Bear Instincts -E-

After food, which I cooked, since they can't. We finally went to sleep, albeit on crude makeshift leaf-beds.

...

Rubbing my eyes I slowly get up and yawn with a stretch.

"System, what's the time?"

[8:14 AM]

'Quite early. I should get breakfast made. Should I hunt? I do need to get used to my bear form anyway.'

Getting up and after making sure the eyes of both Jake and Dad are covered, I undress and walk to the entrance.

"I don't like this, but I don't want my clothes torn either."

I sigh and deactivate my [Human form] skill.

The first thing I notice as my body becomes quadrupedal is that my fur came first, then my muscles and face, then the rest.

'I never did take time to look at my bear form did I.'

I wander down south, towards the boat. I find the lake we found earlier around 300 to 400 meters away from our home. Going up to the lake, I look at my reflection to see my bear form. In the water's reflection is a black-furred bear with some green stripes here and there and a body more akin to a black bear, rather than the grizzly bear body I imagined. My eyes are a shimmering gold, but that could be the light on the water, they're definitely gold though. Above my eyebrows, in the middle, is a golden symbol. As I bring my head closer to the water, I can make out the details of the symbol. It looks like half an apple with the stem pointing right, turned to the left and placed on a... floating platform? Island? Something like that.

All in all, it's a good appearance. I quite like it.

A small flutter of movement is caught in my vision. My eyes flicker towards the movement and I see a fish. I can feel myself fixated on the fish, but I give it up. It's in the lake, I won't get that, I need to find a river or something.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?"

A loud shout from the north catches my attention. My bear-brows furrow and I walk back towards the makeshift forge.

After a few minutes of walking I can see what's happening and hear the conversation clearly.

In front of our forge is a group of 17 people who all look angry. Dad and Jake are there, brows furrowed with their grip on the hammers tightened.

Dad speaks in a strict, cold tone.

"I mean what I said. This is our home, you cannot stay here."

That's dad alright, warm to his family, cold to those who want to take advantage of us.

"That's cold, cruel and rude. Do you have no humanity?"

"The boat crashed, it crashed we said. There is no way of going back and you are living in a spacious place, can't you spare any place."

"Why can't we just work in exchange for space, it'll be much eas-"

"Shut up Cyrilla. The adults are talking."

Hearing that phrase, triggered a memory.

All the way back when my parents sent me away, from them, for adoption. That day when they were talking to the orphanage's manager.

...

A little girl, looking to be no more than 4 or 5 was standing next to two adults, who were talking to a man in a black t-shirt and navy jeans with blue sneakers. The man had a sharp chin, brows and thin lips. Green eyes and brown hair.

After a few sentences, the girl tried to speak up.

"Mum, dad, why do I ha-"

They interrupted her.

"Be quiet Ellery, the adults are talking."

...

"Xue, are you there."

After a little while, the sounds of conversation drown out as a little orange blob moves in front of me.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing Xue, I ask him to get on my back and translate what I say. After gaining the bounce-nod affirmative, he climbs up my front right paw and settles on top of my head, ready to translate. Acknowledging that he got on my head and is ready, I start walking towards the crowd.

Not long after I start walking, someone notices me and shouts.

"A bear? I-it's IT'S A BEAR!"

The crowd turns toward me and their eyes widen, some people start shouting for someone to kill me. They all back up as I get closer, but the girl who tried to speak up earlier didn't move, fixed on the symbol above my bear-brows as I call them. After a few seconds of silence, I speak to Xue who translates.

"You can do what this girl suggested, you work for housing, anyone with complaints, problems or situations can come to me. I will either behead you, or help you depending on your attitude."

Xue spoke in sync with me, conveying the message and then added.

"Is what the bear says."

Hopping down from my head, Xue moves over to Jake and Dad and simply stays to the right of Jake. Most of the people fixated on the slime before remembering me and staring at me with looks of fear, or awe in the case of the little girl.

Seeing the little girl, I snort near her, getting her attention. Seeing she's looking at my eyes I tilt my head in the direction of the boat. Seemingly getting the message, the girl starts walking towards the boat and I follow her.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see a few people following but I turn and growl at them. They stop. I turn back to the girl and lower myself before snorting. The girl's eyes light up before she climbs up onto my back. With the girl on my back I snort again, seeing her hold tight my expression changes slightly.

'Does this girl have some kind of animal whisperer skill? That'd be interesting. Really interesting.'

Starting with a slow walk towards the south, I slowly speed into a jog. By the time we reach the lake I turn in the direction the girl points and start running.

-----Cyrilla's View-----

After seeing the bear lock her golden eyes with my blue ones. I point at the direction of the boat. After realizing the bear snorted slightly, I hold on tight. The next moment, the bear goes into a sprint, causing the view of everything to blur as the bear runs.

