In the few seconds that she had frozen, the bear had walked a few meters closer to the girl. Not really thinking, she did the first thing that went through her mind. She started flailing her arms to appear as big as possible.

Back off! You big dumb bear!

She didn’t know if this was the correct approach as she vaguely remembered that this only worked on certain types of bears. She also didn’t know if the bear could see her at all but she didn’t have much more to go on.

As she continued flailing, the bear stopped walking and started to look around. Based on the fact that her floating body still hadn’t been mauled to death, she had the feeling that the bear couldn’t see her. It seemed to be able to detect her presence but that was about it, it only looked around without focusing on her.

So it can feel me but not see me? Which would mean that I am indeed invisible. It is true that animals have often been deemed to be able to feel things that humans can’t even beyond a different intensity of the senses.

The bear had stopped but it was clear that since it wasn’t seeing anything in the small clearing, it was going to go back to what it seemed to consider its meal. Thinking a bit more, she decided to use her newfound superpower and transformed into an even bigger bear. While it did take back the attention of the bear, it didn’t look like it felt threatened.

Maybe I should try something bigger? Or more threatening?

Following her thoughts, she turned into a huge elephant. Again, she managed to attract its attention but nothing more. Seeing how it wasn’t as effective as she wanted, she thought about what would threaten a bear. But after a few seconds of thinking, no animal from earth seemed valid as a way to threaten a bear.

That’s it! It doesn’t have to be from the earth!

She instantly transformed into a western dragon, as scaly and as ferocious as she could imagine. She made herself as big as she could without turning too transparent, in case it had any impact. Unfortunately, the bear didn’t have the reaction she wanted. While it did start to growl, it didn’t look like it felt threatened. Keeping that form as it seemed to have an effect she walked to the bear and tried to swipe at it.

Her claw reached the bear with a speed that was faster than any human had the right to be. But then, instead of going through it or at least cutting into it, it simply stopped as if hitting an immovable wall. Even after trying to imagine going through it just like she did the trees, she couldn’t go through even its fur. It still managed to make the bear growl more but it was closer to being annoyed by a fly than being hit by a dragon. She wasn’t sure that it was a good thing, after all, she didn’t want the bear to go berserk and attack the little girl because she taunted it too much.

I guess my only other option is to wake the girl up. Maybe she can do something?

Slowly backing up, she still kept her dragon form, lengthening her tail in order to swipe at the bear in case it tried to come closer. Once she was next to the unconscious girl, she simply tried to poke her as if she was trying to wake someone asleep. It maybe wasn’t the best course of action if you were dealing with someone unconscious, but she didn’t really have the means to do “the right thing”.

Unlike the walls and the trees when she first woke up or the bear just now, She felt like she had an effect on the girl's body. It still was far from someone pushing someone else but it felt far more real than anything she had touched until now. It was like the skin and the muscles underneath it had some give just like real flesh did unlike the extremes of completely immovable like the bear or the walls at first or impossible to touch like anything she went through.

Turning her claw back into a hand she started to jostle the girl a bit more roughly. She also swiped at the bear as it had started to walk toward the girl. The swipe stilled just as it connected as if she used a feather. It still stopped the bear although it made it growl even more than before.

Gotta find a solution soon otherwise it will simply attack out of anger.

After a few more seconds of jostling the girl, she finally started to show signs of coming out of unconsciousness.

C’mon, you need to wake up!

Redoubling her efforts to make the girl wake up, she tried to growl and keep the bear at bay by using anything she could think of. It looked less like a legendary beast battering a powerless animal and more like a toddler trying to hit an adult. The toddler being her, unfortunately.

“Wh… What happened?”

A voice was heard in the clearing and as one unit, Thea and the bear’s head turned as one toward the little girl that wasn’t unconscious anymore. As the girl looked at herself then toward the two other, her eyes stilled and she froze like a dear caught in the headlights. Then as if her brain finally processed the situation she was in, she screamed in terror. Closing in on the girl, Thea tied to talk to her.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Hey calm down, I’m keeping it at bay but barely, can you do anything? I’m not really in danger since I can fly away but you’re unfortunately bound by gravity.

The girl hadn’t stopped screaming and didn’t seem to respond to what she said. As she was getting closer to the little girl, she realized that her terrified glare wasn’t directed at the bear but at herself. A few seconds of incomprehension later, she realized that she was still in the form of a dragon. If the girl could really see her, this was quite a valid reason for screaming.

Concentrating for a few seconds, she turned back into her human form. Somehow, the bear seemed to sense it as it was looking around as if something had disappeared. The girl had stopped and her gaze was now filled with incomprehension.

Do you have something that can stop the bear or help you get away?!

