But it wasn’t fast enough.
“Who’s coming?” Nina asked, pointing her spear toward the forest and planting her feet in the damp soil.
Two young hunters stepped out of the forest, armed with rifles. Their nervous gazes focused on Mama Bear and the cubs. They didn’t notice Nina in the shadows or the other bear on the periphery. Determination coursed through Nina, rooting her in the ground and strengthening her to stand up to the hunters, to fight them off if she must. She’d been away from other humans for so long she’d lost the connection she’d once felt to them, and seeing them now in the forest, knowing their intent to kill, sparked anger inside her.
Mama Bear roared at the cubs, demanding they run away. Nina understood her words, and the terror in her voice made Nina sway on trembling legs. But to those who had closed off their link with the animals, to those who no longer listened to the natural world, Mama Bear’s words sounded like battle cries. The hunters raised their rifles, aimed, and fired at Nina’s bear mother.
A dark blur rushed out from the edge of the action and leaped across Mama Bear. A bullet hit the howling bear and spun its flailing body toward Nina. It happened so fast Nina wasn’t able to get out of his way. The bear knocked her backward as he landed on his side.
The filthy, strange bear from the cave locked its gaze with Mama Bear. She nodded and ran off into the safety of the trees, chasing after her fleeing cubs. Nina rushed to the fallen bear. Dark red liquid wet one side of his thin body and dripped onto the grass beneath him. She rolled him gently onto his back. Matted fur and hair concealed most of his face, but his eyes were uncovered, and he watched her. Nina pressed her hands against the wound. His heartbeat pulsed beneath her fingers.
“What can I do?” Nina asked.
He tried to speak and choked. When he tried again, his voice came out through clenched teeth. “You must go to the hunters. Tell them you are one of them. They will spare you.”
“Why would they?” Nina asked.
“They don’t kill their own,” he whispered.
Nina’s memory flashed an image of her stepfather and the Cave of Madness into her mind. “But they do kill their own. They don’t value life, not like we do.”
The bear placed his dirty paw on Nina’s hand, and it felt like his fingers wrapped around hers. “Some humans value life.”
She gazed into his deep brown eyes, and for a brief moment, she felt another memory rising to the surface, a memory that started a fire in her chest. But a hunter approached from behind, snapping a stick beneath his boot, and Nina’s memory evaporated.
Nina leaped to her feet, startling the hunters, and she held up her hands as a sign of surrender. “Stop!” she commanded.
The hunters stared at her, open mouthed and frightened. Nina looked like a magical creature of the forest, a wild fairy child with dark hair weaved with green leaves and wildflowers. Her woodland clothing camouflaged her among the trees, and her brown skin was dark and smooth like polished jasper.
“I am a human, like you,” Nina said. “Spare this bear and the mother bear and her cubs. They are my adopted family.”
The hunters lowered their weapons. They listened in amazement at the story she told about her stepfather’s deceit and how the forest creatures and this wounded bear saved her from the cave. She told them how Mama Bear and her cub brothers had raised her and kept her safe and fed.
The hunters were not from Nina’s town, but they’d heard the story about her. They told her that her stepfather, the evil man who’d betrayed her, had died the very same day when a part of the cliff wall collapsed on him at the bay.
When she heard this news, Nina’s knees gave out, and she sank to the ground and wept.
This confused the hunters. “Aren’t you relieved to hear that such a terrible man is dead?” one hunter asked.
“My mother,” she said through her tears. “All this time she has been alone. We lost my father. He was working in town one evening. He went into the woods to search for supplies, and he never returned. The hunter who was with my father said a bear attacked, but that hunter…he’s the same man who became my stepfather.” A horrible idea formed in Nina’s head as the missing pieces of a sinister story came together. “My mother married my stepfather out of desperation. But he tricked us both, didn’t he? Maybe he’s the reason my father never returned, and then he tried to kill me. I’m not sorry he’s dead, but my poor mother has believed I am dead all this time. I could have gone home to her.”
“Little…Hummingbird?”
Nina stilled. She glanced over her shoulder at the wounded bear. He pushed himself up on his arms and clutched his bleeding side.
The look in the bear’s eyes stoked that fire in her chest again. Hope sparked in the flames of her heart, and Nina knelt beside him. She pushed the matted hair away from the bear’s face and placed her hands on his cheeks. Rather than the shape of a bear’s skull, his head was shaped differently. Narrower and more fragile than the heads of her cub brothers. She eased open his mouth to see not bear’s teeth, but the teeth of a man.
“Father?” Nina whispered.
The bear swayed as though dizzy and clutched his head to steady himself.
