Velle braced herself as the bear was coming at her faster than she could get Alicia away. When it got close enough to be committed to its path Velle whispered a power word for speed to herself and pushed off to the left. She pivoted and went as fast as she could back to the right. She had timed it perfectly and the area just behind the bears shoulder was directly in her path as she armored her fist with a magic gauntlet and punched the bear as hard as she could. The bear slid into the direction of the punch and stumbled as it failed to keep itself upright against her blow. She was back moving immediately, chasing it down to push it further away from Alicia.

                The bear recovered quickly and tried to stand up to intimidate Velle, but she was already too close and launched herself at its chest with a powerful magic-enhanced kick to launch it into the air. She held back just enough to make it go airborne, but not enough to kill it- after all, it was just a wild animal. It landed with a thunderous boom as the ground shook. Velle stood still in the newly made clearing and watched as it got up and ran away from her. She quickly returned to Alicia’s side. “We need to get moving, if anyone saw that they’re going to come look.”

                Alicia nodded. “We can just teleport further ahead to be out of the way and finish our hike, right?” She asked quietly.

                Velle said yes, and the duo vanished from sight and appeared further up the trail. They rejoined the path and continued for a while in quiet, Velle because she was anxious- Alicia because she just watched Velle punch a bear easily twenty times her size clear out of the way. The two spent another thirty minutes quietly walking before they returned to where they started. They sat in the lot for a moment to drink some more water and rest, and then made for the teleporter home. When they got there, a group of forest rangers were arriving, talking about a potential bear attack in the area. They quietly went past and Velle teleported Alicia and herself back to where Velle would drop off Alicia.

                At the facility Will was waiting for them by the front door and asked them how it was. Velle said it was good and uneventful. Will was thankful. “On the news they were saying there was a cave bear spotted in the area, that could have been really dangerous.”

                Velle nodded. “It very well could have been, we’re both okay though.” She said, choosing what to say carefully.

                Alicia went back into the facility, and Will explained to Velle that she was due to be released from the facility for a less restrictive job program later. It was a new one that was gaining some traction that Alicia had seemed interested in. Due to how a person could be affected by a Daego Curse their aptitudes could sometimes change. Due to this one of the first places a person was expected was an aptitude retraining center as part of their care after being in the facility.  She would also be expected to attend regular checkups at slowly extending intervals to make sure her recovery kept progressing. All of this made sense to Velle.

                She looked around at the rest of the facility as she walked out. She had given Will permission to give Alicia her phone number when the discharge came, so Alicia could keep talking to Velle who seemed beneficial for her recovery.  Velle sent herself back home and went online to check on the news and if anything interesting had come up, she was joining Alicia in the retraining so that would now take care of her work, while she still waited for her apartment application to process. She paused and looked at a recent video that had popped up on her home page. Someone from the preserve had taken a video of the cave bear. They were part of a group that was documenting and recording population levels of various animals for research purposes.

                The video was from the trail ahead of Velle, putting the bear between the recorder and her. The video picked up as the camera shook as the crew scattered to take cover behind trees and rocks to keep themselves out of sight. She recognized when the bear roared what was about to happen. She checked the source of the video and saw that it was the research group itself who had posted it. The description asked for anyone who knew anything about the events of the video to please come forward and report what they had seen. Velle decided that she wouldn’t.

                The bear charged away from the camera-holder who seemed to lean out. Voices could be heard asking if there was anyone on the trail behind them when Velle’s punch landed. The sudden thud caused a wave of air to kick up some dust as people swore and the camera moved onto the trail at the last moment. All that could be see was the sudden dust cloud of Velle pushing off, and then the bear was in the air and thudded- before running away. The video then cut to a different angle, this one featuring a lens filter that allowed the camera to pick up approximate magic signatures. The bear’s aura was massive and outlined the bear itself, when Velle entered the frame her power was even greater, but because of how she was using it the center of the aura had no outline- and appeared as though a source of mana without a body had simply bullied the bear away.

                The comments were full of speculation on what Velle was. Most people seemed to agree it could not be a person, since the source of mana was moving around- and magic circles could not make that occur. The second argument was a human caster would be visible as a human frame. Further, it seemed universally agreed that no human in existence was that powerful. Velle smiled, this discussion had already excluded her- so she was safe from prying eyes thanks to this event.