Sometime during the night, Arianna felt the cold go away as she was enveloped in what felt like a rough, warm blanket. The princess snuggled closer and for the first time since the bandit attack, felt good.
When she awoke, Arianna was horrified to discover that she had been snuggling with a she-bear.
Unbeknownst to the princess, the bear had recently lost a cub, killed by the bandits. Her teats were full of milk she had no way to discharge, but maybe this strange cub would help her. She rolled over and offered her swelling teats to Arianna.
Arianna, accustomed to the finest of cusine, was revolted at the idea of drinking a she-bear's milk. But she was so very, very hungry, and hunger always wins in the end. With increasing greed she drank the rich milk from her new wet-nurse. She felt it end her hunger, but she also felt something else as the milk began to work on her body.
The she-bear tentatively licked the smooth flesh of her strange new hairless cub.