Tom was surprised by what he saw at the top of the mountain. Here they were, hiking up switch backs to summit this thing and the top reveals an almost perfectly level surface.

The austere flat nature of the space left him feeling a bit disappointed.

He was pretty sure he saw lines in the rock forming a rectangle around the size of a basketball court. He’d known deep down that other students and people would have reached the summit before them, but some part of him had been hoping for a wild natural view. Maybe a natural spring. Not a completely level surface

Shona spoke up saying, “I’m surprised there isn’t more up here.”

“I thought you already checked this area out? How much did you explore campus over the weekend?” Arthur asked.

“I stopped about half a mile ago when the trail started to get too steep. I figured the top would be more of the same. Not like… this,” She said motioning to view.

Shona continued saying, “This area is still part of the beginner area. Maybe we’ll have something school related up here soon. Those lines in the ground look man made so they could be related to our classes.”

“What are we going to do on top of a flat mountain. It’s just a ton of rock. We have nice soft grass fields back on the main campus,” Tom commented sagely.

With the flat top to the mountain, Arthur was taking in the 360 degree view. He could see the Silverleaf campus back from where they’d come from, the large body of water where Tom had gone fishing, and numerous forests surrounding the mountain.

Looking forward, he saw more mountains in the distance, the farthest of which were capped with snow. “Do you all think a brocket deer would be on one of the other mountains?” Arthur asked.

“We don’t have permission for any of the other mountains yet. On the map, it looked like there were four other mountains besides this one that increase in size the farther you get from campus,” Shona replied.

She continued saying, “I did hear from someone on my floor that first year students can start getting more permissions as soon as the second semester, but I don’t know what areas that includes.”

Tom spoke up, “Our teacher Vincent told us first year students can’t travel around freely due to safety concerns, but I feel like all we’ve been seeing is small birds and squirrels so far.”

“It must get pretty dangerous in the restricted areas, but it could also just be a way to make sure we have a feel for the areas around campus before we start exploring and hurt ourselves,” Arthur reasoned.

He continued saying, "I guess we should look around here for any signs of the deer. Maybe it's somewhere around here and we won't need to go to the other mountains."

The group began making their way to the center of the plateau, still enjoying the view all around the mountain and looking for any signs of the brocket deer.

The lines in the ground did appear to be some kind of court. They formed two rectangle shapes in the ground with numerous semicircles and other bisecting lines running through the two rectangles.

“This certaintly doesn’t look like a basketball court,” Tom said, “Maybe it’s for that Aztec game where you hit the ball with your hip.”

“I think you need walls and a hoop to play that one,” Shona replied, “I’m not sure what just these rectangles would be for. The upperclassmen may know.”

Arthur crouched down and touched one of the boundary lines. It appeared to be around an inch deep and felt completely smooth as he ran his finger through the groove.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Arthur’s eyes traveled the length of the plateau following the lines before ending up on the mountains filling the space beyond the plateau.

While he was admiring them, Arthur watched as a large hairy limb the size of his thigh reached up over the lip edge of the mountain, onto the flat rock. The limb was quickly followed by a black nose and ginormous hairy head.

“Uh guys,” said Arthur while pointing with his hand, “Do you see that?”

Tom and Shona turned from their own idyllic views of the area around the mountain to where Arthur was pointing.

All three observed as a large brown bear dragged itself up to the top of the mountain with a grunt before sniffing the ground.

The group was deadly silent as the bear scratched at the ground, hearing the piercing sound of its claws raking against the stone.

The bear continued huffing and Arthur felt the hair on his arms rising as it began walking toward them.

Arthur heard Tom whisper with fear in his voice, asking what they should do.

His mind was raced, trying to come up with a solution. They could try to transform to birds but that would take too long and they couldn’t ditch Shona. He could turn into a dog and try to distract the bear, but it would likely catch him, or ignore him outright and still attack the others. Do we just run? There’s no way we can make it down the trail fast enough.

He felt frozen.

He wanted to tell Tom something reassuring. Tell him some great plan that would get them out of here, but his mouth hung open with no words coming out.

Shona’s voice rang out, “Lie down and don’t move. Follow what I do if something goes wrong,” before she laid down on the ground on her side.

Arthur saw Tom follow suit and quickly joined them, trusting that Shona had some kind of plan.

The bear was coming ever closer with no signs of stopping and Arthur was getting a much better view than when it had first crawled onto the top of the mountain.

He saw thick white slobber lining a mouth full of yellow teeth along with twigs and leaves intermingled with the matted hair of the bear’s coat.

Arthur wondered if the next detail to come as it got closer would be what the bear’s breath smelled like.

Some part of him was happy that the bear would reach him first based on its current trajectory. Maybe Tom and Shona would be able to get help in time. Tom was getting better at flying and could likely run back to campus pretty fast after all the training Vincent had put them through and find someone with a cheetah transformation ability to make back here quickly and beat up the bear.

Arthur contemplated his options.

He could outrun a bear.

Maybe.

For like a minute or so at least.

He was about to find out apparently.

The bear was nearly upon Arthur now, around five feet away. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and felt his vision getting slightly blurry.

The feeling reminded him of when Tom had cut his arm to the bone during a shipyard job. The sight of all the gushing blood and his friend’s screaming had ultimately made Arthur pass out onto a nearby pile of rope.

Thankfully the manager had been around then and helped get Tom to the hospital for stitches. He’d even grabbed some apple juice for Arthur to sip on once he'd regained consciousness.

Arthur was glad he was already lying down, otherwise he might have passed out again already.

Now, the bear was towering directly over him. He wondered if Tom was watching or if his friend had closed his eyes to wait for Shona’s plan to start.

Arthur wondered if his current situation counted as “something goes wrong” in Shona’s plan.

The bear was staring right at him, and Arthur watched as it lifted it’s paw off the ground and began moving the limb toward his face.

He closed his eyes tightly, hoping it might leave him alone if he didn’t flinch or show any sign of being alive.

Arthur jumped when he heard a piercing shriek coming from behind him near Shona and Arthur. His eyes shot open to see Willow flying straight at the bear at breakneck speeds. The same zapping noise that Arthur had heard when Willow hit Tom sounded again but roughly ten times louder.

“Run!” Shona yelled as she got up and headed for the trail leading back to campus. Tom bolted after her while Arthur hesitated a second before chasing after them.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Willow darting around the massive creature’s face, dodging each time the bear swung out with its paw. After the fifth swing, the bear finally managed to clip Willow with its right claw, which sent the idol flying to the side where it landed with a clatter.

Arthur watched as Willow slowly rose and returned to antagonizing the bear, before he turned and focused completely on running away. She was buying them time and he needed to use it.

He saw Shona and Tom ahead, sliding down the switchbacks of the mountain on their butts. He joined them, trying anything to get down the mountain faster.

One last look over his shoulder showed Willow still flying around the bear, slowly moving toward the other side of the plateau away from them.

Arthur lost sight of them as he began sliding down the mountain after Tom and Shona.