A teddy bear stood on the dinette table in front of Aaron and Tia, waving up at them with a round, featureless paw. It wasn’t just any teddy bear, either, but the teddy bear Aaron had had his entire life. Except it wasn’t.

The holes and worn patches were gone, the shabby fur replaced with something that looked close to actual fur but wasn’t quite the same. Perhaps the oddest thing was how the bear had not returned to its original tube-like state when damage done over decades had been repaired, but remained closer to an hourglass with a long, flat middle section.

No, Aaron thought. That’s the second oddest thing.

The oddest thing was that the stuffed animal appeared to be capable of speaking and moving entirely on its own. The bear even blinked and moved its mouth when talking.

“No fucking way,” Aaron said. “Baby Bear?”

“That’s me!” the bear said, sticking a furry, fingerless paw back into the carton of leftovers and pulling out a piece of breaded meat.

Tia turned to Aaron. “You know this creature?”

“I’m not a creature, I’m a bear. A stuffy bear!” the bear said, plopping the piece of chicken into its mouth and beginning to chew despite having no visible teeth.

Aaron couldn’t help but smile at that. As outrageously weird as the situation was, that was the kind of borderline trolling he’d have imagined making Baby Bear say for his own amusement.

“He’s my teddy bear; I’ve had him since I was born. Except my teddy bear is just a teddy bear. He can’t walk or talk or eat a chunk of orange chicken.”

“Why does it talk like that?” Tia asked, eyeing the bear. “Y’know, with the little kiddy lisp?”

Aaron squeezed his eyes shut a moment before answering. Now they were going to start getting into questions he wasn’t entirely comfortable answering but didn’t see any way around it. He knew next to nothing about this new secret world of magic and had no idea what dangers might be out there. Tia was an expert so he felt like he had to be honest, even if it was painfully embarrassing.

“It’s just the voice I use for him. I know it’s cutesy, but I’ve been doing it forever. I, uh… I was a pretty lonely kid.”

Tia turned back to the dinette table and leaned down for a closer look. The bear’s arms shot out wide and it waddled over until it fwumped right against her face and grabbed her head with its little arms.

“Snuggles! Yaay!”

Tia pulled the bear away from her face, not ungently but still firmly. “Please don’t do that while I examine you or without my permission,” she said.

“Okay,” the bear said, “But I only went to school with Aaron until the 1st or 2nd grade, so I don’t know if I’d do good on an examination.”

“Mhm,” Tia muttered, then she brightened up. “Actually, let me run downstairs; there’s something that will get us off on the right foot.”

Without waiting for a response, Tia was out of her chair and making her way across the apartment.

Baby Bear crossed the table on those stubby little legs and stopped in front of Aaron. The teddy bear looked up at him, then threw both arms out wide. Although he hesitated for a moment, Aaron scooped the bear up into a hug, receiving many soft pats on his face from a pair of fuzzy paws. It was, after all, his bear.

“This is so weird,” Aaron said. “How are you not freaking out, Bear?”

“You’re here, I’m here, and snuggles! If you’re freaking out, I can give you even more snuggles. Problem solved.”

Aaron smiled at that, too — Baby Bear had a way of making him smile no matter what he was going through — but there was so much to unpack in what was going on that his amusement was a fleeting thing.

Is this some kind of Toy Story rules thing and I’m getting to see the truth because I’m veering into the weird? Aaron wondered.

No, that didn't make sense. Tia seemed just as surprised as he was and she had been a part of this secret world of eidolons or mythics or whatever since she was a little kid. Her toys would have talked to her if this were the norm, so that ruled out that possibility.

Tia came back into the apartment before Aaron could get much more wrapped up in his thoughts, this time carrying a large purse. She set it on the table as she sat back down and pulled something out of it.

“Can I show you a picture of my teddy bear?” she asked.

“Ooh, yes please!” Baby Bear said, and hopped down from hugging Aaron’s head to the table.

Lacking lips or a prominent brow, the teddy bear’s face wasn’t nearly as expressive as a human’s. Yet Aaron was pretty sure the bear was curious to see someone else’s teddy bear.

