Tales from Terrestria Chapter 3: The Golden Haired Girl and the 3 Bears

Chapter 3: The Golden Haired Girl 

and the 3 Bears

 

         Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldia Schweiz who lived with her parents in their estate just outside of the Frosch Village which could be accessed albeit by a path that was created through the woods. While she did live the lap of luxury, well as luxurious as one who had an earl for a father can live in, she was happy not only because of her status but because she had the pleasure of living under 2 wonderful parents. Earl Jacob Schweiz and Belinda Schweiz doted on their daughter but not to the levels of spoiling her. They weren’t THAT crazy thank you very much. Even so, whenever they weren’t busy maintaining the estate and the people that were subservient to them, they always made sure to care for their daughter and spend time with her despite how busy their schedules were. With loving parents, a good home, a high education and wealth to be used in the future once she came of age, it was assumed that she would have a relatively good life ahead of her. But she was horribly wrong.

        She and her parents were simply just eating dinner with her father talking to her mother about something related to their family business when all of a sudden, several crashes were heard from the windows of the manor they lived in. Goldia recalled her mother screaming in fear with her father panicking especially when shots of gunfire and arrows were heard. The guards as well as the servants ended up being the first victims due to how sudden the attacks were with the damage being caused to the building and the blood splattering on the wall not helping either. Unfortunately, before she and her parents could escape from the brigands who broke into their home, the leader called for the others to hold the family hostage. Goldia could only stay in her seat in fear when the brigands surrounded them at the dinner table and pointed their weapons at them with Goldia finding a knife being inches away from her throat.

“Mommy?” Goldia called out in fear with her mother attempting to calm her down.

“It’s gonna be okay sweetie,” Belinda tried assuring her daughter despite having a dagger being pointed at her own chest.

“W-W-What do you want?” Jacob asked in fear. “Why are you here?”

The brigand leader responded with a cruel grin before stating his answer.

“You know what we want,” he said. “Jewels, money, anything that is of value to you. Hand it over to us. Right now. Unless you want to see your wife and daughter in a graveyard, I would suggest that you hurry.”

“Papa,” Goldia cried out in fear, with Belinda silently placing a hand on her daughter’s in an attempt at consoling her.

Seeing the situation at hand and not wanting to risk his family's lives, Jacob gave his answer while desperately praying for someone to help them.

“Alright alright! Just take our money! Take our jewelry! Take all of it! We kept it upstairs in our room! Just please let go of my family and leave us alone when you're done!” Jacob pleaded. The brigand smirked cruelly before turning to some of his men in satisfaction.

“You heard him,” he ordered. “Go upstairs and take everything you can find with you. In the meantime, me and the rest of the guys will keep a close eye on these rich assholes.”

“What did we ever do to you?” Jacob demanded. “Why are you doing this to us? We don’t know you. We never did anything to you did we?”

“Don’t try to act so innocent,” the brigand leader sneered. “You nobles are constantly flaunting your status unto us. Forcing us lower class folks to scrape by to the point of becoming criminals while you get away with everything.”

“Look I’m sorry about what happened to you and your loved ones but you can’t blame us for all your problems,” Jacob said.

“If we did something to you then we apologize,” Belinda pleaded. But you must understand, we aren’t nearly as bad as you think. We treat all of our servants and guards well and even provide for the village nearby. We would never abuse our status like that.”

“I’d like to believe that,” the brigand leader scoffed. “Then again, robbing the rich is much easier if not more exciting for us brigands. Beats having to fight amongst the poor for extra goods and doing honest work whatever that means.”

“So that’s what this whole thing boils down to?” Jacob asked aghast. “You just enjoy pillaging people whenever you feel like it? You’re even worse than those nobles you accused of being corrupt!”

“You’re right, I admit it,” the brigand leader taunted with a proud grin. “It’s a dog eat dog world we live in after all. We’re just honest about it unlike you.”

“More like despicable,” Belinda commented with a scowl. “You honestly think just because you happen to rob the rich more often than the poor that it automatically makes you a hero? You’re just monsters at this point!”

