Bearclaw Valley So raise your glass now and celebrate exactly what you've done.

she snorts. oh, she mocks once more, and then charges just to see him flinch. she pulls up a hairsbreadth away, motes of dust swirling between the two of them, sparkling in the traces of light that somehow find their way into this cavernous place. she blinks slowly, once, twice, gimlet gaze fixed upon his pathetic face.

a second later, she abruptly pushes past, leaving him to his exploration. try as he might, he would never be one of them, one of the bears. had she known he would one day far eclipse her in size, perhaps she would be more tactful.

for now, Avicus is a proud princess, testing the limits of her privilege. an Icarus, hovering dangerously close to the sun.