^^ Victoria ^^

Before I could give much thought to the crystal in my hand, I looked up as the bear healed, then began to BULK. He was only about Three, and as such was originally about two-three feet tall at the shoulder, and maybe 400 pounds at the most, but over the space of a few minutes he grew to the size of a fully-grown Kodiak, and more; 7ft at the shoulder, easily 2,000 pounds of raw corded muscle, and really, really pissed off.

He charged me with a roar, and I caught his charge with my chest, digging my feet into the dirt underneath us suddenly while holding his jaws away from my face. An animal urge to eat him raw raced through my mind, and I took a bite out of his neck, feeling my teeth rip through his thickly armored hide like ice; crunchy, but not enough to hurt my teeth or mouth.

He bellowed in rage as he began bleeding profusely, but the wound healed while I watched, to my fascination. A scar was left in its place, but it was no longer bleeding at all. Even in this animalistic mindset, that sparked my interest, and I hissed in pain as he used my distraction to slam a paw across my face.

Normally, that should've killed me; the force of such a blow would easily mimic an oak tree being swung around like a club, and could flatten most skulls. I should've been thrown for a few yards and laid in the snow, my skull smashed into pieces like a pumpkin.

Instead, I simply staggered back a few steps, as I felt a stinging pain from his claws having gone across my eye, and a little splash of blood, then a momentous itching as scar tissue grew over the wound. There wasn't any bone damage, and not even a shaking in my skull.

I grinned at the curious situation and it's consequences, then hauled off and simply punched the bear across the jaw, feeling slight pricks in my palms as my nails stabbed my skin. His jaw was broken visibly, and he moaned in pain, backing away from me. At first I thought he was running, and I took a step forward, just as he reared up onto his hind legs, standing almost fifteen feet tall, from my quick estimate before he dove down at me, slamming his paws down.

I rolled out of the way swiftly, then kicked his jaw on the other side, breaking the bone again and causing him to moan in pain and cower a bit. He was confused now, more afraid than angry, but my rage didn't abate, and the ravenous hunger in my stomach had me tackling him and tearing through his throat the rest of the way.

The meat went down my throat raw, hot and wet with his lifeblood, and it was the most delicious, euphoric taste that'd every touched my tongue. He groaned a confused, pained sound, and I grabbed his nose and skull, twisting and snapping his spine with a growl of effort. Killing him painlessly seemed the best thing to do in the situation.

I had enough presence of mind to skin the body instead of simply devouring it whole, though I did eat the snow that his blood spilled onto, despite it not being my intention at all. I ate his organs while they were still hot; they had the most nutrients, and my body seemed to know what it needed. The raw meat caused my stomach no issues, but I was irritated to find that there simply was no fat layer. That explosive growth had turned it all into bones and ligaments, though what had caused it was still a curious thought.

There was no crystal in his heart, despite how much I looked, and I was confused and disheartened by this; I'd have liked to study it, and see how it worked. I looked down at the body again, and frowned; somehow while I'd been lost in thought, the meat had all disappeared, as well as the bones, and even the intestines. I held the last bit of jaw-bone in my hand, and ate it with a sigh, keeping his canines as a souvenir. "I guess I need more food than I originally thought..." I muttered, and set the pelt in the cave.

Sated, (for now; I could already feel my stomach grumbling again,) I took a moment to examine my body. There were no visible changes that I could see; I wasn't any more muscular than before, (I'd always been pretty built, and my extremely active lifestyle hadn't hurt my muscle mass,) and I didn't feel taller, either, though I'd need a measuring method to be sure. My clothes did feel somewhat tighter, but that could've been from them being leather and recently dried; real leather shrank when it dried.

I picked up my knife, and paused at the very real proof that I was taller; the knife which had once reached all the way to my elbow from my wrist was now about two inches short of reaching, meaning I'd gained anywhere from four-six inches of height. "Huh... cool. Any other changes?" I wondered, and then groaned as my stomach growled loudly. I used some snow to wash the blood off my face and armor for a second time, then shook myself. "Alright... food. I need more food. It can't wait until morning."

I moved silently through the snow, stalking down the mountain; I was sticking to hard stone patches or packed snow to reduce my tracks, but I paused when I heard a squeak, and a large arctic hare popped out of its hole next to me, attempting to run. In a flash, I had caught it and snapped its neck. I managed to skin it and eat the meat slowly, surprising myself at the lack of thought before I'd killed it and eaten it raw.