“How?” Nina asked. “Where have you been?”
His eyes rolled, and his head dropped toward his chest. Nina cried out when he slumped forward unconscious. The hunters scrambled over to help Nina with the strange bear man. They fashioned a structure like a travois, using their coats as fabric to stretch across two sticks. The hunters laid the bear man on the fabric and dragged him out of the Acadia forest with Nina following along behind.
Hours later Nina stood outside the house of the healer in the hunters’ town. She resisted the urge to sprint home, to throw open the door of the cottage and embrace her mother. But what would she say to her mother after all this time? Would her mother still be there? The idea of returning home and finding the cottage and all her memories abandoned created a rip of sorrow inside her.
The back door of the house opened. A woman dressed in a flowing dress cinched at the waist with a belt made of falcon feathers and beaded with blue tourmaline walked into the garden. She held a carved wooden staff in one hand, and her long, silver hair draped around her shoulders like moonlight.
The woman’s face was deeply lined, and she looked older than any person Nina had ever seen. The closer she got to Nina, the more Nina’s skin tingled and the hairs on her body stood on end. The air around them crackled.
“You’re the healer?” Nina asked.
The woman smiled. “I am called many names,” she said. “We are never just one thing.” She tapped her staff on the ground three times. “I’ve done all I can with the man you brought to me, and he will heal in time—both his body and his mind. He’s ready to go home.”
Nina’s heartbeat quickened. “Man, not bear?”
“You already know this, child,” the healer said. “Your father went into the forest a man and came out something different, something more.”
Nina squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her fists at her sides. “Why?” Her eyes filled with tears. “Why did he not come back? Why did he leave us for so long?”
The healer leaned on her staff and watched an eagle soar through the sky overhead. “He was badly wounded and left in the cave by someone he thought was a friend. While he lay suffering, anger and resentment at what the hunter did scorched your father’s insides and poisoned his mind. He forgot the softness and beauty he had known. He was certain he would die there, but he did not die in the darkness. Still he had become more beast than man, but over time, the cave revealed to him that even animals show compassion and love. The animals do not hate or carry anger or hold grudges. In a way, they understand more than humans. That knowledge is what began to heal your father’s spirit. But he had lost the connection to who he was before he entered the cave, until you. His love for you, Little Nina, is what reminded him of his life before the darkness. You are the one to bring him home to conti
nue healing.”
An older, more scarred version of the man she remembered as her father stepped out of the house. He walked with deliberate slowness, favoring his uninjured side. Gone was the unruly mass of hair on his head and face. Gone were the animal pelts he’d been clothed with. New lines etched his face, spiderwebs of healing skin that told the story of what the hunter had done to him before leaving him to die.
Nina wiped her tears. “Thank you,” she said to the healer.
With hesitation her father held out his hand to her, but Nina took it and smiled. She intertwined their fingers. “Let’s go home,” Nina said. He nodded and thanked the healer.
When the old woman walked back toward her house, she started humming. Nina stopped and listened. The song was one Nina had sung along the shore at the bay, one she had sung to the white witch who lived among the cliffs. Nina relaxed her mind and focused on the healer.
The healer’s physical body disappeared for Nina, and she saw the old woman as though she were made of glass. Her insides were like a rainbow, inhabiting all colors, both dark and light. There were swirling galaxies and brilliant constellations circling around rainstorms and sparkling crystals. There were blue skies and lightning, gentleness alongside terrifying power. And yet it was all balanced into glorious beauty.
“The white witch,” Nina whispered. She glanced up at her father. “I thought she lived by the bay.”
The back door to the house closed, and silence filled the garden.
“Healing is everywhere,” her father said.
Nina and her father walked through the afternoon. The sunset turned the sky violet with soft strokes of lavender by the time the cottage appeared at the end of the path. A light shone through the kitchen window, illuminating a square of yellow on the grass outside the cottage. Nina’s pulse quickened. Someone was home.
Just as Nina and her father stepped onto the green grass growing in the hollow, the front door opened. They stopped walking. Nina’s mother stood in the open doorway, staring at them with her hands over her heart.
Then she was running to them, arms stretched out and laughing, tears wetting her cheeks. Nina’s father opened his arms, and her mother leaped into them. He didn’t care that his side throbbed or that he might cause more damage to his healing wound. Nina was pulled into their exuberant embrace, and the whole forest vibrated with delight.
Bluebirds sang and cardinals chirped. Fairies danced with butterflies, and Nina’s cub brothers burst out of the trees into the hollow and chased each other around the cottage. Mama Bear stood at the tree line with Porcupine, and Nina waved at them.
