Panthera Spelaea Ch. 31-40

"Sounds like fun," Anna replied.

We cooked the last of our food for breakfast in the kitchenette, then left Anna behind to watch our things. Lana and I got in a taxi and headed for an auto dealer, where I paid for a used UAZ Patriot SUV. The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant was known for building off-road capable vehicles for the Russian Military. The four-door black four-wheel-drive SUV had the ground clearance of a Jeep, lacking only a powerful engine. The 2.7L 4-cylinder power plant only had 150 horsepower. Still, it was cheap enough to buy with my credit card and would hold us and our gear comfortably.

I drove back to the hotel, where we loaded our bags in the back and checked out. Our next stop was a sporting goods store. "I hope you like camping because we need to get away from people for a few days. I need to let it out."

"I haven't been camping since before college," Svetlana said.

"I've never been." We bought backpacks, sleeping bags, a big nylon tent, cooking gear, and plenty of food before we headed over to see her parents.

Ch. 36

Nadezna and Sergei greeted the three of us warmly. They may not have agreed with our decision, but it was ours to make. They loved their daughter enough to want her to be happy, and she was in love with the two of us. Fighting that now would make her pull away, so they embraced our unique union and prayed it would work out.

Anna handed Mom a flower arrangement while I brought bottles of white and red wine. The girls went inside while Sergei helped me with our bags. "Nice car," he told me.

"It will work for now," I told him. "We need to get away and let things cool off."

"I agree. Even at my work, where I have been for thirty years, I face pressure to make a public stand against you. I will not; the Federal Police are making a mistake. They should spend more time finding the killer and less time harassing you and my daughter."

"I can't argue with you on that. This week has been very hard on Svetlana. She thought coming home would fix things, but it has made them worse." We left the bags inside the door and washed up for dinner.

The five of us gathered around the table for dinner. Momma was prepared for my appetite this time, the dinner table covered with traditional Russian foods. The meal started with a vinegrette salad, made with boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions, and sauerkraut. The ingredients were tossed with oil, not vinegar, and the fresh garden vegetables made for a great salad.

The main course was a familiar one, Chicken Kiev. I had four of the chicken breasts, making my future Mother-in-Law smile as I enjoyed her cooking. I didn't tell her I'd eaten a meal just an hour ago so I wouldn't embarrass myself again.

For dessert, she had made a Russian apple cake. It was a fitting end to a meal filled with light conversation, drinks, and love. The girls cleared the table, and Sergei brought out the vodka and the glasses. He waited until the ladies returned to pour glasses and toast the power of young love.

I'd drink to that.

The conversation turned more serious as he refilled the glasses. "I'm sorry that your return home has gone this way. I see why you have to leave again."

Svetlana took her father's hand while keeping her left hand in mine. "The investigation is ruining everything for us, and I don't see it changing. I can't even go shopping without people staring at me and calling me names. I'll never get a job here."

Nadezna was distraught at our treatment. "So, what will you do?"

"We're getting out of town for a while," I told them. "We all need a break, and we have a car now and time to see the countryside. We even bought some camping gear so we can get away from civilization completely."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't even know yet," I told him. "I'm going old school to get clear of the surveillance. No cellphones, no set itinerary, no credit cards, and no trackers. I stopped at the bank on the way over and removed enough cash for a few weeks of tourism. We're going dark and moving randomly, not deciding on our next stop until we are on the road."

"Dad, do you still have maps in your car?"

"I think so." Yes, we were going so old-school that we'd be using folding paper maps on this trip.

Mom made us promise to check in with her once in a while; I agreed, but I told her we'd do that just before we made a move elsewhere. The weak link of our plan was the car and our faces. "I've got hair coloring in my bedroom," Svetlana said. "I look good as a redhead."

"I can cut your hair if you want," Nadezna said. "A short hairstyle plus a color change would make people look twice."

With that, it was salon night. All three of us looked slightly different before sunrise. I looked older, with a crewcut colored black and a tinge of grey hair at my temples. Svetlana looked hot as a redhead, and Anna had spiky white hair. Sergei and I inspected our car for bugs while the girls made sure our phones were off. We wrapped them in foil, put them in a metal box, then put that box in another metal box before burying it at the bottom of our luggage pile.

