Stone Bear:Sentinel(Stone Bears Book 1)(11)

Three large, military-looking trucks were parked in a line, taking up a large portion of the garage. The rest was filled with their personal vehicles, supply crates, the office, and a fully equipped weight room and sparring mat, built to bear-shifter sizing.

"Where we going?" Raphael asked over the intra-truck communication system that linked the three vehicles together.

"Diamond mines today fellas. Michael says they have a stone ready for extraction at their main site, Shaft A."

"Oh the Diamond boys. They sure do dig up a lot of dragon stones, don't they!" Uriel said from his truck as he fired up the engine.

"That they do, that they do. We would be a lot poorer if they weren't able to be so productive."

The Diamond Crew, formally known as the Whitepines and lead by their Alpha Michael, were the most productive crew in the mountains. They held a fair lead over the Ruby Crew, and a sizeable one over the rest of the crews.

"Hey, do you guys ever wonder about all these stones?" Raphael asked as the trucks rolled forward, exiting the garage.

"What do you mean?" Gabriel was in the lead truck, making his way toward their destination with practiced ease.

"Well, think about it. We do a retrieval, on average, every other day, from the various crews."

"So?" Uriel sounded completely confused, though Gabriel couldn't blame him, since he didn't have any better sense of where Raphael was going with his thoughts.

"That's almost two hundred stones a year. That's a lot of dragons. So, where are they?"

Gabriel frowned. That was a good question. The stones that they were tasked with retrieving, despite the precious-gem classification of the mining crews, were anything but. They were dragon stones. Whenever a dragon died or decided to relinquish their hold on life, they would assume their dragon form. As the life left them, they turned to rock. Encased in the middle of that rock was their heart stone.

Diamond, Ruby, Emerald, Jade, Onyx, Amethyst, Sapphire, Opal and more. They resembled the jewels visually, but when a shifter or someone with special eyewear saw them, it was obvious they were anything but. The stones radiated immense amounts of heat, even if the stone itself was cool to the touch.

Genesis Valley was rumored to be the birthplace of dragons, which is why there were so many stones found from dragons who had been born here and returned to die many thousands of years later.                       
       
           



       

"Well," he said now into the silence as the others waited for him to speak. He was their senior, and had been at it for longer than they had by several years. "I've never had it absolutely confirmed to me that the dragons are able to turn the stones into eggs and hatch new dragons from them. We've just always assumed that's what they do." He finished speaking and swerved his truck to the left to avoid a large pothole.

"Of course. Why else would we get paid ridiculous amounts of... dammit!" Raphael swore as his truck hit the pothole. "Why else would we get paid so well to be glorified babysitters?" he finished, maneuvering his truck back into line.

"We may just be babysitters now," Gabriel told him, "but it wasn't that long ago that the last of the renegades were still trying to take the stones.

"That was what, thirty years ago now Gabe? Come on, you can't still believe that there's any threat now! Mirrnolax was killed. The dragons said so!"

"And we all know dragons to just be the completely truthful and forthcoming sort, don't we Uriel?" Gabriel responded. The youngest member of the Stone Bears was a little bit too trusting for his liking. "How do we know they told us the truth about Mirrnolax? Maybe they just imprisoned him, assuming that would do the job. Or maybe there's another renegade out there still."

As if to put truth to his words, Gabriel began to scan the road and sky a little bit more carefully. If there truly was a renegade dragon out there, their jobs would be a lot more dangerous than they were now.

"You know, I never did understand the idea behind the renegades," Uriel said, half-accepting his boss's word, but still seeking more knowledge.

"Think of it this way, Uriel. Have you ever met a criminal before?"

"Sure. Hell, half the bears in the Valley are criminals fleeing from the rest of the country. Even we three don't have clean sheets."

"Exactly. We all did things we aren't proud of. But we learned to accept the rules. The Dragon Council wants to work peacefully with the humans, like many of the shifters outside of the Valley. The renegades want to do as they please, and use their strength to rule the humans."

