Keeper-
The grizzly sow did not know why she was awake at this time of night. Something wasn’t right; she needed a den. The first substantial snowstorm could not be that far off judging by this night’s soft lazy snowfall. A den was necessary for hibernation, and a snowstorm was good cover to throw other predators off her trail to the den. She raised her head up, sniffed the air, and looked towards the northern face of the mountains. There, she instinctively knew she’d find what she was looking for.
She began to lumber off in that direction, occasionally rearing up on her back legs to scratch at the trees. Bark curled off under her claws and lay scattered amidst the snow as she lumbered away, slow as the snow that fell against her thick fur. Eventually she made it to the base of the mountain and began to pick her way up the side of it until she located a cave. She hesitated outside the dark maw of it, sniffing the air and turning her head from side to side.
There was no animal spoor here, the cave seemed to be suffering from lack of use - something the grizzly sow would be quick to remedy. She moved right in, slow and lumbering because she was quick in gaining weight to make it through her hibernation but for as much as she thought she gained, each night she was back to a more normal size which puzzled her. As a bear, she knew nothing of magic - not yet anyway, the two halves of brain and heart had not recognized one another and realigned. Not thinking of this, the bear circled the back of the cave a few times before lying down with her head on her paws.
Keeper woke up in a cave.
This was becoming too bizarre for her to comprehend. First, the River and salmon-bones; now a cave and the overripe smell of bear smothering her? She groaned, not usually uncomfortable on a stony floor like this but then, she did not make it a habit to go lying around in caves unknown. She preferred soft thickets to bed down in, or the fallen leaves beneath the red maple she had claimed as her tree. This was something else altogether strange to her, and she could not fathom why she’d wake in a cave on the northern face of the mountain.
Puzzled, she greeted the morning with a squint against the glare of the sun then a defiant tilt of her chin as she snorted the last of the bear-scent from her nostrils. The snow had stopped falling, though she could not say when since the last she had seen it was coming down in great lazy drifts that spun and danced like her breath did on the air. That had been the night before this morning and it’s strangeness took hold of her, settling deep into her bones and dragging the defiance of her head back down to a more familiar position.
She ought to have felt like herself then, with the sun starting to warm her back but she still felt odd and out of place - no, it was an itch she couldn’t shake, a suspicion that started out vague but promised to become clearer the longer she puzzled it out. Keeper shook her head as a distraction and began to pick her way down the mountainside, thinking that despite the cold temperature of the lake, it might be best to take a dip in it and rid the offensive bear-smell from her skin. She had no idea why she stank like that particular predator, did not see how sometimes parts of her changed while she walked - hooves to paws then back again, long snarly tail to a stub against a much larger furrier rump. By the time she reached the lakeshore, these changes had sunk within and buried themselves as if that part of her knew it was not time to reveal itself to her.
Keeper stared at herself in the lake for quite some time, unaware that another mare not much younger than herself had come up beside her. Usually she heard their approach, or smelled them coming, but she was so lost in thought that when she looked up and away from the face that stared back her, she did not realize the look she gave the stranger was a troubled one. She was silent a moment longer before coming to and opening her mouth, “I’m sorry I smell bad, like a bear. I thought a swim in the lake might be a good idea but it’s so cold now.” Keeper did not know how pathetic that sounded coming from her just then, but it was. Or if not pathetic, then sad because she did not recognize the face that stared back at her from the water the next time she looked down at it.
not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless
@[Solace]