Chapter four: The Chimeriad and the Mama Bear

Gaius sensed it more than he heard it. Trusting his instincts, he jumped to the side, just as a long stick—a broom, he realized—smashed the ground he had been standing on a second earlier.

"Oh, you dodged? Not bad for a bear."

The voice was unmistakenly human, and sounded like it belonged to a middle-aged woman—though it was hard to see what she looked like in the dark.

"That's because we are not bears," he replied. While she was focused on him, the Chimeriad took the opportunity to surround her. Dier stayed out of their way.

"Humans? I didn't expect to find anyone in here."

"Do not move," Wingul warned. "We will not hesitate to kill you if you resist."

"My, how scary." But she did not sound scared at all.

"Who are you?" Gaius asked.

"Me? I'm just a housewife!"

She moved faster than any of them anticipated. With one hit from her broom, she sent Agria flying into a tree, immediately stepping aside to dodge Presa's Blue Sphere, then lunged herself at their biggest companion.

"Jiao!"

"Got it!"

With a ferocious roar, he smashed the ground with his hammer, sending out a shock wave that destabilized their opponent. Gaius and Wingul took this opportunity to activate their Link and attacked in unison.

"Demonic Chaos!"

This time she could not dodge, and took the brunt of their arte. But she was still standing.

"You can hold yourself against the five of us; that is impressive. I must ask again: who are you?"

"Weren't you listening? I told you I was just a simple housewife passing through."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Agria get up.

"Ah-ah… I'm mad now…" She readied her weapon and started emitting mana. He realized a moment too late what she was about to do. "It's time you burn to a crisp!"

"Agria, no!"

"Pyro Storm!"

The scene was engulfed in flames in an instant, and all they could do was shield themselves from the inferno. When the blaze finally subsided, their opponent was still standing, surrounded by a water shield. Getting past her defenses was proving more arduous than they had anticipated.

But they were facing another problem now.

"The forest…!" came Dier's distressed voice.

Several trees had caught fire in the aftermath of Agria's mystic arte and were quickly burning up. Gaius immediately sprang into action and started giving orders.

"Everyone, water artes, now! Wingul, use wind to prevent the flames from spreading." They did not even waste time replying and started fighting the fire at once. He turned to the woman. "I call for a truce. Help us."

"Of course."

They spent considerable time putting out the blaze, and their combined efforts eventually prevailed. Many trees in their immediate vicinity had been reduced to ashes, but they had managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the rest of the woods.

"Damn, I'm beat," Agria complained, plopping down on the ground.

"And whose fault is that?" Presa glared at her.

"Young lady, has no one taught you not to play with fire in a forest?" the woman scolded.

"Ah shut up, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't attacked us."

"You are the ones who threatened to kill me," she objected.

"But you are the one who opened hostilities by attacking the bears," Jiao pointed out.

"The bears? What do the bears have to do with this?"

Wingul opened his mouth to respond, but Gaius cut him off.

"Enough!" They all turned to him. "Let us all stop trying to pass the blame around and resolve this situation peacefully. I suppose that would suit you as well?" he asked the woman.

"Fine by me. I wasn't planning on fighting humans anyway. I'm sorry for jumping at you earlier; I mistook you for a bear."

"He's not the only one!" Dier complained. "You knocked me right out with that broom last night!"

"Did I? Oh dear, I'm sorry. Because of your fur coat, I thought you were just a particularly scrawny cub."

"Why are you attacking bears?" Jiao asked her.

"I'm here to train," she answered seriously.

Gaius was about to say he had called it when Wingul's elbow silenced him. They would need to talk about that bad habit of his later.

"I came here before in my twenties," she continued. "It's a perfect place to hone my martial artes skills."

"Why do you need to hone your skills? Didn't you say you were a housewife? Are you with the Rashugal army?" Wingul asked suspiciously.

