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“Aren’t you tired, Vur?” Stella asked. She was sitting on his nose, her hair fluttering in the wind. Despite having such a small body, she wasn’t blown away even though Vur was flying at extremely high speeds. Her legs were dangling off of his snout, and she was gnawing on an odd-looking fruit that was as tall as her torso. She gulped and swallowed a piece of pulp. “You’ve been flying and healing people for so long, and you haven’t even slept yet. Dragons sleep for years at a time, but I wasn’t aware they stayed awake for years at a time too.”
Vur didn’t respond.
Stella turned her head, and a blank expression appeared on her messy face. A drop of juice dripped off of her chin, landing on wing. Vur’s eyes were closed, and his wings weren’t even flapping. It seemed like Vur was sleeping. “Uh, Vur?” Stella asked and nudged the scales underneath her with her palm. “Are you awake, Vur?”
“Huh?” Vur’s eyes shot open, and he blinked twice. “Oh, are we there?” He shifted his gaze down, and Stella nearly fell off of his nose, but she flapped her wings in time, maintaining her balance. “Why don’t I see it yet?”
“No, we’re—”
“Oh! What’s that?” Vur asked and pointed.
“What’s what?” Stella asked and flew to the right side of Vur’s snout. It was too hard to see what he was pointing at because his snout was in the way. Stella squinted, and a blurry white dot appeared in her vision. “That dot?” It was a strange dot. Usually, the land was completely dark underneath them during the night except for the few places with fire they encountered. “It looks like…, fly closer; I can’t see.”
Vur nodded, and he swooped down, angling himself to the right, heading for the dot. As he got closer, the blurry formed revealed itself to be a bear. It was rather large, taller than the trees around it. It raised its head, and its eyes locked onto Vur’s. It stood up on its hindlegs, towering over the trees, and roared. Though the sound was extremely loud, it didn’t disturb the vicinity. No birds flew away, and the forest below remained completely calm.
“What is it?” Stella asked, unperturbed by the bear’s roar. The bear was much larger than her, but it was still tinier than a dragon. “It seems to be some sort of ghost?”
Vur squinted his eyes. The bear’s body wasn’t solid, as if it was composed of fog. The fog was too dense to completely see through, however. Its feet were even hovering a few feet above the forest floor. Vur leaned over, and his body made an arc in the air. He circled the bear, and it followed his trajectory, taking clumsy steps to walk in a circle with its body passing through the trees. After a while of circling, Vur sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Stella asked.
Vur wrinkled his snout, causing Stella to rise up and down. “I don’t think I can eat it.”
Stella blinked and looked at the bear. “You’re probably right about that,” she said after a while. “Even if you could, I don’t think it’d be very tasty. It looks like it’s made of fairy farts.”
“Fairy farts are visible?” Sheryl asked from the rune on Vur’s shoulder.
Stella nodded. “Yep.”
“Then how come I’ve never seen one before?” Sheryl asked, her voice filled with doubt.
“If your farts were visible, you wouldn’t fart in public either,” Stella said and rolled her eyes.
“Oh. I guess that’s true,” Sheryl said. “Hey, Vur, I think the bear’s trying to say something.”
Vur looked down again. The bear’s lips were opening and closing. It really did look like the bear was trying to say something. Usually, bears couldn’t speak. Usually, they couldn’t fly either. But since this bear could fly, maybe it could also speak. Vur nodded and angled his wings downward, descending towards the ground with every passing circle. As he got closer, he could make out some words.
“…fight me. You … can … encroach … huh? I’ll … your liver … out.”
“I think it said it was going to eat your liver,” Stella said and glanced at Vur. She furrowed her brow. Did dragons even have livers? No one she knew had ever dissected a dragon before—well, no, maybe Grimmy would know. Stella’s eyes lit up. “Wait a minute! It can speak! Err, that’s not the amazing part; I mean, it is, but also, it can speak a language we know!”
“You’re right,” Vur said, his eyes gleaming. “Let’s capture it.”
“Try and capture this great lord if you can, flying lizard!” the ghostly bear shouted. “Come here and let me teach you a lesson! Just because you’re a little bit big you think you’re mighty? This great lord is bigger than … you?” The bear’s voice faltered as Vur circled even lower. From far away, Vur was just a dot. Now that he was almost directly overhead, the bear couldn’t help but swallow and deflate a little.
When Vur landed on the ground, bringing multiple trees down while scattering the previously sleepy animals in the area, he towered over the ghostly bear despite standing on all fours. Without waiting for the bear to speak, he blew a chilling breath at its legs, freezing them and their surroundings in a puddle of ice.
The bear no longer floated, and its feet landed heavily against the frozen ground. Its eyes widened, and it tried to lift its legs, but it was firmly rooted in place. It whimpered and stared up at Vur, wanting to curl up into a ball but unable to since its lower half was stuck in the same position. “W-w-who are you?”
Vur tilted his head. “What are you?”
“I’m just a lowly spirit bear,” the bear said, shrinking its shoulders, trying to make itself as small as possible. “Sure, some humans respect and worship me and think of me as their guardian, but if anyone is worthy of worship, it’s you.” The bear bobbed its head up and down while holding its paws out towards Vur.
Stella stroked her chin. “It’s pretty cute,” she said and nodded. “Let’s keep it.”
Vur tilted his head the other way. Was it cute? This bear looked exactly like food. Since when could food be considered cute?