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Bearacles frowned at the earthen dome peppered with harpoons in front of him. As the leader of all the bears in the tower, he thought he had a good grasp of the way dragons worked. Unfortunately, all his information was gathered by observing the dragons in the tower. This foreign dragon was unpredictable and preferred masquerading as a human. The once-large but now small bear exhaled through its nostrils and went up to the dome. The burns it had suffered from the dragon’s lightning grip had healed, turning into a blob of scar tissue on his ankle that sported no fur.
“Stop hiding!” Bearacles shouted and punched the butt of one of the harpoon’s stuck in the earth. It surged forward, disappearing from view as it shot into the dome. The bear narrowed its eyes at the rest of the harpoons, and with grace unbefitting a bear, it kicked and punched the harpoons while dancing around the dome. Once all the harpoons were sent inside, Bearacles raised his hindleg and kicked the barrier as if he were breaking down a door.
The earthen dome crumbled into several large chunks, but there were no signs of anyone being inside. Bearacles furrowed his brow and kicked away the rubble. Either the dragon could teleport, or it had dug its way out long ago. After kicking away enough clumps of hardened dirt and harpoons, a hole was revealed in the ground as Bearacles had expected.
A scream coming from behind drew Bearacles’ attention, and he whirled around just in time to see several bears sinking into the earth as if the ground they were standing on had turned into a giant pool of water. One of the bears raised its paw over its head as its face sank under the dirt, and Bearacles dashed over, but he was too slow. The paw disappeared into the ground, and Bearacles glared at the now-empty space before exhaling. His root bracelet, which was actually a ring wrapped around one of his toes, shone with an amber light, and a shovel appeared in his hands. With experienced movements, Bearacles dug a giant hole in the ground, but he didn’t find any trace of the bears that had been taken.
“Are you a worm or a dragon!?” Bearacles shouted at the ground and stamped his feet. If he was his normal size, the ground would’ve cracked and created fissures, but since he was so small, all his stomping did was flatten the dirt. Bearacles put away his shovel and climbed out of the pit. To his dismay, the bears he had brought with him were all gone, only rippling traces on the ground to hint at where they had been taken.
Bearacles placed both his hands on his head. This wasn’t good. As a magical beast, he could use magic, but bears were only gifted in support magic; he couldn’t manipulate the earth. Without warning, the ground surged away as his body expanded back to its original size. If the spell had come undone, then the dragon must’ve left. It ran after capturing all of his friends! “Get back here!”
***
Vur glared at the wooden tablet. “I want a residence to store these bears in,” he said. Behind him, there was the pile of frozen bears on the earthen hand, and behind the earthen hand, there were dozens of unconscious bears lying on the ground. Earthen legs were growing out of them, walking their bodies wherever they needed to go.
The wooden tablet shone with an amber light, one that engulfed Vur, Sir Selddup, Ashley, and all the bears, frozen and unconscious. When the light faded from view, the surroundings had changed to an open field filled with nothing but grass. The sky was black, and the land ended abruptly, surrounded on all sides by a gaping void. Beside them, there was a wooden tablet. Vur looked around. Unless the bears could fly or swim in the emptiness, there was no chance of them getting away.
“Perfect,” Vur said and nodded.
Stella poked her head out of his chest. “Why did you leave that other bear behind? The one that could talk?”
Vur blinked and looked down to meet the fairy queen’s gaze. “It was weird,” he said. “It might be like Gloria’s bears. What if Great-Gramps Vol is growing him nice and plump to eat later?”
“You do have a point,” Stella said and glanced in Sir Selddup’s direction. “That bear did seem more like a pet than a wild animal.”
“Yeah, so I left it alone.” Vur nodded. “It’s called being responsible.” He walked over to the pile of frozen bears and grabbed six of them, placing one over his shoulder and stacking the other five on top. He went back to the wooden tablet and laid his palm on it. “Send me to Auntie.”
The wooden tablet shone, and an amber light enveloped Vur’s body. Sir Selddup and Ashley exchanged glances with one another as Vur and the six frozen bears vanished, the tower taking his words literally. “You don’t suppose he’ll come back for us, do you?” Sir Selddup asked. “It’s all because you told him to pretend like you don’t exist.” The white dog let out a sigh. “I’m a casualty of my bad owner’s careless words.”
Ashley shook her head and placed her hand on the tablet. “It’ll be faster to request entry into his residence.” She glanced at the unconscious bears. “Speaking of which, do you think the tower will let them out?”
“Probably not,” Sir Selddup said. “You saw how easily it listens to Vur; even if Bearacles is a living legend, the tower won’t help him over Vur. If you could manipulate the tower like Vur, maybe you wouldn’t have been such a bad owner, huh?”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “I’m a great owner with or without tower-abusing methods.”
The wooden tablet shone once more, bringing Sir Selddup and Ashley to Vur’s residence. Sir Selddup sniffed the air and trotted towards the smell of frozen goods, carrying Ashley with him on his back.