Sara wished the polar bear could be called a surprise. But in the years that had passed since she defeated the Labyrinth nothing surprised her much anymore. She'd met elves, dwarves and giants. She'd gone to a Dragon's funeral. She'd travelled to organize awareness banquets for Havfrue and relocate displaced Huldre. She'd headed up negotiations with the Fossegrim over payment for music lessons. She'd solved a series of disappearances thanks to a Nøkken. Then there were weekly round tables between various nisse and the homeowners who moved in above them. Plus the goblins, who were everywhere, and always ready to help despite their incompetence and the lack of evidence that the King cared where they were. Not to mention the animals - three cats, a German Shepherd and a Great Dane - all of whom had been given or discovered and made up her family. So the polar bear showing up on the doorstep of her cottage on the outskirts of Duluth was not a surprise. Well maybe a little bit of one when it opened it's mouth.
"I'd like to extend an invitation to you to come live with me." It was not the type of voice Sara expected from a Bear. She stepped back into her house as invitation.
"Come in, Sir and rest. Have you journeyed very far?" She moved into the large formal living room she used for clients, human or otherwise. The Bear lumbered in and got comfortable as Sara sat in her favorite chair and pulled out her glasses. "You wanted to invite me to live with you?"
The Bear sighed as he settled. "Yes."
"Why?" Sara kept her tone professional. Sara worked hard to build this space where her human life and the world she loved and worked in could coincide without colliding. She was a mentor and a guide, a witch and an LPC. She'd worked slowly and methodically to make a life that was precisely as she imagined it in the days after the Labyrinth. Needless to say, exposure to another dimension had meant that Sara's teenage and early twenties were different than those of her counterparts.
"Because you're the only one who can help me." The Bear seemed to smile. "I've been placed under a curse and it will break if I take you with me and we live together for a year. Besides Sara, you could use the sabbatical."
Her name sounded familiar in his voice but Sara often dismissed those types of coincidences on the peach. There was no way to deny that she'd eaten goblin fruit and that goblin fruit changed you. Voices seeming familiar, premonitions, seeing things others didn't, places that gave her déjà vu she chalked it up to the aftertaste of peach that came to her mouth.
"I still don't understand what you're asking. I want to know full details before I agree to anything." She got up to turn on the electronic kettle.
"It's a simple curse that makes me this bear. I need one who can walk in between, one who is fair, one who will stay without ever seeing my true form for a year and the curse will lift." The Bear shifted. "If you're making tea then I'd like some."
Sara nodded and started the tea prep. "So I take a year off to live with you where?"
The Bear seemed to pause as if unsure what he wanted to tell her. "I have a family castle I've been using near the border."
"Which border?" Sara set out her largest mug, a handmade gift from some giants who'd travelled far to seek her help with their youngest child, and poured the Bear tea. He sipped at it, sitting back in a human fashion and holding the mug between his paws.
"The first border." The Bear replied meeting her gaze.
"You want me to move to Norway with you?" Sara giggled some. "Do you know how many persons I need to deal with here in the new world now that there are so many borders. There's one not seven days from here that gives me enough trouble and you want me to move back to Norway for a whole year?"
The Bear shrugged. "You could use the sabbatical."
Sara knew the Bear was right. She'd just finished a case just a month ago involving Mara terrorizing an entire county in Wisconsin. She'd been working non stop. She could use time to record her cases, study up on dwarven international relations, practice her music and of course, read. She looked about her small abode. The animals had wandered in, nonplussed by the Bear and taken up in their different places around the sitting room. It had been a long time since she'd felt this content.
"No." Sara determined, reaching for Silo, one of her cats. "There's no guarantee that I'll be able to rest if I'm living close to the first border."
The Bear nodded. "If you don't mind I'd like to come back in a week and get your answer from you then. Take your time. Draw up a contract if you need. But please don't be hasty and say no."
The proposition was satisfactory to Sara so she pulled out her phone and opened her calendar. "I can schedule you for Thursday."
The Bear nodded. "I'll be here in time for tea."
That night Sara dreamt of snow. Crisp, clean snow that covered the whole land as far as her eyes could. There were footprints leading away from her to the west and the east as if she'd walked from one direction to meet another at this exact spot only to have miss them. Had they walked back the way they came in their same footprints like she had so often as a child? Who was she meant to meet? She dreamt of eyes that didn't match and the sound that goblins make when they're scurrying from the room and the smell of peach blossoms. She dreamt and woke rested.
