stronger together

The weather was getting warmer and sunnier, a tell-tale sign that summer was coming. Or at least, Rhian thought that ought to make sense. She'd only known one summer so far and she had been young; she had been born in spring. She didn't mind the sun, so long as this gentle breeze stuck around. And it didn't matter really, what she liked or disliked about the weather. She couldn't change it and she certainly wasn't going to stop doing whatever in the world she wanted to do on account of weather, so it was better to just accept it, whatever it was. Although it would be cool to be able to change the weather. She'd probably hurl lightning bolts at her enemies, and that would be fun. She needed to make some enemies first, of course, but that didn't seem like it would be too hard.

After a few more minutes of loping along, Rhian reached the shore and gazed out at the many small islands surrounding the larger one. It was quite far away, and Rhian didn't know how to swim, but she could try, couldn't she? She wanted to. It couldn't be too hard. Her eyes tracked a possible path from the closest island to her, to the closest one to that, and the closest one to that, and so on, and she moved forward, across smooth stones and unbalanced rocks -- she tried to avoid stepping on those that were likely to shift.

But before she could step into the water, she heard the huffing and growling of a grizzly bear. She spun around, heart now racing as she slowly backed up, her paws soon touching wet. She was cornered, and the monstrous thing was only a dozen or so yards from her. There was nowhere she could go.