It had never occurred to Freya as to the difference between beasts and creatures before. The bear that was Freya, but not Freya looked down upon the mouse. The confusion of the encounter caused the bear to pause.

A memory of dancing and flirting in polite society confronted the bear. Nothing in its entire life had prepared the beast to see tiny woodland creatures complete in regal garb.

The confusion grew. Never had the bear seen such a display and it was dumbfounded. Freya's memories clashed with memories of foraging for berries. The purple stains on her giant paws were an incongruous memory and she fought against it.

She was a mouse, wasn't she? But she was a bear? And someone was … attacking her?

Tiny sticks stuck out of her arms, their little pinpoints a tickle on her fur.

Think Freya think! You are a mouse! You are not this beast!

But still, her paws went up into a defensive position, as she guarded her snout.

The faintest of words came with a flame.

"Come out! I can't unbind you! You must come out!"

The raven is speaking to me. Who is this raven? Do I know this raven?

"Freya! You are your own mouse! You need to separate yourself!"

Who?

The bear who was Freya listened. Sitting it looked down at the mouse.

The mouse looked up at it.

Who am I?

Who are you?

"Separate!" The voice came again, stronger now.

Was that River? Who is River? What is a River?

The raven was circling over the little brown mouse now, squawking at it.

That's my lunch! No, wait!

The bond bent.

The chicken was lost between the bear and the mouse. Neither one was talking, but she felt both. The bear loomed over her. The mouse loomed over her. In this dark land, she shuddered. Her allegiance to her bonded mouse for the first time.

"That's me!" Freya squeaked!

She was watching herself.

She’d lost touch with who she was, and with every single fiber of her body attempted to claw back into consciousness. The damn thing about that beast was that it was pulling her. It felt like the ground itself was bringing her back into the fold.

The gravity of the situation didn’t escape her. Her orbit around the bear was pulling her in. She needed to reach for escape velocity and get back.

Away!

There had to be a way for her to get out and then she felt it.

The bear was awakening. It had slumbered, confused with the bonding process and it was now pushing against her. The bear wanted her out, she could feel it now. The oppressive presence started to move against her in earnest.

Then she was floating.

Abruptly, she was cut off from the bear. Freya cried out in surprise.

River -had run through her bond, severing the connection. The bear growled and then slammed itself into a tree.

Pounds of flesh slapped hard against the massive evergreen.

Freya stood up and bravely turned her tail and ran.

River circled around the frantic bear's head, far above the crowd of woodland creatures. She dipped towards Freya, hovering briefly before she started yelling.

“We need to get away from it! Beasts of that size are unpredictable!”

Freya steeled herself, vomited a little bit in her mouth from the whiplash, and followed the druid.

River flew, moving around one tree, looking for the lost chickens.

It wouldn’t do for one of her charges to be lost in the wilderness. Neither Freya nor any of the elder creatures who had deemed themselves her honor guard seemed up to the task. Yes, they all spoke a good game, but except for the spicy smelling one, she didn’t think that any of them would be worth much in a fight.

The chickens perked up as she passed, seeing her direction of travel, and they brought their reluctant passengers along.

The ones that concerned her the most were the two riderless chickens, and she quickly found one as the beast moaned in the background.

According to the taxonomical classification of fauna, the first year druids manual, even animals of a chickens size were considered beasts. All of the smaller ones, including the sapient species were considered creatures. For the most part, they were woodland creatures, but River had met several that pushed the inherent seeming size limit. None of the books explained why only creatures were sapient. Only certain beasts could do things like speak with any ability, and only then through the auspices of the druid bond.

Bears did not fit the short list of acceptable creatures that a druid could reasonably bond to long term, and it must have been with the highest amount of trepidation that Freya attempted the bond.

Really, River should have taught her some offensive magic, but usually, that was reserved for sworn initiates. The Mouse had great potential, but the circle did not just give out instruction in those arts without a promise. That might have been a shortfall on their part, or exceptional foreshadowing for prodigies like River expected Freya to be.

The problem with all of these minor magical spells being used to test candidates is that often it didn’t show the full gamut of possibilities. It left an incomplete picture of what a druid was and what a druid could be.

Freya mounted the chicken as soon as it arrived.

Only one was missing, and unfortunately, it was the one with all of the supplies. River sniffed deeply, trying to see how far it ranged.

The bear sobbed, rubbing itself against a tree.

She circled up, flapping her wings harder now, and then finally there it was.

River made a beeline for the chicken, landing unceremoniously on top of it. She extended a wing in the direction she needed it to go.

The chicken turned to her and immediately nodded.

It would be the long way around the bear because it had to be.

Stone’s face was flush with anger and dismay. He hadn’t the chance to slew the dread beast before the entire party, chickens and all were running away.

He’d practiced the expedient field retreat before of course, it was an expectation of his chosen career path. He’d never gotten close enough to a bear that it had been a life or death situation and for once, he missed the river. He missed the safety of the boats and being far from these types of beasts.

“I’m sorry Stabithia, we’ll have to use you in another battle.”

“You say it like the sword has feelings,” Crenshaw said as the chickens charged away at a steady clip.

“Don’t listen to him Stabitha, he knows that you have feelings.”

Stone glared back at his long-time friend. They’d been through a lot together, and he would stand for this slight, if only. Slashley, on the other hand, wouldn’t allow that type of provocation. It was good that he’d named Stabitha instead.

Behind them, the old swordmaster came up, his chicken tottering at full speed. If he had to guess, the mouses' ability to make chickens move was only second to Freyas. But only just a second, as Stone’s chicken picked up the pace ahead of them.

River had signaled overhead that she was going for Freya.

They needed to secure a safe area ahead to regroup.

They knew their mission. Although they hadn’t done it before, they’d practiced on the way. Even just speaking through it as a group, they’d all gotten to a clear understanding.

It was important that they all knew the other's tactics. That brief time that River and Woda had spent rehearsing had paid dividends.

“Oi, you think that he is using some of the ranger training he got as a young mouse?”

“If he isn’t, well this would be the perfect chance. He’s stopping up ahead, we’re almost there. When we arrive, I’ll move left, you move right?”

With Crenshaw on his right, that meant that they would be crisscrossing. They would circle around the area Woda had picked and then take up a position equidistant from each other.

“Understood, Stabitha, you’re up.”

Stone brought his rapier to bear. As they’re talked about, the two crisscrossed the wooden path, forming a tight circle.

Behind them, as Woda looked, the Bear bellowed again.

Stone immediately dropped into his all-around surveillance mode with his head on a swivel.

Even more so now than when he was riding, he took in his surroundings.

As he rode forward it was more and more likely that any danger or attack would come from the front.

When he stopped? An attack could come from any direction. The two mice behind him would watch their parts of the circle. He knew instinctively that he could trust both of them but in the back of his mind…

He simply didn’t want to think about those types of things.

Woda had picked up a good spot, a small clearing with a massive oak tree on one side. The gnarled vines around them would make it a difficult spot to assault, and Stone smiled at thinking of any enemy coming to fight them.

Stabitha still wanted to fight.

The ground rustled on the path they’d taken.

Stone stole a glance, before getting back into scanning.

They’d taken the long way around the bear.

Freya felt broken on the inside- an entire continent had been ripped out of her. She clung to her chicken. She was so grateful that they were still traveling.

“I… didn’t expect to survive that,” she whispered to her chicken, “Thank you.”

The chicken hummed underneath her. Freya still felt detached from herself. The warm feathers and back of the chicken were helping her stay in the moment.

She was keeping herself ready. Her chicken had found the scent of the others. Hope smashed through the bond, a dam broken wide open.