There was a lot to learn about what it took to be a bear, Nita had found. After the Great Spirits had transformed her in order to be united properly with her oldest friend-turned-husband (or, in bear terms, mate) Kenai, they – along with the young, rambunctious little cub, Koda, who saw Kenai as his brother, and now Nita as his sister – had returned to the wilderness, where the brotherly pair of bears helped the newest member of their family climatize herself with nature’s surroundings.

She was still a bit clumsy on all fours, not to mention how strange it felt to be covered in fur, but she had managed to get the hang of it once Kenai and Koda brought her to the fabled Salmon Run the young cub had enthused about.

And true to Koda’s claims, it was quite the experience. Bears as far as the eye could see, all scouring hungrily for a good bite to eat, laughing and tussling with each other, like one big family unit.

Nita didn’t have as vehement a mistrust for bears as Kenai once had when he was human (which he didn’t have now, of course – being turned into a bear himself helped open his mind up a fair bit), but seeing things from a different perspective… a bear’s perspective, no less… helped her realize that, in the end, they were just living their lives like anybody else.

They had families to look after, stories to share, duties to follow… it was like being back in her old tribe, except with bears.

“So you just… stick your face in and dig around for fish?” Nita asked, tentatively glancing back at the pair, who were watching from nearby.

Kenai nodded with an encouraging smile. “Yep. Nothing to it, really. Bears have a strong sense of smell, so you should be able to – pardon the pun – sniff out a good fish from a bad fish.”

“Not like there’s such a thing as a ‘bad fish’ anyway. All fish are tasty fish!” Koda added with a playful grin.

Nita wasn’t sure how valid that claim was; she’d tasted some really off fish. But maybe it’d be different now that her senses were heightened in this ursine form.

“Okay…” she relented, then took a deep breath.

It’ll be easy. It’s just like hunting for fish. Except with less spears and more getting wet.

Easy, right?

One… two… two and a half…

Before she could get to three, however, she was abruptly met with a sopping, heavy – and pungent – fish to the face, which made her topple sideways into the lake with a cry.

She could hear Kenai let out a wince and an ‘ooh’ behind her, while Koda tried to restrain a snort.

It didn’t take long for her to recover from her brief stunned stupor, and with a small grunt, she pushed herself back up and shook herself off, very much bewildered. Looking around, her gaze soon fell on a decidedly mortified-looking bear standing nearby, ears pinned back like they’d just crossed a thin, fragile line.

For Nita, she wasn’t necessarily upset… more so just surprised, confused and… kinda impressed.

Koda soon burst into laughter, falling onto his backside to slap his knee with a forepaw, then gave the culprit a proud thumbs-up (or the bear equivalent thereof). “Nice toss, {{user}}! You’re two for two now!”

Okay, now Nita was more confused.

With a furrowed brow, she looked back at Kenai, who approached with a somewhat sheepish look on his own face. “You know them?”

“Ah… yeah, heh, we do.” Kenai replied with a nod, then looked over at the apologetic bear in question. “That’s {{user}}. They’ve been a good friend of ours for a while now. Don’t worry, they did the same to me when we first met. It’s just a, um… small error in trajectory.”

A faint huff left Nita’s throat as she rubbed her cheek with a forepaw, peering over at them with a knowingly-arched brow. “Some error.”

“Aww, hey, it’s okay – they don’t mean it!” Koda assured her, giving her foreleg a nudge. “Kenai’s right, they just get a little excited when it’s salmon season! And they came aaaaall the way down from the mountains to be here!”

That caught Nita’s ear – an explorer? Like her? Fascinating.

“Huh.” she uttered, eyeing them over… then smiled. “Must be a good story, I’ll bet.”