“Greetings!” the man who was once a bear said cheerily. “So nice to have visitors—” A sudden coughing fit sent him sprawling on the ground, and when he recovered, he wiped the blood on his pants leg. Or at least he would have… if he had been wearing pants.

  The man was completely naked.

  Asema and Saise both flushed and turned away as the man’s manhood dangled freely in the still forest air. Unfortunately, having already seen it, I had to admit that I could believe that the man was part bear given the… girth.

  “Cover up, man,” Vekrem said, ruffling through his pack. Eventually, he threw the man a thin pair of pants that I had seen Vekrem wear on the occasions he felt there was little danger of being attacked. He had said that he preferred comfort during sleep, but valued the practicality of being ready to fight at a moment’s notice above all else.

  The bear-man slipped on the pants, but the thin fabric did little to hide much of anything. Casually, he said, “Thank you, kind traveler. My wife is always complaining about my nakedness. Yet, there is something freeing about it, don’t you agree? Besides… clothes don’t change to fit whatever form I choose.”

  Asema, wiping the flush from her face, asked, “What do you mean?”

  The bear-man stared at her curiously.

  Asema coughed into her hand as she amended, “When you say change forms. What do you mean?”

  “Just what I said,” the bear-man replied. “I can change forms between my human form, my bear form, and my hybrid form. Do you want to see—”

  “No!” Vekrem shouted. “Let’s uh… let’s not ruin the clothes.”

  The bear-man smiled. “Ah, right you are. The wife would give me a tongue-lashing if I ripped a friendly traveler’s clothes that they so graciously lent me.”

  “Gave,” Vekrem corrected. “You can uh… keep them.”

  “Much obliged.”

  “Wait,” Asema said. “If you can change forms, then that means…”

  The bear-man bowed low, flourishing with his left arm. “Do forgive me; I have yet to introduce myself. I am Ursric, commonly known as the First One of the ursa tribe.”

  The man examined himself. He had a dark skin-tone with graying hair that was matted with all manner of dirt and blood. His body bore scars aplenty and had various points of clear corruption, which undulated just beneath the surface of his skin. He was bleeding from a fresh cut on his leg, which he had received courtesy of Saise’s sickle-like weapon.

  He frowned. “It seems you’ve caught me out of sorts. So… what shall I call you lot?”

  Asema’s jaw hung open, and not a sound escaped.

  I stepped forward. “I’m Ike, and this is Vekrem, Saise, and the one whose jaw is on the floor is Asema. She’s a big fan.”

  Ursric nodded at each name, and then casually winked in Asema’s direction.

  Vekrem fumed.

  “Well,” Ursric said, “now that introductions are over, I suppose it is time for me, as a gracious host, to offer you some nourishment and pleasantries. Follow me, if you please.”

  “Wait!” Saise replied as Ursric turned to walk further into the forest. “Why did you attack us to begin with?”

  Ursric laughed the question off. “Attack you? Perish the thought. You simply caught me in the middle of a lively jaunt through the forest. No harm, no foul; although I hope none of you were injured by a felled tree or two?”

  Saise shook her head.

  “Excellent—so very relieved. Now then, follow me. Don’t fall behind; these forests can be dangerous, and with all manner of tricky creatures and poisonous insects about.”

  Looking around, I saw nothing of the sort. Just Ursric, my companions, the spores… and the corruption itself. I shrugged and followed wordlessly through the dead forest.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  ***

  Nobody said much as Ursric led us through the rotting woods. Well, nobody except Ursric himself, who stopped to talk to the dead tree limbs, or went off on a tangent about the state of the world as a whole. Now, I didn’t know much about the world, having only been there for a few weeks at most, but even I knew that some of what Ursric was saying was complete bullshit.

  Vekrem seemed to take notice too, and he began scribbling in a notebook. He fell back at one point to talk with Asema, but she scurried away like a scared kitten, muttering the word “Silvertail” over and over.

  Silvertail… What was that about?

  Vekrem looked as if he had been slugged in the stomach.

  Even Saise gave Vekrem a wide berth now, and I could feel an odd sort of rift open in our group.

  Eventually, we arrived at Ursric’s… home?

  A massive tree, twisted and gray, had been hollowed out, with some ragged curtains draped across the entrance. Inside was hardly better than the forest itself. Wooden furniture that looked to be on the cusp of disintegration. Mushrooms littered the main room, growing on the walls and the roof.

