The Search

Sixteen-year-old Prier held the leash tightly. On the other end was her strongest ally, a trained fighting bear named Bear Socks. He had his bright black eyes locked onto the trees ahead and his teeth were barred. Something, most likely a Demon, had spooked the 800 pound creature and he was getting ready for battle. Unfortunately for the fiery Sister, her pet bear wasn't one for waiting around and calmly seeking his opponents out. No! He preferred to rush into the fray with more fury than Prier herself.

Suddenly, Bear Socks took off like a light brown tornado, rushing towards the forest beyond. Poor Prier was tossed backwards; the white apron she wore over her short, purple dress flew up for a moment, and her head hit the dirt road. Instantly, she was knocked out.

S...S

She woke up in her room with the moon shining in her window. Upon examining her shoulder length magenta hair, her dark brown eyes went wide. There was a small section off to her right side that looked as if she had given it red highlights. Upon further inspection, Prier realized that it was her blood, and a pat on the back of her head revealed bandages were encircling it. The young girl spied a blood-stained rag hanging over the chair; it had apparently been used to bind the injury her fall had caused.

"Thank goodness," a familiar male voice called, "I was worried that you would be out all week."

Looking up, Prier spied her friend, Freelance Demon Hunter Croix Raoul, entering the room. His rusty hair was damp with sweat, the long blue trench coat that usually covered his white dress shirt and blue pants was nowhere to be seen, and she noticed that he wasn't wearing his favorite sunglasses; the latter feature allowed Prier to see his enchanting crystal blue eyes for once. Croix sat down in a chair next to Prier's bedside.

"Do you really think a little thing like a fall would keep me down that long?" she snapped back.

Croix was taken aback, but only for a second; he knew she was probably just annoyed at being injured in the first place. Instead, he unraveled her bandages and checked the spot of her head where the blow had occurred. The young man smiled when he discovered that it was beginning to scar up.

She told him, "Well, I can't rest long in any case. Bear Socks ran off; either he's sensed an enemy or is going after some discarded food again. I'd better get my ass in gear and go searching for that stupid animal." With that, she grabbed her white and gold baton from its resting place on her wall sheath and headed for the door…

…only to have Croix stop her with concern reflecting in his sapphire eyes. "I'll go with you; after all, it'll be easier to find that crazed bear if we work together. Plus, you just slept for twelve full hours."

With her cheeks flushing, Prier reluctantly agreed. He was right; having two people in any group is always safer than one. But she didn't tell him that. Instead, she walked out the door and pointed him in the direction that she had traveled while taking her pet on his morning walk. With their eyes and ears focused on watching for danger, the duo continued down the path towards where Bear Socks had run.

S...S

A slight rustling in the nearby blackberry bushes caused Prier to turn her head around. Nodding to Croix, the young woman went to inspect what it was. Upon touching the shrub, Prier felt something rush past her legs. Once more, she turned her head and sighed. It was only a little bear cub; its mouth was dyed purple from eating the blackberries for its supper. When the creature noticed that the two humans were not about to attack, it darted back into the bushes to continue enjoying its meal.

"Well…" Prier muttered, "That was, quite random."

"Quite indeed," replied Croix. He looked towards her and saw a red tint covering her cheeks.

She looked ahead on the road. But before taking another step, the little cub ran out of the bushes once more. It looked back, nodded, and turned its attention to the path. To Prier, it appeared as if the little one wanted them to follow. With no better ideas, and the fact that there only was one real path, she and Croix began to walk after the cub as he continued slowly down the road.

The young girl admitted, "I never thought we'd be following an animal. But when you think about it, Bear Socks is a bear. So's this little guy. Meaning the two might have run into one another and somehow he found a way to inform the cub that he needed to find us." Croix nodded in response; he was sometimes a man of few words and other times he had a lot to say. She knew that his moods tended to dictate how and why he spoke to others. All in all, to Prier, she liked that quality about him.

She wasn't partial to romance and preferred to seek ways to get stronger. However, upon meeting Croix, there was something different in his eyes. They reflected kindness, and yet at the same time a horror from seeing much bloodshed while he was on the road.

