[[Bearskin->1]]
She decided to escape the moment her father said that they were to be wed.
He was a despicable excuse for a father; as her husband he would surely kill her, or she would kill him.
She stole a little knife from her dinner and escaped that very night. She had no one to say goodbye to. Her mother would have missed her - she was as sweet as she was sad and lonely - but she had been dead for years. The princess at least had something to remember her mother by: a golden ring that had been her grandmother’s. Her mother had pressed it into her hands from her deathbed. She’d said to beware of it; the princess knew that she had to watch out for it always just like her mother had said.
She escaped the same night as the announcement. Her boldness was rewarded: no one imagined that she'd try to run so quickly. They couldn't believe that history was repeating itself and hadn't even thought to lock her door.
[[next->2]]
She was gone into the forest before daybreak. Her mother had told her stories about the most beautiful clearing in the world with a big warm tree that held all women's secrets. The princess wanted to find this clearing and see the tree.
She was worried that she’d have to wander for weeks to find the secret tree, but she found the clearing by evening. The tree stood alone in the middle of it, lit by the last of the day’s sun; everything was just as beautiful as her mother had said. She crossed the clearing to touch the tree, and it really did feel warm under her hand. The bark reminded her of carved bird feathers more than anything else.
The tree’s hollow was dark and deep. The princess thought that her mother had been exaggerating about “all women’s secrets” but she peered inside anyway. Maybe there was an old bird’s nest or a child’s hidden treasure.
[[next->3]]
Inside the hollow was an ugly, tatty gray cloak. It looked as if it had been placed there that very day. The princess remembered another story her mother had told her about a magic cloak that made a woman so ugly that she was invisible, safe, and free.
She lifted the cloak out of the hollow and saw an old-fashioned but pristine tinderbox underneath it.
She looked at the cloak and the tinderbox and wondered about her mother. She had never talked about her life and she never left the castle. The princess would have to think a lot harder to remember the other stories her mother had told her all those years ago.
She didn’t want to be ugly and invisible. She wanted to be bright and strong to frighten her enemies away. As she replaced the cloak she thought she saw something carved at the very back of the hollow. The evening sun was pitched just right to illuminate the words: “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.” The princess had always hated Latin.
That night she herself a big fire by the old tree with the tinderbox the way her mother had taught her (why had she taught her that?) and laughed loudly and sang through the night - let her father’s men come for her! She’d fight to the death with her little knife and die happy.
[[next->4]]
The next morning she was hungry. She knew there was a village if she continued along the game trail. They didn’t pay homage to her father the king and so she didn’t think that they would try to capture her and return her to him. They might not recognize her at all. She liked the idea of being someone other than a princess.
She decided it was worth the risk and set off down the road towards them.
[[next->5]]
She felt very hungry by the time she reached the village but as she walked she had also become more nervous. There weren’t so many places for a girl to hide; perhaps her father’s men were already waiting there for her. She stepped out of the cover of the trees ready to fight or run, but the tidy little streets were deserted. All the windows were covered; there weren’t even any women working or children playing.
The princess marched to the center of town and looked around. She forgot her fear of discovery in the mystery of it all; she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted out, “HELLO?”
[[next->6]]
[[...->7]]
No one came outside to greet her.
She heard something from the opposite end of the little village. She turned to face the noise with her hands planted on her hips (close to her little knife).
The noise was coming from a bear, a huge brown she-bear that was lumbering towards the princess and gaining speed.
As soon as the princess saw the bear she remembered the tiny stuffed cubs on her father’s banquet table. The huntsmen had been so proud of their prizes; it was hard to kill the cubs without destroying their little bodies. They’d boasted about the way their mother had nudged and licked the corpses of her children. They said she’d probably gone mad.
[[next->8]]
This must be the mad mother bear, who looked more like a demon than an animal. For a moment the princess grappled with her fear. She didn’t think that she would mind dying while fighting a bear. It would make a wonderful story. She decided that as long as she didn’t have to go back to her father, she would never feel afraid again.
The bear was getting closer.
The princess didn’t think her little knife would even pass the bear’s fur into its flesh. She looked around the town square to find something else to fight with.
[[She went for a big cart she saw against a building.]]
[[She took up an old scythe]]
[[She saw an empty barrel]]
She pulled the cart out so that the open side was facing the bear. She pushed it for a few steps, using all of her strength to get it moving until she was following it at a run straight for the bear's shaggy body.
At the very last minute the princess gave the cart a great push. It careened into the bear and knocked her off her feet. The princess lept forward and drove her knife into the bear’s eyes as far as she could.