"Do you really think they could do something like that, Gabe? Rule over all the humans?"

"If they had enough dragons, of course they could Uriel."

"And where do you think they get those dragons from?" Raphael chimed in.

"The stones," Uriel replied, realization setting in. "So we have to protect the stones to prevent the renegades from getting their hands on them and raising an army."

"When you boil it down, that's exactly it," Gabriel told him. "That's why they put us through such rigorous training, and why we get paid so much money."

"Hazard pay," Raphael said solemnly.

"Exactly. So just because nothing has happened in a long time, let's not also forget one more thing."

"What's that?" Uriel asked, curiosity mixing with unease.

"To a dragon, these past thirty years or so are nothing more than a heartbeat," he said happily.

"Wow, you're just full of good news today, aren't you boss!" Raphael said.

"You don't know the half of it boys. Starting soon it's just going to be the two of you."

Gabriel paused to let his two associates voice their astonishment and disbelief before he explained what was going on with the new position and what it entailed.

"The Kedyns need someone to be able to act with a bit more freedom, and not be weighed down with the responsibility of this position," he finished.

"So you're no longer going to be a Stone Bear?" they asked almost in conjunction.

"That's what I thought at first too, Raph. But as it turns out, it actually looks like the Stone Bears are going to be expanding and encompassing this Sentinel program as well. So I'll be in charge of everything. I'll still make pickups with you, though likely not as often. But you two will also have at least one new recruit, so Raph, you'll be in charge of training them."

Raphael acknowledged that idea thoughtfully. Gabriel knew he would. The other shifter had been with him for almost five years now, whereas Uriel was only in his second year with the Stone Bears. Those extra few years meant Raphael had begun itching for more command and responsibility. Until now, Gabriel had been unable to grant it to him. There simply wasn't anything to do.

"Now you're going to be in charge of organizing pickups as well as training the new guy," he told Raph. "Think you can handle it?"                       
       
           



       

"I'll give it everything I have," came the answer, a mixture composed mostly of confidence, but still holding more than a few nerves.

"Good. You'll also have to deal with Uri. He's staying with you for now too."

Both shifters complained loudly at that one, though there was no real malice in their voices. The Kedyns were meticulous about who they picked to go through the training to become a Stone Bear. Size, strength, and Alpha ability were all a necessity, but there was more to it than that. Some Alphas ruled through sheer strength alone. Others were leaders and could interact with their crews without worrying about losing stature.

It was those types of Alphas that were selected for the program, and they happened to be extremely rare. But it also meant that the trio of Stone Bears were all very good friends, able to be equals outside of their jobs, and work within the framework set in front of them while on the clock.

The trees parted and the ground leveled out in front of them as they arrived at the Whitepines main shaft. Because the Diamond crew had been established and running as a team for so long, they were also the largest crew, with well over a dozen bears mining. They expanded too, as shifters aged out, were ruled unfit for duty, or in a few rare cases, were killed in freak accidents. The sheer size of the crew meant that they actually had a secondary shaft as well. It was more to ensure that there weren't too many bears in an enclosed space, rather than because the mine itself was too small. After several hundred years, even though they mined by hand with pickaxe and chisel, the shafts were still extensive.

That was why Michael, the Alpha of the Whitepines, had given him a location within the shaft.

"Okay boys, let's do this, nice and easy by the book. Side Corridor 1-C Raph, lead us in," Gabriel said as they dismounted, their trucks parked facing back the way they came, ready for a quick departure.

The directions meant that they were to take the first offshoot from the main trunk of the shaft, and then the third branch from there, and follow it to the end. The embedded rail system and strings of LED lights ensured high visibility, but the three Bears carried and used their high-powered flashlights regardless. If the power failed, it wouldn't be the first time in the history of the shafts that it had been used as a precursor for an attack.