The moss bear roared and charged. It ran straight to them. Evie didn’t have time to think. So she did something…possibly incredibly stupid.

Sure, Nan had ordered to run. On some level, she knew that she should run. But that damned fight-or-flight response reared its ugly head, turned off her reasoning and logic, and told her, ‘You know what would be a great idea? If you challenged the moss bear and made weird claw motions with your tiny, helpless human hands.”

Which is exactly what she did. Evie lunged forward, raising her arms high over her head, and she screamed. It wasn’t a totally ridiculous idea, in theory. That was what you were supposed to do when you saw a black bear, after all – scream and shout and make yourself look too big to be easy prey. And this place kind of looked like Maine, and Maine had black bears. Never mind that this bear was green, and bigger than any black bear she’d ever seen. Never mind that if you scream at a different type of bear, like a grizzly bear or a polar bear, you just…well, you make it angry, and long story short, you die.

Next to her, Nan froze for a second at Evie’s actions, her brows lifted in surprise. But one second later, Nan brought her hands up and pushed them forward, and an honest-to-God wall of golden light formed between them and the bear.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

The bear ran headfirst into the wall of light, and promptly ricocheted backwards as if it hit a wall of concrete. The light wall held, with Nan’s hands flexed and tense in front of her. The bear shook its head and roared again. Evie took a deep breath and screamed back at it, waving her arms like a mad woman.

The bear dodged to the left, but Nan’s wall of light moved to stay between them and the bear. It rammed itself against the wall again. Evie looked around the forest floor. Perhaps there was a stick, or a branch, or a sword hidden in the brush. A dagger. A gun. Not that she knew how to use a gun. Okay, a dagger.

“Evie!” Nan shouted. “Stay behind me.”

Oh. Right. She didn’t have a dagger, and even if she had one, she had no idea how to use it. She was completely helpless and one shirt away from naked. Evie moved closer to Nan and the light wall, watching the bear. It wasn’t particularly intelligent, ramming itself into the wall of light over and over again. Every few second, Nan shouted for Marrel, and Evie screamed at the bear.

Occasionally, the bear moved to go around the wall, but Nan just moved the wall with focused attention.

“How long will that hold,” Evie asked in a low voice.

Nan laughed in a sort of exasperated, astonished huff. “Long enough, I hope.”

Just seconds later, Nan looked up and turned to the path, a small smile growing on her face. “Just in time.” Evie didn’t hear anything, but looked to the path.

A blurred figure rounded the bend in the woods and charged forward. Evie yelped and jumped back, stepping onto a branch. Something stabbed through her bare feet and she screamed, falling to the ground.

“No!” Nan shouted, turning around. The moss bear saw the opening and started to charge towards Evie’s prone figure on the ground. In that one second when Nan’s attention was turned, the moss bear leaped into the air. It was massive, the size of a car, and it was headed straight towards Evie. Oh god, she thought. Oh god. Evie curled into a ball, hands going around her head as she turned her face towards the ground. This is it.

Just before the bear landed on top of Evie, which absolutely would have crushed her body to a pile of goo, something rammed straight into the bear’s side in mid-air. The bear was forced sideways and tumbled onto the ground. Evie peaked through her fingers to see Marrel standing above her, facing the bear. He yelled and charged the bear again. He lowered his shoulder and rammed into the beast’s side. It fell back again, roaring in pain. It swiped at Marrel’s legs and made contact with his shins, scoring long gashes into his legs through his pants. He ignored his leg and ran forward again, even as blood started spurting from his shin.

“Oh god,” Evie breathed, watching the scene. Nan had stepped in front of Evie once more with her light shield and was also watching the scene, though she seemed more relaxed now, even as her husband fought a giant bear monster single-handedly.

Marrel rammed into the bear over and over again, and honestly, it was pretty gruesome. It wasn’t a quick fight. It was more like Marrel slowly, violently overcame the bear’s natural defenses, causing small wounds each time. It looked exhausting to Evie, but besides some heavy breathing, Marrel didn’t seem to tire fighting against a fully grown bear.

Evie stood up and grimaced at the wound in her foot, but limped over to Nan, where they both watched Marrel take down the moss bear. The bear was swaying now, unsteady on its feet. Finally, with a fearsome shout, Marrel charged into the beast one last time. It collapsed on the ground. Marrel grimaced but stepped forward and stomped on the bear’s head. After a few violent stomps, it was finished.

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Ding! Your group has killed [Moss Bear, lvl 22]. You have been awarded exp.

Error: No class chosen. Unable to award exp. Exp will be recorded once a class has been assigned.

----------------------------------------

Ding! You have met the prerequisite for the [Fighter] class. Would you like to accept the [Fighter] class? [Y/N]

Evie read the words with dawning horror. She stared at the dead creature on the forest floor. “Oh, hell no,” she thought hard.

[Fighter] class rejected.