The bear screamed out and lashed out with her claws, but the princess hung on and pressed her knife deeper into the eye socket until the bear finally gave a great groan and died.
[[next->9]]
She picked up the scythe swung it a few times. It was old but it seemed like it was still good and sharp. She stood and faced the bear without fear.
The bear was still stalking towards her but she didn't seem to see the princess at all. She waited and waited, and once she could see the saliva dripping from her teeth she raised up the scythe and swung it across her body. Her scythe cut into the bear’s belly. The princess had to twist out of the way as the she-bear roared and fell forward.
The princess planted her feet and swung her scythe again, this time cutting through the back of the bear’s neck. It twitched a little more, and died.
[[next->9]]
There was an empty barrel by the inn. The princess looked at it and her fear began to overwhelm her. She had never even seen a bear before. What could she do against it?
She looked at the bear again and tried to gather her courage. She’d always wanted to prove herself and be strong and sure like the heroes in books.
But her courage failed her. She ran for the barrel and pushed off its lid. She scrambled inside of it and waited, listening to the sound of the bear as it stalked closer and closer. She realized that she’d forgotten to take the lid and shut the barrel after herself.
[[next->death 1]]
The princess stood alone for a few moments over the dead she-bear’s body.
Then she heard movement inside the houses lining the street. The villagers had been hiding within their homes. After they were absolutely sure that the bear was dead they came out to greet the princess and thank her for her timely assistance.
[[next->10]]
She tried to make herself small and quiet but she could hear the snuffling within inches of her barrel.
She opened one eye and looked at the cloudy sky above her hiding place, then the sky was obscured by the bear’s snout and head as it reached down to her. As she felt the bear’s hot breath against her skin she thought, at least I’m dying with a view of the sky...
[[Try again?->Bearskin]]
They confirmed that this was indeed the bear who had gone mad months ago after the murder of her cubs.
Since then the mad bear had killed two people in this town and more in others surrounding the wood. They’d been able to drive her off but she’d never died. They had started to wonder if she was immortal, or cursed. Truly, they said, it was the she-bear’s eyes that frightened them more than her claws and teeth.
The villagers were grateful to the princess and invited her to stay. They didn’t seem to know that she was a princess - or perhaps they didn’t care to find out - and so she agreed.
[[next->11]]
She stayed with them for a few happy, warm days.
On the fourth day a boy brought back news that nearby soldiers were looking for a missing princess. She stood up from the matriarch’s table right then and thanked her before making ready to leave.
On her way out the tanner brought her the bear’s skin. The top half of the she-bear’s head made up the hood of a big, warm cloak. It looked fierce, and the princess thought it suited her well. It even had a tiny pocket for her knife. She accepted it gratefully and put it over her shoulders before she went back into the woods.
[[next->12]]
She went far from the village towards the next kingdom. She wasn’t exactly sure when the woods her father claimed became the woods the next king claimed, but she didn’t care about this other king, and so she didn’t bother to learn about his lands.
She was happy in the forest. Her bearskin kept her warm and made for a soft bed wherever she chose. When she wore it she felt strong and sure; she climbed trees for berries and chased rabbits and squirrels with her trusty little knife. She didn’t see any people at all and it suited her just fine.
[[next->13]]
Because she’d never saw any people at all she was surprised to hear after several weeks alone the horns of a royal hunting party. There were no deer herds nearby. How had the king found her?
She scrambled up a tree and watched the hunting party pass below. The colors were not her father’s, so it must be the next king. She didn’t feel any fear - what could the next king want with her?
This happened again and again. Each time she sat in a tree and watched them pass she became more sure sure that they were looking for her. Somehow they never thought to look up, although the princess climbed so high that she was sure she wasn’t visible from the ground.
[[next->14]]
One day she was in the river enjoying the sky. In her bearskin she could tread against strong currents and have a few moments away from the protective but stifling cover of the trees.
But there was nowhere to go to escape the hunting horns when she was in the middle of the river.
As soon as she heard them she struck out for the opposite bank, but even in her bearskin it was hard to swim against the current. By the time she reached the rocks the horns were very close.
[[She scrambled for the nearest tree]]
[[She ducked under the water and let herself be carried away on the current]]
[[She stayed by the riverbank to attack the hunting party with rocks.]]
She ran for the treeline and jumped for the nearest tree branch. Her bearskin was heavy with water and clung to her arms and legs as she tried to climb. She didn’t go as quickly as she should have.
When the hunting party was below her she was still climbing and the rustling of the leaves drew their attention. They saw a flash of white ankle against the trunk. The king called a halt and stopped beneath the tree.
