesh now!” Aelly gasped.

“I don’t know HOW!” He shouted, running towards the woman being held by the bear. Thankfully for him, Aelly turned transparent just enough for him to phase through her. She let go of the woman just in time for Zane to grab onto the grim reaper woman.

In the struggle, the grim reaper woman’s hood flipped off. Zane gasped and stepped back, almost losing his balance once more. The woman did not even look human! He had seen all sorts of weird things in his life, like bear spirits who claimed him her child, but never something that looked quite like this. Her eyes were clearly not human.

“It’s a demon!” Aelly said to him, “She wants your own spirit force to feed off of.”

“EW!” He shouted.

“Stop resisting!” The woman said as she tried to step closer to the two.

Aelly hurled herself forward onto all fours, growling viciously. She reared onto her hind legs and swiped at her. The woman seemed threatened by this, even though Aelly’s claws did not seem to actually come into contact with her.

“Damned mothering spirits…” The demonic woman said, “You can’t do it, you know. You don’t know how!” She seemed to be shouting at Zane.

“Zane, she is lying.” Aelly turned around; still keeping an eye on the woman, “Simply imagine yourself as you should be! Fast!”

Zane didn’t know who to listen to. But in between some random woman who had snuck into his car or someone whom he had known his whole life? Aelly would have won out. Zane simply imagined himself wondering what he’d really be. At first, the image that came to his mind was simply taking out a pistol and blowing this old woman away. But then he started to feel something. Something familiar.

Zane’s clothes felt extremely tight, as his skin turned a jet black. The grim-reaper looking woman screamed and ran towards him again, only for Aelly to intercept her. Claws erupted from Zane’s fingers, as white fur started to cover his leathery black skin. All except for his paw pads on his palms and feet.

As Zane grew in height, his clothes started to give way, revealing more and more snow-white fur covering leathery black skin. He felt… powerful. More and more confident and threatening. Zane’s face seemed to contort, stretching into a muzzle. His tongue turned a dark purplish colour, and his teeth elongated into fangs. He started growling.

This was quite familiar to him. Aelly had forced him to turn into his so-called ‘true form’ numerous times in the past. He never enjoyed it, but for some reason, this time he felt like it was absolutely necessary. The polar bear dropped to all fours, letting out a massive roar.

“That’s it! Help, Zane! I cannot hold her off for longer!” Aelly shouted.

“So, that’s your true form, spirit ‘charmer’,” The woman said, “Tell me… how do you know that’s what you really are? This hostile spirit here simply enchanted you!”

Zane didn’t listen to a word she said. His vision seemed to go red. He ran towards her, tackling the woman with his bulk. Unfortunately for him, his car was still nearby, and she was caught between a rock and a hard place. He could hear her bones crunching as he grasped her.

Zane opened his jaws and grasped the woman’s head. He started to shake her back and forth. Until that was, he tasted only cloth. It was like he bit into a thick winter jacket. His vision turned back to normal. The polar bear spat out the clothing, falling back to his rear.

“Well done, my cub,” Aelly said.

“Where’d she go?” Zane asked, his heart still pumping adrenaline through him. His voice deepened significantly, still being recognizable as his.

“That demon retreated, but you stopped her physically. Demons need both physical and spiritual damage to be destroyed. On top of that, you changed to your true form without me.”

“What? Well don’t get used to it!” Zane said, “Now turn me back into a human. I’m huge. Too big. I’ll be shot with a tranquilizer and hunted down for sure!”

“Your alternative form is different,” Aelly said, walking up to the anthropomorphic polar bear, “I’ve helped you through your life. You must learn to turn back on your own.”

“Tell me what I have to do then!” He said, “Before I-“

He heard police sirens coming. Oh great! They heard him. Someone must have called the cops. Zane quickly turned around and tried to barrel out. Of course, his body seemed a little too heavy for sustained speed, and he felt himself falling to all fours. The mountains, there had to have been some kind of place he could hide until Aelly would tell him how to turn back to normal.

After he had retreated from the apartment, he plopped down on his front, tongue lolling out of his mouth. How he hated this, yet for some odd reason, running on all fours, being covered in fur, and being so large… it felt completely natural to him. Aelly was not far behind him.

“Why did you run?” Aelly asked, “Certainly they would have understood.”

“They don’t,” Zane said, turning to face that spirit bear, “Nobody understands me.”

“That may change,” Aelly said, “You’ve been avoiding the other spirituals for awhile.”

“I’m supposed to be a solitary animal,” Zane growled.

“That you are… but have you forgotten of your flesh-father, and your father in spirit?” Aelly said.

Zane wanted to bare his fangs, but he didn’t have the energy for some reason… he wanted to distance himself from his family for so long he ran away the second he turned eighteen.

“I want nothing to do with those! You forced me into it. I want to be a normal human!”

“You are simply made for something greater,” Aelly said, “Come. There will be more like that, and some even worse following you.”