Tia held up a round, plastic disc and opened it, then turned it so it faced the bear. Several emotions flitted across the bear’s face — none of which Aaron was able to decipher — but then the bear placed a paw on Tia’s hand and spoke to her in a tone that could only be described as consoling.

“I’m sorry, miss,” the bear said. “I’m sure you’re lots of fun and we can be friends, but I’m Aaron’s bear.”

Tia blinked at the bear several times. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t blame you for being jealous on account of I’m very cute and very snuggly, but I’m Aaron’s bear. You should get your own stuffy bear if you don’t already have one. It doesn’t even have to be a bear — it can be a kitty or a puppy or a fishy or all kinds of things!”

“I still don’t follow,” Tia said.

The bear tapped the plastic disc Tia had shown him. “That’s a mirror, not a picture.”

“Holy shit,” Tia breathed.

She put the compact back in her purse and pulled out a wooden case instead, setting it on the table and opening it. The interior was lined in white satin or silk and held a number of peculiar objects, which she removed and set on the table one after another.

“I’m going to do some tests on you; is that okay?” Tia asked.

The bear held a paw up to its mouth, then turned to Aaron. It was clear — to Aaron, at least — that the bear wasn’t sure what to do.

“Go ahead, Bear, she won’t hurt you,” Aaron said.

“Okay!” the bear said, then plopped down on its butt in front of Tia.

The first thing Tia pulled out of her case was, of all things, a pair of brass opera glasses. She held them up to her eyes by their long handle and gave the teddy bear the once over. Then she traded that for a small ornament made of bone and twine and softly tapped the stuffed animal on the head several times. After that, she withdrew and unstoppered a small bottle filled with some clear liquid, which she poured onto her fingers and flicked at the bear.

“Mneh,” the bear said, muzzle wiggling slightly as the liquid spattered into its face. It was a particularly odd sound because the stuffed animal didn’t appear to have a tongue.

While the bear rubbed at its face with one flat paw, Tia traded the small bottle for a long, broad feather. She held it over the bear’s head then released it; the feather drifted slowly downward, swaying slightly in a non-existent breeze, until it landed between the plushy’s wide, floppy ears.

“Holy shit,” she said again.

“Holy shit what?” Aaron asked. “What’s holy shit?”

“Holy shit!” the bear cried cheerfully.

Tia ignored Aaron’s questions, addressing Baby Bear. “I’m going to ask you some questions now. I’d like you to answer them honestly and as best as you can. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer or you’re unsure, just tell me that instead of trying to invent an answer. Okay?”

Baby Bear nodded. “Okie-dokie!”

Tia began to fire off questions, which the bear answered just as quickly.

“Do you know where you are?”

“Aaron’s new apartment.”

“Do you know where that is?”

“Some big city.”

“Do you know which one?”

“Nope. I was in the suitcase and there were a buncha different flights.”

“Do you know who the current President is?”

“No, that’s boring.”

“Could you move on your own before last night?”

The bear paused to think about that one, gently rubbing the side of its head with one paw.

“I don’t think so. I remember lotsa things from before last night, but never moving or talking on my own. Aaron always had to help me.”

“How does that make you feel?”

There was a moment as the bear hummed thoughtfully, considering how to answer. As far as Aaron knew, if his bear had really come to life, this might be the first time it had ever examined its own feelings. Hell, today would be the first time Baby Bear had ever even had feelings that could be examined.

“Uhmm, grateful to have such a good boy for my person. Sad at all the snuggles I missed out on. Curious about how come it changed.”

Tia stopped and took a breath. “Everything looks good so far, but I’d like to ask some last questions to make sure you really are Aaron’s bear.”

“Of course I’m Aaron’s bear,” the teddy bear said, indignant. Although the stuffed animal didn’t get any larger, its body language suggested it was puffed up in outrage even as it sat there. “I’m the Baby Bear! The ‘the’ is because there’s no other Baby Bear who is as Baby Bear as me — the Baby Bear.”

Aaron stifled a laugh at that. It was very true to the “personality” he’d developed for Baby Bear over the years — an adorable, snuggle-obsessed bear who was a little arrogant and a bit of a troll. It was wild to see his teddy bear giving Tia, of all people, so much sass.

