So, when we last saw our brave hero, he had just chivalrously offered to keep his lady fair safe in the deep, dark woods that she would surely get hurt or lost in otherwise.

But now back to Cyrus Stout, who just agreed to trudge through a giant cult of green, leafy nature things with the girl of his dreams simply because, A. She had asked him to, 2. Because he had almost run into her earlier, and Choo-choo train. He had spilled his bag of cheese curls all over her uniform.

So that's my day so far.

Goin' great.

Lacey walked bravely ahead of me, moving branches and stepping over stumps and stuff, and jut generally doing things that I was not able to duplicate mere moments afterwards.

After nearly two minutes, I must've been hit in the face by at least a dozen branches, not to mention very specific other places.

Lacey stopped suddenly in a small clearing.

"O-oh, are we stopping here?" I stuttered. Luckily, my low key panic wasn't seeming to get to her, as she only laughed again, nodding slightly. "Yes, Cyrus, we're stopping here."

I laughed slightly, like I seem to do when I'm nervous, and looked around sheepishly.

A whole lot of trees and Lacey Cynthia Summers. So basically the exact same view as the rest of this trip. You know, except for, before we stopped, I had a pretty good view of her ass.

"You know, Cyrus," she began, her voice deepening slightly and her eyes going completely black. Before I knew it, I had been backed up against a tree. Yes, I know, she's beyond small, but hell, was she scaring me.

"I-I don't know," I stuttered. "What?"

"I've liked you for a while. I've been..... drawn to you." Her teeth were getting bigger and sharper, right before my very eyes.  "And today, I'm finally going to do something about it."

She was getting bigger, and somewhat..... hairier. Yeah, believe it or not, the girl of my dreams was actually turning into a grizzly bear right in front of me. And while explaining that she liked me back. But wait. It gets weirder.

"Now you're finally mine," she snarled. Her voice was now a deep growl, and I could hear no 'Lacey Cynthia Summers' within it.

She was a full bear now, except it still looked like her, with feminine curves and all, as if someone had glued fur on a bear-sized Lacey Summers. But this was definitely not some fur glued on a big Lacey. This was Bear Lacey, a weird, beautiful bear person who had me backed up against a tree in a dark forest where no one could hear my screams.

"H-how do you figure?" I was able to spit out.

She morphed immediately back to Lacey for a moment, staring up at me innocently. Human Lacey kissed me roughly, but broke the kiss apart quickly and morphed back into the giant bear pinning me to a cedar tree.

"That's how," the Bear Lacey growled triumphantly.

And then, she proceeded to backhand me with her giant bear paw.

I wasn't even given the privilege to fall over dramatically and worry the audience like some action hero, because the other paw was up on the tree beside my head, ensuring that Bear Lacey could do whatever she wanted to me. Because really, who would stand up to a ginormous grizzly bear who used to be their crush anyway? Not Cyrus Stout, I'll tell you that much.

I felt blood trickle from my nostril and down my lip, which seemed to make Bear Lacey beyond overjoyed, because then, there was a horrible punch delivered to my stomach, shaking the very tree, but I could barely even bend over and coil around it because Bear Lacey was standing much too close for that to happen.

A lot of fighting moves that I am too inexperienced to describe and a lot of pain I was going through too much to remember, Bear Lacey finally stepped back, and I gladly dropped to the ground, almost relishing the feeling.

Boy, if she liked me, she sure had a weird way of showing it.

Then, I could hear more voices talking, one I could recognize to be Human Lacey's.

I finally made the painful effort to lift my head, and I could see Human Lacey standing with Megan Gold and Patty Levi, the two other most popular girls in school.

"So, are all the popular girls at Baxter Prep just terrifying bear monsters?" I was able to ask.

The girls turned.

Damn you, Cyrus, you sassy coward.

Megan laughed. "Thank you for the compliment, sugar. We really are, aren't we?"

Patty laughed and nodded. "Now let's get him out of here so he doesn't get blood on my designer jeans."

And with that, I felt someone's hand tighten around the back of my jacket and I was effortlessly lifted off of the ground, and I'm not gonna lie, I nearly puked out my guts.

There was the sound of paper ripping mixed with what sounded like fireworks going off, and whichever girl was carrying me stepped forward.

In a moment, my insides went cold and I felt sparks hit my shoulders. My stomach twisted into itself, and my ears began to pop.

I sighed in relief as the sensation stopped, but then I was immediately dropped back onto the ground. I'm almost sure that my slight fall had fractured one of my ribs.

I looked up slightly to see that we were in a concrete room with no details. It was completely plain.

"Finally," Bear Lacey's now-familiar growl said in relief. "Back in Forestia. That body was so pinchy!"

Another bear voice, I think Megan's, laughed and said, "I know. So little, it was like I would stumble over my own aura in there."

"Speaking of auras, it's about time we deal with the-" the voice paused as if trying to consider what to call me. "-human."

"Ah, yes," Bear Lacey agreed, and I was suddenly propelled backwards onto the wall, something I couldn't see forcing me to stand up. Her dark eyes glinted devilishly. "This will be fun."