"Benny," Ananias cautiously cried out as he slowly entered the injured bear and her cubs' cave, "are you in here?" He held up the bottles of milk and bowls to no one in particular. "I brought the milk."
"I'm here," Benny answered. As Ananias got farther and farther into the cave, he eventually saw that Benny was indeed there, checking and tending to the injured mother's paw as her cubs curiously watched. "And thank goodness you did. These little guys have been getting pretty antsy without some milk to drink and some food to eat." He frowned worryingly for a moment. "You did bring some food with you, did you?"
Ananias set the bowls down, poured the milk into them, and let the cubs run towards it and lick at it thirstily before shaking his head and answering, "No, sorry. I figured that animals from the wild should eat food from the wild, so I thought that maybe we should just pick them some berries and leaves and leave it at that."
Benny nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense, but bears also eat meat, you know. They kind of need that protein, and with the mother being injured like this, it's going to be kind of hard to give them that without going out of our way to hunt it ourselves."
Ananias let out an exasperated sigh as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, well, no offense, but I looked pretty suspicious carrying all these bowls and milk, so if we're going to be feeding them meat too, then it's not going to be meat from the castle. Not unless we start telling other people what we're doing here."
Benny frowned anxiously. "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess we're just going to have to make due with what we've got, huh?"
Ananias nodded. "Seems like." He then looked down at the paw Benny had tending to and asked, "So, how's she holding up?"
Benny looked down at the paw that he was holding, smiled, and gave it a confident pat. "She's definitely getting better. Just needs a few more days to rest and she'll be as good as new."
"That's good."
"Yeah." It was then that the bear began to nuzzle her head against Benny, which prompted him to laugh and scratch her chin affectionately.
"You really have a way with animals, don't you?" Ananias audibly mused.
Benny blushed a bit at this and sheepishly replied, "A bit. Ever since I can remember, animals have always been kind of drawn to me. I don't know exactly why that is, but I don't exactly hate it either." He then turned to Ananias and added, "And in all honesty, I can probably say the same thing about you."
Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Me?"
Benny nodded. "Yeah. Don't you remember how little the cubs were afraid of you?"
"Well, yeah," Ananias admitted crossing his arms skeptically as he did, "but wasn't she afraid of me though?" Ananias nodded towards the mother, who had been calmly watching the two of them throughout the entire conversation.
"Maybe at first," Benny said. "I mean, she WAS caught in a bear trap and you WERE walking up to her with your sword drawn. I think anyone would be a little bit wary in that situation, but she's warmed up to you pretty quickly, don't you think?"
Ananias shook his head. "Nah. Their relationship with you, THAT'S warming up to someone quickly. I'm just standing around being a non-threat, that's all. I'm pretty sure to them, I'm just here and that's all, you know?"
Benny thought it over for a bit before saying, "Well, maybe the reason why that is is because you haven't interacted with them that much yet. After all, all relationships need a little bit of interaction to get both sides to warm up to each other. Maybe it's the same here." He then indicated towards the mother, who only looked at Ananias curiously as Benny did this. "Come on, just pet her. I promise that she won't bite."
"Easy for you to say," Ananias murmured, hesitating for a moment before walking up to her and cautiously placing a hand on top of her head and softly petting her. "H-Hey there, girl," he said, fully preparing himself for the possible lashing out he might very well receive. "Y-You having a good day so far?" Much to his surprise, the mother seemed to enjoy it and even nod at this, causing Ananias to calm down a bit and blush in embarrassment at how silly he suddenly felt. "Well, that's good, I guess."
Benny chuckled. "You see? She's warming up to you already! And you seem to be warming up to her too!"
"Y-Yeah, I guess." Ananias then began to scratch the side of her chin, earning him a low and pleasant growl from her as he did.
"See? You're getting the hang of this."
Ananias smiled and chuckled. "I guess I kind of am. Thanks, teach."
Benny immediately blushed at this. "O-Oh no! I didn't... I mean... I don't... I just..."
Ananias chuckled. "Man, we really are two peas in a pod, aren't we?"
Benny followed suite and chuckled himself. "Yeah, I guess we kind of are." He then frowned and meekly pointed out, "You know, we still haven't solved our protein problem though."
Ananias pondered over it for a moment before suggesting, "Well, does fish work? Because if it does, then we could just fish for them, right?"
Benny's eyes lit up upon hearing this. "Fishing! Of course! There's a river full of fish not too far from here!"
"Great. Now we just need to learn how to fish and we'll be all good."
"We don't have to!" Benny said excitedly. "I already know how! I could teach you and then we could fish for them together!"
Ananias chuckled at Benny's enthusiasm. "Man, when you said that you had never met another bear-lover before, you really meant it didn't you?"
Benny immediately blushed at this. "Um, well, I..."
Ananias waved his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Benny. Now let's get fishing, huh?"
Benny smiled and nodded. "Yeah!"
