“My mermaids and divine dragons!” Another voice exclaimed in shock and slight happiness. “Everyone! It’s Snow! Snow is back!”

“Are you sure they’re not going to attack?” Came Saber’s voice in her head. “Their growls tell me they want to rip our heads off and have us for dinner.”

Fauna didn’t get a chance to answer because balls of light materialized from nowhere, illuminating the area. Fauna looked up and her eyes widened at the creatures that stood before her. They were tall. Way taller than anyone she had ever seen. They had long fur that covered their skins like fur-coats, so they didn’t need clothes. Fauna thought they probably liked the cold.

The large dark-skinned man with kaleidoscopic eyes and long black hair stood in front of the two equally large women. In his hand, he dangled a frowning Zara who huffed.

“Look at me! I’m the most ferocious tigress in my clan but here I am being dangled like a snack-sized tigress. What are these things? Seven feet? And how strong are they?”

The man turned to her, his head tilted in amusement, then he carefully dropped her and the moment her paws touched the ground, she hopped over to her friends.

Fauna however was not paying attention to what was going on. Her eyes were trained on the people standing before her. There was just something so familiar about them. What was it with her and suddenly feeling like things were familiar?

She looked behind the man at the two women standing there. They also had kaleidoscopic eyes that were mesmerizing to look at. The older looking and shorter one had jet black fur and more flesh on her bones whereas, the taller one was slim and younger with honey coloured fur and a goofy smile on her face. She caught Fauna’s stare and waved.

“Is that really you, Snow?” The older woman asked as she stepped forward and Fauna watched with creased brows. She didn’t know whether to feel wary or comfortable. Her guts told her she could trust them, so she decided to.

“Of course, it’s her,” the man answered. His voice was deep, but friendly. Nothing like she expected from the bears. “Can’t you see her eyes and her hair? And can’t you smell her?”

The younger one stepped uncomfortably closer to Fauna and bent so she could stare into the eyes of the young girl. Her smile widened, then she straightened herself and suddenly let out a loud roar that caused several other balls of light to come on.

“Everyone! Snow is back!”

“I’m sorry, what?” Fauna heard Saber in her head, but he sounded weak. She turned to him and found him barely able to stand. He was shaking with exhaustion. He was probably too weak to morph back into his human form, but too tired to hold his animal form.

She turned to Zara and saw that the tigress faced the same thing. The bears followed her line of sight and sighed when they set eyes on her friends. The man gave the women a look that Fauna didn’t understand, but they seemed to because they walked over to her friends.

“Come on, you need help. Your heart will give out if you’re unable to morph,” the younger bear scooped Zara up like she weighed nothing. Zara let out a low growl, but she was too tired to object.

“If I die, tell Bruce that he better not forget me. Ever!”

The older bear helped Saber. Fauna noticed a floating ball of light followed each bear around, but she didn’t see anything that was holding the light.

Was it magic? Was Jamie and his book right about the bears being the holders of magic?

“Come on,” the man gestured for her to follow them. “Let’s go to my cave.”

Fauna had to jog to keep up with their long strides. She was worried about her friends, but also wondering why they referred to her by the name which was given to her by Ari and his lionesses. Were they working with the lions? Was that why Ari was so confident threatening war? He knew he had the support of the bears?

It made no sense. If the bears were working with Ari, why hadn’t they killed her friends yet and started making their way back to his pride with her as their gift? Things were just not adding up to the young girl and the more she thought about it, she more she realized she was not going to come up with answers on her own.

Her lips parted and she wanted to ask question after question after question. However, the bear who was walking ahead of her chuckled as though he knew without looking at her that she was about to speak.

“I know you have so many questions, child. Let’s go inside and I’ll answer all of them.”

They stopped walking and Fauna marvelled at the sight. Above them were caves in the walls. Few were sealed shut, while majority were opened and she noticed the balls of light that seemed to hover over every werebear. They peered down at her with wide eyes as though they could not believe it was indeed her.

They stared at her with excitement, happiness and a hint of relief. They didn’t look at her with murderous intent, so surely, they weren’t about to hand her over to the psychopathic Ari… Right?

Just as she was about to ask how they were supposed to get so high up the walls, the ground seemed to start shaking and Fauna spread her arms out and crouched to maintain balance. She turned to the bears, but they didn’t seem the least fazed. They just stared above.