Hearing this caused the brigand leader and his henchmen to glare at her though to her credit she did not waver nor cower in their sight. Goldia on the other hand was terrified as even she knew that her mother’s comment would anger the brigands with the one brigand holding Belinda hostage tightening his grip on the dagger he used to keep her in place. The tense silence didn’t make Goldia feel any better but things escalated the moment the brigand leader uttered his next words.

“So you see us as monsters eh?” he asked in a cold tone. “Then you have the honor of DYING at the hands of one.”

Suddenly, Goldia found herself being splattered in blood along with hearing the sounds of her mother screaming in pain. The sound of her father screaming for his wife was also heard due to her poor mother having been stabbed in the chest by the brigand holding her hostage. Even so, that didn’t stop Goldia from screaming out in agony and heartbreak over her mother’s sudden demise.

“MOMMY!” she shouted only to get yanked back by the brigand and feeling the knife to her neck getting closer. Before anyone could do anything, a plate was suddenly thrown at the brigand’s face, causing him to move his hand and the knife away before Jacob’s words rang out in both fear and panic.

“RUN GOLDIA RUN!”

Seeing this as her opportunity, Goldia got up from her seat and ran as fast as her little legs could take her, narrowly dodging an arrowhead along with some bullets in the process. The sounds of fighting were heard along with shouts and screams of both anger and pain behind her but she didn’t dare look despite wanting to. Everything moved so fast as Goldia did as her father told her and ran for her life. She continued running even after she was outside only to be thrown back by an explosion. Once she got back up, she watched in horror at the sight of her house not being set aflame with her father still inside.

“DADDY!” she screamed out in horror and would have ran back inside in a desperate attempt at saving him only to stop in her tracks when she heard the brigands’ angry voices.

“HEY! WHERE DID SHE GO?!” the leader shouted.

“SHE'S GOTTA BE AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE!” another one exclaimed.

“HEY THERE SHE IS! LET'S GET HER!” the third one shouted, causing Goldia to squeak in fear before turning tail. As she ran away, she continued to hear the angry and desperate voices of the brigands' as they continued to chase after her.

“DON'T LET HER GET AWAY!” the brigand leader shouted, prompting Goldia to run faster. The fact that it was getting darker by the minute and looked like it was about to thunderstorm didn't help either. Someone! Anyone! Please help me! Goldia thought to herself in fear and desperation.

Suddenly, after a few minutes of running, the footsteps and shouting stopped. Confused and scared, Goldia stopped in her tracks and paused in confusion.

“Huh? Where did they go? Aren't they gonna kill me? Did I lose them?” she wondered with hope in her heart. Of course said hope was quickly overcome by fear when she started hearing more screams. Only this time, they came from the brigands for some reason. Whether the attacker was an ally or not didn't matter to her as she was too terrified to stay around and find out. She ran and ran and ran and ran until she came across an old cottage of some kind. She had never seen it before, not even when she and her family visited the village that was not too far from here. Curious but also desperate to find some shelter, she knocked on the door several times while looking back to make sure the brigands weren't behind her.

“Hello?! Is anyone there?! Please! I need your help! I'm being chased by bad people! Please!” she cried out in fear only to hit her head slightly when the door suddenly opened. To her surprise, the door wasn't being pushed open by anyone but when she checked to see who opened it, she was confused to see no one behind the door. Huh? That's weird, Goldia thought to herself. How did the door open by itself? Is anyone even living here? While in most cases Goldia would never enter someone's house uninvited, especially if it was an unknown residence like this one, but because she was in a hurry to not get caught by either those brigands or whoever attacked them earlier, she felt that she had no choice but to get inside.

The minute she did, she quickly closed the door before hiding behind it and listened for any signs of the brigands heading her way. After waiting for a while, she heard nothing and breathed a sigh of relief before plopping onto the floor.

