The bear, if it could even be called that, was strangely beautiful - more beautiful than any of the creatures she'd seen in the Eternal Glade. Physically, it wasn't all that different from other brown bears, though it was definitely larger-than-average and its muscles looked far more defined than they otherwise should've been. No, Lothien could no longer truly see the joys of physical beauty; that had been one of the many things she had to give up in the name of her goddess, in the name of protecting the most sacred of forests. It was a tragedy - to live in the wilds, surrounded by vibrant colors and mesmerizing sights, unable to appreciate any of that.

No-

What made the bear strangely beautiful was the magical energies that bubbles inside it - neither Qi nor Mana, but stronger than both, like an egg, just waiting to hatch. The beauty lay in the possibilities; within the shell of a bear was something far beyond any mundane creature, far beyond any magical beast, reaching - perhaps - into the realm of the gods. For now, however, that egg would gestate, waiting, gathering strength, gathering power, until the proper time. Butterflies fluttered in the pits of her stomach as she wondered at the future. 'What sort of entity would become of this...ursine?'

Lothien shook her head, descending from the clouds to the clearing, where the bear lazed under the heat of the sun; now was not the time to wonder about the future, nor the time to admire the beauty of untapped power and strength. Destiny was not set in stone; there was no reason to believe the bear would ever reach its full potential.

"Who are you?" She asked, wondering if the bear was capable of understanding her. It might've been, for all she knew; its power certainly suggested a rather high intelligence for an ursine - not that they were dumb animals, but nearly all of them were far from sapient. Nearly, of course, because this one bear was definitely sapient. The only question now was whether or not it was capable of understanding human speech.

Then again, even if it could understand the human tongue somehow, how was it supposed to answer her? Its jaws and its tongue, and even its voicebox, were not designed for speech. Gods and creatures from the Outer Plane were said to be capable of speech with their minds alone, but Lothien doubted that possibility; this was just a...very strange bear, after all, not some 4th dimensional entity or a god.

Idly, the elven maid waited for some kind of answer, wondering if it understood her at all.

The ursine's head tilted to the right, and her breath hitched at the possibility that it really did just understand her words; she was speaking in the tongue of man, after all, the one language that nearly every sapient being in the world spoke, though with varying degrees of proficiency. Its eyes met her own, and Lothien glimpsed briefly into the bear's unnatural eyes - blacker than the blackest night, shying away from all light, like twin windows into the Great Abyss itself. There was power in those eyes, and that power merely added to the bear's beauty.

"Ur...sus..." It spoke in a gutteral tone, like a dying man, rasping for breath, throat torn apart. Its voice was that of shadow and death, and ruin. Darkness followed it, though the bear seemed largely unaware of its own presence. Strangely, however, the ursine seemed surprised by its ability to talk - if her understanding of bear body language had not dulled over the centuries. It stiffened, craning its neck left and right as though it was unsure of what it just did.

"What is your purpose here, Ursus?" She asked, not quite sure if the 'Ur' was supposed to be separate from the 'Sus', but it made sense in her head.

The bear pushed itself off the rock and slid back into the water, where it looked right up towards her with a curious, but mostly confused gaze. "Don't...know...I...go...over...moun...tains..."

'Go over the mountains?' Her eyes drifted to the north, where the grey mountains loomed over all, towering high above the clouds. The dragons lived there, alongside the fearsome wendigo and yeti, both of whom prey on the large, winged sheep that lived at the base of the mountain range. No sane entity, person or beast, ever willingly ventured there; there were safe paths, true, but those were largely hidden from knowledge and memory. Teams of Monster Hunters and Exlporers once frequented the mountains as it allowed one direct access into the heart of the Eternal Glade itself; they soon learned, however, that anyone, who dared venture there, would never return.

"Why?"

"Ad...vent...ure...seek...more...beyond..."

Lothien raised an eyebrow at Ursus' words, near gibberish though they were. 'Adventure? What could possibly possess him to venture north when the southlands were far safer?'

True enough, though the woods of the Eternal Glade stretched near infinite into the South, it'd eventually open up into the Realms of Okrihan, where Cultivators and Mages thrived in their strange sects and universities, far from the influence of the Kingdoms of the West and the North. To the east was the Great Sea - no adventure lay there.

'And yet the northern woods of the Eternal Glade are...dangerous...'

The bear had potential; given time, it might just become a truly fearsome creature. As it was now, however, the denizens of the Grey Mountains would tear it to shreds within seconds; it wouldn't even be funny, compared to watching humans scream and beg for their lives as Yeti crushed and powdered their bones, or Wendigo devoured them even as they lay awake - death by dragons would be merciful, but the mighty beasts made their homes at the peaks of the mountains, far from the reach of any mortal.

In short, the bear was doomed to die if it stayed its course.

Unless, of course, she stayed her hand and allowed the...entity to die in its quest for adventure, which would be a shame, given its potential to be so much more.

But then...everything comes with a price.

