Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #2)(26)

Large crashing from the nearby bushes interrupted them, and they both looked up in alarm. There was no time to run or scream, before a large beast appeared in front of them. Mina froze as the black bear towered over her. All she could see were eyes and teeth as it moved in for the kill.

Mina screamed.

Chapter 10
The black bear lunged for Mina, swiping at her with its powerful paws, trying to knock her back. Jared shifted into his Ogre form, and dove between them, taking the force of the bear’s blow and getting slashed across his forearm in turn. The bear was undeterred at the sight of the larger Ogre and became even further enraged. Ignoring Mina, it focused its attack on the new, larger threat.

The Jared rushed forward into the bear’s clutches and physically began to push and wrestle the bear away from Mina, who was paralyzed with fear. Swipe after swipe, the bear used his most powerful weapons, his paws, to try and dislodge Jared, but he was too close for those paws to do much damage. Unfortunately, that only put him closer to the bear’s second strongest weapon, his teeth.

Mina cried out when the bear twisted its head and bit down on the Jared’s left shoulder. He roared in pain and punched the bear in the snout, causing the bear to release its painful grip. Jared grunted and wrestled with the bear and was able to grab it around the middle to lift it high in the air above his head. He turned, took three large steps, and tossed the bear into the river. The bear went under, broke the surface, and swam toward them, this time keeping a greater distance when it circled them threateningly again.

The bear rose to its hind legs and roared at them. Jared moved toward the bear and roared back in challenge. Startled, and a little unsure, the bear dropped and ambled off into the thicket.

Jared stayed in Ogre form until the bear had disappeared; only changing back when he was sure they were safe. Mina watched him in fascination as his skin took on a more normal, pink hue and his features shrank and disappeared until he stood before her, bleeding, spent, and fully human.

His head drooped in fatigue, but he looked up at her and smiled wanly, before collapsing to his knees in pain. Mina rushed to his side and ripped open his t-shirt to see the damage to his shoulder. It was bloody and messy, but he didn’t look to have broken any bones.

“I’m fine, it’s looks worse than it feels,” He lied terribly.

“Oh, Jared, you could have been killed. We have to get out of here, more bears could come back, and we don’t want to be here.” She tore off a strip of her shirt and ran back to the water and started to clean the wound.

“We will be fine as long as we don’t make any sudden moves in the direction of that thicket.” He sat down on the ground and let Mina tend to the bite on his shoulder and the cut along his arm. He closed his eyes and nodded toward where the bear had both appeared and disappeared into.

“How can you be sure?” Mina asked hesitantly. It was too much like being attacked by the cannibalistic bears, but the Grimoire wouldn’t work in this real situation.

“It was our fault. We startled a mother and her cubs when we fell down the embankment. The cubs were hiding in the thicket the whole time. She was just being a good mom.” He hissed in pain when she pressed to hard against the wound.

Mina glanced over at the thicket and was barely able to see the retreating form of the mother black bear and two rambunctious cubs bumbling after her.

Jared rested for a few moments with his eyes closed before he took a closer look at his wounds. Slowly, he got up and began to look around the base of tree trunks. Mina asked what he was doing, and he explained that he was looking for Eros Moss, a plain looking tree moss that the Fae loved for numbing pain. It was easy to find since the moss grew everywhere. He got Mina to apply it and bandage his wound. Satisfied, he motioned for them to continue their journey.

Mina kept close to Jared, worried that he might collapse or fall down from fatigue. But the Eros Moss seemed to be doing its job, because Jared never slowed his pace, but picked it up. It actually looked like he was the one becoming impatient with her slowness.

“Do you like to climb trees?” He asked.

Mina looked at the huge pine tree they stopped next to apprehensively. “Not really, but I can try.” She began to scale the tree, but about fifteen feet up, her natural clumsiness got the best of her and she slipped and sliced her arm on a broken branch. Pain laced up her arm, and she cried out.

“Stay there, I’m coming up,” Jared yelled up at her.

“No, I got this!” She knew he wasn’t in any condition to climb a tree. Gritting her teeth, she slowly ascended to the top. She spent a few minutes looking around at the surrounding landscape. What she saw was discouraging. A few agonizing minutes later she was back on the ground next to a perplexed Jared.

“So what did you see?” he asked carefully.

“A whole lot of trees,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Ah,” he intoned casually. “Well, let’s go this way.” He pointed left.

“How do you know where to go?” She looked around and back up at the sky confused.

“Because I know we need to go east,” Jared answered.

“But it is overcast and cloudy and we can’t even see the sun? How do you know which way is east?” Mina waved her arms and pointed at the grey sky. The sky took that moment to start to rain down on them. “See!”

“Because the moss grows on the north side of trees, so as long as you head this way, you’ll get out.”