Varl rushed from the cave and saw the bear shaking its head in a violent motion before it collapsed to the ground.
With a puzzled frown he glanced from unconscious bear to unconscious halfling and back again. He raced over to his friend. “Fandri, Fandri, please be alive. Surely you must be, for there is no sign of blood or injury.” He stared at the halfling’s blue lips. Then put an ear to Fandri’s mouth and a hand on his chest. He was not breathing.
The squire cried out in alarm.
With a whine, Wolfer dragged himself from the cave on his three good legs and licked Fandri’s face, but still the halfling did not stir.
Looking at his hound, Varl grabbed a handful of his fur. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “I cannot understand it. Fandri looks intact, but he is dead. It is as though something has happened that left him in this state. Something that we fail to see.”
He looked into Wolfer’s eyes for a long time, then his jaw dropped as he realised the truth. “Fandri-La must be injured. Wolfer, find the fairy and be quick.”
Varl searched the halfling to no avail, then he probed around the bear.
Wolfer sniffed all over and got excited when he smelled the snow bear’s muzzle.
“What is it, Wolfer? Do you smell something?” Varl’s fingers prodded around the bear’s moist muzzle and found the bell from Fandri-La’s cap caught between his teeth. “Oh no, he’s eaten her.”
He gritted his teeth and prised the muzzle further open. He wiggled his way in through the sharp teeth and felt the back of the bear’s throat. Varl’s heart was beating fast and his breaths were short and jagged. Please stay asleep.
After what felt like an age, but was mere moments, he touched the tiny legs of the fairy and pulled her out with as much care as possible.
Varl crawled over towards Fandri to place the fairy next to her. Warm breath brushed his cheek and he dropped the fairy when a sharp pain pierced his shoulder.