We said our goodbyes and climbed into the SUV, with Svetlana driving and me riding shotgun. I'd won the rock-paper-scissors battle to pick the first place to visit, and I told her to head north while I figured it out.

Wanting to get away, I looked on the map for national parks. Svetlana drove north along the east bank Rybinsk Reservoir, and we stopped for lunch in Cheropovets. We didn't see anyone recognize us, and we kept the car in view the whole time, so it was a good start.

Anna took the next leg, driving north. We wanted a big park, but we couldn't get there too late in the day, or we'd run out of daylight before getting set up. When we stopped for gas in Vytegra, Anna asked if there was a nice hotel around. He pointed to the Wardenclyff Volga&Balt tower down the street.

The hotel was pretty nice, located on a small river with lots of commercial traffic near the big Lake Onega. Anna rented the room, paying cash for the night. We dropped our things off in our room, then played pool in the bar area until it was time to eat. The food was good, and we were all in good spirits as we retired to our room for the night. We didn't see any indications the owners or any of the guests recognized us.

The girls wanted to take advantage of beds and showers, knowing we'd be roughing it soon. The girls did their best to wear me out as we tested the soundproofing of our room and the strength of the bedframe. They got five loads out of me, and I lost count of how many times the girls climaxed. When we were all rotated through the shower, sleep came quickly.

We had a big breakfast before heading northeast to the Vodlodersky National Park entrance. We drove into the park to the village of Kuganavolok, where we had to purchase a permit. While we were there, we all saw the maps that showed just how big the park was. The main lake was twenty-four miles wide and ten miles long, filled with islands and surrounded by forests and swampland. "Anna? Ask them how they access the most remote areas of the park."

She talked in rapid-fire Russian with the clerk, then came back to us. "There are dozens of uninhabited islands in the lake. We can hire one of the locals to drop us off and pick us up a few days later," she said.

Damn. An island would be perfect. "We want one that is not tiny, that is isolated, and where we won't see other people on it during the stay." That turned out to be easy, as they controlled the camping permits. Rubles changed hands, and an hour later, we were on a motorboat heading north into the big lake.

We got dropped off on Ostroff Chernyy island, which was long east-west and narrow. It only had one camping site on the one-third-mile long length, but the sand beaches made up for it. We said goodbye to our guide, who would return in two days at ten in the morning.

"It's just us now," I told the girls as I hefted the big backpack and the tent.

"This is going to be fun," Anna said as we reached the high point where the campsite was. You could see the rest of the island and the big lake surrounding us.

"Oh, yeah." I'd been a Boy Scout and was no stranger to camping with all the expeditions I'd gone on. It didn't take us long to get everything set up, and we ate lunch before heading out to explore the island. The beach was perfect, and swimsuits were optional. The early fall weather meant the lake was cooling off but not cold yet.

We returned to the campsite as sunset approached, building a small fire to sit by. The girls sat next to me on a blanket as I started to meditate under Anna's tutelage. "Relax and let your mind drift," she told me. "Your lion is in there somewhere. He is you, and you are him. He is no more a danger to us than you are," she whispered to me.

It was true. My lion knew the girls intimately. He loved them and protected them just as I did. "Come on out," I said in my mind. "You're safe here."

It took a while, as I had to keep clearing my head of doubts and look within. I felt something pushing forward from deep inside me, but this time I didn't fight it.

I welcomed it.

It moved forward slowly, pushing my consciousness aside gently as it took over. There was no pain in my head, and I got a glimpse of its mind as it joined me.

I felt my body change, and this time I watched it through the eyes of a lion.

Ch. 37

It wasn't an out-of-body experience if you were still in your body, right?

The change happened so quickly! One moment I was meditating with the girls by my side. The next, I was lying on my side in a gigantic fur coat. My tail ended up too close to the fire, and I lept away from it. I turned back near the trees, the smell of burnt hair strong in my nostrils.

The girls had been knocked aside by my shift and were sitting up again, their mouths open wide. My cat took a big sniff; he didn't like the scent of fear in the air. He sat down, licking the burnt part of his tail and waiting for them to approach.

I was getting a better idea of how the lion's brain worked. My lion didn't pass thoughts to me through my brain; instead, I got emotions. I could feel how possessive my cat side was of the girls as he waited for them to approach.