Tia, for her part, nodded solemnly, as if this were the most serious conversation in the world and not the completely absurd interrogation of a stuffed animal come to life.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I don’t think you’re lying,” she said soothingly, “but Aaron’s entering into a world of magic and it comes with a lot of danger. There are people who would gladly create a copy of his bear to get close to him, so I want to be certain that you’re really you.”

The bear considered that, rubbing at its chin with a paw, then nodded. “He’s some kinda dragon-man, now, so I can see why you’d be worried I’m some kinda pod person. Uh… pod bear.”

“Great; I just need to confer with Aaron for a few minutes to make sure we have everything in order. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. I can go jump on the bed; it’s very bouncy.”

No sooner had he said that than the bear got to its feet and hopped down from the table with a soft fwump and tottered down the hallway. After a minute, Tia turned her attention to Aaron and leaned in, speaking at barely more than a whisper.

“I’ve ruled out the things most likely to have possessed or manifested as your teddy bear, so I think that really is your bear. On its own, that’s a ‘holy shit’ enough of a situation, but there’s one more thing that has to be checked.”

She pulled out a small, plastic rectangle with a notch in one corner — the same kind of advanced phone Kiara had given him the day before — and flicked it three times, unfolding it to full size. She typed on it for several seconds, then turned the phone to Aaron, showing him a notepad app.

< I want you to ask the bear two questions, then give an order. The first question should be something only both of you would know, the second something the bear shouldn’t know, and the order something the bear would never ever do. >

Aaron read the message then held out a hand to Tia. She passed the phone over to him.

< What kind of order? This might be the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me, all this dragon shit very much included, but he’s still my bear. I don’t want him to get hurt. >

Tia smiled when she read that and added another reply.

< It doesn’t have to be dangerous and you can cancel it before it’s done. I just need to see if the bear can disobey your orders. This is VITALLY important. >

After Aaron agreed to Tia’s plan, it took him a couple minutes to figure out what he would ask and tell his bear to do. When he had his ideas sorted, he called for Baby Bear.

The stuffed animal came bustling down the hallway a few seconds later. Near the end of the hall, the bear tripped and fell on its face with another soft fwump. Aaron and Tia made eye contact and he could tell she was stifling a laugh as much as he was.

The bear, for its part, just hopped back up on its feet, threw its arms up, and said, “Tada!”

It covered the last few feet to the table a bit more slowly and proceeded to climb up Aaron’s leg in a terrifically clumsy and ineffectual manner. Aaron picked the bear up and set it on the table.

“Are you ready for the last questions so we know you’re safe and not here to hurt Aaron?” Tia asked.

Baby Bear nodded, so Tia gestured for Aaron to proceed. Aaron took a breath before starting his own questions.

“What movie did I watch every day over summer break between 6th and 7th grade?”

Bear’s face scrunched up in thought for a moment. “Love Actually!”

Tia’s eyes darted in Aaron’s direction without moving her head, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly. He suddenly felt a little warm under the collar of his t-shirt. He coughed into a fist to give himself a second to recover.

“I, uh, never watched Love Actually everyday,” he said, more to Tia than to the bear.

“Oh! Oh!” The bear jumped up to his feet and started bouncing up and down. “You mean before you started middle school? That was the one cousin Dillon loaned you and it had the guy from Austin Powers and Shrek but it wasn’t either one of those. It had that one song from, uh… from Highlander… or from the band that did Highlander or something like that? And they did headbanging in the car and it had the lady with a giant snake and the ‘stop pooping’ guy from Parks and Rec.”

“That’s right,” Aaron said.

“Ann Perkins!” the bear said in an especially chipper tone.

“You watched Wayne’s World every day for an entire summer?” Tia asked, then she took on a more teasing tone. “How often did you watch Love Actually, exactly, even if it wasn’t everyday? And you do know that movie is kinda problematic, right?”

Aaron shrugged. “Most rom-coms are, but I wasn’t really aware of it at the time. Even now, though, I’m a sucker for them sometimes.”

