In the evening of the second full day in the Vior six moons were in the sky and gravitational tide was increasing. The animals were getting jumpy feeling the changes. Will stopped early to allow them to settle. He was gathering wood for a fire with Raya when she spotted a line of bees. Following it she found the hive high up in a big old oak tree.

“It's a doozey Will. Lets come back at on dusk and see if I can get into it.”

“Sweet I love honey. It will make a nice addition to our travel food.” said Will.

After a simple dinner Raya fetched a rope and her large leather satchel from her gear, wrapped in it was small funnel shaped tool made of metal that she loaded with embers from the fire.

“I use it to make smoke, it calms the bees” she explained to Will.

The low gravity made it easy to tie a stick to the rope and throw it over a branch above the hive.

“The tree might be rotten, many are that bees nest in. Stand back just in case I knock off any branches.”

With that Raya climbed the rope. The low gravity meant it was hardly climbing, she was easily able pull herself up the rope, barely using her legs. The section where the bees nested was indeed rotten. Listening with her ear to the tree she was able to guess where the bottom of the hive was. Raya pushed a small hole into the tree with the handle of her hatchet. She poked the neck of the funnel into the hole and loaded the base with dry herbs from her pouch. Will watched in admiration as Raya waited for the smoke to start flowing out the hives entrance. Using the cutting end of the hatchet she skillfully forced it into the rotten timber and levered out a big chunk. She moved the chunk over to a branch and placed her smoker in the base of the opening. Using queen bee for the first time she was pleased with the way the fine blade was able to work in the confined space of the hive. Raya removed several large sections like a surgeon, placing each of them in her leather bag which was tied to her waist.

They were both so intent on the operation that neither of them heard the bear approaching.

Raya spotted it first, “Will move back slowly...”

The bear stood on its hind legs growling. Will was terrified, for every step he inched back the bear came forward. Raya whistled a shrill call and threw a large piece of honey filled hive to the ground. The bear turned towards her and lowered itself to all fours taking the piece of hive in its mouth.

“Run Will now, back to camp as fast as you can”

Will didn’t need any encouragement. He bolted and soon arrived panting at the campfire.

“There is a bear and Raya is stuck up the tree and its huge and big and growling it came from nowhere...”

“Ok take a breath” Arwin told him “Stoke up the fire as much as you can”

She called Sheba and shut the puppies in the crate.

“Will grab a couple of torches, light one, and show me the way, she had her bow in hand with an arrow wrapped in cloth and oil. “Sheba, stay close” ... As they came closer, they could hear the bear tearing at the tree.

“Will take this” and she handed him a pottery jar. “Throw it as hard as you can at a rock or tree close to the bear. Make sure it breaks whatever you do.”

As they reached the small clearing the bear turned to face them. Will threw the jar at a rock in front of the bear, smashing the jar and spreading the liquid inside it. Arwin lit the arrow on Will’s torch and shot it into the ground beside the rock, the ground exploded in flame. As the bear stepped back Arwin lit the second torch and ran forwards yelling with Sheba barking at her side. The bear took off into the Vior, Sheba in hot pursuit

“Sheba, get back here!” yelled Arwin.

Raya climbed down leaving the honey in the tree as Sheba reappeared.

“That should keep it away for a bit but let's get back to camp, grab any wood you can on the way.”

Back at camp a Rider was waiting, still they didn’t hesitate to check him out and ran in and began stoking the fire.

“Are you all ok” he asked, “I heard your whistle when I was setting up camp and thought I should ride forward to help.”

“You are kind” Arwin said, adding her armload of wood to the fire.

She introduced the group and told him about the bear and Raya's rescue.

“No wonder you are all so wide eyed. My name is Tindel, sorry not to introduce myself sooner”

Tindel told them that he had passed a group of six soldiers led by a Sargent Dorsel who seemed to know the area well.

"I didn’t fancy their company, so I rode further on to camp. They are tracking a stolen herd and cart something like the one I see here.” The three rustlers tensed “Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you, I am no royalist, I was, but not of the current establishment. Your trouble is that the guards are less than an hour away by foot I think they plan to take you in the morning. If they catch you it will be prison at best or gallows at worst.”

“Thanks for the warning,” said Raya.

“We are going to have to abandon the heard.” said Arwin “Then they will have to choose between following us and reclaiming the animals”

“I don’t think they will follow the animals, I think that Dorsal has you in his sites. The queen doesn’t take kindly to rustlers, and he has something to prove.” Tindel pointed out.

“There might be another way," said Raya. “I think if the bear was hungry enough to attack my tree it will track us whatever we do. If we could lead the bear to the soldiers instead, it might take care of them for us.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“That's a bold idea” mused Arwin.

After some discussion Will, Sheba and Tindel stayed at the camp, keeping the fire high. Arwin and Raya went back to the honey tree. They were pleased to find the bear wasn’t there. Quickly Raya retrieved the rope and honey satchel.

“This goes against my better judgment” said Arwin.

“Mine too” said Raya “but let's go anyway.”

They made their way to the north dragging the honey sack and leaving small pieces of honeycomb on the way. The forest there was relatively open between the ancient trees, so they made good progress. They were keen to keep off the cart track where the bear might pick up the herd's scent. Half an hour in they picked up their pace when they hear something big crashing through the forest in the distance.

“If it gets too close drop the bag and run west to the highway” Arwin ordered.

Fortunately they herd heard the soldiers soon after.

“You good to follow through with this?” Arwin asked.

“Sure, let's do it” Raya gritted her teeth. Arwin took advantage of the low gravity and jumped up to a high branch and swung into the tree.

