Lauren and Violet laughed at each others silliness as they hiked through the wilderness. The laughing was unusual for Lauren and resultantly Violet in that way that kids are shaped in the shadow of their parents.

It might have been the close brush with near death. Or it might have been the fact that she in the body of an adult female bear. It was a relief to her after being trapped all of her life in a body where she saw her hips as too large, her stomach too round and her breasts too small. Now that ideal body that had always been just out of reach was impossible. Yes, her body was now that of an adult female bear, but their was a real freedom in that. And her fur was much softer than she had remembered a bear pelt to be.

Violet picked up on her mother’s good mood and was dancing around her in the snow that had accumulated on the forest floor high in the mountains. Lauren, in turn, fed off of Violet’s energy and started to do a couple of dance steps as she kept them moving forward through the old growth forest. Shimmy steps to one side. Then shimmy steps back. Paws up in the air. Waving to the left and then to the right.

Giggling at her mom’s silliness Violet’s mouse-sized body dashes in from of her mom and starts doing the horsey dance from Gangnam Style. Lauren thinks that Violet has gotten even cuter in her dormouse form; like Alvin and the Chipmonks or Remy from Ratatouille.

The trees were thick around them. Showing the regularity of an old tree plant where the trees were just getting ready for the next harvest mixed in with a few protected old growth trees.

Lauren then started to do “the swim” front crawling in the air. When it came time to do the dive part of the dance she covered her snout with her paw instead of pinching her nose, but it had the same effect.

Bang! The loud dull retort of a gun startled Lauren and Violet. It echoed through the valley below.

-45

Lauren felt wetness soaking the fur of her left shoulder. When she moved her paws up to examine the hole in her zip-upand the blood that was slowly soaking into it her left shoulder bloomed with pain.

She’d been shot. Someone had shot her. In the shoulder. With a BULLET. And she was bleeding.

It must have been a mistake.

Lauren looked around to the direction in which she figured the shot must have come from.

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“Hello! Don’t Shoot!” she said. As Violet climbed up her fur and into the water bottle carrier on her backpack.

Lauren sniffed the air and could smell something man like, like one of Max’s hoodies that she used to borrow from him in high school. And something simi…there was a woman there too. So two people.

“I’m a Mom,” she continued. “My daughter’s here.”

Bang! Same shoulder. More blood soaked into the fur and into her zip-up. And in a state of denial Lauren looked up to where the shot came from and up in the tree she saw a florescent orange hat, blaze orange, and a blaze pink hat.

And below those hats were two human heads. And the girl with the hot pink hat had a rifle in the ready position aimed right at her.

Lauren dashed on her hind legs over to one of the old growth trees left among the harvest timber. She put her back against the tree trying to make her big bear form as small as possible.

“Mom, what’s happening” Violet said as she popped her head of her hiding place at the side of the backpack.

“You’re bleeding. Or you were bleeding. It seems to have stopped.” She said holding up a little paw with some partially dried blood on it.

“Mom. Mom. MOM. Speak to me.”

“Sorry Violet honey. Just a little bit lost in my own head. You know how I get sometimes.

“Mom, they shot you”.

“Yeah honey they did. But I think it’s all a bit misunderstanding. Watch Violet people want to be reasonable if you give them a chance.”

“Hey. You two hunters!” Lauren yelled without coming out from behind the tree. “DO. YOU. SPEAK. ENGLISH?”

“Yeah, of course we speak English,” said the man in the orange hat. “Where are you? Watch out there is an angry bear around here. Kara here got it twice in the shoulder as it was quartering to us.

Kara in her pink hat spoke up “Craziest thing though, I could has sworn the bear was wearing a Lululemon zip-up and a backpack. Like one of those circus bears, but fashionable.

“So, watch out,” said the man. “It’s going to be mad.”

Lauren did not feel mad. He shoulder still hurt, but she wasn’t mad.

“See” said Lauren quietly, for her daughters benefit, just a misunderstanding.

“I’m out here behind one of the trees. I got into a car accident with my daughter. Well, I had pulled over to the side of the road to be safe when I heard the countdown, but then the world shifted and we were over the edge and our Mini is now only fit for recycling.

“That sucks,” said the man. “You and your daughter OK? Our son disappeared during the change too. One moment he here, the next he was gone. Not too worried though, probably off in the woods taking some of his pictures. He’s taken off before like that. Never liked hunting -- preferred to shoot photos."

There was a brief pause before he continued.

"Got himself a new lens, cost him almost two thousand dollars, not what I would have spent my money on when I was his age, but it’s his money. He worked for it. He earned it. Too bad he disappeared too because right after he did a twelve pointer showed up and presented its broadside and Kara got her first buck."

“It was from one of those skills that shows up when you say ‘status’ outloud after you get the upgrade” said Kara. “I got a skill called ‘One-shot Kill’ that I can use once a month that makes my first shot lethal.”

“Within a level range,” said the man.

“Within a level range,” said Kara.

“She got a couple of levels from killing the Stag as well.”