Chapter Three: A New Point of View
Four hours went by, and the weather was nice, calm, and stable as the sun shined brighter than ever as the grass was full of flowers. The forest was peaceful as all the creatures went on their day. However, something else was occurring as Thomas began to open his eyes as he groaned in agony. As he tried to get up, he swore to himself that he saw a light blue eagle, which he saw earlier and he knew it was Edward, who was observing him until it flew away. While Thomas struggled to get up, he spotted a woman that looked too familiar, "So, Thomas! You've decided to join with nature! Whoo! That's quite a bump you've got there! That must've been one wild ride, huh?", she exclaimed as she grabbed a piece of wet cloth and placed it gently on Thomas's head.
While this was occurring, Thomas rubbed his head with his massive paw until he was fully aware of the situation. There, he gasped as he began to explain, "Mavis, you won't believe this. I was at the top of this huge rock, and all of the sudden, this…"
However, Thomas's words only came out with grunts and roars as he spoke in a bear language. While he tried to explain everything, Mavis placed her hand gently to Thomas's lips to shush, "Thomas. Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh. I don't speak bear.", she giggled slightly as she gave him a small smile.
Wait, did she say that she doesn't speak bear? This got Thomas confused as he raised his one eyebrow with a small frown as he didn't understand what Mavis was trying to tell him. However, when he turned his head to the right, he saw a reflection on a puddle to reveal that now he was a bear. Thomas gasped in horror as began to walk back while examining his new form. When he wagged his small tail, that's when he screamed in terror, which scared some wild birds in the process. As Thomas continued to roar while still in a state of shock, Mavis tried her best to calm him down, but the effort was proven unsuccessful until she had no choice but to go with another option. There, she took one of her boots off as she tossed it to Thomas's face to get his attention. This worked as Thomas cried in agony. With that, Mavis went to him and explained everything, "Listen, Thomas. Edward did this to you."
As she explained, she examined Thomas as began to ask some questions such as could he see in black and white, or his sense of smell has improved. She even commented that The Great Spirits had something big for a plan and that Thomas will now have a new point of view. With that, she began using her fingers to draw the mountains and the aurora on the soil of the earth as she instructed him on what to do, "Now since you've caused this huge mess. You'll need to understand what nature has to offer. Once you're done, you must go to the mountain where the lights touch the earth. There, he can change you back into a man. This will teach you a lesson."
Though he knew that Mavis was right, he was now in a stage of denial for his action, "B-but… Flora. I didn't do anything wrong. I-I swear.", he stuttered until he realised that Mavis was long gone, which left him all alone.
With that realisation, he called out Mavis's name numerous times until heard two voices near a tree. This caught Thomas's attention as he got very curious. There, he went to investigate what was going on as he could the voices were talking about where their acorns were. The voices sounded deep and gruff yet in a high pitch of a tone. There, Thomas got to the tree and spotted two black and yellow stripy chipmunks as they were arguing about the missing acorns, "So you're telling me you didn't eat them, and you have no idea where they are? Are you serious Bert?", said one of the chipmunks as he could tell that Bert has some acorns stuffed into his cheeks.
"Yes, Arry. I'm being serious.", Bert lied as he began to sweat nervously.
Thomas was surprised about this as he didn't expect that the chipmunks had talked. There, spoke to himself as he said that couldn't be happening as animals can't talk. While Thomas was talking to himself, the pair of chipmunks spotted the blue bear as Arry and Bert began to walk back slowly in fear as Arry told Bert to walk back carefully. Thomas was confused as he tried to explain to him that he needed some help. The only response that he got was Bert spitting acorns at him as Arry and Bert taunted him. With that, they both ran off as Thomas began to chase after them, begging them to help him. However, he would stop at his track when he heard two birds having a conversation as they were migrating. Thomas gasped as he followed the birds while asking them if they could help him by giving directions to the mountains.
As he tried to catch up, he bumped into a tree and cried in pain. While he rubbed his head, he heard another two voices nearby as he could hear an argument about how their prank failed. The two voices sounded quite younger, yet they sounded like an adult. Curious, Thomas went to find the two new voices as he wondered what was going on. There, he spotted a log that was covered with moss, and right behind it was two orange moose that were surprisingly quite short, about Thomas's shoulder height-wise. The two moose looked nearly identical except one of them had a red patch on the left front leg while the other one had a red patch on the front right leg. As the two argued, they challenged each other to do a headbutting contest. They both agreed and before they could do anything, they both noticed Thomas as they gasped, "Ben! Duck!", cried one of the moose as he ducked behind the log first.
"There's no duck, Bill!", Ben replied as Bill used his hoof to put Ben's head down.
As they shook in fear as they hoped that Thomas wouldn't attack them. Thomas frowned as he knew that he scared them as he's now a bear and bears are natural predators to moose. There, Thomas slowly approached them and asked a simple question, "Um, excuse me? Could you two help me?"