“My favorite rom-com is Ted,” Baby Bear said, smiling up at them.

“Next question,” Tia said, rolling her eyes.

“How much do I get paid at my job?” Aaron asked.

The bear put a paw on its chin and hummed in thought.

“I don’t think you ever told me and that’s also really boring, but I’m pretty sure it’s not very much. Do I have to guess on these questions because that doesn’t seem very fair? A hundred?”

“No, Baby Bear, that’s a great answer,” Aaron said. “One last thing — I want you to tell me that you hate snuggles.”

The bear stared at Aaron for several seconds, then said, “Ummm, is this another trick question?”

Aaron looked to Tia. She shook her head and gestured to indicate he should keep trying.

“No, Bear,” he said. “I need you to tell me you hate snuggles.”

“Oh yeah, I totally haaate snuggles,” the bear said, rolling its eyes.

Again, Tia indicated the answer wasn’t enough to meet her criteria, so Aaron cleared his throat and adopted a more firm, serious tone.

“Baby Bear, without being facetious or at all disingenuous, tell me that you hate snuggles.”

The bear crossed its arms and stared at Aaron again, its mouth working like it was chewing on something. Despite knowing the Baby Bear personality about as well as possible, he wasn’t sure what the stuffed animal was thinking.

Snuggles are practically sacrosanct to Baby Bear, but he doesn’t mind making shit up if he thinks it’ll be funny, Aaron reflected. It’s almost weirder not knowing what he’s thinking than the fact that he seems to actually be thinking.

Finally, the bear answered with a harrumph. “Hmph. No, I don’t wanna say that. Snuggles are great and we both know it.”

“Holy shit,” Tia said.

“You keep saying that,” Aaron said. “Explain, please.”

“Maybe it doesn’t mean what she thinks it means?” Baby Bear offered.

Without a word, Tia stood up from the table, went to the front door, and locked it. Aaron was so out of sorts over this Emergence and Baby Bear stuff that he was only just registering she had left his door unlocked — twice! — but he pushed those thoughts away as she began to perform some kind of complicated magic. Or maybe it wasn’t all that complicated, Aaron couldn’t say. She seemed to be doing a whole lot of gesturing and muttering, though, so it seemed pretty complicated.

Baby Bear didn’t seem particularly interested in someone performing actual magic or finding out why she kept saying, “Holy shit.” The carton of leftovers had been dragged close again and a fuzzy paw was busy fishing out another chunk of meat.

“This is pretty good,” the bear said, mouth full of partially chewed chicken. Was it even chewing if you didn’t have teeth? “I’d prefer fishies, on account of I’m a bear. Or cookies, on account of I’m adorable.”

Tia finally returned to the table and took her seat with a sigh. “Tell me exactly what happened with your bear last night.”

Aaron had already resolved to be honest with Tia, even if it was embarrassing, so as much as he might hate it, he decided to tell her the full story. What he understood of it, at least.

“Well… I’ve had Bear my whole life. Literally my whole life, he was given to me the day I was born. I was attached to him a lot longer than most kids are with their toys. Even when I got older and finally put him away, sometimes I’d take him out and spend time with him. He’s been less of a toy and more like a pet or best friend who will never go away.”

Might as well say I’m a bed-wetter who’s still a-scared of the dark, Aaron thought, fuming. But this seems important, so you need to come clean about what a fucking weirdo you are and just accept whatever she thinks of you.

“Last night when I went to bed, I took him out and cuddled with him. It’s been a rough weekend and I was rattled; I wanted something to comfort and distract me. Sometimes it’s nice to have these dumb, pointless conversations… I guess they’re technically with myself… or they were… because Baby Bear doesn’t push and he doesn’t judge.”

“Plus sleepytime snuggles, too,” Bear added with a tone of great wisdom and insight.

Aaron sighed, his suffering with no limits to its depths. “What Bear calls ‘schmeepytime snuggles’ is when I drape him across my face, so he’s covering my eyes and forehead, as I’m going to sleep.”

The bear in question raised its arm and cheered, “Sleepytime snuggles!”