It took a minute for the girls to get over the shock and start moving. Svetlana was first to get up; she walked towards my lion with her hands open and low. "It's all right, big boy. We won't hurt you."

My lion yawned and laid down, putting his head on his big paws. He seemed to know how to appear non-threatening as Svetlana reached him and scratched at his ears. I could feel how pleased the lion was at her attention as he moved his head to get more spots. By the time Anna joined her, my lion was on his side. He let out a satisfying rumble from his chest as the two girls rubbed his short mane. Like a puppy, he rolled onto his back so they could rub their hands on his chest and belly.

"He's so soft," Anna said as she explored the fur under a front leg. My lion was thoroughly smitten, letting them do whatever they wanted to his body as he stretched out on his back.

"I thought it would be bigger," Svetlana said as she ran her hand down our belly and touched the outside of our penis.

"I looked it up; African lions are only seven inches long. That's not much bigger than John as a human form," Anna replied. "And now we know where that ballsack of his came from."

Anna was leaning over our chest, and my lion took the opportunity to hook her back with a front paw and press her tight. She moved her head towards him, and he gave her a long lick up her chest and neck to her cheek. "Aaaaahh! Cat slobber!"

Svetlana moved up the other side of our body and got a hug from the other front paw. The girls relaxed into my chest and neck as the cat rubbed his scent onto them. I was so happy they weren't afraid of me this way, and my cat was very happy right now.

When the girls finally got up, he rolled to his feet as well. His head was even with the girls, and they giggled as his whiskers tickled them while he sniffed at their necks and faces. He turned away to do something else, and I could only 'sit back and watch' as he trotted off towards the edge of the clearing. When he raised his leg and started pissing on a tree, I figured it out. He splashed pungent urine on a half-dozen trees surrounding the campsite before he came back to them, his territory marked for now.

The girls were back on the blanket by the fire, and the lion moved between them. He laid down with his head towards the light. I tried to tell him to do things, but he was in charge, not me. "John, roll over," Anna tried.

The lion just looked at her and yawned. "John's a lion, not a dog," Svetlana said.

"Lions get trained in the circus," Anna replied. My lion moved his head into her lap, pushing under her hand for scratches. "He's got me trained."

"I can't believe he's so gentle with us. Watching him tear up those men was frightening."

"I know. The lion was protecting us because John loves us."

I was stuck as the moon came up. I'd let the lion come forward, and I had no idea how to change back! I asked him in my mind and got no answer. I tried to shove him aside, and nothing. The girls asked me to change back for bedtime, but he just yawned and stretched and begged for more scratches. Finally, they gave up. My lion watched as they went into the woods to go to the bathroom, making sure nothing harmed them.

"I'll get things ready for bed. The big lug can sleep outside if he doesn't want to change back." Anna went into the tent with a flashlight. The tent was a big one, ten feet square, with a dome top tall enough to stand up.

My cat followed her in through the open insect screen despite Svetlana yelling at him to stay out. We had three big sleeping bags, and she had two of them unzipped and covering the foam pads on the floor of the tent. My cat sniffed around the edges before turning in a circle and laying down on the blankets. He yawned before putting his head down with his nose near the entrance. "I guess it's bedtime," Anna said.

"Our cat takes up a LOT of the bed," Svetlana said as she came in. She left her shoes by Anna's near the door, and both of them took off their clothes before reaching for their backpacks. My lion growled as they came out with their pajamas. "What is that about," she wondered.

When Anna put a leg through her flannel sleep pants, my lion reached out with his paw and pulled them down. She tried again, and this time he used his claws to shred them. Anna looked at the torn bottoms in shock.

Svetlana laughed and put her clothes back in her backpack. "I think he wants us to sleep naked with him," she told her lover. Damn right; I was used to being naked with them, and there was no reason to stop now. Maybe I'd get control back overnight?

"It's going to be cold tonight, maybe eight degrees!" Eight Celsius would be in the mid-forties Fahrenheit. Uncomfortably cool without warm clothes and a warm sleeping bag.

"He's a big fuzzy hot water bottle," Svetlana replied. "It won't be so bad."