Thankfully, the girl only took a few seconds to get a tiny bit of her bearing and stopped staring vacantly at the now human Thea.

So?

The girl slowly grabbed a necklace she had around her neck and held the stone attached to it to Thea as if waiting for more instructions.

Is that the thing?

A slow nod.

Then USE IT!

The girl seemed shocked for a few seconds then she looked behind Thea and the reality of the situation seemed to dawn on her. She quickly brought the stone to her mouth and seemed to blow air through it although it didn’t look like it was making any sound.

An ultrasound whistle? Really?

She turned back to the bear trying to think of another solution as she doubted it would do anything to the bear. However, when she looked back at the bear, it was reeling back as if it had been stung by a bee, showing far more displeasure than it had when she was hitting it with all she had.

It walked back until it was close to the edge of the clearing and stopped seemingly far enough that the whistle didn’t affect it as much. It was looking warily at the girl but also looked angrier than before. It wasn’t leaving and stayed there looking at her.

After a few more seconds of blowing through the stone whistle, the girl was finally out of breath. Thea looked back at the bear and saw that it was still waiting, a little unsure but it quickly started to run toward the girl.

Quick! Blow through that thing again it’s coming back!

The girl looked in direction of the bear and immediately took a big gulp and returned to the silent whistling. The bear immediately sopped and backed away once more, growling loudly at the girl with the whistle.

This isn’t getting us anywhere, don’t you have anything else?

The girl didn’t look like she was listening to Thea and simply continued to blow through the whistle. Every time she stopped to breathe, the bear tried to close in but was quickly pushed back by the whistling.

Just as Thea was starting to think that the situation was going nowhere, she heard a sound from behind the girl.

Great if it’s another predator, we’re fucked. Or maybe it will help since they could fight each other and then we will slip away!

Looking into the wood to try and see what was coming, she squinted until she saw a man running toward herself and the girl. He came just as the girl stopped to breathe. The bear once more started running toward them encouraged by the fact that it was coming closer and closer since the girl needed more time to recover her breath each time.

This time, however, as the bear was closing in, the man she had seen in the forest came out into the clearing sprinting and locked in on the bear, he then tackled the bear sending them both rolling away in a heap of human and bear limbs.

Did he just fucking tackle a bear?

The girl next to her somehow had enough force to look at her in an admonishing way before laying down on her back apparently not scared anymore. It looked like she was completely confident that the man could deal with the situation, enough that she didn’t need to flee in case things turned sour.

What the fuck is happening here?

Again the girl looked at her frowning but was too occupied by trying to calm her breathing to say anything. Thea looked back at where the man and the bear landed and saw the man dishing out punch after punch at the bear as if not caring it was at least one and a half time his size and probably two or three times his mass.

The man finally got off the bear that got back on its feet and fled as fast as it could from the clearing. The man let the bear go and turned back toward the girl and approached before sitting next to her.

“----- --- ---?”

“Yes, I’m okay. Thanks to you.”

Looking at his face, she finally realized who it was. It was the man that she considered to be the father of her body.

I guess it’s not my body anymore…

The girl looked at her but immediately stopped when her father tried to follow her gaze.

“------ ----- --- ------.”

“Yeah I know, it’s nothing.”

“----- --- --------- -- --- ----?”

“I was… distracted by … something.”

Once again, Thea was only able to understand what the girl was saying. This time, however, she realized that while she could understand her, she definitely wasn’t speaking English, it just seemed to make sense when it came from the little girl.

It looked like her dad wanted to know how it happened and the girl found an excuse. While she kind of guessed what the father said from context clue, the fact that the girl had found an excuse was coming from nowhere, just something that she knew somehow.

Strange...

After a few more minutes of talking, the father and the daughter finally got up and started to go back toward their house. Thea followed along not sure what else to do. One thing she was sure of was that only the girl was able to see and hear her. The only other option was that the dad was able to see her but was ignoring a floating glowing girl following them.

Once they got back to the house, the dad went toward a garden where different things were growing. He motioned for his daughter to follow him but she shook her head and told him that she just wanted to rest and play in her bedroom. The man simply shrugged and got back to tending to his garden while the girl walked toward the house.

Is that something normal? Shouldn’t he at least talk to her to make sure she is okay?

The girl turned back towards Thea and brought her finger to her mouth in a silencing motion. When she tried to show her indignation at being told to be silent, the girl glared at her before turning back to the house and motioning her to follow.

Once they reached the bedroom of the girl, the one she had woken up in, the girl sat in her bed and looked at the glowing and floating Thea with a satisfied smile.

Are you going to explain anything to me or are you going to stare at me grinning like a dumbass?

Immediately the smile was replaced with a frown.