After the bears gathered their wounded, buried their dead, and cursed the mice, they all set off through the mountains again.

Danny and Jimmy walked or rode, though considerably less bound than before, and when they arrived at a small cave entrance at the edge of the snow line, they were so exhausted that they immediately collapsed into guest room beds.

The stone golems swatted at the bears, which put the flight from the bears earlier that day into a little perspective. He looked from golem to golem trying to pick out the tiny mouse on each shoulder.

As he scanned across the mice, one locked eyes with him.

Barzilaih, the deep voice spoke in his head.

I have a lot of thoughts about the upgrades I get to add to my pokemon trainer character in my weekly Pokemon tabletop RPG. He is an ambitious, psychic, overconfident child, and he doesn’t mind bending the rules or finding the loopholes to win. Soon he will have to face off agains his “research partners” in league tournaments, so most of his tricks won’t work. Also, he only has two pokemon with any significant level. Everything else gets transfered to the PC for sale or trade later.

“Mice!” the bear roared, skidding to a stop before the humanoid rock heap.

Danny hit the ground hard when the bear he rode reared up to block the towering rock golem that had constructed itself in front of them. Desperately he sought to fill his lungs with air again, then he looked for the pack-bear that had his sword (and laptop). Last he saw it, it was behind and to the–there.

Still in shock, Danny sat on the bear as it lumbered through the sagebrush up and away from Boise. The once bright red blood that had covered most of his torso and head had turned to a dark, sticky substance.

He scanned the surrounding sagebrush for the Jimmy. His arms were tied behind his back as well, but concentration filled his eyes over fear as he studied his bear and the sagebrush.