Some souls brave enough to enter the moonlit forest, may see something that can only be categorized as either terrifying or awe-inspiring. To those who tell the stories, they speak of the great she-bear, who only a chosen few know as Artio… Sometimes, people only see her giant footprints, but the truth is that many more have seen her footprints, but often, they look completely inconspicuous… That is because she can freely transform between a bear and a human. Some villagers in her region say that she was a child lost in the forest; while others claim that she is the incarnation of nature itself. However, the truth is that both are true, and the story of how she became the forest’s guardian is worth retelling…

It all began many years ago and in a rather inconspicuous way… Her father left for a hunt, and a distracted grandmother, trusting a makeshift pen a little too much, allowed a young Artio to secretly follow her father into the woods. Her little legs were able to keep up for a long time; however, she eventually became tired, making long strides through the spring grass. By the time that she begrudgingly cried out for her father’s help, he was simply too far away. He did not notice, but there were many eyes that did notice her… The most important ones belonged to a group of wolves. After when her voice became hoarse, the frenzied canines moved in for the kill.

The wolves moved quicker the closer they got; frozen in fear, she closed her eyes. It was at this moment, that her ears heard a concussive blow followed by a roar… It was a huge grizzly, a mother bear with a fresh set of cubs. It seemed her instincts had kicked in, and she protected the vulnerable child as one of her offspring. After, the remaining wolves scattered away. The small girl was completely lost. Hopeless, she shadowed the bear back to her den, curling up for warmth with her and cubs that night. She would wait here for weeks for her father but weeks turned into months, and nothing changed… In time, the young girl began to forget her old life. The impulse of nature, eating and hunting, took hold in her spirit, and she lost much of her sentimentality.

However, the human sphere of influence is constantly expanding, and when one of the now-grown cubs was caught in a trap, Artio tried to help. Unfortunately, she too became ensnared. After, she was paraded around town as a curiosity before the chief came out and hushed everyone. He looked at her peculiarly… and then demanded that her hair be moved to the side. When they did this, he spoke: “Artio, my child!” Her father, now the chief, had seen the birthmark on the back of her neck that was in the distinctive shape of a butterfly. Artio still looked like a cornered animal, but there was a countermeasure inside her heart that made her slightly override her instincts to fight. Her father saw this and cut her bindings.

It was at this moment, that there was a roar of rage as her great bear-mother barrelled towards the crowd. The bear closed in quickly before her father pulled his axe from his back and launched it into the bear’s chest… Artio screamed and ran to her caretaker. The animal’s last heartbeats synced up with Artio’s… A force, known only to the Druids, flowed into the body of the young woman. It overtook her being, and then, she too, roared into the sky. It was at this moment, she first turned into a bear, and the horror on her father’s face, along with the fact that he took the life of her “mother,” meant that she only ran back into her forest – never to return.

After that day, she was only scarcely seen by anyone. Those who did see her had immense respect for the great she-bear, as she acted as an ambassador to keep the peace between humanity and nature. She never forgave her father, although she did not believe that what he did was wrong. It was only the ‘law of red tooth and claw,’ and it was time for her to use this law as well to protect her forest – like her bear-mother did for her…