  All of us stood, untrusting of the furniture that was presented to us.

  Ursric took no notice of our hesitation. He bent over, doing a pouring motion over some scattered items, but he held nothing in his hands from which to pour. Eventually, he took the random items and began handing them to us one by one. He handed me a stick. Just a plain ole stick. Vekrem received a petrified leaf. Asema a dead bug. And Saise got half of a tiny gray mushroom.

  “Drink up, friends,” Ursric said. “This is the best tea you’ll ever taste. It’s my wife’s recipe. She—” He quieted, as if remembering something. Then, like he hadn’t paused at all, he continued, “Thought I heard something. Sorry. My mind isn’t what it once was. Time takes its toll, even on the ageless.”

  “So it’s true?” Asema asked. “You really are Ursric, the First One from legend?”

  Ursric stared at her curiously. “From legend, you say? Ah yes… I do suppose you would think that. I did fake my own death, after all.”

  “You… faked your own death? Why?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “We have time,” Vekrem replied.

  Asema shot him a glare that could kill.

  “Well, if you say so. I was tired of leading the ursa tribe, so I faked my own death. They had already removed me from all positions of power in society, demanding that I take a wife from one of my own progeny. Who would do that? Marry a grandchild or a great-grandchild?”

  “That’s it?” Asema asked. “That’s the whole story?”

  Ursric scratched at his massive beard, and flakes of dried blood fell out, floating off into the still, humid air. “I suppose it wasn’t that long of a story after all. Curious… I thought there was more.”

  “Why did they want you to marry one of your own?” Saise asked.

  Ursric snapped his fingers. “Ah, that’s what I’m missing. You see, my wife Sigrun… the other ursa didn’t much care for her. She was human. They thought that I should marry an ursa… but how could I? I was the First One. I had directly sired the ones who then demanded I take a wife from their children. My grandchildren. Ha! And all because of their hatred of humans, whom they saw as inferior. Well, I was born human. And they were born from humans… So what right did they have to judge me? To judge her?” He was getting angrier and angrier the longer he spoke, and I could see in the bulge of his muscles that he was on the verge of transforming.

  “You and your wife have a lovely home,” Vekrem said suddenly.

  Ursric’s eyes, wide with fury, softened as he looked upon Vekrem. “Ah, thank you, young rodrant. I was always fond of Vesk. I was sad to hear he had died.”

  “Perhaps he faked his death as well, honored one,” Vekrem said, giving the man a soft smile.

  Ursric nodded at that.

  “So then… where is your wife?” Saise asked.

  Ursric’s mannerisms changed in an instant. He crouched low, and his voice muffled as he said, “The witch of the forest has her. The witch!”

  “A… witch?” I asked. “There is another person who lives out here?”

  Ursric nodded feverishly. “A witch, yes. Hired by the First One, Ganvil, to punish me for abandoning my people, who then waged war on the lycans. But how can I be blamed? I just wanted to live out my life peacefully after he—” As if he had said something he shouldn’t, he suddenly clapped his hands to his mouth.

  Curious, I asked, “After he?”

  “Shhh,” Ursric said. “Speak not of it. I harbor no ill-will with the First of the First Ones.”

  The man genuinely looked frightened. Terrified even.

  “It’s okay,” Vekrem replied. “We aren’t working with the lycans.”

  It stunned me how easily Vekrem lied. Hell, I knew better, and I still almost believed him.

  Ursric nodded, and then his muscles loosened as he calmed.

  A silence filled the room. Nobody knew what to say or how to act. The man was clearly crazy, which made everything he said suspect, to say the least. Yet he spoke of his wife as if she had gone out for shopping and that she would be back at any minute.

  “Tell us about the witch,” I asked. “The one who has your wife.”

  “Ah, Vesha, my love. Where has she taken you?”

  “Who’s Vesha?”

  “Shhh,” Ursric said, putting a finger to his lip. “The witch will hear you.”

  “You know,” Vekrem suggested, “I know a thing or two about potions and brews. Tonics that can kill an evil witch. Maybe I can help you get your wife back. Do you know where she is?”

  Ursric stared at Vekrem for a time. “Ah yes, you move with fake clumsiness. Do not think your skills will go unnoticed. Not for one such as I. I trust in those skills. I will take you to the witch, so long as you promise to get my wife Rava back from her.”

  “Yes,” Vekrem replied. “I will save your wife. I promise.”