Chapter Text
The bear pirouetted through the air, the very picture of ursine grace, spinning out the dance of a tired and world-weary traveler, who, having seen more than a fair share of the harsh reality of the world, gently resolves to sleep in the security of a warm and comfortable bed, limbs giving up their duty to uphold the body's frame and body throwing itself to sweet oblivion. In dreams of a lighter place, a gentler world, one where it had not just been punched in the face, the bear landed in the snow in a crumpled heap.
But such dreams are, alas, not for us to know. Let us rewind to where we may watch with more context. The bear awakens from dreaming to flip unceremoniously into a fist, which retracts. The bear leaps backwards as if lunging in reverse – in fact, exactly like lunging in reverse – into a crowd of its bear brethren. Running in reverse, a pugilant prisoner backs into the snowy, broken ruin of the prison building. A guard is un-mauled, loses an expression of surprise and terror, to be replaced with anxiety – all of this, of course, beneath a face-concealing iron helmet – as he moonwalks back into the building to un-check what is un-going on outside. A villain un-departs, a dragon is un-mounted, a speech un-given, another guard is un-murdered, and two prisoners are un-released. Events before this become hazy and indistinct as the story, at last, begins to un-rewind.