Chapter 10

During the following week Adair learned that the wood from the fallen tree was indeed burnable. On the fifth day of the storm even Mr. Bear started to feel uncomfortable due to the temperature drop and he had started a fire by rubbing two planks from the leftover pile together, before he started using some of the rest as timber. When Adair had seen him do that she had been utterly shocked, afraid that it would lead to their entire home burning up in flames.

Luckily her fears had turned to be unwarranted and the grey wood did not catch fire. Apparently one of the new qualities the metallic liquid had bestowed upon their home was that it was no longer flammable. Adair could sit close to the fire without the grey wood so much as heating up. While this meant that their entire floor was relatively cold, the grey wood seemed to be an excellent insulator, so their box home would remain warm for as long as they kept the fire going. Adair had quickly discovered the ideal distance to keep warm.

Adair was also happy that the carbon monoxide that fires should produce either did not exist on this planet or that the tunnel the bear had made which led to the lake was big enough that it did not affect them. The last thing Adair worried about was the fact that their home being lukewarm overall meant that the snow around the box, and more importantly on top of it, would melt and cause a ton of water to flood their box. Luckily her fears were once again unfounded, and while their new lifestyle did result in a steady dripping from the water above, it was not as bad as Adair had feared.

They had a ton of food for both her and the bear in the magical bag and it turned out to be a godsent. After the second week, the bear had run out of the basketball-sized fruit, so they returned to their routine where Adair fed it with the meat from the bag. Initially, it ate the food raw, but eventually it seemed to remember that with the help of the fire it could cook the meat.

The sudden realization made it break out in a happy dance. It was a funny sight to behold, but his movements had created air, which in turn had nearly extinguished the fire. It took awhile for the bear to keep the fire going again, and once it did, it immediately tried to make the fire bigger. Hours later, the fire was easily a dozen feet tall, which led to another happy dance. The flames started to flicker, and immediately the bear stopped its dance and put the meat in the fire to cook it.

When it took the meat out, Adair predicted that the bear would not like the taste of it. It was easy enough to tell because it was covered in soot and embers of the fire. When the bear put the cooked meat into its mouth it made a weird expression. It took a few days, but eventually, he got the hang of it.

This also taught Adair something important. If she assumed that the burly man turned bear was an average citizen in society, that meant that the people on this planet were not used to grill for themselves. This made her question if grilling was something that people just didnt do or someone cooked all of the food for their citizens, or maybe there was a specific magical device to cook food for the citizens. She reaches this conclusion because for the bag to give her meat and the bear not knowing how to cook it seemed absurd. To test out the second theory, Adair went over to the bag and wished for an item to cook her food. Nothing came out. She then rephrased her wish for a stove, but still the bag remained motionless.

This confused Adair because this would imply that cooked foods were rare, perhaps even a delicacy in this world. Adair assumed that there could also be a third option and that her idea of an item that cooked food was so far off that the bag did not recognize it.

Whatever the reason, Adair made a mental note that in the future she would be the one to cook both their meals because there was no way she was going to eat whatever the bear made. Suddenly she realized that maybe she should give Mr. Bear a break, because it was not like it was his fault that he had suddenly changed species. She herself was already coping with having changed her race, but the former burly man had seemingly easily accepted his new circumstances and was doing the best he could.

As the days passed, Adair got bored of working with the letters and sounding out the vowels, so she decided to explore the tunnel that the bear had made. This was the first time in both lives that a thing such as a snow tunnel existed for Adair. She found the experience of exploring something to be much better than just staying in the box.

Adair was tempted to taste the snow, but just like the lake water, she decided against it just in case. She did not like exploring in the dark because, unlike the bear, she was unable to see where she was going and often ran into the snow, which was not only cold and wet, but hurt as well. The light reflecting throughout the snow, though, was extremely pretty.

One time she accidentally found/created the path to the lake, and it soon became her favorite spot to relax in. This was because when she looked out, she was able to see perfectly straight walls of snow going up to the tree branches in a perfect diameter around the lake and the waterfall. Adiar also found it interesting that the water was still water and not ice like she expected. This made Adair wonder if it was possible to sit in the middle and relax if she made a little raft.

While it was a wonderful idea to Adair's mind she wanted to make sure she would still be safe. She did not plan to allow herself to be eaten up by some unknown creature that Adair might not be able to see in the dark that was hiding just beneath the water.

She tried asking her furry guardian for his opinion by drawing a stick figure on a raft in the middle of the lake with a crude bear watching in the snow with a small stick. The bear seemed apprehensive towards it, and it drew something back in the snow. Adair could not understand what it was meant to be, largely because the creature would never be an artist.

After Adair gave the bear a questioning look, the bear crossed out what it showed and just responded by writing the letters "Nein" ("No") in the snow with one of its claws. The fact that the bear walked away made her assume that the word meant something along the lines of "no".

Adair pondered why he was not a fan of her idea and realized that maybe the bear did not find the lake as fascinating as she did, since she assumed it would have to watch her the entire time and didn't want to.

If Adair's assumption was correct, then that would mean she would have to learn how to swim before the bear allowed her to enter the water. But with the bear keeping a special eye on her now that she had once again expressed some interest in the water, she was forbidden to go near the lake again. Every time she tried, he would come grab her with his mouth and bring her back to the grey box.

She eventually gave up and started exploring the pathways again. Finally, she found the dark blue tree they used to visit. She had been looking for it because she was slightly pissed at the bear for not allowing her to go near the lake. Unlike the other trees in the area, the area around the blue tree did not have any snow, just like the lake.

To Adair, this was just as good if not better than the lake due to not having to worry about being eaten up by some unknown monster that lurked below the surface of the water. She was able to trust the tree because it had helped both her and the bear. Even though she was aware that the bear had been paying for the tree's help by trading in the lake water, as long as she paid the tree, it should prove to be reliable.

After a while of staring at the magnificent snow structure that was in a near-perfect circle around her, she started playing with the letters again and spelling out words that existed in the Galactic language. The tree seemed to take notice, and somehow saw it as an opportunity to obtain extra water, it spelled out a few words in the snow.

Adair had not been paying attention to what the tree was doing as she was dedicatedly playing with the wooden letters. And it took her a while to notice that the tree had drawn something in the snow. Alas, she had no idea what it had spelled, so she promptly ignored it. The tree then drew a picture of a small girl pouring water at the base of a tree, and drew a second one featuring a tree and her wooden letters.

Again it took a while for Adair to notice, but this time when she saw it, she sat down in contemplation. She now understood what the tree was suggesting and contemplated if there was a way to get some water without the bear noticing. Eventually, she decided that if she did it while the bear was sleeping, it might be possible.

Adair suspected that the bear might have a reason to keep her away from the water, but she had reached a point where she was unable to progress with this planet's language without external help, and since the tree was willing to help her, she was 100% willing to accept.

To acknowledge to the tree that she accepted the terms, she nodded her head in an exaggerated motion to make sure the tree understood she accepted.

The next day, Adair waited for Mr. Bear to be fast asleep, before she quietly went over to the bag, took out an empty bottle, and went to the lake to fill it up. But just like always, as soon as Adair approached the lake, the bear somehow was aware of it, so he quickly came and retrieved her.

This was when a new thought came to Adair. What if she gathered some snow in a bottle, melted it by the fire and gave the tree the water?