As I’d predicted, I found the pool, lined with rocks and surrounded by ferns, its soft green depths reflecting distorted tree trunks and a shimmering sky. Ripples whispered across the surface of the water, a darker shadow leaning out across the opposite bank, and I felt her eyes upon me before I saw her. The bear, her face lowered to drink, but her attention seized by my appearance. The cub nuzzling into her side. Her eyes fixed on mine, dark and deep and steady. I stopped, suspended in her gaze. I stared back, searching those big black pupils for something else, something more. I felt the
...more
Perhaps it safer as a bear than hunted down by Hera.
