Several Hundred Years Later
(2023 Availar)

'Welcome to Availar' read the sign in faded flecks of paint. To the middle aged man behind the wheel of his family's tan sedan, he thought the sign was a knock off Disneyland one. If only it were. This was supposed to be a family trip to remember, and right now all he would remember about it were how violently his four-year-old twin sons played with their Teletubby stuffies in the backseat.

"Danny, Tinky-Winky is not meant to..." said the man as he looked in the rearview mirror just in time for Danny to smack his brother and the red Teletubby Poe right in the face. This - of course - sent the boy screaming and crying.

"Mommy! Daddy! Danny hit me!"

The man sighed as he looked over at his wife beside him. Even after all this time she was as beautiful as the day they had met. He didn't know how she could still smile in that loving way like she still loved this family despite the squabbling boys in the backseat. She looked behind her at the crocodile tears running down her other son's face, yanking a tissue free from her pocket before leaning to wipe his face clean.

"Danny, say sorry to Turner," the woman said.

"But mom! It was Tinky-Winky's..."

"Danny, say sorry!"

"Sorry Turner..." mumbled Danny as she turned back around victorious.

Reaching out a hand to lay on her husband's arm, she pointed out a rest area with her free hand.

"Why don't you pull over there and go ask for directions? The boys and I could use a break anyway."

The man nodded. He appreciated that his wife knew they were lost, but didn't make him feel badly about it. He pulled up in front of the rest area in a place that looked like it only had three or four parking spots; the lines having faded over the years. He turned to look at his wife, but she was already out of the car to get her boys.

"The Teletubbies stay in the car," she remarked when Danny tried to bring the destructive Tinky-Winky with him. "We're going to go stretch our legs while Daddy asks for directions."

He had to admit that - even though this Availar was some way out of the way place - it was quite beautiful. The fresh, crisp air whistled through the pine trees surrounding him on all sides, rustling the grass and flowers that were all about. In the distance - over a downhill wildlife infested slope - he could catch a glimmering and winking view of the ocean. Turning away from his wife and sons, the man shut the car door and moved to walk into the rest area, yanking open the squawking screen door.

He didn't see anyone right off. If there was anyone to be seen, they were hidden amongst the wooden shelving that surrounded him. He took a step or two further into the place over the creaking floorboards as he went towards a spinning rack with pamphlets on it. Perhaps he could figure out the directions for himself without asking for help. As he plucked an area map off the rack, he had just opened it up when he heard a soft growl from behind him; a growl that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Turning slowly, his mouth dropped open when he came face-to-face with a huge black bear. He locked eyes with the creature as he stumbled back into the pamphlet rack, nearly causing the whole thing to crash to the floor. As he faced what he feared was certain death, he idiotically found himself wishing he had come in armed with something - even if it was one of his son's stuffed Teletubbies.

"Koda, behave."

The bear that had been snarling mere feet from him a moment ago stopped and turned to look towards a woman that had just appeared from out back. Her cinnamon brown eyes were as warm as the steaming muffins she carried out on a tray. The man couldn't help but to notice they were blueberry; a black bear's favorite.

"I'm so sorry about Koda," said the woman who had to be somewhere in her early twenties. "He just is protective of the place when he thinks someone is stealing."

"I...I wasn't going to steal...I was just looking to see if I could figure out directions..."

"I know," said the woman with a kind smile. "I can help you with directions if you want to bring the map here and tell me where you are going."

The woman put the muffin tray down on the front counter by the cash register, beckoning him over with one hand. He shot the bear side-eye for a moment before gathering up the courage to approach the front counter. He laid the map in his hands down as the woman spun it around to look at it.

"Where are you wanting to go?"

He gave her the address, turning after when he noticed the bear approaching him from behind. He stared at it wide-eyed and in fear as the woman looked down at the map.

"Koda won't hurt you," she reassured him.

"Why do you have a pet bear?" His terrified voice managed to squeak out as Koda moved to start sniffing at his ankles like a dog even though Koda clearly looked as if he could eat several litters of dogs and not be full.

"Odd isn't it? I've had him since he was a cub. It's a long story."

The man tried to remain calm. He had been told once that bears could sense fear. He hadn't ever realized that fear had a smell. As the woman remained focused in circling directions on the map, his focus remained on the bear.

'Is it smirking at me?' he thought.

"That thing will turn on you someday, miss," he said. "You really shouldn't keep such a wild pet."

"Wild?" She replied with a fairy like laugh. "Koda is the furthest thing from wild."