“Oh thank goodness they're gone,” Goldia said to herself as she felt herself relax a bit more. The moment she took in her new surroundings, she noticed how it felt a lot bigger than her despite the cottage being smaller than her home. Perhaps it was due to her small size but something about this place seemed much bigger than it actually was. She explored the living room of the cottage which had some furniture such as a trio of chairs, each being made of wood and possessing a different size. She also noticed that the picture hanging on one of the living room walls showed an image of 3 people, 2 men and 1 woman. She could only assume they were a family made up of a father, mother and son judging from their appearances and ages. Suddenly, she smelled something delicious coming from the next room and went to investigate only to be greeted by the sight of a large table with 3 bowls full of food. Upon closer inspection, she was surprised to see that the bowls were full of porridge with berries on top. Hearing her stomach growl just from looking at the bowls made Goldia realize just how hungry she was but a part of her was afraid of what would happen should she eat some of the porridge. Even so, her growling stomach as well as the tempting smell of the porridge was too good to pass up hence why she decided to take a small spoonful of each porridge but not make it too noticeable for the family living here.

“Just a few bites and it’ll be fine. They won’t notice and get angry,” Goldia said to herself as she got on one of the chairs and grabbed a nearby spoon to taste the first porridge bowl.

To her surprise, she coughed a bit and yelped in pain due to how hot it was even by her standards. She swore she felt her tongue burn from the porridge and nearly dropped the spoon she was holding.

“AH! HOT!” she yelped in shock, waving her hand across her mouth to cool it down. Once she managed to cool down the porridge in her mouth and swallow it, as she would never waste food even in this situation, she moved onto the next bowl of porridge only to put on a funny face and grimace from the taste.

It wasn’t bad or anything but it did give off a strange taste due to it being cooler compared to most porridges she had eaten.

“This has a funny taste,” Goldia commented as she chewed it before swallowing. “It’s more cold than the really hot porridge I just tasted. Did they leave it out for too long? Hopefully the third bowl tastes better.” The moment she did taste it, she found herself smiling and humming in satisfaction and before long, she found herself eating the entire thing. Mmm this is delicious! Just right! It reminds me of when mommy and the cooks would make porridge for me whenever I got sick… when mommy was… As she found herself feeling overwhelmed by the memories of her mother spoon feeding porridge to her in her old bedroom, she shook her head only to panic when she saw that she ate the entire thing despite planning to only eat a few bits of the porridge.

“Oh no! No no no NO! I ate it all! It was too good!” she shouted in a panic. Noticing that there was a large pot of porridge hanging nearby that was still hot and went to scoop some more into the now empty bowl she was carrying. Good news? She managed to fill the bowl with more porridge even if it was just as hot as the one she ate from earlier. The bad news? She accidentally made a mess on the dining room floor while she was at it. Looking at the mess she made caused her to grin nervously as she knew that there was no way she could clean it up in time before they inevitably came back home. “It doesn’t look so bad, it doesn’t look so bad. They won’t notice, they won’t notice, they won’t notice.” The poor girl could only mutter these words to herself in an attempt at easing her nerves before arriving back in the living room. Wanting to rest her feet for a bit, she climbed onto the bigger chair only to feel uncomfortable the moment she sat on it.

“What? This chair’s too hard! How does anyone sit on this thing?” Goldia asked in discomfort before moving onto the next chair only to almost sink from the cushiony softness. “Whoa! Too soft! Too soft! Gotta get out!” As she said this, she climbed out of the extremely soft chair before sitting on the third one which not only fit her but also felt more comfy compared to the first and second chairs. Not only was the chair sturdy but it was also less likely to sink her inside fabric. Unfortunately what she failed to realize was that this chair was rather old and not nearly as strong as it looked as the longer she sat on it, the quicker it was to break which she would find out the hard way.

 

CRASH!

Before she knew it, Goldia found herself on the ground again with an audible oomph and watched in horror at the sight of the chair she just sat in not only break into several pieces but also scatter on the ground.