It was….Evie shook her head. It was like a video game interface. But that would be impossible. Right? Surely, there was no way…

But then Nan twisted the ring on her finger and the wall of light disappeared, and Evie paused. Whether it was science or magic, Nan’s ring was something she’d never seen before – something she knew was impossible in her world. But it was here, right in front of her.

This was a whole new world. And apparently, it thought she could be a fighter. So perhaps it wasn’t a particularly sensible world. Or perhaps whatever had installed this strange interface in her brain had a sense of humor. Her list of questions grew.

Nan rushed to Marrel, who was kneeling over the fallen moss bear. She knelt down beside her husband, who turned his head into her shoulder. Evie watched as Nan patted his back and smoothed his hair back from his face. After a moment, she whispered in his ear and moved him to sit down on the ground. She bent down to roll up his pant leg, clucking over the gushing wounds. Nan moved her hands slowly over the gashes in his legs, and Evie sucked in a breath to see a faint glowing light around Nan’s hands. Marrel’s injuries closed, the skin knitting itself back together. Nan sighed and pulled Marrel into a soft kiss.

After a moment, Nan stood and walked back towards Evie. Marrel ran his fingers through his hair, which had long since escaped its leather tie. He knelt beside to the bear once more and placed his hand on the creature’s forehead.

“Sit down, sweetheart,” Nan commanded with a weary voice. “Let’s take a look at your foot.” Evie obeyed and watched as the woman applied that same glowing light to her injured foot. “Oh, this was deeper than I thought,” Nan mumbled. “Hold on.” Evie shouted at an unexpected sharp pain. Nan made soothing noises even as the pain intensified.

Something moved through Evie’s foot. She yelped as a small piece of wood popped out of the open cut on her food. Nan nodded. “That’s it, I think.” She looked up at Evie with a sympathetic expression. “I know it’s not pleasant. But we had to get it out before the wound could become infected. Now, let’s clean this up, hmm?”

Once more, the light glowed from Nan’s hands as she hovered over Evie’s foot. Evie watched with wide eyes as the blood stopped flowing and the wound closed to reveal new, pink skin. Nan nodded to herself. “There we are. All fixed up.”

Marrel approached them. “Are you alright?”

Evie nodded and stood, testing her foot. “I think so.”

Nan sighed. “Well, we definitely have to go to town now.” Marrel held out his hand and helped his wife to her feet. “Come on.”

Together, the three of them left the body of the bear on the forest floor. Nan took Evie’s arm and linked it through her elbow once more. She shook her head. “That shouldn’t have happened. The moss bears…they’re pretty peaceful creatures. They only become aggressive if something destroys their home. And they normally confine themselves to the west coast of the island. For one to be this close to Brinestone, something must have chased it out of its habitat,” Nan explained. She looked worried. “We’ll have to check in with Salt Harbor and make sure everyone’s okay.”

Marrel nodded, head hung low. “We’ll go straight to the guard. They’ll send a team.”

Nan opened her mouth, hesitated, and turned to Evie. “Sweetheart, if you see a moss bear again, I would suggest not doing…whatever it was that you were doing.”

Evie flushed. “I promise,” she answered.

Marrel frowned. “What did she do?”

Nan laughed and patted his arm. “I’ll tell you later, dear.” She smiled at Evie. “Like I said, they’re mostly peaceful, but if they’re raging, you won’t get it to back down. The best thing you can do is…well…it depends on your skills.”

Evie frowned. “Skills?”

Nan nodded. “In your class,” she explained, as if that made any more sense.

Evie just stared at her blankly.

Marrel frowned and looked to Nan, who shook her head. “Let’s get you to the infirmary, and we’ll talk more.”

They rounded the bend, and the woods tapered off to reveal a packed gravel road and a cart set to the side. Evie stopped short at the view. It was incredible.

They were on a high cliffside road, revealing a gorgeous landscape of steep, rocky cliffs and blue waves crashing against the rocks. Islands speckled the horizon. Down below, Evie could see that the road wove through the landscape towards a small outcrop of buildings in the distance, next to the coast. To the east, a rocky island rose from the sea with two peaks, like a crescent moon growing straight out of the water.

Nan sighed, seemingly oblivious to the gorgeous view in front of her. “Where’s Cheddar?”

Marrel shrugged. “It would have taken too long to put on his harness.”

His wife shook her head. “Alright, have it your way.” She stepped onto the cart settled herself on the box seat in front, waving at Evie to join her. Evie clumsily hopped into the cart, pulling down Marrel’s sweater around her thighs. Marrel stepped in front of the cart, lifting the two shafts in front as if it was nothing.

“Actually,” Nan said. “Let’s go home first. We’ll saddle Cheddar and get Evie some clothes.”

Marrel shrugged and turned the cart, pulling it down the road. Evie sat up straight, watching the world around her with wide eyes. With a start, she realized she was smiling.

It was a brave new world.