Fauna looked down and muttered a silent ‘wow’ when she noticed what was happening. She had to rub her face with the back of her palms before she looked again. She wasn’t crazy. The chunk of earth beneath her feet was levitating. How was that even possible?

The earth came to a halt right in front of one cave. A plank attached to the rocky entrance had scribblings like those in the human world. The bears could read and write. She found it fascinating. The male stepped in front of the entrance and immediately, the rock disappeared so they could walk into the cave.

“This is so fascinating!” Fauna marvelled as she followed them and the floating lights into the cave. It was bigger on the inside with wooden chairs arranged opposite a large bed. There were potted plants and flowers by the walls and it gave the cave a homey feeling. It was still cold though and Fauna shivered slightly.

The female bears guided her friends to the bed and the older one went into an adjacent entrance. She came back almost as quickly as she left, a clay bowl in her hand.

“What’s that?” Fauna peered at the pinkish liquid sloshing in the bowl.

“Herbs. It’ll help them gain strength enough to change back.” She and the other bear helped Saber and Zara drink the liquid and Fauna watched as Zara scrunched her face in disgust.

Mere moments after they had ingested the weird herbs, Fauna felt their energy. They were more relaxed. Zara was the first to morph back into her human form, followed by Saber. The younger bear handed them both garments made of silk and they covered up their nudity.

“Pro-tip!” Zara raised a finger once she was dressed. “Add some sweetening plants to whatever concoction that was.” She shook her head before she stretched her arms over her head.

“Who are you?” Saber didn’t care that they had been nice to them. He was still suspicious about their way of life. “How come you have no scent? Are you magic? What –”

“Slow down!” The younger woman giggled as she sat on a chair. Fauna joined her friends on the bed while the remaining bears sat on chairs so they were facing each other. “My name is Honey, like the colour of my fur.” She grinned and gestured to her soft and smooth honey-coloured fur.

“I’m Penny, her older sister, and this is my partner Doka. Doka and I are the leaders of the bear community.” Penny sounded gentle but stern; almost motherly. She sounded loving, but at the same time, someone that took no nonsense from anyone.
She reminded Fauna of Lord Bruce and his stern love.

“About our scent,” Doka continued, “we haven’t had one in probably centuries. We identify each other by sensing our auras.”

Fauna hummed. She could feel their auras. She could feel the aura of anyone she came in contact with. It was as unique as their scent. It was how she was able to find people’s minds without actually seeing them. Perhaps she got that ability from the bears?

“It’s a gift handed down to us by the dragons themselves before they went extinct.” Ginger grinned widely. She was way too excited for a werebear. Weren’t they supposed to be the most ferocious beings to walk to the earth? “Also, we aren’t magic. We possess no powers of our own but strength.” She flexed her arm and Zara stared in admiration.

“Damn, that’s huge!” She praised and Honey giggled.

“If you’re not magic, then how is that?” Saber pointed to the orbs of bluish light hovering over them.

“The whole cave is heavily manipulated by magic, but bears possess no magic. You’ll learn more about the last keepers of magic later. Right now, you –”

“You called me Snow,” Fauna finally voiced. Nothing else they were saying mattered as much. “And you said I’m back. What do you mean by that?”
Saber and Zara turned to Fauna, then back to the werebears.

“Yes. Why would you call her Snow? Are you working for Ari?” Zara narrowed her eyes at the bears as she extended her claws, though Fauna wondered what damage she would cause to the huge bears.

“Ari?” Honey seemed genuinely confused as she asked. She turned to her sister and Doka who shook their heads. They had no idea who Ari was. “Put your claws away; it’s useless against us. Who’s this Ari and why do you think we’re working for him?”

“Ari is a lion,” Fauna explained. “He’s the one who named me Snow.”

“Incredulous!” Penny spat. She looked upset. “You got the name Snow the day you accidentally wandered above our land. Poor little pup you were. You couldn’t have been more than a day old. Cold and hungry and weak.”

The trio were taken aback by the words of the bears. Fauna turned to Saber; her lips parted. She didn’t know what to say that could describe what was in her head. Understanding as always, Saber placed his palm over hers and inched closer to her.

“Did you just say pup? You mean Fauna is a wolf?” He inquired and the bears nodded.

