"A bear," asked Sara in disbelief, "are you sure? That seems kinda out of our league, we have no major combat experience and none of us are really equipped to handle a bear."
"You saw some of those at the BTC had bear pelts. If one if them can do it, surely we can take one down as a team," said Jack attempting to reassure his friends.
"Well," hesitated Vect, "it would give us plenty of respect, even if we take one down as a group."
"We do have Lelu and her magic to help us," mused Sara, "I'm fairly sure none of the others were magic users. From what I saw, most were much more muscular than any mage I've ever seen."
"Lelu," asked Jack expectantly, "are you in?"
After a few moments of silence, Lelu looked up, determination in her eyes, "Lets do it."
Day 3 of trial.
They set out at dawn taking any supplies they could carry using large leaves woven together with their makeshift rope as packs. As the they searched throughout the day trying to spot a trail, they found one that was a day old at most.
"What do you think," asked Vect as he examined the paw print in thr dirt.
"It looks a little odd to me," said Lelu as she compared it to the one in her book, "it's definitely a bear track but it almost looked like it has 6 claws and the print looks off, but I can't place it."
"So it's a bear with an extra claw, I've seen a horse with 2 heads in a fair before. These things happen sometimes," said Jack brushing off Lelu's concerns. "We only have 4 days left to find it and kill it. Do we try to find a different one and risk never finding one in time or stick with this one?"
After a few minutes of deliberation, they decided to follow this trail.
They had no luck finding it that day and settled in for the night, hoping to resume the trail tomorrow.
The next day was a bust, but they knew they were getting close. It was before noon on the 5th day that the tracks were fresh and they had their prey marked behind a line of trees, eating sounds emanating from its location. All took position after they formulated their plan. Vect was to provide long range support with arrows, while Lelu used magic to disorient the target and Sara and Jack would dash in and stab the bear up through the skull from beneath as it was distracted. Just as Vect let loose an arrow to bait out the bear from its hiding place and Sara and Jack prepared to move in, Lelu got a good look at their target and fear rushed through her like ice in her veins and she tried to stop them, but the animal roared as the arrow connected. It tore the trees apart as it faced its foes.
Too Late.