Connor kept trying to dial Eileen’s phone number, only to get absolutely nothing. He had sent her a dozen text messages and left messages on her voice mail numerous times only to get no response. Topham wouldn’t even respond. The only person who had responded about having seen Eileen was Ms. D’isles over in England.

Out of a random guess, he tried calling Joe’s phone number. Allegedly, Eileen was last seen on a plane headed out for America, and he knew Joe lived out there. It was a wild mass guess. After several rings, he heard a voice on the other side.

“Yello?” It was Joe.

“Hello, is this Joe?” Connor asked, just to make sure.

“Yeah… Connor, was it?” Joe said.

“Yes!” He said, “Uhm… I don’t know if you’ve seen Eileen recently. I know you live out in the middle of America. Has Eileen stopped by at all?”

“Actually, yes, I have seen her.” Joe said. Connor’s eyebrows perked up. A smile spread across his face.

“Where was she?” Connor asked.

“I was at DIA. I had to escort a guest from Japan and… all of a sudden, we got attacked! Werebeasts. And then Eileen showed up out of nowhere, but ran. The were-eagle pursued her but I couldn’t follow. I had to find our guest.”

“Really, who is your guest?” Connor asked.

“Koki Kazunari.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him.” Connor responded, “So where did he go?”

“I don’t know, I’m still trying to find him. I wish I had something like an aura signature… I didn’t think about that until he went missing out here. I think there are demons out here. That’s why you, Keyes, and Eileen came here a little while ago wasn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it was. Then we got attacked by a were-lion and accidentally summoned Sor- uhm… Well we have more than one Incarnation under our control, if Topham is to be believed.”

Joe was silent for a few moments. Connor probably imagined exactly what was going through Joe’s mind. He had been used to Sloth as well – he didn’t want to break the news that Sloth had allegedly been banished from the world.

“What?!” Joe asked, “Do you mean Sorrow?”

“Not so loud!” Connor almost snapped, “You might accidentally summon her like we did! Seriously! I have a feeling there’s something big going on.”

“It must involve Koki Kazunari… Topham really wanted to make sure that he was guarded and brought to our home in Commerce City.”

“Topham himself, huh?” Connor said, “Listen… I’ll try and head over there. I have my pocket money – I’m not stupid enough to charge the Cabal itself and wonder why.”

“Great, can you bring tracker of some kind? Or a scrying tool? I broke the magnifying glass.”

“Idiot.”

“Har har har.” Joe said. “Just don’t use that one over there in Spain.”

“You mean the Mirror of Despair? Yeah… no, I’m not that stupid.”

“Err… Connor? I… have to go now.”

“Uhm, alright, bye.” Connor said. Joe seemed to immediately hang up. That was strange. Why the sudden change in mood.

Connor turned around to head towards the airport and jumped. Right there was somebody who wasn’t there before. Someone who seemed to look like a youth of some kind, around his age.

“Uhm, hello.” Connor said, “When did you get here?”

“I can help you.” The human said, looking at Connor with much darker than normal eyes.

Zane almost wished that the events of the past few days had been some kind of dream. That he would wake up and find himself in his bed, with Aelly curled up on the floor inside the room like a giant dog. But no, he would still wake up and find himself lying on the ground, still covered with fur, and with a much bulkier and wider physique than before. And with Aelly right next to him.

Aelly had claimed to know exactly where she was trying to take him. He wished that she would just tell him straight out everything he wanted to know instead of being cryptic like in those video games or fantasy stories, especially those that involved a vaguely worded prophecy of some kind.

Although at least if he was in one of those, he would have had a warm bed to sleep in and a warm meal of some kind, rather than what he had to do now. Zane wished he could have just gone without eating instead of eating raw deer and sleeping under the moonlight like an animal. What was even more unnatural was that he never seemed to feel cold, or hot.

Looking at himself, he hoped he didn’t have to get really fat for the winter so he could sleep in some cave. The fact that he wasn’t burning up during the day surprised him – after all he was a polar bear, rather than just a standard grizzly.

What was also more unnerving was how… natural this felt. Walking around on all fours not only seemed easy as pie, but so did walking on two legs. Smelling things was completely natural, as was scratching his back on a tree. He just wanted to be human and normal again. Though Aelly wouldn’t have let him. Darn mama bear instinct, he thought.

“We’re here,” Aelly said, “That’s the House your father belongs to.”

Zane looked over the house. That’s what it was… he remembered it all now. His dad had him live in there for a little while, before he got sent out to school. That Manitou House… Aelly had been trying to get him to go there for a while but he didn’t want to.

Now he didn’t really have a choice. He couldn’t go back to his new home covered in white fur and about twice as tall as he was before. Aelly lead the way to the house, stopping to make sure Zane was following. Of course, he couldn’t get far on his own, without Aelly finding him.

He stood up on his hind legs and knocked on the door. With his size, he was trying to make sure not to smack it in. A few minutes later, a girl in her teens answered the door. Strange, she looked a little familiar.

“Say Mara?” The girl said, “There are bears at the doorway.”

Only at Manitou House would somebody say a line like that and not be thought of as insane.