Nina and her parents spent the rest of their days living in the cottage at the edge of the woods and sharing their creations, their happiness, and their lives with the forest creatures.
Even now if you venture deep into the Acadia forest, you’ll see tiny tables and chairs positioned in the sunlight. Scarlet curtains hanging in owl hollows catch the wind, and miniature quilts perfect for afternoon picnics decorate the meadow. If you listen carefully, if you haven’t closed off your connection to the natural world, you’ll hear the voices of the animals calling to you and guiding you on your journey.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Han, for planting the seed of an idea to retell stories and add crazy delicious bakes to them one day. Nina would still be drifting somewhere in the void, just a spark of unfound inspiration, if you and I hadn't jabberjawed for days and days about BFF Bakes and our love of fiction.
Thank you, Jeanne, for brainstorming, plotting, laughing, scheming, creating, and imaginging with me. Thank you for always being willing to read my writing and offer feedback. I'm confident if we ever end up in a plot hole, you will find the most creative, possibly the most outrageous, way out. Here's to watching our shows on TV one day!
Thank you, Julianne, for designing every cover I ever need. For pulling foggy images out of my mind and bringing them to life in the most incredible way. It's you and me, and magical Aydiah, for the long haul. Thank goodness! Together we'll be the sunshine makers.
Thank you, reader, for taking this journey with me, for opening up your heart a little to let the magic in, and for trusting me with your precious time. I hope you see and hear the wondrous all around, every day of your life.
About the Author
While growing up in southern Georgia, where honeysuckle grows wild and the whippoorwills sing, Jennifer became a writer in elementary school. She crafted epic tales of adventure and love and magic. She wrote stories in Mead notebooks, on printer paper, on napkins, on the soles of her shoes.
She considers herself a traveler, an amateur baker, and a dreamer. She can always be won over with chocolate, unicorns, or rainbows. She believes in love—everlasting and forever.
Jennifer has published five enchanting novels and three short stories in the Mystic Water Series. The Baker’s Man, Little Blackbird, Honeysuckle Hollow, The Legend of James Grey, Wednesday's Child, Finding May, and Sweet Canary Jane, and all are available in print and as ebooks. Full Moon June, Average April, and Starry Sky July are available as ebooks.
Jennifer is crafting a collection of retellings that are part of the series Folklore, Myths, and Magic. This collection is inspired by stories told by our ancestors about their mysterious, fantastical beliefs in both the physical and the spiritual world. These tales will engage the mind and delight readers looking for an entertaining, magical way to learn about our past.
Jennifer is also the founder and editor in chief of This Inspired Life Magazine, which highlights a community of creatives who share their art, writings, crafts, recipes, and hearts. You’ll find its pages offer a wonderland of imagination, heart, and soul. The magazine’s mission is to inspire readers with stories of hope and encouragement and to spark the creative spirit in all of us. To learn more about Jennifer, visit her website at www.jennifermoorman.com.
Thank You!
Yay! I had so much fun introducing you to the fantastical world of folktales, myths, and magic. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you did enjoy this story, please consider writing a review. I appreciate any feedback, no matter how long or short. It’s a great way of letting other magical realism fans know what you thought about the book.
Being an independent author means this is my livelihood, and every review really does make a super-big difference. Reviews are the best way to support me so I can continue doing what I love, which is bringing you, the reader, more ways to travel all of over this world (and the universe) through books!
If you enjoy reading whimsical stories, I’d love for you to take an adventure to Mystic Water! The Mystic Water Series is a magical realism series is set in the small, Southern town of Mystic Water. Quirky, lovable, enchanting characters invite you into their lives where magic floats on every breeze and anything can happen. The Mystic Water series encourages you to believe in your dreams, follow your heart, and trust in the wonder of the extraordinary. These novels inspire magic, hope, and fabulous treats!
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Ready for More Adventures in Mystic Water?
Your Adventure Starts Here:
The Mystic Water Series
The Baker’s Man
Little Blackbird
Honeysuck
le Hollow
Full Moon June
The Legend of James Grey
Average April
Wednesday’s Child
Finding May
Starry Sky July
Sweet Canary Jane
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Also by Jennifer Moorman
Mystic Water
Sweet Canary Jane
Retellings of Folklore, Myth, and Magic
Nina, the Bear's Child (Coming Soon)
Standalone
The Baker's Man
Little Blackbird
Honeysuckle Hollow
The Wickenstaffs' Journey
Full Moon June
The Legend of James Grey
Average April
Wednesday's Child
A Mystic Water Collection
Finding May
Starry Sky July
Watch for more at Jennifer Moorman’s site.
Nina, the Bear's Child Page 4