Chapter Text
Partitio certainly didn't expect to see this in his camp.
He'd just returned from a less than fruitful hunt for something to eat in the cold Winterlands to a massive bear digging through his bag. He was frozen to the spot, watching in grim terror as the hulking beast, whose spine rose high enough to match the top of his head while the bear was standing on all fours, pulled his bag of rations out.
Oh no, no no no... That's my food for the week you monster- Partitio wanted to shout, wave his weapon around, but he couldn't get his body to move. He didn't want to get mauled, after all. The bear continued to loudly rip into the jerky, and as it did so, Partitio could see a metal collar around its neck, the chain clinking against the ground as it reached in for more food. Some of its fur was tangled within the chains, pulling hairs out as it moved, the blonde-brown fur long and matted. The bear glanced up at him, making brief eye contact before going back down to keep eating.
Finally, it finished devouring his week's supply, turning to walk away over the hill.
"Well, thanks for lettin' me starve, asshole..." Partitio murmured as he collected his ration bag, which really only had a few crumbs and some bear saliva in it. He decided that it might just be best if he lays down for the night and hopefully has a better hunting day tomorrow. Though he only managed to sleep for another hour before he heard something loud and heavy hit the ground near him and he yelped, springing up onto his feet as the bear from before dragged in a huge bull elk and dropped it by his head.
"Is that... For me?" Partitio asked as the bear watched him expectantly, and it nodded-- Nodded! At him! Partitio stared at the bear for another few minutes, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. "...Guess I gotta clean this guy up, huh?"
The bear flopped down by the fire as the merchant went to remove the skin from the muscle, and clean the meat before preparing it. He watched as it stared at him while he cleaned off a leg bone, and he tossed it over to the monstrous bear, who pawed it over to it as it started to bite down, crushing the bone and licking the marrow out. The merchant shuddered at the thought that those noises could have very well been his bones between the beast's teeth, but thanked the stars that it wasn't. After finally roasting the hindquarters of the elk and preparing the rest of the meat for storage and pelt for selling, Partitio snuck his way around the large, hulking bear, which had mostly fallen asleep after demolishing the bones it was given. It was a bear, that’s for sure. Though the biggest question was, where exactly was it from? It couldn’t be a frost bear, its pelt was too brown to be from the region. Too brown and too long. The chain around its neck made Partitio assume that it was once tamed by someone, quite the piece of work if the merchant had to take a guess. The large metal collar around the bear’s neck was tight, not tight enough to make it choke, but certainly not comfortable.
Partitio reached down for the heavy chain on the collar, carefully tugging some of the fur out from the metal, glancing up as he noticed the bear staring at him, and he quickly stood up, starting to backpedal and he fell, feeling the heat of the embers on his back, but he didn’t fall. He opened his eyes to see that the bear had grabbed his leg lightly, tearing the cloth but not breaking skin. He eventually righted himself and the bear let go, laying its head back down.
Now that certainly wasn’t right. Partitio rubbed the irritated skin on his leg, looking back over as the bear dozed off again. He supposed he really shouldn’t count his blessings and take the strange circumstance for what it is, and he went back to the meat cooking over the fire and he removed it, going to eat, but stopping short as he realized that he only had one of the hindquarters he’d prepared, staring over at the bear as he saw what he could only assume were the remains of the other meal around its head. He sighed and shook his head, but went back to digging into the piece he still had, thankful that it was more than enough for him to have his fill. He eventually managed to actually lay down for the night as the fire started to die out.
His dreams in the night were plagued with a bunch of wet, long-haired dogs running around him no matter the dream, and he couldn’t get the smell of wet dog out of his mind.
Though, he soon came to understand why that was. His eyes cracked open to see the bear laying right beside him, the beast’s heat beating off its body and keeping him warm, but also coming with the unfortunate side effect of the nasty scent of wet fur.
Well he certainly didn’t expect that! But again, he isn’t going to count his blessings, and just be thankful that this walking space heater was being amicable with him. He wasn’t sure if it was going to keep following him as he got up to pack his things and kick down the smoldering fire, but he knew he at least needed to give the animal a name if he’s going to ever tell the story to someone. It’s easier than just calling it “the bear” over and over again.
Thus, Partitio pondered a name as the bear lazily raised its head.
“That’s it! I’ll call ya Beary!”
The bear only yawned in response to the name, simply watching the merchant finish gathering his things, and as soon as he was ready to get on the road again, Beary proceeded to follow.
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Unfortunately, while a lot of monsters had the sense to leave well enough alone with Beary traveling alongside Partitio, the moles didn’t get the memo.
They’re pack creatures, so they hunt in bunches and tried to prey down on Beary and Partitio, with mixed luck. Partitio had assumed wrongly that they’d be like the ones back home in the Wildlands, but as soon as he was barraged with icicles that was disproven. Beary managed to kill a few with crushes to the skulls, and Partitio finished the others off. The bear walked over to the bleeding merchant, who tried to wave it off as he wheezed.
“I’m- I’m alright-” He protested, but as soon as he stepped forward once again he collapsed, unable to stay conscious. The last thing he can really tell other than the throbbing pain of his wounds is the feeling of being lifted up.
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The next thing Partitio knew was that he was laying in a bed in an inn, with a woman dressed in a blue capelet and dress with a white apron on the front of it sitting at his side, dressing his wounds.
“Throné, is the bear still out there?” She asked, not looking up from the wound as she continued. Partitio looked over to the woman he assumed to be Throné, who was dressed in a purple, tight-formed shirt and a brown corset over that, along with form-fitting pants. She opened the door slightly and looked from one side to the other, closing it again as she looked back at the apothecary.
“No, I think it finally left.”
“Uh, guys?” A girl in a mostly orange dancer’s dress with a frilled bottom called out, with nerves wavering in her tone, “The bear’s at the window.”
Sure enough, there was Beary, staring through the window at him, paws resting on the windowsill, his entire frame taking up the window and blotting out what little sunlight there was still.
“Oi, he’s my friend!” Partitio spoke up before any of them had a chance to move. Heads turned in his direction as Throné stared down at him incredulously.
“Your friend… Yeah, sure.” She looked back over at the window.
“I don’t think he’s wrong.” The other woman looked back over at the bear. “It carried him by his shirt into town and dropped him at my feet. I’m pretty sure that if it wanted to eat him, it would have done so well before bringing him to me.”
“Yeah, these wounds I got are from the damn moles out there.” Partitio responded, “but that’s beside the point, who are y’all?”
“Well, the girl in the dress over there is Agnea, and then there’s Throné, and I’m Castti.” She gave Partitio a short nod, “And you?”
“Partitio Yellowil!” As much as he wanted to do some motion to accompany his name, his body was too sore to do so. “Ow, er, and that’s Beary out there. He’s my travel buddy.”
“And I hope you’re not the one who placed that collar on him,” Throné started, glaring at the merchant.
“Ah hells no! I just ran into him yesterday, he didn’t let me take it off.” Partitio looked back over at Beary. “I wish I knew who did though, I wanna have a word with ‘em.”
“You and I both…” Throné grimaced as she looked over at Beary, who’s eyes hovered between the three before he plopped down underneath the window. “At least he doesn’t look like he wants to maul us to death anymore.”
“Well, I don’t think he wanted to do so in the first place, but I dunno, I don’t speak bear.” Partitio laid back further in bed, letting out a low sigh, eventually drifting back off into a more easy slumber.