Bearing

By Amber Foxx

A tale of paranormal horror based on Native American myths.

Mikayla, young Apache woman attending a powwow with her family, becomes entranced by an outsider, a Cree man who shows up without his Apache girlfriend. As her fascination consumes her, Mikayla changes in ways both pleasurable and frightening, powerless to overcome his dark magic until it may be too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amber Foxx
• Release date: Oct 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519911643

Amber Foxx

Amber Foxx, author of the award-winning Mae Martin Psychic Mystery Series, has worked professionally in theater, dance, fitness, yoga and academia. She has lived in both the Southeast and the Southwest, and calls New Mexico home.

Book preview

Bearing

Long ago, when The People were still new, some children were playing at a distance from their camp. One girl dug a hole and crawled in. A few minutes later, she came out roaring and pretending she was a bear. The others squealed and ran as she chased them. When she went back in the hole, the children came back to the edge and teased, Bear, bear, bet you can’t catch us.

She ran out again and chased them, growling like a bear. This time she had claws, and her teeth had grown bigger, but the little ones were so wrapped up in their play they thought it was part of their imaginings. She went back in the hole. They came to the edge and taunted her again. You can’t catch us, bear! This time when she came out and chased them, she was covered with fur, but they still perceived it as part of the game.

She was almost a bear. Only her heart was still a little girl’s, and that stopped her from hurting them. She went back in the hole, and they teased her once more. When she came out the fourth time, her child’s heart was gone and she was fully a bear, and she killed all of them and ate them except her little sister.

The little sister ran back to the camp and hid under a big basket, but the bear found her. The child begged, Please spare me, I’m your sister. I’ll help you. So the bear took her to the hole in the ground and kept her as a servant, making her serve her food and drink in the skulls of the other children.

The little sister took care of the bear so it would sleep and stay in the den and not hurt people. She knew her father and five other men were out hunting nearby and wanted them to be safe. When the bear was asleep, she came out and found them and warned them. The men built a fire at the mouth of the bear’s den. The smoke woke it and made it angry. The bear came out, but the men threw burning fat from a deer they had butchered onto its face. Enraged, the bear backed into its hole again, and the hunters built the fire bigger and ran. They prayed and the wind helped them. They ran to the top of the sacred mountain in the east, and the wind brought them a cloud which carried them up into the sky. The little girl and