“It’s not a bear,” he said, “it’s a woman!” He laughed at her.
The princess felt the first ticklings of fear. She didn’t know this man but he was a king who had been hunting her for weeks.
The men were flanking her tree now. She didn’t know what to do. In the thin brush at the edge of the wood there were no other trees nearby for her to leap to. She was trapped.
[[next->15]]
She took a long look at the sky. She never saw it much when she was a little girl in the castle. There was always stone in the way.
She heard the hunting horn again and felt very strange. She didn’t want to fight. She was so tired, even though her muscles still felt hard and strong. She hated this life, hated running and running away from everything but towards nothing. She’d liked being able to see the sky and breathe fresh air whenever she wanted to, though.
[[next->death 2]]
She jumped to her feet as soon as they touched solid ground. She wasn’t going to run away anymore. She gathered a pile of big rocks and hefted one in her hand - she felt determined and strong even though she was afraid.
The hunting party broke through the trees. She threw the first rock almost before thinking. She smashed a man’s knee, and he fell off of his horse into the mud.
The man on the finest horse with the finest clothes was probably the king. She tried to hit him with her rocks but he stayed to the back of the group, well out of range.
She kept throwing her rocks, but she was careful to avoid hitting the dogs and horses. She hated hurting animals, especially after her fight with the mad mother bear. No matter how many rocks she threw, the men kept coming. She had placed the river between them but as soon as they realized how far and hard she could hurl her rocks they started trying to ford it.
[[next->19]]
She waited and waited, hoping that the hunting party would leave. After a few minutes the king called for camp. He ignored her completely as his men got themselves ready for a long stay.
Night came, but a sentry waited at the base of her tree. The princess grew tired and weak but held fast to her branch. The sound of the men below frightened her so much that she couldn’t sleep.
[[next->16]]
She tried to think of some clever way to lure the sentry away from her hiding spot, but she’d never been the cleverest of girls.
The king waited for three days. Eventually the princess fell out of her tree. She fell so far and hard that she couldn’t move, the king didn’t even need to tie her to his horse. The king was satisfied with his hunt and bore her home.
[[next->~~]]
When she woke up later she was in a canopied bed much like the one she’d grown up in. She was jumping out of the bed and trying to force open the locked door before she could think. She screamed and snarled; she wanted her bearskin to give her the strength to break down the door, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Eventually someone heard her and told her what had happened. The next king had seen her mother’s golden ring. Her father had been so grateful to know that she was alive that he granted her captor her hand in marriage. There would be no ceremony. She was to make the marriage-visit to her father’s home as soon as she was “calm” and ready to accept her new (or old) lot in life.
[[next->17]]
She eventually did exhaust herself enough that her new husband found her fit to travel. She demanded her bearskin before they left. The king granted it to her; he’d been planning to keep it for a trophy when he’d gone out to hunt the famous bear-creature living in his woods, but he had gotten a far better trophy instead. She wore it across her lap in the carriage on the way to her father’s kingdom and felt a bit of her old strength return to her. She felt her knife in its little pocket against her leg.
As they passed the clearing and the magic tree that her mother had told her about so long ago she asked for the carriage to stop, she felt unwell and needed a little air. They thought that she had been beaten and so they complied.
She got out and stood in the clearing with her skin clutched to her chest. The knife fell into her hand and felt almost like herself for a moment.
She gathered her strength and sprinted for the tree.
[[next->18]]
She gathered her strength and sprinted for the tree. Before the guards seized her she was able to stuff her precious bearskin and knife, her secrets, into the hollow next to the gray skin and tinderbox. She kicked and fought as she was carried back to the carriage but she wasn’t as strong as she used to be.
She was so afraid, but she never stopped fighting.
[[END]]
She took a big, deep breath and let her head slip underneath the strong currents. Her bearskin was soaking wet and heavy. She let it pull her down towards the rocky river floor.
[[Try again?->Bearskin]]
A few reckless men plunged their horses into the water and started fighting against the currents. Their horses’ heads tossed and flailed with fear and it was hard to aim at just the men. She tried her best but the men kept coming.
She backed up as they neared the shore. She refused to break and run, but she edged towards the treeline. She was shaking where she stood by the time the first horse made it safely out of the river. The princess hit the man smartly on the chest with a rock, but by the time she’d gathered another the second man was charging towards her. She dispatched him as well, but the third man was even closer than the second had been, and so on.
[[next->20]]
The seventh man to ford the river managed to clip her temple with the butt of his dress sword even as she sliced into the back of his knee with her little knife. The king was well satisfied with his hunt and bore her home on the back of his horse.
[[next->~~]]