` This shall be my entry for WaffleBear's bearry nice skin contest
I got first place! ^-^

  I woke up to a bear laying down next to me. For a second, the bear and I just stared at each other silently. Then my mind registered the fact that there was a bear sitting next to me. I squealed in a panic and shuffled away from it. It sat up and scratched the back of its head casually.
  "No need to panic, Ms," It said to me, which freaked me out even more. The bear just talked to me. How did it do that? "You just looked so comfy sleeping in that moss, I wanted to try it out for myself," I struggled to stand up and back away from the bear. When I did, I felt a great pain in my left leg and fell to the forest floor again.
  "Ow ow ow ow ow!"
  "You're pretty beat up Ms. What happened to you?" I glanced at my leg and sure enough, it seemed to be broken. There was no way I was going to get away from this bear. But the bear was able to talk. Maybe I could convince it not to eat me.
  "Who...who are you?" I asked it.
  "I am Tadao. What about you?"
  "I am...I...I don't know," The bear studied me.
  "You look like a Maiae to me,"
  "Maiae? What type of name is that?"
  "Yours," Tadao said, shifting onto all four of his paws. He trotted over to me. "You need some help?"

  Tadao offered to take me to a nearby village, where I could get help for my leg. You would think that riding a bear would be a very new and different experience, but it was actually very similar to riding a horse. Just fluffier. And probably more stable, since Tadao knew every inch of these woods we were in. At least, I assumed he knew these woods. If I were on a horse, there would probably be much tripping and stumbling among the fallen trees and vines.
  "So, tell me about yourself Maiae," Tadao said. I shrugged.
  "I already told you, I don't remember much about myself," I sat in silence for a bit.
  "What about you?" I asked the bear. "I've never heard about a talking bears,"
  "You said you don't remember anything," Tadao replied.
  "I think that I'd remember a talking bear," I giggled, "Those don't seem like they'd be too common,"
  Tadao joined me in my laughter. "Well then, I have been in these woods since the first sapling began to grow. Some of your people like to say that I am the Guardian of the Forest. But truly, I am just an old bear," He paused in his story to take a breath. Tadao didn't seem as if he were very old at all. But I wondered if this tale of his would explain why he was able to speak to me. "And I've never really guarded the forest actually. Sometimes I scare woodcutters off though. I guess that counts,"
  "How come you speak Common?" I asked the big grizzly.
  "I don't speak Common,"
  "Then how come I understand you?"
  "Don't ask me, you're the one who's speaking Bear," Huh. So, apparently I can speak Bear. Now I know at least one thing about myself at least. I shook my head in disbelief.
  "How can I speak Bear?"
  "You seem to ask a lot of questions Maiae,"
  "I need answers,"

  Both Tadao and I were not able to figure out why I spoke Bear. No one else knew Bear. What was so special about me? I had a feeling that if I could have all my memories back, I would probably know why. Tadao suddenly stopped in his tracks.
  "What's wrong?" I asked.
  "We're here," I peered out through the foliage and briefly saw some flickering lights from the village on the edge of the forest. I slid off Tadao's back and patted him gently.
  "I guess this is goodbye then. Thanks for the ride," I told him.
  "You're welcome," he replied, a slight sad tone in his voice, "I enjoyed the company," I picked up a long stick and tested my weight on it. Maybe I could use it to hobble over to one of the homes. Tadao definitely couldn't take me over. I studied Tadao's deep brown eyes and nodded, then horribly failed to get over to one of the village homes without falling over multiple times. Hopefully Tadao wasn't still watching, it was quite embarrassing.

  I finally managed to get to the nearest house. I almost fainted multiple times because of the pain of my broken leg, which was just great, but at least I made it! I carefully knocked on the door. Would the people let me in and help me? I hoped so. Otherwise Tadao had gone out of his way to help me.
  "No soliciting! Go away I don't want your new fancy pot mine is perfectly fine!"
  "I'm not a solicitor. If I was, why would I even be up this late?" I waited as the woman inside unlocked the door and swung it open.
  "Then what do you-oh my great bears what happened to you?!"
  "Uh, I honestly don't know,"
  "Oh dear oh dear oh deary me, HAROLD!" She grabbed my arm and tried to drag me inside, which resulted in me blacking out from pain. Which I did expect. But I'm not sure the lady was expecting that, as I felt my face smash into the ground right before going unconscious.
  I groaned and sat up groggily. Where was I now? The woman who had answered the door earlier looked up from the book she was reading.
  "Oh! You're awake! Are you okay? I'm so sorry about that, oh and I sent Harold off to wake the doctor, if that's okay, would you like some tea, I was just about to make some,"
  "Uh, sure," I said. I rubbed my sore head and studied the room around me. The couple seemed to have managed to drag me over to their couch. The woman poured me some tea and handed me the cup.
  "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't introduce myself!" She pointed at herself. "I'm Nancy. Who are you?"
  "I...uh," Nancy looked at me expectantly and sipped her tea. "I go by Maiae,"

``
AND FINISHED

AFTER SEVERAL DAYS

I DON"T THINK THE CONTEST ENDS UNTIL LIKE AUGUST 4TH SO HOPEFULLY I"M NOT LATE
Hopefully this has enough 'bear' in it for ya