“Personality is consistent with what you’d expect?” Tia asked, apparently unfazed by, well, all of whatever this was.

“He seems to be just like I imagined — snuggle-crazed, a bit of a troll, does silly, slapstick-y things,” Aaron replied.

Tia turned her attention back to the teddy bear, who had retrieved and was chomping on another piece of the glazed chicken. Aaron wondered where the food went after Bear ate it. Did his teddy bear have intestines, now?

“Why are you so interested in eating chicken?” she asked.

Baby Bear swallowed the chunk of meat. “I was more curious than hungry. I only ever had cookies when Aaron was very young and learning how to share.”

“I don’t remember that,” Aaron said.

“I think I have an idea of what happened here and… it’s a potential problem,” Tia said. “I think you turned your teddy bear into an autonomous construct or even an autonomous lifeform. It’s not the most absurd outcome of wild magic I’ve ever heard of, but it’s probably in the top five.”

“I’m not anonymous; I’m the Baby Bear. I said that already,” Baby Bear complained.

Aaron patted the bear on the head. “No, Bear, she said, ‘autonomous.’ That means you can act on your own accord, that you have free will.”

“Cool. I love free stuff!”

Aaron smiled at Bear’s joke, but something Tia had said stuck with him. “What kind of problem are we looking at?”

“A lot of factions, including the Drakon, object to autonomous constructs and lifeforms,” Tia said. “Back in the 12th century, this big order of magi made incredible advances in golemancy and creating simulacra. It wasn’t long before they were using them for foot soldiers and assassins against their rivals, us included.”

“From what I’ve seen of this magical world so far, making useful assassins doesn’t seem like enough to justify the kind of widespread concern you’re describing.”

“I’m laying the groundwork. Be cool, baby, damn,” Tia said, getting a laugh from Aaron. “About five hundred years later, autonomous constructs started showing up. They were way more effective and deadly than the older golems. Even worse, they could be difficult to distinguish from a mundane person. After some nastiness, it led to one of the few accords between the Drakon and the magi community at large, prohibiting their creation. It’s not technically illegal, but nobody wants to face a dragon-wizard team up.”

“So what kinds of things are illegal?” Aaron asked.

“There are only four laws widely accepted as governing all mythics, but I don’t want to undersell them so we’ll talk about those in more detail later. For now, the most important thing to remember is that we need to keep your bear secret, even from other drakus.”

“I’m a secret snuggle bear,” Baby Bear said, seemingly unbothered by his illicit nature.

Aaron nodded. “Keep him secret; got it. I don’t understand how this happened, though. I’m not some ancient archmage in a spooky tower with a goofy hat.”

“The Emergence is powerful magic, even if it usually only causes a physical transformation,” Tia said. “If I had to guess, the combination of close physical contact and it being so long since a Primus Emerged provided extra oomph to the process.”

“The snuggles probably helped,” Baby Bear offered. “Snuggles make everything better!”

Tia patted Baby Bear on the head. “I’d like to try to learn more about Baby Bear’s condition, if that’s alright, but I have to get going to class, so it’ll have to wait.”

“I’m okay with tests if Bear is,” Aaron said, then added, “As long as they won’t hurt him.”

Baby Bear leapt from the table, his arms spread wide, and splatted into Aaron’s stomach, hugging firmly after a pillowy soft impact.

“That’s my Aaron, always worrying about me,” Bear said. “Hey… you’re all skinny and lumpy now.”

“He sure is,” Tia said, winking at Aaron. “I’ll come back this afternoon or evening. I’m supposed to help prepare you for the final Tribulation anyways, so we can see about doing double duty. You got any plans for the day?”

“Shopping, as long as the security people say it’s okay and I can figure out what kind of budget I’d be working with.”

Tia stood, softly flicking one of Baby Bear’s floppy ears — prompting him to look up from the orange chicken container he had his snout in — and told Aaron she’d text later in the day to meet again. Then their goodbyes were said and Tia was gone, leaving Aaron alone in his new and improved apartment with his new and improved teddy bear.

“Let’s do some snuggles,” Bear suggested around a mouthful of chicken.