Sara followed a simple but careful schedule. She wasn't religious or even spiritual but let her witchcraft feed her soul. She blessed her morning coffee and used the cream cheese she'd enchanted for enlightenment on her bagel. She checked her blog and emails. She wrote in her book of shadows and read her daily tarot spread. Judgement, The Six of Swords and The King of Cups. Rebirth and an inner calling, going somewhere better and repressed feelings. Sara was a practical witch with no notions of grandeur contrary to her early youth. Sure when she was 15 and didn't believe in the Goblin King she'd spoken boldly of her own power. Now she was certain any power she had didn't need grand gestures just simple hope. Clients came and went. The days trudged on filled with reading, writing, projects and conference calls. It was hard to be an expert in her field but Sara enjoyed the work. As the week passed she found herself making excuses, a redirecting energy so that she could have a clear schedule once Thursday tea time rolled around.
Every night she dreamt of snow and everyday she drew the card Judgement no matter the length or complexity of the spread. Rebirth. An Inner Calling. A New Phase. Absolution. The words cut into her as she sat, soaking in the autumn sun Thursday afternoon. Change was happening and it smelled of ozone and mint. It was claiming her intuition, demanding her energy and coaxing out a sense of adventure she'd long sworn to never indulge. Sara didn't want a sign even as she found herself wishing that the path would become clear to her. She closed her eyes and let the sun warm her face.
"I don't want to scare you. Bears, it seems, make less noise than I anticipated." The Bear sat across from her, having followed the garden path to the back of the cottage and into the garden. Sara didn't know how long she'd sat there with her eyes closed but he'd managed to sneak up on her.
"How long have you been a Bear?" Sara asked, getting up and moving towards the house. "Feel free to sit out here. I'm just going to get tea."
The Bear followed so he was sitting on the patio looking through the open sliding glass door into Sara's kitchen. Sara meanwhile moved about the kitchen doing her typical afternoon tea dance. She pulled down mugs and sniffed loose leaf to find the right combo. She set the electric kettle and warmed the tea pot. Once she'd set the tray Sara moved to the back patio once again, setting the tray on the table and resuming her place in one of the deck chairs.
The Bear settled near her. "I've been a bear a long time for my standards but according to your world maybe two, three years. I didn't mind at first. And I didn't know how to break the curse."
Sara poured them both tea as Solar, her Great Dane, lumbered out of the house to lie next to her feet. None of the animals seem perturbed by the Bear. Sara took their reactions very seriously. If someone made any of her animals uncomfortable or behave defensively then it was a recommendation that they be disposed of in short order. But there was no indication that the Bear was a threat to her in anyway. She asked another question. "So why me?"
"I knew you wouldn't freak out." The Bear replied. "And I can take care of your family while you're living with me. Even your animals."
Sara shrugged. She hadn't seen her family since Toby's eighth grade graduation. Distance and difference meant phone calls were stilted and short. "That would be good for them, I'm sure. My younger brother Toby is getting to an age where I got into a lot of trouble. I hope he's better than I."
"Do you really regret those adventures?" The Bear's head was resting on his paws but his eyes were focused.
Sara felt herself begin to shrug but stopped and drew her legs up to her chest instead. "No. But it was a lot of trouble for a fifteen year old." She reached up to pull her dark hair into a bun, feet on the edge of the chair, eyes on the horizon. "But regret is the complete wrong word. I thought I could write that out of my story but I think before my story ends it'll mean something." She broke off her staring contest with the clouds and looked at the Bear. "What do you think?"
The Bear stretched and rolled his shoulders. "I think we should be going if we're going to beat the sun."
She let her legs drop and rubbed her shoulders. The house was quiet. The land was quiet. The noise in Sara's head was deafening. As she stood, Solar stood too and she patted his head. The Dog and The Bear seemed so much more impressive against the fading light than the Woman between them. Sara reached out to touch the Bear. He pushed his head into the palm of her hand and closed his eyes. Sara wove her fingers through his coarse hair and breathed in the smell of him.
"Climb on my back, Sara."
The words seeped into her bones and made her heart race. It felt like the moment she first saw a giant or when the Mara had tried to kill her but failed or when the Goblin King had, in a burst of glitter, taken her to the Underground.
"You don't need a bag or anything. We have everything at the castle."
Sara looked over her carefully made house and simple garden. It shouldn't be this hard to just leave everything she'd built behind. She didn't know what lay ahead or when she would return but someone needed her help. So Sara was going to give it. Carefully, Sara pulled herself up onto the Bear.
"Hold tight" He whispered as he started to run. Sara, marveling at how much larger and stronger the Bear seemed now that she was on his back, buried her hands in his fur and hunched down to stop the wind from tearing at her hair. "It's going to be a long night. Sleep. When the sun wakes you, you'll get to see the castle.
A/N Any characters from Labyrinth belong to their owners. Due to the Norwegian origins of the folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon Sara's name will have the Scandinavian spelling and all non Labyrinth creatures mentioned will come from Norse mythology or Scandinavian folklore.