"Oh no, nothing so dangerous," she laughed. "I just felt I had to become stronger to protect my daughter," she added more seriously. "You'll probably laugh at me for it, but I had a bad dream last month. I saw a man hurt her with a strange weapon. I don't know if it's a premonition or just my imagination, but I couldn't just stand there and do nothing."

"You are doing this for your daughter?"

"Yes. Her best friend's gone to the capital to study medicine, so now she's trying her best on her own, and I'm worried about her."

"I understand your reasons," Gaius acknowledged, "but please stop beating up the local wildlife. You are causing trouble to this entire valley."

"Oh, am I? I'm sorry, I didn't know people lived here. Or that anyone would care about bears, honestly."

"Bears are sacred!" Dier vehemently protested. "They're both the valley's protectors and a source of food for our village. We'd starve if you chase them all off!"

"Sorry about that, kid. I'll leave your forest alone."

"If you want to train against strong opponents, I would suggest the Xian Du coliseum."

"Don't encourage her!" Wingul groaned.

She shook her head. "I've already tried, but they don't accept people from Rashugal. Maybe if our two countries were at peace…"

They all fell silent at that. The Shrade Island incident the previous year had left no doubt that the situation was extremely tense between the two kingdoms. And with Nachtigal building a secret weapon… They might end up going to war within the next two years.

"Well, anyway," she said, "I'd better go home now. I wasn't planning on staying too long anyway."

"Will you promise to leave this forest alone?"

"I'm not the type to go back on my word. As for you…" She extended her hand to Gaius. "I would love to spar against you if we ever meet again." Gaius was not sure it would be wise to fight the woman again in the future, but he nevertheless shook her hand. With that, she gathered her belongings and left.

"That was just sparring to her?" Agria eventually said, incredulous. "I was being serious!"

"What a brave woman," Jiao commented.

Presa sighed. "At least we could resolve this without injuries."

"Our job here is done," Wingul said. "Come on, let's move. We might make it back before sunrise if we hurry."

They started walking back, Dier guiding them through the dark woods. On the way, they picked up Lorak, who had fallen asleep surrounded by the bear cubs.

"I still can't believe what happened," Agria continued to share her disbelief. "So this whole thing was caused by a woman who went full mama bear because of some stupid dream? Damn, what a waste of time!"

The situation had indeed been a little less serious than they had anticipated, as their opponent had been open to negotiations, but their fight had proven that they had been up against a formidable fighter. Had she had evil intent, the Poru tribe would not have lasted long.

"There is no waste of time when it comes to helping my people," Gaius told her.

"I-I'm sorry, Your Highness. I didn't mean…"

"No need to apologize. Let this be a learning experience. Some fights are better concluded peacefully."

When they reached the village, they were greeted by acclamations. It seemed as if every member of the clan had come out to wait for their arrival. They let Dier and Lorak recount their journey and how they had enlisted the "demon" into putting out a forest fire (Dier thankfully omitted the part about Agria causing the fire in the first place) and then got her to leave and never come back.

Exhausted from their sleepless night, they all crashed in their beds for the rest of the day. In their dreams, the little family of bears had gone back to playing around in the forest, happy and carefree. When they woke up, they discovered that Olav had decided to throw them a celebration party, and the evening was spent participating in some of the village's various bear-related customs.

They were ready to depart the next morning.

"Just to be clear," Gaius told the others as they were getting on their wyverns, "what happens in bear valley…"

"Stays in bear valley!" they all responded in unison.

"Good."

They waved the villagers goodbye, promising to keep in touch, and flew off to the snowy peaks, southward to their capital, their home.


The next Undis, Gaius was visited by Oleg, Nalr and Eleek, who had decided to take him up his offer to come and study in the capital. They were accompanied by a small bear cub.

"That's an eggbear," Jiao cried, delighted.

"Proof they're come out of hiding," Oleg told them brightly.

"My father wishes to gift it to you," Eleek explained, "as a thanks for the wyverns."

And that is how they were now the proud and sole owners of a pet eggbear, whom Agria promptly named 'Smokey,' "to remind everyone not to start forest fires."