Winter always comes with surprises. Sometimes it brings you the joy in the form of solitude, other times it comes with a snowstorm that buries your old cabin in a thick snow mountain that has you trapped until Springtime. You had believed that you w...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The sky has turned dark when you are finally done fixing dinner.
With your starving guest in mind, you have gotten carried away and ended up making various kinds of meals to feed both of you. Though, of course, most of the courses are made for the bear, with plates of cooked meat and grilled fresh fish as the main course. You have also added porridge and soup, both to give him some warmth just in case you could urge him to shift back into his human form.
Carrying the massive tray with all the plates of food in your hands, you carefully make your way out to the porch. The bear is still sleeping. Curling on his side with his front facing to the door, his chest rises and falls as he breathes steadily in his sleep. The thin layer of dust and snow covering the wooden floor shifts apart with each exhale of breath coming out through his button nose.
You bring the tray to his side and rest it gently on the floor, moving careful enough not to startle him.
"Hey," you softly call out to him, almost falling to the urge to poke him to wake when he blinks his eyes open. "I brought you food. Maybe it can help you gain more strength to heal once your stomach is filled."
His black marble eyes stay on you for a moment before he looks at the tray of food. The warm porridge and soup still steaming warm, beckoning him to reach out to them. But he makes no move to sit up.
"Come on, bear. You have to eat something," you lean down to speak to him, even though his eyes never truly leave your face except for when he takes a quick peek at the food you have made for him. Your eyes rake down his matted fur, noticing more wounds appearing now that the lights on the porch have been turned on.
"Can you shift? Maybe if you try to shift into your human form then the wounds would start healing," you try to convince him, then turn back to look at him in the eyes again as you offer him, "Unless you could let me look at them."
This time, you finally gain a reaction from the bear. Though you cannot tell if he is acting out of your offer or from the way your hand is already reaching out to touch him before you even realise you are actually doing it. A deep gruff of disapproval is all you get from him as a response, before he slides back, giving you a once over then turns on the other side, showing you his scratched back in return.
I guess that's a big no, you tell yourself as you sit back, pushing the tray of food aside so it wouldn't get knocked over in case the bear stretches out in his sleep.
"Fine," you finally give in, sighing defeatedly at the lack of interaction as you push yourself up on your feet. "I'll leave you be and have my own dinner. Inside. Where it's warm." The words come out of you a bit sharp and snappy as you try to convince him to give in, until he makes no move and you have no other choice but to relent once again.
"Right. Just—ignore me." You sigh. "Just try to eat something before the food gets cold."
With no other response coming from the bear, you step away from the porch and back into the warm dining room so you could have your own dinner. Alone.
