181 Bluish-White flower (2/2)

Although it was already late, the sun hadn't disappeared below the horizon yet and it was still bright outside. So it was unlikely that the day-active animals had already gone into their caves to sleep. There should be a different explanation for them to have disappeared.

He was still thinking about what this reason could be when his thoughts were interrupted by an angry roar.

”Sounds like a Steelback Bear. I wonder what angered it like this.”, Ivan murmured to himself and then followed the sound.

The roar had come from a location sideways from this clearing. Just by following one of the cliffs, he should be able to arrive at the right location.

He carefully made his way over. He didn't want to suddenly stand face to face with a group of bears. Not without any preparation.

The sight that entered his view when he arrived at the source of the roar was so comical that if it wasn't dangerous he would have laughed out loud.

On top of a small ledge sat a small girl who was cuddling a small cub. And below the ledge stood a row of bears, each of them angrily staring at the girl above them.

But while they stared at her angrily and sometimes also roared at her, she completely ignored them and continued petting the cub as well as talking to it. From the distance he wasn't able to understand her words but considering that the cub didn't make any moves, trying to escape from her grip it didn't seem anything problematic.

'Wait, a little girl, here? Don't tell me its that guy's little aunt. But where is he? Didn't he say that the compass showed that she was further into the mountains?'

Anyway, that was for later. Now he did have to make a decision. Should he help that girl or not? And did that girl even need his help?

Out here in the wilderness one shouldn't judge things just by their appearance. Just look at how relaxed the girl looked. She even had the leisure of petting the little cub, while below its parents were angrily looking at her, ready to rip her into pieces.

'Whatever. I'll just come back later and check-up at her.', Ivan decided after some thought. In his opinion, the girl wasn't in any danger at the moment. And leaving her there would be a good learning experience if she truly was unable to escape.

Having made his decision he turned around and left just as stealthy as he had come.

Now that the group of bears he had initially targeted wasn't a valid target currently he had to look for another one. But the other groups were too far away and he wouldn't be able to reach them before nightfall and moving through the forest during the night wasn't something he planned to do.

Thus he informed Vlada to meet up with him and while on it to check for a comfortable cave he could rest in.

About half an hour later he stood in front of a smooth stone wall. There didn't seem to exist anyway to climb the wall and looking at the structure of the surrounding mountain, it didn't even seem possible to arrive at the small ledge at the top of the wall.

”Hm. Vlada informed me that there is a cave up there. But there is no way for me to get up there. I guess I have to wait for her here.”

According to the slightly unprecise information he had gotten from Vlada, the ledge was in front of a cave. She had found it before while looking for bears and had remembered it when he told her to look for a place to spend the night.

As a bat, Vlada's flight was extremely silent and if not for him being in constant contact with her, then he would definitely have missed her arrival. After arriving at his side, she first perched herself on top of his shoulder. Something that seemed to have become something she loved to do.

Ivan also directly started to pet her. She had done a good job searching around. And a bit of praise wouldn't hurt anyone.