Burying my head into the fur, I wait for us to stop.

-----Ellery's View-----

Finally seeing the boat in my view after a while I slow down to a walk. As I get to the front of the boat, I remember the fact that the captain mention it's a sixth to a fifth of the size of the titanic. A very big ship.

Looking back at the girl, who got her face out of my hair. I crouch down and she gets the message a minute after. Following her getting off my back, I walk to the very front of the boat and stand on my hind legs. Even though I'm able to hear the sound of people moving around on the deck I ignore the sounds.

'This, this is huge. It's going to be difficult to move. But, I should be able to do it with my new stats.'

Walking up to the bow and ending up around waist-deep in water, I grip the boat with my front paws. Furrowing my bear-brows I begin to pull it towards the land. I immediately turn to a snarl as I pull with all my strength, attempting to bring to closer to shore.

'COME ON.'

I strain as I pull and take a step back, slowly making progress. Now growling, I keep pulling as the boat creaks and groans with every step.

...

A while later, I finish pulling the boat on shore. I let go and back up before falling down with my body laying flat on the dirt. Happy that I finished, I sigh and relax. It doesn't last long as I hear shouts and people bustling. Soon, people get off the boat and look over at me. I ignore them and relax.

A sudden thought takes over as I look around, wondering where the girl is. Looking around my eyes narrow, seeing a man pulling the girl by her arm with her trying to stop him my heart aches.

The next moment, without notice, I roar, louder than I ever have.

The deafening roar causes the man to let go, others to back up or freeze and others to point guns or knives they have. Staring at the girl I snort and tilt my head next to me, she gets the message and hurries over. Some of the people with guns point them at me before someone puts their hand up, making them put the guns down.

As soon as the girl gets over to me, I can feel my heart stop aching and my bear-brows furrow.

'What the hell was that.'

[Skill obtained]

Raising my bear-brows I look at the screen and mentally open it.

[Bestial Roar - Lv: 1]

[Takes 50% of mana to activate, paralyses/confuses people lower or the same level as you. Chance of failure: 50%

CoF and cost decrease with every level of the skill.]

Right...

Yeah, sure. That works. I'll just lead them back to the forge and figure out the feeling later.

-----20 Minutes of walking later-----

I can see the forge and... house frames, pavements, a well and more wooden outlines? So the people finally stopped complaining and started building. That's good, it'll be easier until we can fix the boat. As I walk up to the forge, looking around I realize that people have begun to choose their races.

'Hmm, I should use the [Inspect] skill for this, it might get a level or two.'

I see a burly, middle-age looking man with tomato-red skin and pitch black hair. The man is wearing black jeans and a makeshift shirt made from business attire, quite resourceful.

'Inspect'

[Fire Demon]

'Ho? That'll be helpful for the future.'

I turn to look at a woman with long pointed ears and waist-length blonde hair. She has a black shirt on and dark blue shorts that go down to her knees.

'Inspect'

[Elf]

'That's, it? Oh well, there are probably variants anyway.'

The next person I spy is a girl, with dark green wolf ears, hair and tail. She's wearing some normal clothing consisting of a grey t-shirt and cargo pants. She's sweating quite a bit, it's good that they're working hard.

'Inspect'

The result makes me stop in my tracks.

[Gaian Wolf]

'Seems like I'll need to talk to her later.'

I keep walking until I reach the center of the area, where there seems to be an outline for a well. Seeing the constructions and everything working well, I nod.

'This is going great, at this rate we'll have enough housing, we'd just need some farmland now.'

Looking around I spot a pile of wood and walk over to examine it. Getting to the wood, I look over it and recognize it.

'Cedar wood. Good choice for building, at least someone here knows what they're doing. If they used Mahogany I would've shoved an earth spike up their a-'

"Ellery."

Turning around and looking down, I see Xue.

"What's up Xue?"

"Come to the area behind the Forge in a few hours to learn the rune language. It's about time I teach you the way to make a spell circle, can't be relying on the system the entire time."

[But you could.]

We fall silent. I ignore the system and tell Xue I'll see him in a few hours. The system sends a few messages after that but I ignore them.

'Concerning the village's layout, we could probably expand down to the lake. We'd get fish, a dock and we could see if there's anything more down there. Other than that, I think Dad and Jake have it covered. They've gotten them this far after all.

All that's left is, change back to my human form, talk to the Gaian wolf girl and to Cyrilla. Oh, I have to figure out what the hell that feeling was as well. If that happened during a fight, that'd be troublesome.'

Sighing, I walk into the forge and find my bag and clothes. Sitting down, bear style, I put my clothes into my bag. Finished, I stand up and pick it up in my mouth. With the bag I walk out of the forge. After wondering for a little I decide to head to the boat and change somewhere there.

'Let's just hope no-one's there.'