"Boy! -- Y'be the death o'me yet! -- Change her back!" -- Borysko hefted Drakon past his hip just like he might toss baggage to one side, but it was to keep the boy safe from what the man already saw happening.

The fury boiling up again in this unnatural creature's fixing eyes --  "Ohhh -- You remember me!"

Her bear bellow changed into a woman's shrieking -- "Monster! -- You done this too! -- Made me you!" -- and she leapt, clawing for him.

Very useful, the thin tree between them. Borysko danced with this she-bear as he did with many a man in the fight arena. As a bear she might have him and the tree down already. He could just dodge this she-thing that might've passed for the bad end of a Satyr's Night's play.

It knew speech, so Borysko tried speech -- "Not my doing, Bear! -- The boy! -- Playing with magic he shouldn't!"

"Rip him too! -- My sisters! -- My brothers! -- Killer! -- KILLER!"

Rage made her reckless. Near enough -- Borysko thumped her forehead with his open hand -- staggered her back two steps, like a woman hurt by a man. He swallowed -- sensing the spell might not be quite done. Glanced. Drakon kneeling in bushes -- arms outstretched but shaking -- surely trying.

"How goes the changing back, Boy?!"

"Rip your boy! -- Pieces for birds!"

Borysko glanced. Drakon tipped over under the trees: the bundle in the dirt shaking.

"KILLER!"

"YES! -- BEAR KILLER!" -- Borysko backed from the thin tree, edging toward Drakon on the ground -- "LEAVE ME AND THE BOY OR I WILL KILL YOU!"

AAAARRRRRRR! -- And staring as Borysko lifted the shaking bundle in his arms, she paced heavy-footed around and around the thin tree, in the company of all her pain.

"MAKE ME ME!"

"I can't!"

"MAKE ME ME!"

"I CAN"T! -- ONLY THE BOY CAN! -- AND HE'S SICK!"

"RIP YOUR BOY!"

"THEN YOU CANNOT EVER BE YOU!"

Comprehending the situation, the she-bear took the tree in her hands and shook it -- "Make me Me."

Borysko backed toward the grey forest path. She had settled, sitting on the ground. To any traveller happening upon her, who could not know otherwise, she appeared to be a girl lost in the night, and embracing a tree.

All very wrong! -- But, his heart drumming more now than during his fight with her, Borysko could not escape the feeling that this spell was not done -- Not done at all! -- and that this boy, who was all trouble for him, and this she-bear were both party to the dance.

His voice rasped -- "Come with the boy and me."

"No!"

"Then hide. Go to your den. When the boy is well, we will come back. He'll make you You."

Borysko saw her dark eyes glinting under the stars. Then he carried Drakon away through the whispering forest.

RATE THIS BRANCH!