The rocks felt sharp on Tom’s palms as he slid down the mountain. He imagined the skin was getting torn to shreds from how carelessly he was moving, but all the adrenaline from worrying about being eaten by a bear made it easier to ignore the pain.

The image of a paw reaching out to Arthur, inches away from his best friend’s face, still burned vividly in Tom’s mind.

What could he have done there?

He’d felt helpless watching the bear get closer and closer knowing it would reach Arthur first.

If not for Willow getting the bear’s attention, they might all be one big pile of bloody bits right now.

Tom shuddered at the thought, quickening his pace in case the bear decided to come back for them.

Ahead of him, Shona was speedily moving down the sharp incline with a grace he was failing to emulate. The mountain was basically a big pile of rocks ranging in size from gravel to watermelon sized.

The real challenge was deciding where to place his weight. He’d already almost lost his balance at least three times on loose rocks. Each misstep caused a mini avalanche of debris to roll down past Shona.

Tom turned his head back to check on Arthur again, knowing that his friend obviously couldn’t have gone anywhere but still finding himself doing it every couple of steps regardless.

With Arthur’s continued existence once again confirmed, Tom faced forward once more looking down the steep slope past Shona. Only fifty feet or so until they’d hit a flat enough part that running down the switch backs would be worth it to get off the mountain.

He’d finally be able to get out of his crouched position moving down the steep decline and give a break to his hands which were starting to hurt more and more.

Tom heard a muffled roar from behind him in the direction of the plateau, and the sensation of pain in his hands disappeared again as he sped up.

Shona was finally nearing a section of the trail where they could transition to running. She made it to the path and turned to look back up the hill at Arthur and him.

Tom quickly joined her and looked back up the hill as well, half worried he would see the bear charge over the edge down after them. No bear appeared however.

Arthur joined them on the trail and the group shared looks for the first time on stable ground, all panting heavily.

Between breaths, Arthur asked, “Is Willow going to be alright? Do you want us to wait for her Shona or do we head back to campus and tell the professors what happened.”

Shona responded, “We need to get out of here. Willow should be fine. We’ve talked about situations like this happening before. She knows to follow us once she thinks it’s safe. It’s only a matter of us getting far enough away from here very quickly to ensure the bear can’t follow her. We likely need to get moving as soon as possible.”

“Alright,” Tom spoke up, “Let’s get out of here then.” Still panting, Tom began running at a moderate pace down the trail back toward the campus.

He heard the crunch of footsteps on gravel behind him, which told Tom that the others were right behind him.

Even though he was out of breath from scrambling down the mountain so quickly, Tom was surprised with how his body was holding up. Here he was running at what he estimated was an eight minute per mile pace, feeling fine. It blew his mind he even knew what different running paces felt like now.

Before Vincent’s training, he likely would have been on the ground trying to catch his breath after coming down the mountain.

Tom hadn’t been an athletic slouch before the training thanks to all the odd jobs he’d done moving heavy things, but dedicated practice did seem to have its benefits.

Looking over his shoulder, Arthur was holding up fine as well. Shona however seemed to be struggling. Despite making it down the mountain so precisely, she was breathing heavily and beginning to flag behind slightly.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Tom slowed his pace until the group was moving together with no one falling behind.

He kept moving until they returned to the forest where the gravel underfoot shifted back to dirt.

They’d been running for around fifteen minutes, so Tom decided to stop by a nearby pine tree for the group to catch their breath.

The others joined him by the tree with Arthur asking, “How are you guys holding up?”

“Stamina isn’t one of my strengths. I’m not the best runner either, but I should be fine for getting back to campus,” Shona responded.

“I’m feeling good so far. Hopefully Willow is doing ok,” Tom said.

Shona seemed unperturbed saying, “I have every confidence in her.”

Arthur smiled saying, “I certainly owe her my face and potentially my life so I certainly have faith in her.”

They waited another few minutes until everyone was breathing normally again.

