Chapter Text
When Tav pushed the door open, her boot struck something on the floor.
A large silver bell clattered across the floorboards, rolling until it bumped into a brown, fuzzy obstacle and came to a halt.
It was a bear cub. No higher than her knees, with a round, chubby face, round little ears, and golden eyes staring back at her with an unsettling innocence—it was unmistakably Halsin.
Tav arched an eyebrow in surprise; she certainly hadn't expected a welcoming committee. Nearby, a pixie was already buzzing with frantic, mischievous energy, unable to keep the secret a moment longer.
“Oh-ho! Look who’s back!”
Dolly Dolly Dolly spun an excited circle in the air, pointing a tiny finger at the cub and shrieking in delight:
“It’s all that clumsy oaf’s fault! Throwing my bell around like it was common trash! But this works out perfectly—I was getting sick of seeing you two joined at the hip anyway. The air was getting positively nauseating with all that sweetness!”
She fluttered right to the tip of Tav’s nose, giggling with wicked glee:
“So, here is a little test just for the two of you! Listen close: If you give this poor little thing even a single kiss, or coddle him like a stuffed toy before tomorrow’s sun rises, the curse will reset infinitely!”
“Resist the urge! Don't touch him until dawn! Got it?”
With that final cackle, the pixie vanished into thin air.
Silence reclaimed the room. The cub sat in the center of the rug, giving his paw a nervous little lick, seemingly awaiting some kind of judgment.
Resist the urge? Please. As if that would be difficult.
What the pixie didn't know was this: She and Halsin had already broken up.