However, the moose only responded that Thomas shouldn't eat them as they explained many reasons why he shouldn't. This got Thomas frustrated as he shouted whole trying to remain calm, "I'm not eating anyone, okay!"
Just hearing that made Bill and Ben sighed in relief as they felt lucky that they were not his dinner. As they got up, they decided to quickly introduce themselves, "Hello Mr. Bear. I'm Bill and this is my brother, Ben!", said the moose with the red patch on the left front leg as he pointed to his brother.
"We are pretty notorious for pulling a bunch of jokes on every animal!", Ben boasted as he and Bill laughed.
Thomas didn't like that not only the moose were acting like wild children, but the fact that he was called, Mr. Bear, "I'm not Mr. Bear. In fact, I hate bears!", Thomas shouted in anger.
"Well, gee. You're one big beaver!", Bill retorted.
"Did you bump your head or something?", asked Ben as he laughed so hard.
"No! I'm not a beaver! I'm a bear… I-I mean, I'm a man! I was turned into a bear!", Thomas stuttered while he was still fuming in frustration.
This response got the two moose to stop taunting him as Bill raised his eyebrow, "I'm sorry, what?", he asked in pure confusion.
"Listen to me, I was transformed into a bear magically. I-I was lifted into the sky by my brother.", Thomas explained as he hoped that the two troublesome moose would believe him.
However, Ben made a fake cough as he replied, "You're crazy!"
"Super crazy!", added Bill.
"A lunatic!", shouted Ben as he chuckled.
"Hey, guys! This bear over here is convinced that he was once a man!", cried Bill as he and Ben rolled on the ground, and they wheezed.
"I'm not crazy!", Thomas growled at them.
After they wheezed so hardly, Bill and Ben got up as they looked at each other with a smug look and they looked back at Thomas, "Well, whoever said you were? We understand.", Bill lied as he acted innocent with a small smile.
"Oh really?", Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow as he wasn't so sure if they were being sincere or not.
"Y-yeah!", Ben replied, "You see, we're not moose either!"
This got Thomas puzzled as he wanted to hear more about it, not knowing he was being gullible to their nasty joke, "You see! We were once squirrels!", exclaimed Bill, "Well, technically I'm a hybrid as I'm a wolverine cross squirrel while he's a pure breed."
"Is that so?", Thomas asked as he was still being gullible.
With that, the two brothers looked at each other before they burst into laughter as they rolled on the ground, "Oh my! I can't believe he fall for this!", wheezed Bill.
"I know right. Beauty, huh?", Ben replied as they both continued to laugh their heads off.
This got Thomas furious as he stormed off in anger, "Ugh! What horrible moose they are! They aren't helpful at all!", he grumbled to himself as the moose weren't aware that he left the scene.
As Thomas walked away, he accidentally stepped into one of the human traps as his left hind leg got caught and he was lifted in midair. There, he was dangling upside down as he grumbled to himself, "Could this day get any worse?"
What Thomas didn't know was that someone else was near him as it was hidden behind one of the bushes, "Oh dear! You got caught by one of those hunter traps!", shouted a voice as Thomas knew he will deal with another animal.
"Who's there?", Thomas cried as he wanted to know who it was coming from at the same time, he hoped he would meet someone that was more resourceful.
"The name's Percy!", the voice replied as it came out of the bushes.
Thomas gasped in surprise as he saw a green bear, who was a little shorter than him, but similar age as he had green eyes that was vibrant as the grass below. He gave him a warm yet cheeky smile as he added, "Guess you didn't see the trap, huh? I saw it from a mile away.", he chuckled, "You must be embarrassed, huh? But don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I'll admit, I got stuck once about a month ago."
Before Thomas could say anything, he felt a huge whack on his head as he cried out in pain. It seems like he's been getting a lot of injuries from the head, and he was not happy about it. It turns out that Percy hit him with a huge stick with his mouth as he attempted to free himself from the trap. Every attempt he made was proven unsuccessful as Thomas kept begging to stop and just to give up. However, Percy didn't want to give up as he decided to go to the second option, "It's no use. The only way to get down is to chew that rope off.", he explained.
"No!", cried Thomas he refused to get help from him as he thought he was not the smartest, "I'll just do it myself!"
"Are you sure?", asked Percy as he raised his eyebrow.
"Yes, I'm sure!", shouted Thomas as he glared at him while he swayed forth and back from being dangled from the rope.
"Okay.", Percy chuckled as he went to the bush that was filled with wild berries and ate some.
As Thomas struggled to free himself, Percy began to explain that when he was a cub, he used to be able to climb up all sorts of trees and that somehow, he was allergic to willow trees, which would make his eyes watery, and his tongue got swollen. He tried to figure out his allergy cause while Thomas got irritated with him chattering away. Thomas wished that everything that happened to him was all a dream, or more like, a bad nightmare.
