We took our time walking through the forest, with Bruiser stopping every now and again to show me a plant. When I began to tire for the day, he’d allow me to ride on his back so we could keep closing the distance between us and our destination.
We stopped and ate cinnamon rolls for lunch as he described the uses of different roots, plants, and ferns. For dinner, he would step into the river and catch fresh fish, flicking them out of the water and at my feet with his masterful claws.
We came across a couple of dire-wolves and a couple of gross crab-like creatures which crawled out of the river towards us, waving their claws menacingly. Bruiser let me handle them, with some words of advice, and shouldered one of the dire-wolves away from me when its jaws got too close for comfort.
I felt like a total idiot, screaming out lines like “You come here often?” and “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” as I swished my sword around in agitated terror. But it seemed to work. The wolves would get a dopey expression on their faces and their strikes would go astray like the fight had gone out of them. It almost felt like cheating to then drive a sword into them.
By the time the crabs approached on the second day as we ate our dinner of campfire-roasted fish, I was grasping for flirty lines to charm them with and called out “Hey sexy-legs!” in a panic before slicing its claws off and stabbing it in the slit its eyes protruded from.
Bruiser was cackling at me as I cleaned my sword.
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“It’s hard to flirt on command, especially when the thing you need to flirt with is trying to kill you,” I said defensively. “I dare you to come up with some better pickup lines.”
His laughter died as I sat down next to him, reclaiming my abandoned fish.
“I rather liked the one you used yesterday,” he said after a moment, his tone low and husky again. “Did it hurt when you fell, my angel from heaven?”
I looked at him questioningly. He looked like he was struggling to control himself.
“Damn, did I use my seduction powers on you again?” I asked in alarm. “I didn’t mean to!”
“You don’t have to use your powers of seduction on me,” he said, his head dipping down as though he was going to kiss me, but then paused. “I’m already seduced.”
Then he shifted back into a bear, his pants ripping as his haunches expanded.
I sighed, gathering the shredded material and shoving it in his bag. He tried not to ruin his clothes unless he really had to. This trip was proving treacherous for both of us.
I shouldered my satchel and walked beside Bruiser in silence until the light began to fade. He sniffed around in the forest and found a sheltered spot between two large boulders and a tree and lay down. As I did each night on our journey, I snuggled up close to him and used my cape as a blanket. His body heat and thick fur kept me warmer than I would have hoped for, considering we were camping outdoors, and I stared up at the unfamiliar constellations. Back in my old life, I never really saw the stars. There was too much light pollution in the city and never any reason to go far enough out of town to try and see them.
Bruiser’s heavy paw pulled me closer to him, his deep rumbling snores breaking the silence in the forest. I turned in his embrace and pressed my face into his soft fur, feeling more at home under the stars with him than I had in any house I’d ever lived in.
How could Brick ever forgive me?