Big Bear Chase Me

As she ran along the wind whipped stone Valkyrie was never more thankful for her claws than that moment. The stone was icy and slick, and she found herself constantly scrabbling for purchase. There was no stopping, though. Not quite on her heels but nevertheless an approaching threat, was an angry polar bear. What exactly she'd done to earn its ire was beyond Valkyrie. She'd been minding her own business when the great white behemoth had begun to menace her. It huffed and bobbed its head, its wide mouth hanging open, and when she didn't respond by fleeing immediately, it jumped straight to attack and while she may have been young and inexperienced, Valkyrie knew better than to engage a bear alone. So she ran.

Initially she thought the bear was bluffing and would give up the chase once she was outside whatever personal bubble it had claimed for itself, but if that was the case it was an exceptionally big bubble because it had chased her from the edge of the neighboring territory and into the cathedral. Now she wasn't sure what to make of its pursuit.

She stopped and glanced back and saw that the bear, though it had given up running, was still very clearly following her tracks.

A small and sudden spike of cold on her nose brought Valkyrie's head around. She glanced up at the sky and noted with a frown the large snowflakes that were falling. That didn't bode well. It would make the smooth stone slicker and- or wait. Maybe this was just what she needed. The snow would hide her tracks and bring visibility way down. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage.

Heartened, Valkyrie resumed her northward march. Instead of a run this time her movements were less hurried. As long as she could see it behind her, there really was no point in running, was there, unless it started running again?

The visibility dropped suddenly as the heavens opened up and the snow fell as heavy as lead. Almost immediately the dark of her coat was hidden by white with only her underside and cracks at the bases of her oft moved ears showing her true coloring. Valkyrie found herself blinking away snow constantly. With the snow came a ferocious wind. It battered her from all sides, which was a problem all by itself, but coming from the front it felt as if it was doing its best to smother her. She found herself fighting for each step. The air around her, the ground beneath her, even the heavens above her seemed to work against her.

Suddenly a wall loomed above her and she backpedaled several steps. Still blinking away snow, Valkyrie frowned up at it. Its sudden appearance vexed her, but she took solace in the thought that by now the bear had to have given up the pursuit. All she needed to do now was find a place good place to hunker down and wait out the storm.

She walked along the wall, occasionally stopping to nose at cracks to see if they were wolf-sized, and then was stopped once more as yet another wall loomed over head. Valkyrie followed it much as she had the first and would have continued doing so had not a guttural roar from behind nearly made her leap out of her skin.

Valkyrie spun, already knowing what was there, and saw the unmistakable shape of a bear through the falling snow. Knowing the odds were against her in a fight she was off like a shot, streaking along the wall like a bat out of Helheim...and almost immediately ran into another wall. Literally this time. There was no avoiding it.

Face, shoulder, chest, all felt bruised but she had not time to dwell on it and was on her paws in an instant.

A giant paw came sailing down and Valkyrie had just enough time to throw herself to the ground before it struck the stone beside her. Out of instinct she swatted at it and felt her claws dig deep into the polar bear's paw. It was quick to snatch it away which gave her just enough time to scuttle away.

A weight on her back caused her to yelp and sent her rolling. She bounced back onto her paws, spun, and then dove under the bear as it tried to pounce on her, swatting at the back of its left front leg as she did so. There was a searing paw across her hips but no time to evaluate the extent of the damage so she pressed on.

Once clear she took off running, but having misjudged the direction she soon came face to face with the first wall. The bear was hot on her heels so there was little she could do besides turn and face it. It swung at her, she ducked, and then managed to land a glancing bite on the back of its wrist before fleeing along the wall once more. By now she was all turned around and didn't know if she was running back along the original wall or towards the second. At any rate, she was going to run as if it were the former...