The girls snuggled into me for the night. Svetlana's back was pressed to my chest, with Anna spooned to her in front. Both had their heads resting on the fur of my outstretched leg while my top leg rested across their sides. The third sleeping bag covered the girls, and we quickly fell asleep.

Ch. 38

My cat woke as the first rays of dawn came over the lake. Both girls had made themselves more comfortable overnight. Anna was sleeping on top of me with her head snuggled into the mane on my shoulder. Svetlana had turned around, with her firm breasts pressed against my chest and her head resting where my leg met the shoulder. I had my body curled around them, my legs holding Svetlana tight to me.

The girls stirred when my cat raised his head and sniffed.

They got up when he licked their faces. "Aww, geeze!" Anna slid off my side and rolled off Svetlana to the unused portion of the bed we'd made.

"I guess it's our wakeup time," Svetlana replied. She rolled onto her back as I started to move, then sat up as I did. "How did you sleep?"

Anna stood up and stretched, her curves on full display. "Like a baby," she said. "He's so damn warm and soft and snuggly!"

I wanted to snort, but my lion wouldn't do it. Instead, my cat got up and nosed at the tent entrance. "I got it," Anna said as she unzipped the netting and the nylon outer shell, holding them aside. "Go on! And don't ruin our tent!"

I could hear the girls dressing as my cat patrolled the perimeter of our campsite and renewed the scent markers. He checked out the whole island over the next half-hour or so, mostly staying within the cover of the trees. Satisfied there were no threats to the girls, he made his way back to the campsite. The smell of food cooking only made him move faster.

The girls had the fire going again, and Svetlana was making pancakes and sausage. Anna was first to spot me, coming over to scratch my ears. I rubbed my head against her clothing, saturating her in my scent before I walked back to the fire. Svetlana got the same rubbing treatment as she scratched my chest. My cat was pleased with the attention and hungry for the food.

The girls had two plates and a bowl out as my cat laid on his stomach nearby. Anna took her plate and ate first, then took over cooking for Svetlana so she could eat. The girls could only make a few sausage links and pancakes at a time. Once in a while, they'd flip a pancake or sausage into the bowl where my cat would wait for it to cool down before snarfing it in a single bite.

Once Svetlana finished eating herself, she took over hand-feeding duties. My cat liked being hand-fed more than eating out of the bowl, daintily picking the food from her fingers before gobbling it down. The girls made a lot of pancakes, and I ate them all. When the large milk container used to mix the batter was empty, Anna told me breakfast was over.

I could feel the lion's satisfaction as he watched the girls clean up. He followed Anna down to the lake with the dirty dishes. She was carrying two metal pails and a bag. Once she cleaned the plates and utensils off in the lake, she piled them in one bucket and filled it most of the way with water. The other she filled with water.

Back at the campsite, both buckets were set over the fire and brought to a boil. The dishes were removed and laid out to dry in the sun, while the other bucket of water would get poured through a charcoal filter and used for drinking water. "It's past eight," Anna said as they finished up. "What should we do today?"

"It's going to get hot this afternoon, so why don't we explore the island this morning and swim this afternoon?" I liked that idea, and I had a better one. I hoped my lion figured it out because he growled softly at the girls when they started walking to the woods. "What," Svetlana asked.

He crawled forward on his stomach as Anna came closer. When she was by his head, he nudged her towards his shoulders. What a good boy! When Anna didn't get on, he put his nose between her legs and tried to lift one onto his back. "Do you want me to ride you?" YES! I pictured his head nodding, and the lion did that. Anna threw a leg over, grabbing onto my fur and pretending I was a horse. I got up slowly as she held on, then walked over to Svetlana with one girl riding my back. "This is SO COOL!"

My lion nuzzled Svetlana's hip, and she scrambled on to sit behind Anna. The lion barely noticed the added weight on his back. I could tell how happy he was to be close to them. It wasn't an insignificant amount, as the girls had said they weighed a hundred and ten kilos together, but the lion was over four hundred kilograms and heavily muscled. He started walking as the girls figured out the best way to balance without a saddle. Anna moved until her knees were just behind my shoulders, and she had a good grip of my short mane. Svetlana moved behind her like she was on a motorcycle, holding her around the waist with her legs bend and thighs gripping my body.