"Oh no! NO! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME!?" Goldia shouted as she desperately tried to fix the damage caused to the chair. Of course her pitiful attempts were for nothing as she didn't have the necessary tools or equipment to fix the chair nor put it back together. "Why is this day going so bad for me?! First I lose my home and my parents to brigands, then I accidentally ate too much porridge and left a mess in the dining room and now I just broke someone's favorite chair! What am I gonna do?" Despite wanting to fix the damage she caused, she found herself becoming exhausted and realizing that she needed rest despite having every reason to not succumb to her sleep. Even so, she knew that she would have to confront the ones who resided in this cottage sooner or later but decided that it was a tomorrow problem if anything else. She dragged her tired feet upstairs to where the bedroom was and found 3 separate beds inside. I'm beginning to sense a pattern here, she thought to herself as she climbed into the first bed only to feel immediate discomfort the moment she sat inside. Like with the first chair from downstairs, it was too hard and stiff for her liking with the second bed not being any better as it was too soft to the point of making her nearly sink in the mattress.

"Why are these beds and chairs so uncomfortable?" Goldia questioned with a groan as she climbed into the third and final bed which was not only comfortable enough for her to lay in but also made it easier for her to sleep in. Even so, the comfy bed brought back more bittersweet memories as it not only reminded her of her old bed back at home but also her parents and how they would tuck her into bed before kissing her goodnight. For a brief moment, she saw them standing beside the bed she was laying in and about to give her a tender kiss on the forehead only to be hit by the sad reality of her situation. She could only tear up as she wept quietly, tears staining her pillow and the blanket she was under. Pretty soon, exhaustion overwhelmed her as she cried herself to sleep.

But what she didn't know was that she would meet the residents of the cottage very soon only to find out that they weren't your usual family.

A few minutes later, a family of 3 ran back to the cottage just when it began to rain with all of them sopping wet. While they could handle rain from time to time, they didn't want to stay wet for too long so as to not catch a cold or worse pneumonia.

"Oh good heavens!" The mother cried out in shock. "I didn't think it would rain this much today!"

"Then again it was thundering earlier," the son commented. "We're lucky that neither of us got struck by lightning while we were outside."

"Once we dry up, we'll be able to eat some nice porridge," the father said with a confident smile. "Hopefully it didn't cool off too much while we were gone."

"I hope mine did," the mother said. "You know how sensitive my tongue is towards hot food. It has to be just right for me to eat."

Of course, the moment the father approached the door, he felt that something was amiss. Whether it was instincts or not he didn't know, but the moment he checked to see if the door was locked, he noticed that it wasn't locked at all and frowned before turning to his son.

"Son? Did you forget to lock the door again?" the father asked with a raised brow. His son could only stiffen up in surprise and grin nervously as he realized that he neglected to lock the door. The fact that this wasn't the first time it happened made him feel even more embarrassed at the reminder.

"Son, what did we tell you about locking the door before leaving the house?" his mother asked in a scolding tone.

"To always do it and make sure it is locked?" the son replied in resignation. "I'm sorry. We were in a rush to go on our walk so the food could cool down."

"Still, what if someone broke in while we were out?" his mother pointed out sternly. "What if they managed to steal or break something while we were gone? Or worse, what if they're still inside just waiting to ambush us?"

"Oh come on, mum. I'm sure no one has broken into our cottage. I doubt anyone would be interested in robbing us if they knew who we were-"

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!" the father cried out in shock, interrupting his wife and son's argument and prompting them to rush inside. Once they did, they were shocked to see the broken chair that was the son's and the messy floor that was covered in porridge.

"What in the world?!" the son cried out in shock. "Who broke my chair?! Who ate my porridge?! They didn't even refill the bowl properly!"

"Someone ate mine too!" the father exclaimed as he examined his bowl.

"Mine as well!" the mother shouted as she checked her bowl. "I don't understand. Why would they eat our food but not the whole thing? Who does that?"

"Not to mention they didn't even clean up after themselves," the father commented with a frown. "I think whoever did this is still here. We need to check every crook and nanny of the house just to be sure."

"Right," the son said. "I'll go upstairs and see if anything is missing or not."