"If you continue on as you have, you will die; there are creatures far stronger than you could ever hope to defeat in the far north." She said, eyeing the bear as it seemed to turn its full attention towards her. The Necrosaurus Rex was indeed power - extremely powerful, actually. But it was a solitary creature that relied on brute force and terror to get what it wanted and needed. The denizens of the Grey Mountains were pack hunters and ambush predators, lying in wait, before pouncing on unwary prey. In a one on one fight, the bear was stronger than any Yeti or Wendigo; against ten or fifteen, however, it'd be torn to shreds, before it could even blink.

"What...you...suggest...human..."

'Human?' Ah, it was likely unaware of the other 'humanoid' races that existed in the world - a forgiveable mistake, Lothien supposed. Her kind rarely, if ever, ventured here and most animals would live their whole lives, dying of old age, never having seen the grace and beauty of her people. For a moment, Lothien wondered if her home in Dagorath still stood. She shook her head, smiling. "I suggest we help each other; I will help you find a safe path across the Grey Mountains, far from any danger to your person, and you will help me recover a certain artifact."

The bear tilted its head to the side. "What...art..if..act..."

'Ah...it's probably never even heard of that word before.' She shook her head. "You will fetch something for me, an object of great power; in return, I will allow you to safely traverse the Grey Mountains through the hidden paths that run under its belly."

The bear looked incredulous for a moment, before seemingly shrugging - at least, it might've been a shrug. Lothien had never been much of an expert on ursine body language, but it definitely looked like a shrug. "Okay..."

'Huh...that was easy.' She gravitated downwards until her toes touched the surface of the stream. "The object you'll be looking for is called a Silmaris. Simply put, it a smooth, glowing stone that emits waves of mana."

She made a fist, smiling softly. "It's about this big."

Lothien raised a finger and pointed to the South-East. "If you journey on in that direction, the woods will slowly give way to a barren wasteland - devoid of all life, not even bacteria live there for the land is poisoned by foul magic. At the center of this wasteland is a great tomb - you will find the Silmaris inside the tomb, guarded by dark creatures."

The bear tilted its head again, just as a red salmon whizzed past it. "Okay..."

"Retrieve the Silmaris for me and I will grant you safe passage through the Grey Mountains - no harm shall come to you." She smiled "And you can go beyond the Eternal Glade - far beyond the woods and the trees, to lands filled with adventure."

"Okay."

That was...an interesting exchange; I understood most of the sounds that spawned from her tiny mouth, but I could hardly return said sounds as I'd like - it seemed my throat simply didn't want to cooperate. Still, it'd gone rather well in the end. The flying human-thing had given me a task to retrieve some shiny rock in exchange for passage through the Grey Mountains. I wasn't in a hurry - far from it, in fact. And so, I saw no reason why I should deny her request. Besides, this was an adventure in and of itself; I would finally see something beyond the woods and the trees, even if it was a dead land.

A flurry of dried leaves and butterflies arrived from nowhere and circled around the floating human-thing.

I lost interest at that point and turned away to the Southeast, where the floating human-thing had pointed earlier. It was a shame to backtrack through that much land, but then it'd been what-- three days? I stepped out of the stream, shaking away as much of the water that'd clung to my fur as possible, before trekking onwards to adventure.

It may not have been the adventure I was looking for - not that I had any inkling as to what I was looking for to begin with - but it was better than mindlessly walking through woodlands and hunting down the strange beasts. Besides, I needed to practice with my abilities and this quest might just be the perfect way to go about doing just that. After all, I had neither used Nuokinesis nor Cosmokinesis, two abilties that'd been available to me for as long as I knew - I even had other abilities now that I had to try out.

'Speaking of which-' A butterfly flew right by me, fluttering over a flowery bush. I extended my mind towards it and activated Nuokinesis.

-5 MP!

The butterfly stiffened and fell, as though it'd been frozen entirely. 'What just happened?'

Was it dead? Was it alive, but paralyzed? A thought came to mind. 'Flap your wings.'

It did just that, flapping its wings and flailing on the ground as though it didn't know how to fly. 'Well, that's not nearly as useful as I'd thought.'

Having to micro-manage an insect seemed way too convoluted for my preferences; it was useful, probably, in the right conditions, but its complexity meant that I wouldn't be able to use it in confrontations with strange beasts, unless I'd already devoted a large amount of time in its practice, which isn't something I'm keen on doing. Sighing, I let go of my grip over the butterfly's tiny mind and watched as it flew up into the air and disappeared into the leaves.

The rest of the walk went by in a blur; I'd occassionally stop to drink or hunt or forage. I encountered none of the strange beasts somehow. Soon enough, the trees thinned out, becoming stumps or hollowed logs and dead trunks, filled with maggots and crawling insects. The air became fraught with death and decay, becoming dryer and dryer with every step I took. I was glad I'd taken the time to stop and drink each time I came across a stream or creek. Eventually, the ground itself seemed to dry up as the woods disappeared behind me, revealing a land of endless, blackened earth.

'How incredibly interesting...'