Croix, meanwhile, was silent not because he wanted to alienate her. In fact, he just didn't know what to say in this situation. 'I've never seen Prier as vulnerable as she was this morning. When I saw her, I felt my heart stop. Though I don't want to admit it to anyone else, I was afraid that something terrible had happened to her…'

He saw himself heading towards the forest with the desire to be alone for a little while. Back at the church, the girls were all preparing for the special service they were having later in the week. So Croix had picked up his guns, threw his coat on, and set off for the one place near the bustling city where he had found quiet. However, not too far down the road, the young man sensed an all too familiar stench; it was the smell of blood. Caution began to illuminate his every step as he continued for now the worry of an ambush from wild beasts lay in his mind. After all, Croix Raoul hadn't come as far as he did in the past two years by being a fool; he was extremely skilled at protecting himself from any creature. But when he turned the bend near a giant tree, the young man let out a gasp as he saw his closest friend lying unconscious with a blow to her head.

Fear and panic suddenly took hold of his soul as he felt a sense of deadly déjà vu begin to come on. But it only lasted a second because Croix knew that Prier's life might very well be in his hands; even if she didn't die of blood loss, some animal might come around and decide to have human for supper. So he bandaged her wounds, took off his coat, gathered the girl into it, and carried her back to her room for medical care.

'If she had died,' Croix thought, 'I feel as if my life would cease to have meaning. Though I don't know why or want to ask her for clarification; Prier is probably still mad about having to be rescued.'

He was so lost in thought that he didn't see the girl stop short in front of him. Croix slammed into Prier, pushing her forward and sliding over the trail. But she didn't yell, or slap him. Instead, he could see her face once more turning red with embarrassment. And, when Prier looked up at Croix, she could see he too was blushing. They seemed to hold their position for quite some time. But then the young cub came up to them and began tugging on Prier's sleeves.

"Sorry about that," Croix stated as they dusted themselves off.

An extremely red faced Prier replied, "Nothing broken so I guess everything is all right." Mentally, she told herself, 'As long as you weren't hurt. I wonder if my feelings really are true. Ever since that battle with those walking hair balls in the forest, I've been questioning my own sanity. You've changed my life in more ways than one. Before now, I only thought about my personal success and not about forming a lifelong bond with anyone. However, I seriously believe that what I really want is to be loved. My motives for attaining prominence as a Demon Hunter were not so much as for power, but a want for respect and love that I had never really thought about.'

Suddenly, the young girl's inner monologue was interrupted when a huge animal crashed into her, knocking her down to the forest floor once more. When Prier turned to look up, she only saw a big, pink tongue diving down to lick her face in a friendly gesture. It was Bear Socks returning rather playfully.

"Ok boy, playtime's over," Prier stated, "We're going to go home." She started shoving her pet off of her. He immediately walked over to the young cub. Then, a second cub came out of the forest. Though looking identical to the first in markings, this new animal had a few scars and a torn right ear. Croix looked the creature over and found that the wounds were quite recent, perhaps within the last day or so. This led him and Prier to believe that perhaps Bear Socks had sensed this little one in danger and rushed to help out. Then, while he cared for the injured baby, its sibling had gone to find help and realized that their savior's scent was on the two humans.

"How about it Prier? I'm sure Sister Alouette won't mind if we bring two more pets back with us," Croix suggested. Not like Prier would care what Alouette thought; the two of them were notorious for disagreeing about almost everything. As it was, Prier was already picking up the injured baby.

Together, they walked out of the forest and back to the church. Prier, ever the sly one, managed to hide the two cubs in her room for a good 15 hours until Alouette came in and noticed. Luckily, she'd stopped questioning her friend's crazy behavior long ago and left without a single word. The male cub, the one with the injured ear, became known as Cub Prince and his sister, the one who had gone looking for help, was named Cub Princess.

As for Prier, she was just lucky that Croix was a good fisherman because someone had to feed three bears with an incredible appetite. If they didn't have lunch on time, the trio of animals was known to raid the pantry and wreak all kinds of havoc. However…that's for another story.

Teefa's Last Words...

Yes that ending indicates that there will be a sequel to this story. I only wrote it in fact cuz my professor saw those words and commented about seeing more on this. So I took another idea of mine, and turned it into another adventure with Prier, Croix, and the three bears.