I spent a couple of days at Luka's homestead, helping him with chores a bit, but we didn't really talk about anything important. Luka was constantly occupied with some object, fussing over it tirelessly, whispering something to it. I didn't ask questions, deciding that if he wanted to, he would have told me himself. If he was silent, there was a reason. I didn't see the bear during those days; after our memorable meeting, he had gone back into the forest.
On the morning of the third day, everything became clear. I was sitting on the porch when the bear emerged from the forest. Immediately, Luka came out of the hut, holding that mysterious object. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an amulet. It consisted of two parts that fit into each other, forming a single whole. Now, Luka separated them and was threading cords through special holes in each. The result was two amulets: one he gave to me, the other he put on the bear. The bear didn't object in the slightest and didn't even seem to notice.
"Put it on, just be careful," he said to me.
I put the amulet around my neck with some trepidation. A whole heap of new sensations rushed into my consciousness; I immediately took it off.
"Well, yeah, you have to get used to it first," Luka chuckled.
"What was that?"
"Those are the sensations of your new friend."
The bear, who had been sitting there until then, stretched his muzzle towards me, sniffing, then got on all fours and headed towards the forest.
"Well then, put on the amulet and head into the forest yourself."
"And what will I do there?"
"Everything the bear does. If he eats, you eat; if he sleeps, you sleep; if he goes somewhere, you follow him."
"For how long?"
"Four or five days, maybe a week. The amulet will bring you back when it's time. The main thing is, don't take it off. It's both a protection and an aid for you. Pay close attention not to what he does, but to what he feels, how he feels it. And one more thing: if you take it off, you'll have to wander with the bear even longer."
He patted me on the shoulder and went into the hut. I shuffled awkwardly, looked at the forest, then at the hut. Neither the bear nor Luka was visible anymore. I sighed — well, it wasn't like I had much choice — and put on the amulet. The second time was easier — maybe because I already knew what to expect — and now I knew exactly where the bear was. From the moment he got up, he apparently hadn't stopped and had moved quite far from the hut. I trudged after him, not knowing what to expect.
It turned out to be nothing terrible. It was autumn, and the bear was preparing for hibernation, building up fat. All we did all day was eat: picking berries, cracking nuts, stealing honey from wild bees, slowly making our rounds of the same territory. I realized: these were his domains, and they were quite impressive. A full circuit took us about two days.
Wandering with the amulet, I felt no discomfort at all — perhaps because I simply didn't think about it, as if I had become a beast myself. I didn't care how I looked; I slept right on the grass, sometimes throwing down a few branches if it got chilly, and huddled against the bear's side — he didn't mind. And so we roamed.
The bear's consciousness was quite simple compared to a human's, completely lacking reflection — thoughts about thoughts. When the bear was hungry, he ate; when he was sleepy, he slept. But his perception was incomparably more complex than a human's; it seemed the bear lived on a different planet, so much did he perceive from the world around him. Initially, I couldn't handle the flood of new sensations and signals at all, but by the third day, the flow had more or less sorted itself out in my mind. I began to distinguish individual components: where hearing was, where smell was, where something else was that had no analogue in human perception. These analogues probably exist in a rudimentary state, but humans can no longer use them. Apparently, that was the whole point. If people perceived as many signals from their environment on a conscious level, there would simply be no room left for consciousness itself.
But I came to these conclusions later, after my connection with the bear was severed. At that moment, just like the bear, I wasn't thinking about anything: I ate, slept, and patrolled the territory. We managed to circle the bear's domain twice before the amulet drew us back to the hut.
"Ah, you're back, you wanderers!" Luka greeted us.
He approached the bear, took the amulet off him, and gave him a pat on the shoulder. The bear turned towards me, stretched comically, sniffed the air, then turned around and went into the forest. Seeing that I wasn't reacting, Luka came over to me and removed the amulet. But from the moment he took it off the bear, I stood there as if stunned — such sudden silence had fallen across all channels of perception.
"Well, never mind, you'll come around gradually. Now, get yourself to the bathhouse — I fired it up specially for you. You stink to high heaven, my friend."
I stood there a while longer, pondering his words, then dumbly turned and trudged towards the bathhouse. I somehow managed to undress, went into the steam room, and just sat down on the bench. Luka, of course, was aware of my condition, so he didn't leave me to my own devices. He came in, threw more water on the stones, laid me out on the top shelf, and started whipping me with veniks, sparing no effort. Then he made me get out and poured a couple of buckets of well water over me. He repeated the whole process two more times before sending me to the hut. In the hut, he set a jug of mead on the table.
"Here, drink this, and then get some sleep. You'll be yourself by morning."
I could only manage two small cups before I became completely groggy, barely made it to my bunk, and fell into a dead sleep.
Luka was right: in the morning, I was practically feeling like a normal human again, which I didn't fail to tell him.
"Well, you see, a good bath is always a sure remedy."
"And now what?"
"Nothing for now. Now, just walk around, get used to being human again, because the beast can suck you in. You see, what is a man? The same beast, he's just forgotten how to be one. And you, you see, remembered, returned to your roots, so to speak. But if you don't stop in time, you'll lose your human form altogether."
"Just walk around?"
"Well, you can help me with the chores. Or go home, check on your family."
"Now I don't even know if there's anything to check... Things haven't been great lately."
"Then don't torment them, or yourself. Draw a line — and that's it."
"And then what?"
"Well, at least head back to your homeland. Sooner or later we'll finish here, and you'll have to find your place in this world with your new abilities. You won't find a better place for that than where you were born and raised. You grew up under that sun, breathed that air, drank that water, ate that food. There, the growth of your abilities will increase many times over. It's your decision, of course, I can only advise."
That day, I didn't decide anything, I just started helping Luka with the chores, thinking to myself about the situation with my family and my past life in general. Truth be told, I needed to make a decision. So the next day, after saying goodbye to Luka, I set off for the city.
In the city, I checked into a hotel, within a few days I settled accounts at work without haggling, sold my property, my car. I left the apartment to my wife and children. I combined the proceeds with my personal savings and put them in a deposit, specifying that the interest should be paid to the family. I didn't say goodbye to anyone, as that would have led to a lot of questions I couldn't answer coherently.
And so, leaving everything behind, I was walking again along the path to Luka's hut. I walked and tried to figure out if I had done the right thing. At the same time, I understood it was a bit late for thinking, but my thoughts kept returning strangely. However, they were just thoughts, which hardly resonated in my heart. The past was past, I finally concluded, and walked more confidently down the path.
