#bearwich

Any other town and Keita would have not been allowed to be a sheriff. Outside of Sabrae, a woman was not considered strong enough to be in a position of power— not to mention that the Dalish were barely even allowed to hold a job. Inferior to the shemlen, foolish as that thought was. Still, the world was changing, so towns like Sabrae were dying out more and more, despite the best efforts of Mayor Marethari and her protégée. But it was also why shemlen thieves pissed Keita and her Tamlen, her deputy, off so much. Their town struggled enough, they didn’t need any others barging in and stealing the rewards of their hard work.

"Aw, c’mon. It was just a little ink!"

"Shut it, you!" Tamlen shot back immediately, glaring at the man behind bars. Keita leaned back in her chair, saying nothing.

They’d allowed him in the town before, much as Keita had protested the action. The mayor overruled her, seeing the opportunity for the town to get some extra trade, even sending Merrill along with him to see what was going on in the towns around them. And to let the townspeople forget about that incident with the mirror, but that wasn’t talked about much.

Keita didn’t like the scruffy outsider. She’d long suspected that a few of the missing things around town were because of him— and not just because their disappearances coincided with his visits. No, there was something suspicious about him and his scruffy, outsider face. She just had to wait until he slipped up, until his charm wouldn’t let him talk his way out of it.

But no matter how much she disliked him, she never expected him to take the ink. The ink that was practically sacred to them, vital to the rites of passage of their people and damn hard to get more of, nowadays. Keita had caught him red handed, taking a sample after Ilen had warned her that the shem had been asking around about it. So she gladly clapped him in irons and threw him in jail, calling it a good day’s work.

Now he wouldn’t shut up. And it was driving Keita insane, annoyed as she was at the constant noise in her damn office. Tamlen’s inability to ignore the taunts, jokes, pleas, etc didn’t exactly help. Keita sighed and got up, grabbing the man’s gun belt from the hook on the wall and tossing it to him as she unlocked his cage door. “Up. Sentence will be death, but I will allow you to defend yourself. One shot only. Let us go.”

"Wait, doesn’t this kind of thing only happen at noon? Isn’t that a thing? Do I get a lawyer? Final meal? Bear hug? Hooker? Something? Helloooo?" Keita ignored him and Tamlen’s objections, instead  walking out into the street to begin. The man, Garrett was it? Jogged to keep up with her. "You know, guns aren’t really my thing. I only carry this to seem more intimidating, scare off the bandits. Doesn’t really work though. Look, I don’t want to fight you, I was just doing an errand. So we’ll call it good, laugh it off, go our separate ways?"

"No. Stand like a man."

"Go! Dress! Now! Please, bear-shem." Maybe it was something in the tone of her voice, or in the agitation rather than hostility she was displaying, or maybe it was the 'please'. But Garrett moved, returning to the door while still pulling on clothes. Keita immediately set off, taking some of the fastest paths out of the city.

--

Keita led them up the Sundermount, deep into the forests on it, towards the caves that spotted along the mountain. She tried to slow her normal pace to accommodate Garrett, but was pleasantly surprised that it seemed unnecessary. The man was more than capable of keeping up with her, which made things easier for her nerves. There were no interruptions to their climb, Keita guiding them around any problem spots she knew usually held more hostile creatures as the sun climbed up into the sky above them.

Finally, there was a cry- not human, nor sounding at all like a person, but it caused Keita to blanch. She cursed briefly in her native tongue and redoubled their pace, leading Garrett into a clearing and ignoring his questions, much as she had the idle chatter he had tried to engage her in on the way up. They soon emerged in a clearing, the mouth of a cave nearby, and a wolf racing up to them almost immediately.

The wolf pressed his nose into Keita's hand, whining unhappily, as she stared towards the cave with wide eyes. There was a large brown lump-looking thing, its breath sounding labored and forced, which Keita hurried over to. She seemed to look it over, running her hands over its flanks, over its stomach, before finally looking back over at Garrett. "Bear-shem, meet the she-bear of this part of the mountain. Her den was attacked last night by shemlen. I know not what they were attempting to seek. But the ensuing scuffle led to her injury- which was enough to push her into labor early." The bear made a groaning noise again and Keita attempted to brush her hands through its fur as a calming gesture, Elgar'mi laying down to touch noises with the bear. "I do not know much of animal husbandry, not in this particular part. I avoided it. So, I need your help, bear-shem. She needs your help."

"I don't know how to help a bear give birth! I don't know how to help anyone give birth!" Garrett protested, still at the entrance of the clearing.

Keita looked at him incredulously, "What kind of bear are you?!"

"The kind that only has a nickname!"

"That is no helpful kind at all!"

"You're the brilliant one who brought me here!"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

The bear started making noises again, this time not stopping, her whole form trembling. Elvhen, human, and wolf eyes fixed on her. Keita's eyes flashed to Garrett's again and this time he came over, kneeling down next to the elf. "What can I do?"

"Sit where I am and comfort her- I shall help with the cub itself." Keita gave a small smile, "You have my thanks, bear-shem." She moved to switch places with him, leaving him with the bear as it began another cry.

Garrett gave the mother bear a wary glance. "Er- hello."

The she-bear gave a wuffing sort of sigh, clearly in more pain than concerned with him. She made a sort of whining noise and Garrett's hand found itself in her fur almost of its own accord. The bear seemed to quiet again slightly, as she had earlier with Keita, seeming to enjoy the touch.

The bear made another groaning noise and Keita started rapidly speaking prayers to the Creators, slipping back and forth from Dalish to the common tongue. Suddenly, she was at Garrett's side, the drawn look she'd had before replaced with joy, placing the small, hairless cub at its mother's side where it nestled in. She smiled at the sight, nudging Garrett lightly with her elbow. "I believe I begin to understand why you are named as a bear."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes." Keita turned her smile to him, "Though you closer resemble the cub than the full grown bear."

"Oh sure, I'm the hairless one?"

"Hairy for a shem- human, yes. Less impressive when compared to an actual bear."

"Fair enough."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the cub feed for the first time with its mother's assistance. The she-bear, when satisfied that the cub was feeding as he should, then nudged at Garrett's hand. Keita chuckled, feeling Elgar'mi finally leave his post to curl up with her and watching Garrett. "It seems you have made a friend. Two, really. And I owe you both ma serranas and a debt."

"Don't abandon me to find my way back home in this forest and we'll call it even for now, yeah?"

"Clever shemlen, ruining all my fun." Keita smirked, "Did you wish to leave now?"

Garrett looked down, feeling the weight of the bear's head on his lap and wondered at the morning he'd been having so far. "Maybe not yet."