As if to show how true those words were, the black bear backed away then to walk back towards a reading nook that had been constructed in the back corner by a small fireplace. The man watched as the bear laid down on its back whilst managing to hold a copy of Pride and Prejudice above its head with its paws.

'I need sleep,' the man thought. 'There is no way that bear is reading...'

"Sir," said the woman, causing him to turn back around. "Here are the directions. I tried to make them as straightforward as possible."

"Thank you," he said as he hastily grabbed up the map, turning to make sure the bear stayed in his sights.

"My name is Allora by the way. Thank you for popping by!"

He just hastily nodded as he half walked and half raced out of the rest stop. His wife was sitting at a nearby picnic table with their sons, blowing dandelions into the summer air.

"Get in the car now," he said more sternly than he had meant to.

"Is something wrong?"

"We just need to go," he said. He didn't want to tell his wife about what he had just seen, worried that he had gone insane.

As his family packed back up into the car and drove off down the road, he couldn't help but to look back at the rest stop in the rearview mirror. His heart nearly stopped when he saw what appeared to be a black bear waving at him from the window as the rest stop faded from view.

- - -

"Taehyung, what was that for?" asked Allora as she looked at the black bear standing and waving at the window.

"What was what for?" He said, talking as clear as day. He kept his eyes trained out the window as the man's vehicle disappeared down the road. "I just wanted to give him a scare is all."

"And what for? He didn't do anything to you."

"His presence...smelled like fish. I hate fish."

"You're the only bear who seems to," Allora said with a chuckle.

"The code tells us if we tend too far to the ways of our animal that we will forever be stuck in the clutches of our animal form, which is why I hate fish."

"I know, but it won't be for much longer," said Allora as she plucked a blueberry muffin from the tin, walking it over to him. "This is the year. Soon you will be free."

Free. Taehyung hadn't ever let himself wonder what it was like to be free since he had been born into the cursed body of an animal. It was apparently part of his bloodline and the only way to overcome it was to find someone pure of heart and mind that would be willing to take him to the Moon Lake on his twenty-fourth birthday. Only then would he be turned back into a human like he should have been born as.

Until then, he had to follow "The Code".  It was a list of three things that were forever engrained in his mind.

1. You must protect your salvation at all cost.
2. Refrain from following primal instincts and giving in to the ways of being an animal.
3. Under no circumstances must you fall in love with your salvation, or you will turn back into your beastly form forever.

Taehyung adhered to the whole code, wanting to know what it was like to be free; to walk about and not be stared at in either fear or debate about whether or not he'd make a good mantelpiece. He was thankful that her family had taken him in as a cub since both of his parents had been killed by hunters.

"He's part of them. He's special," her mother had told her that night long ago as six-year-old Allora was introduced to him, "Just don't get too attached. He has a code to live up to."

Hence the nickname 'Koda'. They used that name instead of his human name around others as they thought it better suit a bear. He thought the nickname endearing, but endearing as in a sisterly sort of way. At least, that was what Taehyung was insistent upon thinking. There was no way he was risking his dream of true freedom by breaking the third rule of the code.

"You know the first thing that will happen will be me falling face first into moon lake, right?" Taehyung said as he moved to lay on his back on the floor again, shoving all four black paws skyward.

"You'll be fine. Walking isn't as difficult as it might seem."

Taehyung waved one of his hind legs in the air.

"When you have these monstrous feet to carry you around, you tend to think less on the optimistic side."

"Well, I'll be there to help you. I'll help you study the art of walking much like Mom helped you and I study all the school subjects together."

"Ah yes. All those useless things that I shall never need to know. Like why people thought the earth was flat or why calculus does anything more than to boggle the mind..."

"You are quite foolish, Taehyung," she said with a slight laugh. "Now sit up and eat this muffin while it is still hot. I made it for you."

He couldn't help but to be moved by her cooking one of his favorite deserts. As he moved to sit up and take the blueberry muffin between his huge paws, their eyes were drawn towards the door as it opened again.

'Great. Another visitor,' thought Taehyung, 'Time to stop talking and be the freaky pet again.'

As the door slapped shut behind the visitor, he remained in the doorway not looking their way. In fact, the young man seemed to be lost in a world of his own and was soaked to the bone. His clothing clung tightly to him whilst rivers of water formed at his feet, snaking across the floorboards. Taehyung took a bite out of his muffin before he took a sniff of the air, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

This man - whatever his story was - most definitely smelled like fish.