“Alive?” Lavender said. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this giant creature is furry, warm, and breathing,” Osric said. “Last time I checked, boulders didn’t do that, even here in your mad world.”
She orbited the bear slowly, trying to make out any features that might give them an advantage. Her efforts proved fruitless.
“It is a bear,” she said. “A Callisto bear, in fact.”
“Callisto?” Osric said. “Ursa Major?”
“Descended from her, yes,” Lavender said. “Thought to be long extinct, longer than the elves, but...”
“But here we are,” Osric said.
“Its head is resting along the exit,” she said. “I don’t think you could get past it without waking it up.”
“We won’t have to,” Osric said. “I have an idea. I’m going to climb on its coat and wake it up. You fly in front of it through the exit. It will chase you out, and then I’ll jump off.”
“I can’t fly fast enough and carry the crown at the same time,” she said.
“I’ll keep it in my cloak,” he said. “By this time, we should trust each other.”
“Okay,” she said, handing him the crown.
“Fly above the back of its neck,” he said. “That’s where I’ll need to hang on.”
She positioned herself where Osric indicated, and then he made his terrifying climb up the bear’s fur. It was so thick the creature didn’t stir, his weight inconsequential to the bear’s girth. He hoped it wouldn’t notice him hanging on once it awoke.
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