Arthur asked if they were ready to continue, to which Shona and Tom both nodded in agreement.

The group continued running at a similar pace to before. The tension from their encounter with the bear was beginning to wear off, and small one sentence observations morphed into small talk and discussion on their situation.

After roughly another mile on the trail, Shona suddenly stopped running, which brought Tom and Arthur to a halt as well.

She was staring off to the right into the dense forest. Following her line of vision let him make out the bobbing form of Willow around fifty feet away through the tree line.

The idol’s normal green luminescence was replaced with a flickering glow as she bobbed toward the group at a slower than normal pace.

Shona ran the final twenty feet over to her through a patch of shrubs, catching Willow in her hands. Tom and Arthur were right behind her and huddled around Shona trying to get a better look at Willow’s condition.

Tom saw a large crack on the left side of Willow, likely due to the swipe she’d taken from the bear. It was a jagged wound leaking green light running diagonally to the edge of the Willow’s painted on mouth.

“Is she… okay?” Tom asked.

Shona’s brow was furrowed and she responded without looking away from Willow, “She used a lot of energy fighting the bear and getting back to us, but she should be fine.”

“I’ll need to do some major work on this wound once I have the equipment in my room.”

Shona ran a finger up and down the crack. She ultimately placed her finger at the edge of Willow’s mouth at the start of the crack. Her finger began to glow green, and she traced the injury down to the bottom of Luna.

As her finger passed, the crack slowly stopped spilling out green light, and Willow’s overall green glow seemed to intensify.

By the end, Willow floated higher and began orbiting the group similar to how she had during the hike over to the mountain.

Tom was shocked to see new droplets of sweat lining Shona’s brow. She looked like she’d just run another five miles.

“Willow should be stable now. She doesn’t seem to think the bear followed her since it ran off to where it initially came from. Let’s head back to campus please,” Shona said plainly.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Arthur asked with concern in his voice.

“Nothing right now. The best thing for her at the moment is getting back to my room where I can do more to help her. What I just did is only a temporary fix.”

“Don’t worry too much about her. Willow is still growing after all. She’ll likely have a scar from this, but I doubt you’ll even be able to see it in a few years once she’s fully healed.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go,” Arthur confirmed.

The group began moving once again with Willow trailing behind Shona.

Tom noticed Arthur fidgeting his hands and looking around randomly. His eyes seemed to shift from the right to left, latching on to an object before mechanically moving to another.

Tom knew that look well.

It meant Arthur was gearing up to say something that made him feel uncomfortable. Likely mulling it over in his mind before it spilled out all at once.

Tom wasn’t sure exactly what that thing was, but he had a pretty good guess.

Shortly thereafter, Arthur pulled back from running in a line with Tom and Shona, matching up with Willow. Tom thought it was funny watching him contort to try and make “eye contact” with the idol floating at roughly chest level.

“Willow,” Arthur said, “Thank you for saving me from that bear. I’m so sorry you got injured. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you.”

Tom heard a tinkling noise from Willow followed by Shona’s laughter.

“I think you’re the first person to thank her like that. Usually, people just look to me or act like she doesn’t exist. I’m not sure what she’d need help with but I’ll let you know if the occasion arises.”

Tom turned to Willow as well and added in, "Thank you for saving me too, Willow. I'm sorry for not treating you with respect earlier. I'm happy to help with anything you need as well. Just let us know.

The tinkling noise from Willow stopped and she floated over to bump into Tom's forehead, before doing the same with Arthur.

"That's her equivalent of 'You're welcome'," Shona explained. "I imagine she's surprised by all the attention, but happy to count you both as friends."

"Friends for sure," Arthur said with a grin.

The group continued down the trail, ever closer to campus.

Tom thought back to the events of the day. This included his new classes, meeting Shona and Willow, the bear encounter, and running for his life through the woods.

He couldn't have imagined a more wild first day at Silverleaf. Tom certainly hadn't expected to get zapped by a floating piece of wood today, but he was happy to include Willow in the short list of people he called friend.