Great Bear Wilderness This is the web, web that you weave

She watched with an amuse twinkle in her eye as Finley dared to go for the bear. She'd been expecting the grey female to chicken out but it appeared she was much braver than Ptarmigan had expected. The bear lunged for Finley with a heavy swing that would have sent the wolf flying, but fortunately the female darted out of the way last second. Ptarmigan loosed a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Nerves fluttered in her stomach when her partner pranced back to her and bounced the challenge right back. The Alpha female glanced at the bear, who already seemed disinterested despite the disturbance, and back at Finley. "Weak!" she joked with a teasing grin. "Watch this."

Ptarmigan approached more slowly on account of the bear being aware of their presence already. It didn't look around to spot her, though, and like Finley she waited for an opening. It came when the bear took a lumbering step forward. She shot toward it as quickly as her legs could carry her, peeling back her lips in what should have been a menacing snarl.

The bear, who now turned to see her barreling toward it, blinked beady eyes at her before launching onto its hind legs once more. Ptarmigan was tempting fate, however, and though her heart had leapt into her throat and her breathing was hard and heavy, she somehow didn't veer away. She collided squarely with one of the bear's thick legs, was smacked hard enough by it to collapse onto her side and skid some distance, and then scrambled back to her feet. Her ribs hurt like a mofo, though.

She didn't see whether the bear had fallen over or not (it hadn't), for when she looked back at it, it was lumbering toward her in the clumsy-but-terrifyingly-fast manner that bears lumbered. Apparently it had grown tired of the wolves' games and Ptarmigan's hit had been the last straw. Pinning back her ears, the small Endore whirled and ran back toward Finley, shouting, "quick; run!" as she did.