"Be careful," his mother warned before the son slowly climbed up the stairs to see if anything else was amiss. He tiptoed as stealthily as he could across the upper floor only to hear the sound of snoring. Cautious but also curious as to who had the audacity to sleep in their bedroom, he entered the room only to be surprised by the sight of a little blonde girl lying in his bed for some reason. As he approached the girl, he saw that she was fast asleep and didn't get woken up by the commotion downstairs. Wanting to bring this to his parents' attention, he ran out of the room while making sure the girl was still asleep before alerting his parents on what he had just discovered. The moment they found out what happened, they immediately rushed upstairs to see for themselves, despite the son telling them to be quiet so as to not wake her. Upon seeing her still asleep, the trio discussed with one another on what to do with her.

"What should we do? Should we bring her back to her parents?" the son asked with concern.

"Well if they live around here we should," the mother answered. "A better question for her would be why is she in our house to begin with? Why did she have to make such a mess downstairs before taking a nap in your bed?"

"Why don't we ask her when she wakes up?" the father asked, pointing at the girl who was still asleep. "In fact, I should wake her up and give her a piece of my mind for causing such a mess in our home."

"Now hold on a minute, she's just a child," the mother pleaded. "I'm sure she had her reasons for coming into our home without permission. Granted, it's not polite to do so but still. We don't want to scare the girl to death."

"Yeah but we can't let her get away with breaking into our home and eating our food along with breaking our stuff either," the son pointed out.

As the family argued on what to do with Goldia, they failed to realize that she was slowly waking up from her slumber and opening her eyes. Of course, the moment she fully opened them, she gasped in shock at the sight of the family standing before her. It was less due to the fact that the people who lived here were standing before her and more due to the fact that they were talking BEARS of all things. Now, Goldia was told by her family to be wary of bears since they were ferocious when angered, unpredictable in nature and hated when people came into their homes. Given how the tallest bear, who was the father, looked angry and confrontational, no doubt due to having discovered her presence in his home and no doubt having seen the mess she left behind downstairs, she knew she was in trouble. However, because she was terrified of bears thanks to having heard of people getting killed or worse EATEN by bears, the first thing she did was scream in fright and leap out of bed. That was when the bears finally noticed her and tried to stop her from leaving.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Goldia screamed as she tried to escape only to find the 2 other bears blocking the exit to the room with stern expressions. Seeing that her options were limited, she saw the window and prepared to jump out of it until she felt a large, furry hand grab her arm and pull her back before she could. Goldia slowly turned around in fear only to see that it was the tall bear who grabbed her arm and refused to let go even after she tried in vain to yank it away.

"Now what was THAT all about?" the tall bear demanded. "You're not seriously thinking of jumping out the window without any protection are you? You'll break your legs if you do that."

"I… um…" Goldia whimpered in fear as she was placed back on the bed with all 3 bears surrounding her with frowns on their faces.

"Alright missy, I don't know what you were thinking when you came here uninvited but breaking into people's houses is not something you do for fun," the father bear scolded.

"Where are your mommy and daddy?" the mother bear asked with more concern than anger. "Do they even know you're here?"

"And why did you leave such a mess downstairs?" the son asked sternly. "You ate our food, spilled porridge on the floor and even broke my favorite chair. Granted, it was getting pretty old but still, you can't just break into people's houses and do stuff like that. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Feeling overwhelmed and recalling how her parents died, even if the bear family didn't realize it, caused the little girl to tear up a bit before straight up bawling. This startled the family as they did not expect her to cry so easily. Even though a part of him suspected that she was trying to gain their sympathy by putting on a display of crocodile tears so she wouldn't get in trouble, another part of him wondered if there was more to her story. Given how heavy her tears were and how terrified she was, the mother bear couldn't help but feel the need to comfort her. Both the father and son bear felt guilty after seeing her wailing in both fear and sadness.

"There there dearie, it'll be alright," the mother bear assured the girl. "We're not gonna be mad at you. We just want to know who you are and why you're here."

Hearing these words and feeling her paw pat her back in a gentle and soothing manner allowed Goldia to calm down a bit though she did sniff and tear up due to having cried so heavily.

"Okay," she began before sniffing once more. "My name… is Goldia. Goldia Schweiz."