“Wait! You don’t know this?” Honey quirked her unibrow up and Fauna nodded. “Wow! I mean, technically, you’re not a wolf, you’re a Shapeshifter, but you were birthed by werewolves, yes. You were raised by us for about five years until… Well, I…”

“You allowed her slip through your fingers when you went up to hunt?” Doka frowned at Honey who scratched the back of her neck and looked away. She seemed quite abashed.

That meant Fauna didn’t spend her whole life alone. She didn’t spend her life wandering the forest before Ari found her as he said. She had a home.

“We searched everywhere for you, but you were gone. Vanished. We almost thought we’d never find you again,” Doka sighed, then he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter though. You’re here now. Everyone is going to be so excited to meet you, and you came just before the full moon. Your birthday is in a matter of days. Do you know what this means?’

Birthday? Fauna had never really known her birthday. She only knew she was roughly sixteen.

“I don’t,” she admitted and Honey moved closer to the bed, her eyes glinting with excitement.

“Dear Snow, it means you get to morph for the first time ever. We are so happy we’ll be able to witness it.”

“You have no idea what this means for us. It’s every parent’s dream to watch their little one grow.” Penny sniffled and stared at Fauna with so much love in her big kaleidoscopic eyes.

She had a family. She had people who loved her. Fauna couldn’t help but grin. She wasn’t a defect. She just wasn’t like the tigers and she was going to morph in a matter of days. Perhaps that’s why her powers had been acting up. She could suddenly see the memories of others. Dragons knew what other power she had.

She let out a short laugh of happiness and threw her arms around Saber. She wasn’t human. She wasn’t unloved. She had a happy life before she was found by Ari.

“Something isn’t quite adding up though.” Zara wasn’t convinced. By then, she had retracted her claws and was twirling a lock of red hair around her finger. “You say you found her as a pup. Why didn’t you return her to her actual parents? And how does a new born pup even get lost? Werewolves are pack creatures so where was everyone?”

Honey looked back to Penny and Doka. The three bears shared a look and Fauna could sense their nerves. They were emitting sad emotions and it drained all the excitement from Fauna’s face. She pulled away from Saber and turned to them. Something wasn’t right.

“What happened?” She demanded an explanation. Honey shook her head. She didn’t want to have to be the one to say it. She shook her head again and walked out of the room. Fauna watched her leave. The entrance opened on its own the moment she was right in front of it, then closed up when she was out.

“You’re cold,” Penny observed with a strained smile. “I’ll go get you something to wear over that.” She quickly exited into the room adjacent, leaving them with Doka.

“Speak!” Saber commanded. He was quite smaller than the bear to intimidate him, but there was just something about his tone that held power. Doka spared a slight nod.

“Look, Snow, we absolutely love you and care for you like you were our birth child. Penny and I tried so many times, but Penny can’t have cubs, so you were a blessing to us.” He sounded nervous. He toyed with his fingers as he spoke. He wasn’t lying about caring about Fauna. She could feel it. She could see it in the way they looked at her.

She however wanted to know.

“What happened to my birth parents?”

“We smelt someone sniffling around, so we opened the way to the above and you fell into my arms. You were so small, so frail. You were in your animal form, which was weird. Werefolks aren’t born in animal form. You were so frail, you were shaking. You were so beautiful though, with the whitest fur and beautiful grey eyes. We knew what you were instantly.

“Penny and I fed you and you just morphed back on your own and fell asleep. We wandered above in search for your family, and we found them… Your dad is the Alpha of Alaric woods; one of the biggest werewolf territories I’ve ever seen. He wouldn’t even let us in past the guards.

“We were about to give up and come back when this wolf came to see us; the Beta. I think his name was Haran? No. Hurray? That doesn’t sound quite right.”

“Harou?” Fauna was breathless as she asked. She had just seen him. She had just spoken to the man who was closest to her father.

“Yes!” Doka snapped his fingers. “That sounds like it. He told me that… Well, your mom… I’m so sorry, Snow. Your mother didn’t make it. She died bringing you into this world, and your father? The Alpha? I don’t know, I guess he was in grief and wasn’t thinking straight when he…” Doka trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it.

He didn’t need to though. Tears welled in Fauna’s eyes, but she struggled to hold it in. She didn’t understand the sting in her chest. She didn’t understand why her throat seemed to constrict nor why it hurt so much. She didn’t know him. She didn’t even know what he looked like. Why then did it hurt that he rejected her?

