I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

The first bear should've been an indication that the Weeping Woods might not have been the best place to try denning. Lúta stooped her head to sniff at the tracks in front of her. It had rained the night before and the large paw prints in the mud had immediately caught her attention. They seemed fresh but not immediately so. Taking a deep breath she continued forward, trying to focus back on her search for helpful healing herbs. Autumn was days away and she still didn't have her stores built up. She'd also need to pick a more permanent location for her winter den site. Without a proper pack there was only so much she could carry with her.

Lúta's ears flicked back at the sound of squishing mud and she whipped around to see a grizzly bear staring right at her. She locked eyes with it and it roared. Well, shit.

The weeping woods were near enough by that Azure was able to occasionally obtain permission to explore it, as long as one of his father's companions were nearby to supervise. He was determined to succeed in his parent's task in training his new bat, and to do that he needed to find small challenges to send it off on. Building it's confidence or whatever, Az wasn't sure. When the roar echoed across the woods, the pup tensed. All four paws spread out, eyes widened in alarm. Marshal flew off, cawing an alarm back towards the territory. His parents were off on a hunt, it'd take them time to reach him. A smarter pup might have fled, hid, or even attempted to climb a tree. Azure however pushed himself forward. Overly cautious steps took him deeper into the forest, Diablo screeching out a warning above as it spotted the bear. "What is it, Diablo?" Azure asked his bat, arching his neck to try and see past the trunks. The bear came into view before the wolf did, and as soon as he knew the creature's intentions Azure gasped in shock. The stranger needed help, and Azure needed to be a good guy so that the ghosts would not haunt him as Banshee claimed they would were he evil. He took a moment to gather his courage, then loped awkwardly towards the fight. "Hey you, leave her alone!" He called to the bear, voice shaking through his attempted bravery. It turned towards him with a roar, and Azure swiftly booked it behind the adult to hide. From above, his bat swooped down to try and distract it from the tempting meals that were before him. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

The bear was, well, bearing down on her and Lúta's defenses flew up as she prepared to fight. She heard a high-pitched voice call out and realized it was a pup. Oh no! What was it about the pups in this area always finding trouble? She turned and so did the bear to gaze at the young pup. Lúta's heart nearly stopped when she saw how young he was, not like the near yearling she'd fought with earlier. The bear roared and the boy swiftly dove behind her. Lúta kept her voice low, trying to be as calm as she could. "Thanks for your help. When I charge at the bear I need you to run as fast as you can to safety. I'm just gonna tag it then I'll be right behind you, ok?"

It would be irresponsible to risk an all out fight with the bear while the child was here but maybe if she could delay the bear enough the boy could get back to packlands before something happened. As young as he was she was certain there had to be a pack nearby. The bear started moving toward them, pausing now and then to swat at the bat and while it was distracted she charged forward and leapt. Her claws shredded through the bears face as she let her weight drag her back down to earth. Her fangs opened wide and she latched onto the bear's left foreleg, across the back of the wrist.

The woman's calm voice did little to relax the pup, who'd never seen a bear before and decided he'd definitely not want to see one ever again. When it swiped, he caught sight of it's paws and recognized it as similar to his own. This bear was like him, and that meant he could fight it, right? "No, I can help!" He tried to insist, and as the woman lunged at the bear and slashed open it's face, Azure ran in to bite upon the wrist opposite of the one she grasped. It was deceiving from afar just how massive the creature was, and as he neared it he realized that there was no way he could fit his jaws around it's bulky forearms. The paw in question swiped out towards him and he ducked just in time - the action not calculated defensively, but driven from fear - with his tail between his legs. Suddenly he decided her plan was good. Much better. "OK I'm running!" He declared, turning tail and sprinting away. Unfortunately his head start was not much of one at all, thought it might have been if he'd ran when the woman directed. He had a feeling it'd simply chase him and catch him and they'd need one more round of it before his attempt to flee would succeed. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

The bear flung her aside and she skidded on her back. Flinching she rolled quickly back onto her feet, her back burned and stung but she'd suffered worse and the pup was in trouble. The bear's focus was now on the boy. As the child took off running the bear went after. Lúta quickly sprang to her feet, her jaws latching around the bear's left achilles tendon. Her foreclaws dug into the bears leg as she thrashed her head violently. The bear roared and twisted around sending her flying once more but not before she had shredded the tendon. Stumbling up, she spat out the blood and took off running after the boy. "I'm right behind you, keep going!" She glanced fearfully back to see the bear starting to move after him. She hoped they could keep ahead of it long enough for the bear to decide that it couldn't do much more with its injury.

Azure was panting hard, though he was unsure if it was from the exertion of running for his life or the sheer terror that gripped a pup while a bear was trying to eat him. He took glances behind him as he ran, seeing the wolf go down after ripping off a piece of it's leg. Small legs skidded to a stop, and he gasped as she spat out blood. "Over here bear bear!" He called, trying desperately to draw it's attention away from the woman who'd tried so hard to protect him. The boy dipped into a play bow, and then when the bear's focus was upon him he ran once more. No amount of confidence would make him think he could outrun it, though he did know that his size could be an advantage at times. He skidded to the right, diving into thick brush and then crawling under the trunk of one of the willows. The stamina he had was quickly draining, and so he decided instead he could hide from the beast and maybe it'd wander off. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."