"Schweiz?" the son asked. "Wait a minute, you wouldn't happen to be the daughter of Earl Schweiz would you?"

"Yes I am," Goldia confirmed sadly. "Or at least I was."

"Was?" the mother asked with concern. "Wait a minute… What happened to your parents?"

"They're…. They're…." Goldia began before bursting into tears once more. Realizing what she was implying and feeling even more sorry for her than before, the mother bear gently hugged her. Even the father and his son couldn't help but console her in their own ways. Now realizing that something truly horrible must have happened that forced her to break into their house, the mother bear gently laid her on the son's bed before rubbing her forehead in a soothing manner.

"I'm so sorry my dear," the mother bear said in sympathy. "We had no idea something that awful happened to you."

"No we didn't," the father admitted with shame. "My apologies for being stern with you. I thought you broke into our house as a joke or to steal something from us."

"I would never do that sir! Honest!" Goldia insisted.

"Don't worry we believe you," the son assured the little girl. "You can sleep in my bed for the night."

"Are you sure?" Goldia asked with worry. "I don't want to impose."

"It's fine," the son assured the girl. "Besides, it's not like it's the first time I've slept elsewhere besides the bed." He and his parents found themselves chuckling the moment he said this and to be honest, Goldia found it to be amusing enough to laugh as well. Despite the bad first impression, Goldia found that she wasn't as afraid of them as before and it certainly helped that the mother bear in particular was nothing but kind and courteous towards her. She found herself feeling tired once again given how she began yawning once again which the bear family were quick to notice.

"That's right, just go to sleep," the mother bear assured Goldia as she continued to caress her forehead soothingly. "We'll take care of the rest. You don't have to worry about anything."

"Okay," she said as sleep slowly overwhelmed her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," the 3 bears said as they saw her go back to sleep. But before she slept, Goldia heard the father mutter something as she closed her eyes.

"By the way, the name's Bernard," the father bear introduced himself. "And this is my wife Beatrice and our son Bertolt. We'd be more than happy to take you in since it's clear that you have nowhere else to go."

I'm going to live here, Goldia thought to herself with a small smile before drifting off into slumber. I'm so happy I have a place to stay and a new family who will take care of me. Thank you, Theos.

A few days had passed and word quickly spread across the Frosch Village and other areas close to where Goldia's original home was. To say the bear family were horrified and heartbroken to find out would be a massive understatement as they had respect for the late Earl due to his generous and kind nature with his wife also sharing his benevolent personality. The fact that they had died at the hands of brigands who planned on killing Goldia horrified them even more, with Bernard and Bertolt wanting to outright kill the ones responsible for targeting her. Of course, they never got the chance due to the villagers finding the remains of the brigands in the forest with their body parts being partially decayed and suffering from rigor mortis. Or at least the ones that still remained intact with the rest of their corpses. Unlike the Earl and his family, nobody mourned for them nor did they give them a proper burial since even they thought that the brigands didn't deserve the honor of having one. Instead, they left their corpses to rot in the forest while keeping it away from the village. Even so, learning that they died didn't help make Goldia feel better. While she was happy to see that they were gone and wouldn't go after her anymore, the fact that her parents were still dead made her feel sadder if anything else. Fortunately, she found herself surrounded by sympathetic folks with the bear family being the most willing to take her in after hearing the full story from her. Like Bernard promised, Goldia found herself staying with the bear family and was adopted by them since she had no immediate relatives or anyone else who could or would take her in. Besides, she found herself adjusting to new home quite nicely if she was honest.

           Visiting Frosch Village became a lot more interesting for Goldia as she continued to stay with the 3 bears family. While she had visited the village before with either her parents, the guards or even the servants, going with the bear family felt more unique for her especially since the villagers were surprisingly accepting of the fact that there were talking bears nearby. Of course the reason for that was explained by Beatrice when they visited the village one day after Goldia questioned her on whether she and her family were always talking bears.