Did it matter what he did? She had an amazing father; Lord Bruce and he cared for her like she was his own. She had Doka and Penny before she got lost and though she was just meeting them, she could tell they were amazing people; probably just a little careless because who in the name of mother nature loses a baby?

What did it matter that the Alpha of a stupid pack rejected her? Wasn’t it a good thing that she wasn’t raised by someone who most likely still blames her for the loss of his mate? She was better off without him. Why then did it hurt so much?

“My father didn’t want me?” She choked and Saber threw an arm around her shoulder and moved her closer to him. “I didn’t mean to kill my mom. Surely he knew that.”

Despite her best effort, a tear broke free, then another. Soon, she was full on sobbing. Saber pulled her close so she was crying into his chest while he stroke her hair. He had seen Fauna at her weakest before. He had seen her weak and broken when he and his father just rescued her.

This time was different though. He had never seen her this hurt before and he didn’t know what to do to make her feel better. Zara crawled closer to her and wrapped her arms around her too, offering support.

“Oh no, Fauna! You didn’t kill your mom. You’ve helped tigresses deliver before and we’ve lost two. You know it wasn’t the fault of the cubs.” Zara’s voice was soft. She felt helpless. She didn’t like that her friend was in so much pain.

Zara didn’t know who her parents were. They probably died while she was very young, but it didn’t matter to her. Tigers didn’t process emotions the same way wolves did, so she didn’t know how to console Fauna. It wasn’t going to stop her from trying though.

“I smelt a lake somewhere in the distance,” Zara told Doka who was standing beside the bed. He looked torn apart.

“Yes. We do have –”

“Fauna, how would you like to go for a –”

Zara didn’t get to complete her sentence though as Fauna pulled away from them and jumped off the bed. Saber stood to follow her but she turned and glared at him, then walked to the entrance. It opened the moment she stood before it.

She walked out of the room and onto the levitating earth that seemed to be waiting for her.

“Should I –”

“I think we should give her a little space for now,” she heard Zara tell Saber as the earth moved her away from the cave.

Fauna noticed that the moment she was away from the light of the room, a blue ball of light materialized over her head, following her and illuminating the path before her. She could smell the water and she wanted to go towards it. The earth seemed to be in sync with her head because it suddenly started moving in the direction she wanted to go.

She thought it was rather convenient.
She floated past the rocky caves and into a sparse forest that held plump looking fruits. Tears fell down her cheeks and she hated that she didn’t have the heart to stop and appreciate the beauty before her. She continued on, not stopping until she arrived at the lake.

The earth descended until it reconnected with the solid ground and Fauna knelt before the crisp, clear, still lake. There was something about the lake that seemed so sacred. It was almost as though it was humming with life and intelligence.

She looked into the water and her reflection stared back at her. Her eyes were red and there was slight snot coming out of her nose which she wiped with the back of her palm. She was pale and cold, but she didn’t care. Emotions formed in her chest, fighting for an escape and she let out a wail.

What sort of a monster left a pup out in the wild; vulnerable and alone? She never asked for her mother to die. She never asked to be different from every other werefolk, so why did her own father abandon her? Was she so horrible that he couldn’t bear to look at her?

Anger bubbled within her and she gritted her teeth as she held back another scream. It was unfair! He was unfair! It was her father’s fault that she ended up alone. It was her father’s fault that Ari tortured her all those years, and he never even bothered to look for her.

Did he even care that she was still alive? No! She would not cry over someone like him. He didn’t deserve her tears. What he deserved was pain. He deserved to feel all the pain that she had been forced to feel over and over. He deserved that and worse and she wanted nothing more than to inflict said pain on him. She wanted him to pay! He had to!

“Now, now! Fire isn’t something you want to be toying with, dear one,” she heard a very familiar and soothing voice.

Her rage seemed to die down immediately and she opened her eyes which she didn’t remember closing only to realize the whole length of her palm was engulfed in flames!

“Put it out! Put it out!” She shouted as she flared her arms around. The voice chuckled and pale fingers encircled around her wrists.

There was something about the touch that was so calm, so soothing, the flames died out immediately.

Fauna turned to the stranger in awe, but whatever words she had to say died in her throat when she set eyes on his golden and sincere eyes.

“You!” She pointed at the young boy. The young boy she saw in her dream.

~~~
There you have it. A double update.
I'll try to drop chapter eight soonest.