We broke camp at dawn. Theren wanted to put as much distance between us and Dire Maul as possible before midday. The humans agreed without argument. They'd been tense since I came back from the audience chamber, and the mood had only worsened overnight.
I didn't argue. I had nothing left to barter with, and the memory of that circular room was still pressing against my ribs like a stone I couldn't swallow.
We'd been walking for maybe two hours when one of the humans, Korr, the younger one, stopped and held up a hand.
"Something's out there."
We all went still. The forest was quiet. Not the normal quiet of animals hiding from footsteps, but something deeper. The kind of silence that happens when even the insects have stopped.
Then I saw it.
A bear. Massive. Black as the diamond I no longer had. It was standing at the edge of a clearing maybe forty paces away, completely motionless, watching us with an intensity that didn't seem animal.
Theren had his hand on his weapon. Korr was backing away slowly. The other human, I never caught his name, was already reaching for his bow.
"Don't," I said.
They looked at me like I was insane.
"Look at it," I said. "It's not attacking. It's not charging. It's just... watching."
The bear hadn't moved. Not a step. Not a twitch. Its head was angled slightly, as if it was studying us the same way I'd studied the carvings in Dire Maul, with patience, with curiosity, with something that looked almost like recognition.
I took a step forward.
"Are you out of your mind?" Theren hissed.
"Probably."
Another step. The bear's ears flicked. It didn't retreat. It didn't advance. It just kept watching me with those dark, intelligent eyes.
I stopped about twenty paces away. Close enough to see the way the muscles sat beneath the hide. Close enough to see that there were no signs of aggression. No flattened ears, no bared teeth, no tension in the shoulders. Just a creature standing in the morning light, regarding me with what I can only describe as interest.
Then it turned, slowly, deliberately, and walked back into the trees. Not fleeing. Just leaving. As if it had seen enough.
Theren was shouting at me by the time I turned around. Something about getting us all killed, about elves who don't know when to leave well enough alone, about how he wasn't paid enough for this.
I nodded and apologized and promised to be more careful.
But I was already thinking about the bear. About the way it moved. About the way it looked at me.
That wasn't an ordinary animal.
And I think it wanted me to follow.