"Oh no we ARE human," Beatrice assured the young girl as she worked on her latest crochet project with Goldia helping. "Or at least we WERE human until we woke up like this. I won't lie, it was quite frightening when we woke up and found ourselves being turned into bears one day. It caused quite the commotion when we went to the village to see if anyone else had been cursed like us and almost got us attacked by the villagers until they heard us speaking. The last thing anyone expected was to see a bunch of talking bears roaming around."

"Oh dear, you didn't get too hurt did you?" Goldia asked with concern.

"Don't worry we didn't get too injured," Beatrice kindly assured her. "Besides, our bear forms made us sturdier than before. It's going to take a lot more than that to kill us."

"That's a relief," Goldia said with a smile. "I could never handle you, papa or big brother dying especially before I met you. Also I'm sorry about the mess I made back when we first met."

"It's fine Goldia," Beatrice replied. "You already apologized several times and we understand why it happened. Besides, you were more than willing to help clean up the mess that you made the next morning even if we did most of the work."

"Still, my old mommy and daddy would not have approved of me making such a mess in a stranger's home," Goldia commented. "Mommy would say that it was very unladylike and impolite of me to do so."

"Well at least she taught you manners," Beatrice commented. "I hear most noble children aren't even raised to have proper manners by their parents due to them being neglectful or spoiling them to the point of turning them into little buggers. If anything else, you're practically a saint." The golden haired girl beamed as she heard this from her as she heard how most noble children often suffered from a bad reputation of being spoiled brats, which Goldia most assuredly was NOT, and feared that the bear family would see her as one thanks to the mess she made. Fortunately for her, it was not the case as the bear family were a lot more forgiving than most families would be when it came to her antics hence why they had no problem taking her in. She found herself being the closest to Beatrice with Bertolt being the second she was closest to along with Bernard. Beatrice was the kind and caring mother who slightly spoiled her but in a good way due to liking the idea of raising a daughter. Bernard was the stern but gentle father who had a dry sense of humor that amused Goldia and often gave her piggy backs due to his large size. Bertolt was the reliable and playful older brother who doted on her and was very protective of her due to how young she was compared to him. As for what their jobs were within the village, Bernard was a miller who used his enhanced strength making his job a bit easier, Beatrice worked as a seamstress and was surprisingly nimble with her bear claws and Bertolt worked as a cooper who helped fix or create new containers and barrels for people to store items in. Given how their cursed forms ironically helped out with the village a lot more than before with only a few hiccups here and there, they became valuable members of the community as a result. It also helped that they didn't suffer from any negative side effects of the curse despite being bears and showed no signs of savagery or brutality unless it was towards those who wronged them or caused trouble within the village. Not just that, the family was associated with 3 friendly ogres who were a lot smaller than your usual ogres but still just as pig-like and stout. Their names were Florian, Acorn and Beckett who worked odd jobs around town and often visited the village for businesses. Florian was the eldest ogre and the most rational out of the 3 though he was also polite whereas Acorn was very friendly if not exuberant and Beckett was serious if not grumpy at times. Even so, they were thick as thieves and still close with one another along with being very good at their jobs with one of them being carpenters and furniture building. Goldia would find out one day when the bear family had commissioned the ogres to build not only a new chair for her to sit on but also a new bed as well as a seat for her at the dining table. The fact that they all had her initials on them made her feel even happier to the point where she hugged everyone with tears in her eyes. Needless to say, it was a happy day for all, especially for Goldia who truly felt welcomed by them. Despite the tragedy of having lost her parents, her home and most of her inheritance, Goldia enjoyed her stay with the new family that she met despite not being related to them in any way. Although they were not rich like she once was, she found their genuine kindness and hospitality endearing along with being a major welcome compared to what happened to her before. In a way, they reminded her of her parents, the kind servants and guards who cared for her back when they were alive. It also helped that the 3 ogres would often visit the bear family due to them being close friends and were nothing but polite and considerate towards Goldia despite having known her recently. Even if the grief within her heart never truly went away and a part of her would miss her old family, she was glad to have found a new place she could call home and a new group of people she can call a family since they accepted her without any complaints. Of course this was only the beginning of her own story and a new chapter at that….