At the village the next morning, Tanana wonders where Haley is.
"Oh, where did that girl run off to?" she asks herself. She notices Kenai walks around the village with Koda and quickly runs up to them.
"Kenai, I want you and your little brother to go look for Haley. She's run off somewhere and I can't seem to find the poor dear. She may be in trouble." Tanana orders them. The two brothers look at each other for a moment.
"Haley's gone missing?" Koda asks his brother worriedly.
"Don't worry, Koda. We'll find her." Kenai assures the upset cub.
They nod to Tanana, in response to her order, and run off. The two brothers run into the forest, only to bump into their moose friends, Rutt and Tuke.
"How's it goin' eh?" Tuke, the older one asks.
"We're looking for someone. She's a teenage girl. She has bandages around her wrist, right leg, and around her head. She was also using crutches." Kenai tells them.
"We saw her go towards the mountain last night around midnight, eh." Rutt, the younger one explains to the bear brothers.
"There was a pretty light show last night, too eh." Tuke adds.
"Thanks guys." Kenai and Koda thank them as they rushed towards the mountain.
Haley wakes up to a beautiful morning. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. The sight is greatly breath taking.
"I must've fallen asleep on the mountain." The young girl tells herself as she tries getting herself up. Everything is blurry at first, but soon clears up. Haley stands on two legs and almost falls back down.
"I must have a really bad concussion if I can barely walk," Haley says softly. She tries her best to walk down the mountain, but ends up tripping and falling down the mountain side. She goes rolling down the path she had first gone up, and lands in a small puddle. Haley lifts herself up and then looks at her reflection. She sees a bear and nearly jumps out of her skin.
"Wait, what?" she asks in confusion. Haley then thinks of the only explanation and lifts up her hand. Actually, paw is the better the better word because that's what's there. There is no human hand, but a big, fat, furry paw instead!
"No, no, no, no! This cannot be happening!" she says in complete fear. She screams, looking over her whole body. From muzzle to the tip of her stubby tail, she's covered in dark brown fur. Her eyes, a blazing violet that sparkle like amethysts. A patch of fur is draped over her right eye. Haley curiously look into the puddle. Staring at her reflection, she uses one of her paws to lift up the bang. Over her right eye is the same scar that she had as a human. She closes her eyes gently with a sigh, placing her bang back onto her face.
Haley's stomach grumbles, "All of this panic has made me starving!"
Suddenly, she hears voices, "Do you think she's still here?" The first voice sounds like it's from a male child. It's energetic but is very soft and delicate at the same time.
"I'm not sure, buddy. I hope so, though. Who knows what kind of trouble that girl could get into! She barely even knows where she came from!" another voice says in response to the first. The second voice obviously comes from another male, but this one sounds older. It's light, but has the older brother sound to it that makes Haley's heart skip a beat.
Realizing that the voices could be dangerous, she races up a nearby tree, laying down on one of the branches. She stays quiet for a moment. As if it's mimicking her, the whole forest silences. It's an eerie quiet. So quiet, that Haley's nervous heart beat can probably be heard. Finally, from the brush, she sees two bears emerge. One is a young cub with dark brown fur and a caramel colored neckline of fur. The other is an adult male that's the color of sandpaper. Right away she knows it's Kenai and Koda but keeps quiet. She doesn't want them seeing her like this.
Koda stops sharply to sniff the air. His head wanders in all direction until his tiny black nose points in the same direction as Haley.
"I think I smell her," Koda says to his older brother.
'They can talk?' Haley says to herself, wandering if she's gone crazy.
Kenai then lifts his head into the air and sniffs, "You're right, Koda. She's near."
Haley's stomach grumbles. She silently moves her paws to her stomach to try and muffle the sound. Her heart stops briefly when she hears the sound of a branch breaking. She turns her head and notices the branch hanging by a thread of thin wood. She closes her eyes as her branch breaks completely and she falls to the ground with a deep thud. Koda is definitely surprised from the way he nearly jumped out of his thick coat of fur.
Haley gets herself up onto four paws and shakes her head, getting rid of the awful feeling of dizziness blasting through her head like an explosion.
The brothers blink as they watch the she-bear regain her strength from the sudden fall to the ground. Koda breaks the silence, "Who are you?"
Kenai sniffs, "She smells like Haley…"
"Well she's obviously not a human, Kenai," Koda retorts.
"Well your older brother's right, Koda. It's me," the she-bear says flatly.
"Whoa!" Koda says enthusiastically. He starts jumping around and soon jumps right onto Haley's back.
From Koda's dive into her back, Haley lays on the ground with an unamused expression. She grumbles.
"Koda, stop. Haley needs our help. Now, what happened?" Kenai asks. Haley stands and walks over to Kenai with Koda.
"If I tell you, you won't believe me," Haley says pushing the boys along into the forest.