"This may require Clark's opinion..." I frowned, putting the hide in my satchel for later tanning. That finished, I moved forward again, looking for signs of another bear on the top of the mountain. There had to be one, because Kodiak Bears had the smallest 'home Ranges' of all brown bears, and they didn't stray far from their mothers' until they were about five.

Soon enough, after about an hour of hunting and seven more rabbits I'd scared up and eaten in a flash, (capturing three and saving them for later,) I found some bear tracks that lead away from where I'd come from. The tracks soon led to a sign of a scuffle, and a small path of blood joined the footsteps, as apparently the bear had found something to eat and dragged it back to its cave. A fox, perhaps, because of its size.

Another hour of tracking and I'd gone entirely to the other side of the mountain, near the edge of the perma-snow, the part that was too high to melt every year. I found a portion that looked like an indentation, and the tracks led right up to it, so I approached from the other side. Once I was ready, I hesitantly peeked in, expecting my eyes to need to adjust from the sharp flint of snow to the dark interior of a cave, but I could immediately see movement and creatures in the total darkness; my eyes seemed to have been upgraded as well by whatever had happened to me.

Inside the cave was a mother bear and two sleeping cubs, laying down facing the entrance and cleaning her bloody chops. Clearly she'd woken up early and gone to get some grub, and was now returning to sleep. I waited patiently, silently staring at the hole, daring her to come out so I could pounce, for about four hours.

Twilight came and started to pass before her breathing regulated, and I made my move. My knife was more than long enough to reach her brain in one strike, and it did so with almost no resistance. Her body twitched a few times, but stilled without waking the two bear cubs. They were old enough to eat meat, so I left a few dead rabbits for them, taking the skins with me, and began dragging the bear out.

I realized soon that the longer I went without eating, the weaker I became; this was evidenced as it becoming more difficult to drag the 1,200 pound female bear, and that bore some thought. "So am I just getting weak because I'm not eating, or is it calming down from the initial explosive strength? Is it tied to my adrenaline?" I pondered, hauling the bear into my new cave.

The first fur, I realized, had odd scales and quills on it now, instead of fur. The bottom layer of fur was merged into perforated scales, while the second, longer layer poked through the holes and created an air-sealed barrier to keep the interior warm. The longer layer was tough, like I'd felt when I bit it, and just like porcupine quills, I decided.

I set that aside for future study and consideration, and focused on the second bear, which would hopefully feed me for the next week or so; it should've fed me for several months, but I wasn't going to chance it. I ate the organs now, and nodded when I felt my stomach finally stop growling, though it didn't feel 'full', despite the huge amount of food I'd just ate, just 'not hungry'.

The offal was set aside for baiting traps with, and the muscle meat was set aside for when I used the smoker tomorrow, but I decided to scrape both hides clean tonight, instead of waiting for morning when it was even harder, because they would be frozen solid by then. They were already getting a bit stiff, so I worked quickly.

Somehow twelve hours had passed since I'd stomped away from my mother, and so much had happened, but as I was hanging the female bear's hide over the entrance to the cave, (it would serve as my door, and it fit over the opening, easily big enough,) the sun started to peek over the horizon. Because of my elevation, it was probably fifteen minutes until dawn in the village.

I laid down on a bed of dirt with the massive male hide as my blanket and mattress, folded over like a sleeping bag (or a burrito). Despite how prickly the fur was, it was swiftly swelteringly hot, and I remembered my mother's advice about such sleeping conditions; I removed my leather armor and clothes, leaving them inside the blankets but not in contact with my skin, so they wouldn't get sweaty.

"-I worry, Moonie, that's all... I know she isn't stupid, but I don't know what to do with her when she acts like this, and I don't think my uncle's methods are going to work. A month in the woods didn't even phase her..." Mother's voice came through communicator suddenly, as she apparently activated it by accident.

"I know you worry, Pinkie, but you have to be consistent; you gave her the punishment, -though I agree with her that you should've explained yourself a bit more,- and now you have to stick with it. No changing your mind, it sends the wrong message. Now come back to bed, it's too early for such heaviness." Her wife answered calmly, followed by sounds of kisses.

I screwed up my nose when I heard a suite of even more suggestive sounds, and when those evolved into moans, I coughed once, loudly.

"... Uhm? Rhea?"

"Guess again." I answered sarcastically.

"Oh hell! Moonie, my stone called Tweety! Shush!" Mother hissed.

"Hmm? Well, that's unfortunate. Tell her to get some rest, and then turn it off. Talk to her in the morning." She answered casually.

"Sigh... Sorry, Tweety darling, get some rest, Alright? Are you alright? I haven't seen any smoke on the mountain..."

