Chapter 33

The ride home was an awkward one since no one was talking to each other. When they arrived home, Molly asked the kids to check up on the little girl in the barn while she and Bob took care of the Pferde. While they were taking care of the animals, the wife asked her husband if he was doing any better. 

"I think so. Father Edward showed me the truth and told me that God had sent him a message that we are to take care of this little girl. Father Edward also persuaded me that I should listen to God more often. Starting tomorrow, I intend to participate in more church events and make more donations to the church because he has shown me the error of my ways."

While Bob could not be called a bad father, he wasn't the most attentive one, either. The middle-aged man seemed to do slightly more than the bare minimum, to the point that Molly sometimes worried that her husband cared more for his crops than his kids. She could only pray that, depending on how literally he took this message from 'God', that their two kids wouldn't end being neglected even more than they already had been. 

Still, Molly was also pleased that Bob was planning to become more active in the church activities. She had gotten a lot of flack when she had married her husband, who had been known to be a non-religious person. If he really kept his word, her social standing with her friends was guaranteed to improve.

Since her husband seemed to be relatively back to normal, she left him to put away the Pferde. Meanwhile, Molly went in to look after the kids and check how the little girl was doing. Unfortunately, the winged girl had not yet woken up. This worried the middle-aged woman because someone as young as this little girl should not be sleeping this long. 

Molly had already performed a brief checkup on her when they had found her, yet she was unable to find any abnormal signs on her. There should be no real reason why her condition was not improving. Molly then double-checked the girl's condition just in case she might have missed something earlier, yet to no avail.

Left with no other choice, she decided to wait until morning and bring her to a doctor if nothing changed. With that, the middle-aged woman headed to bed, waiting for her husband to come up, yet even after an hour of waiting her husband was nowhere to be seen. Given his unusual behavior throughout the day, Molly went to go check what was going on, with a small magic lamp to light the way. 

She checked the house, and then she checked the barn for their Pferde, just in case he might have gotten injured handling the animals. Unable to find him there, Molly checked the road, believing he might have come out to pray there again, but she still didn't find him. 

Suddenly, she had an epiphany, and she went to go check up on the little girl. As suspected, that's where Bob had disappeared to. Her husband had fallen asleep on the ground, using one of the girl's wings as his pillow. 

Molly gave her husband a weird look, trying to make up her mind whether she should wake him up, or just let him sleep there. Ultimately, seeing as it was already past midnight, and she felt too tired to have this type of conversation, the wife simply headed to their bedroom, crawled into the bed and fell asleep. 

…

…

…

Hank woke up and noticed that it was already dark out. The bear wondered how long he had been out for, but there was nobody who could answer him this question. He noticed that the water was warm, so assuming that wasn't just its natural temperature, it shouldn't have been that long… Hank could only hope that it hadn't been days since he had collapsed.

The bear quickly got out of the river and shook all the water out of his fur. The bear then noticed that while he was not thirsty, but he could feel his stomach's demand to feed it. What's more, the river must have washed away the arrows that had hurt him, since he could no longer feel on. 

Although the two spots where the arrows had penetrated him, were still a bit tender, they at least seemed to be healing. Hank wondered what he should do about his food situation and debated on where he could find some. It took him a bit to realize that he was already at the perfect spot, being right in front of a river.

It didn't take the bear long to find a school of fish swimming in the river. Following his instincts, he made a swipe to grab one. Alas, the fish swiftly dodged his paw, and the other fish quickly dispersed and swam down the river.

With mild frustration, Hank acknowledged that if he wanted to get any fish, his best chance would be to get back into the water. The bear sighed and wearily went in deeper. Despite his thick fur, it seemed significantly colder than it had been just moments before. 

Hank made another attempt, but just like last time, his claw was empty. As soon as he made a move, they dodged out of the way. The bear decided to just stand there in the water and wait for the opportunity to catch a few of the fish off guard. 

It took awhile, because many of these fish seemed to remember that they were almost caught by the bear before. Still, after an hour of waiting, there was another school of fish near him. Hank couldn't tell if they had just forgotten about his presence, or if this was an entirely different school, though he didn't care particularly which one it was. 

This time, instead of moving his paw, Hank brought his maw down and chomped down. This worked out amazingly, and he was able to grab five fish in one go. In his excitement, he got out of the river and spat out all five fish on the grass. However, the fish didn't accept their fate, and a few tried to jump back into the river, yet he quickly put an end to that with one bite behind their heads.

Once they were all dead, Hank swallowed an entire fish. Unfortunately, one little fish did nothing to sate his hunger. He quickly gobbled up the remaining four fish, and while he did feel fuller… it was a far cry to the milk, the meat, or the fruit he had come to enjoy.

The bear contemplated what he should do. His first option was to go fishing again, but unless he could find bigger fish, it seemed like he would have to waste a lot of time. He could go searching for those small critters both he and Adair saw on their travels over, but he was not sure if they would make him any less hungry than the fish. Not to mention, they were also much harder to find. Lastly, he could go raid the house that he had dropped Adair off at. As promising as this sounded, he did not wish to be shot again, so he quickly disregarded that last option.

Hank was also worried what they might do to Adair if he attacked the place that she was staying at. A scary thought just passed his mind. 'Is Adair truly safe there? What if they got rid of her since she looked different from them?' Adair did not have any protection in case someone tried to harm her. He wanted to go check up on her… yet he was still too hungry. 

As such, the former human turned bear decided on filling his belly with fish, then go check on the little girl from a safe distance. Should Hank find out that the angry man had harmed Adair in any way, he would make sure to make him and his whole family wish they had never been born!

The next few hours were spent collecting and eating fish. Hank had not counted them, but the bear estimated he must have eaten over one hundred before he stopped being hungry. He sincerely hoped that he would not need to go through this process every day because it just took too much time. Not to mention, if he would always need to eat so much, it was very possible he might destroy the fish population of this river.

Once he was full, he followed the path he made through the field until he reached the road again. He then followed the road until he saw the wooden house again. Hank then checked the road, only to find it devoid of any humans. However, he did notice two splotches of blood on the road, making him start to freak out initially. Fortunately, after he sniffed it, he recognized the blood as his own, which he must have lost from two arrows that had hit him. 

As quietly as he could, the giant bear sneaked over to the house, following the scent of Adair, which was no easy task after her bath. Hank also wasn't sure how to react when he found the man who had shot him next to the small girl… especially since he was currently asleep on one of her wings. He was certain that Adair would never allow a complete stranger to use part of her body as a pillow. Even he, who had taken care of her since young, had only been allowed to touch her wings for a very brief moment.

Perhaps sensing that his life was about to be threatened, Bob groggily opened his eyes. Staring at the giant bear, it took him a few moments to understand the reality of the situation. Not only was this not a dream, but the very same creature that he had shot at during the day had sneaked into his house, and was currently standing over him. 

The middle-aged man visibly started to freak out, looking for something to defend himself with. Defying all of his expectations, Hank didn't attack him, rather he put a single claw on his maw, indicating the adult to be quiet. Bob's panic shifted into confusion, second guessing his earlier assumption of this not being a dream. The fact that Hank started to write on the ground, only further strengthened this belief. 

Hank waited for Bob to react, but he still had not followed the bear's instruction. The furry guardian was starting to get annoyed, and his nostrils let out some air. He then used his claw to point to Bob, before pointing to the message that he had just written.

"Get off her".