Kingdom of the Weak

15. For A Cave

[Fireball!]

“RUN!!”

Another fireball streaked across the battlefield, slamming into a tree behind Remian. Fire splashed around the area, charring the tree bark in moments before disappearing.

“Fire!” Mindy had her Fire Bolt scroll out, and was trying to counter, but her little fist-sized Fire Bolt was just no comparison to the Bear’s head-sized Fire Balls. Her little Fire Bolt barely scorched the bear.

“Do something!” Remian yelped. Max was angling for a shot, trying to get behind the bear, but it turned and shot out another Fire Ball right at him. “Someone…? Carrie!”

He looked for the biggest member of their group, the only one which stood a chance at physically stopping the bear…

Only to find her rolling around on her back, all four paws in the air, laughing.

“What’s gotten into her?!” Remian spluttered.

The bear saw the wolfcat rolling around on the ground roaring with laughter. [It was YOU!]

She laughed even harder.

Vigil looked from his mom to the bear, completely baffled.

“For goodness’ sake…” Remian took out the Bonfire scroll and triggered the Sigil. “Fire!”

An outburst comparable to the Fire Ball’s explosion flared out right under the bear’s feet. The bear stumbled back, roaring. The polished stick dropped from its mouth.

“Fire!” Remian triggered the Bonfire scroll again.

“Fire!” Mindy shot the polished stick with a Fire Bolt, knocking it away from the bear a little. She kept aiming for it. “Fire! Fire!”

“Smoke!” Mandy lobbed a smoke bomb right into the bear’s face.

[No fair!] The bear roared, stumbling back.

Remian grabbed the opportunity and made a run for the polished stick. He grabbed it…

“Whoa! Hot!” He dropped it immediately, then kicked it farther away from the bear as he looked around for something to wrap his hand with.

Max was nearly in position. He raised his spear…

Carrie bowled him over.

“Wha…?” Max didn’t even have time to protest before the gigantic wolfcat had him off and away.

At this point, Remian began to have some private suspicions about that wolfcat. Wrapping the stick in nearby leaves, he pointed it at the bear and shouted, “Hold! Nobody move or I’ll shoot!”

“Huh?” Mandy and Mindy both stopped, then wondered why Remian included them in his demand.

The bear, meanwhile, finally got clear from the smoke only to see Remian pointing the polished stick at him. He growled. [No fair! No fair!]

Remian bit his lip. [Sorry. We just wanted the cave. Do you surrender?]

The bear looked at him with that polished stick, then at the other two with their scrolls, sat down on its rump, and grouched. [No fair.]

Carrie came back then, with Max gently held in her mouth like a cub. Her actual cub, Vigil, looked at him with his tail wagging, as if wondering if Max had become his brother suddenly.

“Remian, can you call your wolfcat off? She’s going to leave teeth-marks on my armor!” Max complained.

The bear, likewise, turned to the wolfcat and roared his own complain. [You! Why?!]

Carrie put Max down and snorted. [You weren’t supposed to be here, remember?]

The bear scowled. He just sat there on his rump, one disappointed grouch.

“Can we count on you to watch him? You know, so he doesn’t claw us from the back?” Remian asked Carrie.

“Whuff.” Carrie nodded affirmatively.

Well. They’d come this far on her word. They may as well go all the way. “Let’s check out this cave.”

It was quite a large cave. If they needed to, they could have stuck twenty Tier 4 Wilds the size of Carrie or the bear inside without crowding. The stream ran through right in the middle, seemingly gushing from the cave floor and that was as close as anyone was going to get to its source.

Remian sniffed the air. “It smells of wet bear in here. When Charlie gets back, I’m going to have to ask him for a wind spell that could help with ventilation.”

“Also, there’s a lot of junk.” Mindy noted. “What is all this? Do bears like to hoard stuff?”

“I can understand hoarding food, but this…?” Mandy went over to the heaps of junk piled up. “Broken furniture, random planks, a rusty bar of iron, half a bale of hay, somebody’s cutlery… is that a bathrobe?!”

“What is all this?” Remian shook his head. “We may as well clear it out.”

The bear eyed them uneasily as they cleared out his stash. When they started moving their bags in, though, he growled. [What are you doing?]

“We’re moving in. This is our den, now.” Remian explained.

The bear roared. [This is MY den!]

Carrie rapped him on the head with her paw. [You’re not supposed to be here! Shadowflash said…]

[Shadowflash is gone! You have no right!] the bear roared.

“Stand down!” Remian raised the Fire Ball wand again.

[Give it back!] the bear roared furiously. [Give back my stick! Give back my den!]

“No.” Remian said shortly.

The bear roared.

“Fire!” Remian triggered the Sigil in the wand. It was a runic Inscription, and it still had a few charges left. About one fifth of the power came from the Sigil, the rest of it had to come from Remian himself. A head-sized Fire Ball shot out at the bear and exploded on his shoulder.

The bear sat there, his face and shoulder blackened from the blast, and coughed. Smoke leaked out from its mouth.

Carrie snorted. [See what you get?]

There was a short rumble of complaint, and then the bear didn’t say anything more.

Some of the junk, they kept, particularly the hay and the mismatched planks. The rest, they cleared out, along with whatever loose rubble and stones they could remove. Max knocked down some stalactites and stalagmites with his shield, but it was going to take a lot more work to make this hole in the hill a comfortable place.

To make things worse, the sky began to darken in the afternoon. Heavy clouds and a deep rumble promised rain.

“Do we have time to return to town?” Mandy asked, eyeing the storm clouds above. “This looks serious.”

“Probably not.” Remian guessed, going by feeling more than any actual knowledge.

Speaking of feelings, he had a rather odd one when he looked outside the cave.

There in front of them was its previous occupant. Helplessly, thrown out of his home, the bear sat there outside the entrance like a lump, sad and lonely.

It was going to rain, soon. Even Carrie was scurrying into the cave for shelter as more thunder rumbled… but the bear didn’t move.

“What am I doing?” Remian sighed, shaking his head. “Hey, bear! Get in here, before you get wet!”

The bear turned to him and blinked.

“It’s going to happen anyway.” Remian figured. “We may as well get you in safe and warm rather than have to deal with wet bear later. Now, hurry up and come in before it rains!”

Behind him, Mandy’s soft voice asked, “Are you sure? Is it safe?”

“Nothing about the Frontier is safe.” Remian replied her. “But we’re already relying on one Wild for protection. Maybe we can rely on two.”

“Can we?”

Remian paused. “There’s something strange about this bear. The wand, the junk… something is different. Vigil is different and Carrie is different too. Maybe… maybe we don’t have to fight.”

“But we just threw its’ stuff out!” Mandy pointed out.

“We can discuss that with him.”

“We can?” Mandy blinked. “How?”

“Leave it to me.”

“You can talk to Wilds?”

Mindy, overhearing, burst out laughing. “Of course he can! He’s a Mage!”

Remian hesitated, but didn’t try to correct her misconception. After all, what could he say? Perhaps it was best not to have to clarify the matter further.