Page 18 of Once Upon A Bear

She was different, though. There was something about her that seemed like she would do anything to help anyone, whether it was legal or not.

He was grateful for that, because without her, he wouldn’t have any hope of breaking his curse.

“So can you help me?” he asked, crossing the room to her and sitting on the edge of the table, next to her notebook.

She looked up at him with a frown.

“Why are you sitting on my table?” she asked, in a way that was so reminiscent of his mother he nearly laughed as he got off the table and sat down in a chair.

“My apologies, ma’am,” he said, grinning at her when she frowned at him. “Will you be able to help me?”

Guinevere frowned down at her book, then looked at him. “Do you trust me?”

That was foreboding.

“Do I have to trust you?” he asked, trying not to let the fear leak out into his voice. “I don’t know if I want to,” he murmured under his breath.

She heard him. “I asked if you trust me,” she repeated, quiet but strong.

“I do,” he said, the words surprising him.

And he did. He trusted that no matter what, she would be there trying to help him, trying to break his curse, and no matter how many times it took, how much effort was required, he knew that she wouldn’t give up.

“I will warn you,” she said, “my patients say that my potions are a little difficult to drink.”

Gideon grimaced at the reminder of Alexander’s expression when he thought about the potions Guinevere had made him.

The idea of drinking something revolting was terrifying, but he would do anything to not transform into a bear again, because the more time he spent as a bear, the less time he spent feeling human.

Every transformation brought more of his bear form into his life.

What if someday, he stopped turning back into a human?

“I’ll do anything.”

Guinevere slammed her notebook shut and dropped it on the table with a thud. “Then let’s get started,” she said sprightly, hopping out of her chair and hurrying to her wall of herbs with a speed that surprised him.

What was she doing now?

She grabbed a bottle from the collection of empty ones and began stuffing herbs into it—a pinch of something, a whole sprig of another, an entire bundle of a third.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m putting together ingredients that I think might help you,” she said. “Your curse is similar to Alexander’s, so I know what worked for him. But yours has an added side effect of turning you into a bear, and that’s the part I’m struggling with. I know how to break the silencing part, but the bear part—well, there’s more to your curse, and I don’t want to make neither part of the potion work. So I will warn you, it might take a few tries to break it.”

“If that’s what it takes,” he muttered, following her toward the herb wall.

“You may look around,” she said, “but don’t touch my things.”

Gideon suspected she was telling him that only so he would stop asking her questions. He didn’t want to distract her while she was making a potion that would potentially break his curse, so he did what she said.

He wandered over and started looking at all the herbs and their labels, the empty jars, and the cans of who-knows-what that were labeled in a scribble he couldn’t understand.

But he could only look around for so long while she muttered about ingredients to herself before he got completely bored, so he wandered over to her kitchen area.

There was a used tea mug in the sink, so he reached for the rag and the soap. He might as well wash her mug while he was standing here waiting for her.

But as he started washing the mug, an itch began between his shoulder blades.