The Glass Rose

Hunt and Hunted

Dreams were an odd thing to Uzi. She could never remember them clearly, even when the dream was fresh on her mind when she awoke. She once tried to write them down when she was little, but she quickly gave up on that when she could only recall small bits that didn't make any sense. What she could remember was quickly forgotten and she long learned to never dwell on it too much.

This happened to be one of those rare nights where her dreams almost felt real. It was a bit fuzzy, and she could make out the full details, but in her dream, she was in a dark place, calling out to something, beckoning it to come to her. Why was lost to her as dreams hardly made any sense, but she could feel something responding, responding to her call, and approaching closer and closer.

What it was she had no clue, but it felt like it was important. That she needed it to be here as fast as possible with an urgency. She could feel it coming, sensing its presence as it drew near. Almost as if it was right in front of her.

Something hot and warm puffed at her face. Thinking it was just Biscuit trying to wake her up, Uzi reached out to push away her dog.

Only when her hand came in contact, her tired mind quickly snapped awake, feeling the muzzle that was far too big to belong to a small dog. Uzi snapped her eyes open and nearly jumped out of her skin.

Standing before her was a giant black bear.

Uzi yanked her hand away, staring in horror as the bear huffed and snorted, ears flicking as its eyes remained on her. Her heart pounded in her chest. She didn't know what to do. Uzi hadn't brought anything to defend herself with, which was a major oversight when she first went out into the forest.

She was sure this was the end when a weight on her legs shifted. She looked down to find the bear cub in her lap stirring, stretching its limbs out as its dark eyes blinked open. It looked at her for a moment before its attention went to the large black bear, perking its ears up in surprise.

The cub jumped to its feet, startling Uzi as a bit of pain shot up through her legs as it hopped off, bounding towards the adult bear. Uzi wanted to pull the cub back to her side, not wanting the young cub to get hurt, but the presence of the large black bear made her hesitant.

The cub eagerly went up to the older bear, standing up on its hind legs, and batted the bear's nose with its paw. The older bear huffed, shaking its head from the contact, and made a gruff-sounding noise at the cub. For a moment, Uzi worried the bear would attack the cub, but the younger bear shared none of her worries as it hopped and ran around the older bear, trying to entice the older creature to play with it.

The older bear merely stared at the cub, watching it run around till it grew tired of the cub and sat down. It was then that the second cub awoke, letting out a wide yawn. Its sibling raced over and batted it on the face, annoying the sleepy cub to irritably swat back with little enthusiasm. The more energetic cub kept pestering its sibling until it finally stood and pounced, sending both cubs tumbling around on the forest floor as they wrestled with each other.

A small sad smile crept up on Uzi's face as she watched the cubs play. Even at the loss of their mother, the cubs still had each other. She watched for a while before shifting her focus to the bear. Its eyes were still trained on her, staring with its dark eyes.

She wasn't sure why, but the longer she stared at the bear, the more she was almost certain that it wouldn't attack her. It was crazy to assume that of a wild animal, yet so far it left her be.

She sat there for a while before looking towards the cubs, watching them tumble and fight each other as they played, feeling a bit of ease till her eyes spied the dried blood in the grass and the twisting guilt returned. The reminder of what the cubs lost made her chest feel heavy and her eyes wet.