Long Winter's Sleep

"Eska"

The Bear came out of nowhere. Hungry after the long winter, it had been gorging itself on the fresh berries in the grove. Eska just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She'd come to collect berries herself, trying to take something back to Ulric and his pack to thank them for caring for her mother. The basket that she'd been filling was between them and thankfully the bear wasn't going for that. All of her effort would have been wasted. The grizzly was simply trying to push the other predator out of its feeding territory. Well, Eska wasn't leaving without her basket of berries.

A low growl reverberated in the woman's chest as she squared away with the bear. If she could just lead it away enough to circle back and retrieve her basket, that would be enough. There was no reason to try and kill a bear. Eska rushed forward, skirting around the side of the big brown beast. She nipped at its hip as she did so and the lumbering ursine swung around, one massive paw flying through the air to try and strike her. Thankfully, she managed to avoid it.