After a minute of trying to free himself, he swayed forth and back really hard as the tree branch that held the rope collapsed, resulting in Thomas faceplanted his face as he groaned and mumbled in agony. Percy spat out his wild berries as he laughed so hard, "That was funny! Do it again!"
Once Thomas got up, he gave Percy with a frown and narrowed eyes as he spoke with sarcasm, "Oh, I would love to, but don't you have to go somewhere?"
"Yes, I have to go to The Salmon Run!", exclaimed Percy as he wiped his remaining tears of laughter away.
"Well, why don't you go there while I'll go my own way.", Thomas spoke to Percy nastily as he hoped that he would leave him alone.
However, to his surprise, Percy began to sniff with his keen sense of smell as he gasped in horror, "Run!", cried Percy as he ran away in fear.
This made Thomas sighed in relief, "Good riddance!", he shouted until he smelt something himself.
Thomas's new ability of his sense of smell got him confused as he sniffed hard and slowly to see where it was coming from. However, when he turned to his left, he spotted something, more like someone that just came out of his hiding spot, which was behind a birch tree, "Gordon!", Thomas exclaimed as he smiled from ear to ear.
With that, he ran to his older brother as he stood on his hind legs as began to explain everything, "Gordon, you found me! You wouldn't believe what a nightmare this has been!"
However, what Thomas didn't know was that Gordon only can hear him roar and grunt as his mouth went wide in horror. He felt threatened but he didn't know that the bear was Thomas and that his little brother was trying to explain the whole story. With that, Gordon grabbed his spear as he pointed at Thomas. This made Thomas's eyes wide as he couldn't understand, "Gordon? What are you doing? It's me, Thomas!", he cried as Gordon charged at him.
Thomas yelped as he knew that Gordon wouldn't listen to him. There, he had no choice but to run away from him. He ran as fast as he could as Gordon jumped and ducked many obstacles while Thomas panted. He couldn't believe it. Even though he was a bear, how could Gordon not recognised him, let alone understand his language? However, it didn't matter as Thomas's heart began to pound fast as if it were about to come out of his chest. While running, Gordon faceplanted a lower tree branch as Thomas fell off the cliff and landed on the swallow river hard. However, he quickly got up as he knew that Gordon was a fast runner. Before Gordon could catch up, Thomas spotted a small icy mountain and inside the icy mountain was a narrow entrance to the cave. Thomas knew it was now or never to get to safety as he ran inside the narrow cave entrance.
Once Thomas got inside the entrance, he squeezed himself to get to safety as he panted while his warm breath made a mist from colliding with the cold air. When he got to the wider part of the cave, he turned his head back as he looked for any sign for Gordon but only to found nothing. As he walked in, he heard a familiar voice, "Hey, it's you."
Thomas gasped as he spotted Percy peeped his head as Thomas quickly shushed him. However, Percy wanted to say something, but he didn't realise that Gordon was on the top of the icy cave as he stood still. Gordon could hear something as Thomas spotted his silhouette. There, Thomas ran to Percy as he used his right front paw to cover Percy's mouth. Percy left out a small muffle as Thomas looked up with pure fear with his mouth opened wide. He hoped that Gordon didn't hear that. Luckily, Gordon walked away as his silhouette was no longer present. Thomas knew that both he and Percy are safe.
When Thomas uncovered Percy's mouth, he spoke to himself while panting, "Why was he chasing me?"
"That's because of what hunters do.", Percy replied as he gave him a smug look, "Well, luckily, I can fight well if I'm in danger. I mean, I don't want to brag, but I got some moves."
"Oh, really?", asked Thomas dryly as he still wondered why Gordon was trying to hunt him down while Percy was continuing to brag on his fighting skills.
"Yep. The first one, well, it's just a little thing I like to call, "The Slasher!"", he boasted as he swiped his paw while standing up until he showed his next move, "And this one I like to call "Flying Fury of Death!""
"Right.", Thomas replied as he gave him an annoyed look as he decided to trick him, "Oh no! He's coming back!"
"Huh? Where?", asked Percy as he looked everywhere to find Gordon, but only to realise that he was being tricked, which made him angry.
"Hmph. Typical.", Thomas scoffed as shook his head with a big frown.
"Well, that was not okay!", Percy frowned as Thomas walked away from him.
Thomas grunted, "Who cares? Just go to The Salmon Jump."
"The Salmon Run.", Percy corrected him, "Besides, my mother was supposed to meet him until hunters had come along cause us to be separated.
However, when he mentioned that, Percy gasped as he made a huge smile with beaming eyes. He knew that he had a brilliant idea, "Hey, why don't we go together? If we go together, I can help you avoid traps and hunters."
This got Thomas stopped his track as he thought for a moment. He wasn't so good as a bear and he couldn't detect any traps, yet he didn't want to deal with a bear that was such a chatterbox, "Hmm, let me think. Hmm, no.", Thomas answered, "I have something more important and that is to get to the mountain that touches the light."