Raya arrived at the Soldiers camp moments later. The soldiers relaxed when they saw she was just a young girl. As she approached the fire she noticed her friends from the market, Thorn and Willow, were amongst their ranks! Her mind was racing. She decided to stick to her plan and explained that she was collecting honey but had become lost in the woods. She said that they could share her honey if they would let her stay with them for the night and tell her which way to go tomorrow.

Thorn and Willow were fortunately clever enough to keep quiet until they could see what was going on. She turned to them.

“I have hurt my arm, could you take a look?”

“Give me that honey first” snarled Dorsal and took a great handful of honeycombs before passing it to the other soldiers.

“We need to move away from the fire now” she whispered urgently to Thorn who was pretending to look at her arm.

“Willow, do you have those bandages in you pack? I think her arm is fractured.” he said getting up, gesturing with his eyes to convey the urgency.

The two soldiers took a burning branch and moved away from the fire. Captain Dorsal called out mockingly.

“Why don’t you just leave her she won't ...”

“Get ready to run” Raya whispered as a crashing sound caught the attention of the soldiers around the fire.

A bear jumping out of the forest at full charge is like a missile of muscle and claws at the best of times but with the gravity being low the effect was amplified. It sailed across the small clearing landing amongst the soldiers taking out two of them before they could even react. Raya and her friends dropped their burning branch and sprinted down the dark road away from the carnage.

The captain faced the bear bravely with the remaining soldier. He fell moments later with an arrow in his side and the bear leapt on the soldier mauling him viciously. Everyone around the fire was either dead or unconscious. Eventually the bear dragged the body of one of the dead soldiers off into the trees.

“Shit. That was severe, did you learn to talk to animals in the wild?” asked Thorn. “Thanks for dragging us aside”

The last soldier to fall groaned and they ran to him keeping a keen ear open for any sign of the bear.

“Klint are you ok” whispered Thorn.

“I don’t think he is,” said Willow trying to hold a gash closed.

“Raya took over. “Bind his wounds as tightly as you can I have herbs at the cart we can patch him with, and ones to sedate him too if he makes it.

Arwin appeared from the forest with her bow in hand.

"Good, Arwin you are here. This is Willow and Thorn, they are friends. Can you run ahead and get bring the cart. We will carry him as far as we can.”

Arwin nodded still struggling to take in the horrific scene.

“Sure, but that bear won't be gone for long, keep your wits about you” she answered and took off down the road taking giant low gravity strides.

Thorn and Willow made a quick stretcher and loaded Klint onto it. They were about to leave when Thorn ran to the body of the general and took a pouch from his belt.

“Might as well take our pay” he said. “What about the rest of the gear,” said Willow.

“We need to get out of here asap” said Raya throwing the rest of the soldier's wood pile on the fire.

Thorn and Willow quickly ran around and stashed anything of value away from the bodies and loaded any food into backpacks. Heading up the road at a quick walk they were well overloaded with huge backpacks and a stretcher between them. Even with the low gravity it was still heavy enough.

They were halfway to camp when Will and Flow arrived with the cart. He was terrified of the bear but being as brave as he could.

“Will, these are some friends of mine I didn’t expect to see. Meet Thorn and Willow, our patient is Klint.”

“He is no friend of ours, but I don’t think he is going to cause us any trouble” Willow pointed out.

“Thanks for coming to get us. It is a pretty brave thing to do with a crazy bear in the area.”

“Well, I will feel better with you all on the cart with me. Let's go.”

They managed to reverse the cart into the forest and turn around with remarkable speed despite the trickiness of the maneuver.

Back at camp Arwin and Tindel had the fire roaring. Raya applied all the herbs she could to Klint’s wounds as well as some sleeping draught. There was lot of chatter around the fire, their party now numbered six.

“I don’t think the bear will come this far tonight but there are enough of us here for two people to be on watch at a time.” proposed Arwin.

Thorn and Willow said they were happy to take the first watch. They woke Raya and Arwin several hours later. Over their watch they took in the evening's drama.

“It was like a perfect imperfection in action,” mused Arwin. “What are we going to do with Klint? Do you think he will last the night?”

Stripe stirred on Raya's lap as she moved to throw another stick on the fire.

“I'm not an expert but I think he will live. If he does, he will be able to vouch for Willows and Thorns story.”

“I am constantly impressed by the way you can pull everything together” said Arwin “My mum and dad taught me well, and you are certainly good to have on the team too.”

Tindel and Will had taken the last watch, in the morning they, proposed that Tindel and one of the others could go and collect what they could salvage from the soldier's camp.

“I can go, I know where we stashed things.” said Willow, he was the smaller of the two soldiers.

The two riders took off down the road while the others rounded up animals and got the cart ready.

“Well, if we run into any trouble, we can bend the story enough to make it look like we found the flock and cart abandoned and are bringing it to the queen along with rescuing a wounded soldier and his friends,” said Raya.

“Couldn't be better,” said Arwin. “I hope that the others don’t take too long, I would like to get some distance between us and the bears territory.”

“Willow isn't one to muck around” said Thorn “they will be back soon.”

When they arrived, they unloaded three shields and swords. Four helmets and several knives' boots, bags and buckles and a cooking pot.

“We took everything we could carry. Sorry Raya, I couldn’t find your honey satchel” said Tindel. “Unfortunately, I cannot stay longer as I must reach Tungol-Siugun as soon as possible. I will ride out with you but then I must go. It has been...an interesting night.”

“Find me in the butcher shop in the Tungol-Saju Markets. You will always find an open door there,” said Arwin.

“Take anything you want too” said Raya offering him a handful of coins. “We owe you our freedom.”

“Keep it, there will be tough times ahead, any blow to the Queen is payment enough for me. I may yet call on you all in some way or other.”

“I look forward to it” said Raya boldly.

“Let's hit the road,” said Arwin.