"No, no, none of that, she sounds perfectly fine! You know how she hates being coddled! She's not a child for much longer, you need to remember that! Now good night, Victoria, we will speak to you in a little while." Mother cut her off and turned off the communicator.

"Hmph. Crazy people." I shook my head and cuddled down into my sleeping bag, trying to get some sleep.

—

Luckily, my need for food had stabilized to about twice my normal food intake, by the next morning, so I wasn't struggling to feed myself. The vast majority of this snow cap was rabbit warrens, so four of those a day was enough to feed me quite well.

I didn't Light any fires, besides a very small fire to melt the resin I made from the bear. Melting the Quills from the bear's hide gave me a rubbery, very sturdy substance, and I used it to reinforce the outside of the bow, along with every layer, in the place of Glue. I built each layer of my Bow out of an alternating wood source; the Yew from the snowcap for the flexing layers, oak from further down the mountain for the shaping layers, and some of the scales of the bear's hide for flexing, because it had a flexible nature, even when it wasn't melted. The end result was a pitch black 'M'-shaped compound bow, with a tripled string and the best pulleys I could make from bear bones, smeared with tar for smoothness. Six Arrows were made from oak and shards of sharpened bone from the mother bear's cave, (as I didn't have access to Flint or Iron,) with some owl feathers to fletch them.

All in all, it took me six days to build, as I ignored my mothers' attempts to contact me. 'They want me alone in the woods for a month? They don't get to check up on me every day. Let them worry. Maybe that'll be a lesson to them; don't send your kid into the woods and tell her she isn't allowed to use any magic if you're going to use magic to contact her, all worried-like about her safety now, after the fact. How about some hypocrisy, how's that?!?' I grumbled mean-spiritedly, and strung the bow carefully, watching the wood move sinuously as I drew back the string with a soft grunt of effort.

It accepted the strain easily, stretching to full draw with no creaking or cracking, a perfectly silent draw. "Good... but the draw strength needs some work; 80lbs isn't heavy enough for a bow that'll hunt monsters." I frowned, removing the string and picking up the second string, which was treated in a bath made of the Armored Bear's quills. I'd melted a few of them after I was done with the bow itself, and painted the resultant tar-like substance over a string, creating a rubbery coating for the sinew.

This one gave me a proper amount of trouble to string, requiring quite a bit of muscle to put on, and the draw was likewise arduous, but it drew properly and didn't break the bow, despite it making my shoulders burn like someone poured lava into the muscles. "I'll have to train my shoulders... build up some muscle again after that growth spurt." I nodded and grabbed the six arrows I'd managed to create, placing them in a small quiver I'd made from the hide of a rabbit, hanging from the back of my belt.

Some of the hide from the bear and my rabbit pelts had been repurposed, over the past few days while I watched the glue dry on every layer, into a heavy cloak that covered my entire body, and was 'WARM'. The inside of that cloak when it was closed made me completely forget about the cold, even standing on the summit of the mountain. It served as a second layer of armor, as well, due to its tough nature, and also as a camouflage, because its black-brown dappled nature let me blend into the woods, and I could flip it inside out to the white rabbit hide side to disappear into the Snowcap.

I exited the cave, looking for the day's food, and stood still as I saw a peculiar sight. Footprints in the snow, leading up to my den and then away. Their size told me it was a normal person, about 5'10", maybe 6ft if they were female. They led up the the top of the mountain, at their current path, but something about that wasn't right... there was nowhere to go up there, unless you were teleporting away or shimmying down the 50ft cliff faces that made up the summit on three sides.

Keeping an eye out for any new tracks, I pulled up the white hood and kept low to the ground, stalking at a medium pace around the base of the cliffs, looking for where my intruder had come down from the mountain.

Clearly they hadn't expected me to do this, because their tracks stood out like a sore thumb; rocks on the ground where they'd been knocked down by the climber as they descended, cracks in the wall where they'd stuck some sort of climbing axe, and two large, splayed footsteps, as they'd landed solidly on the ground without a care in the world, going all the way through the 1ft thick fresh snow, to the perma-ice below.

I followed this new trail, as it meandered towards the woods, and soon enough I found the source, in a way. A set of footprints, making its way down towards the woods, but no person, even as new footprints were made. 'Invisible. Hmph... and I can't use a spell to reveal the invisibility...' my thoughts were interrupted when the footsteps slowed; I instantly crouched all the way down, becoming just a boulder in the snow.

"Admirable camouflage, child, but I can smell you. Come on out, and we can talk about this peacefully." A male voice spoke, and I stood, drawing and firing an arrow at the source of the voice in an instant.