Work Text:
She instantiated when she went off with the bear, of course. Despite the fact that everyone said she’d be able to come back whenever she liked, they’d’ve been surprised if she hadn’t left a double behind.
Upon her first visit home, after her mother got her alone and told her to look at her bear-husband with a candle, she consulted with her instance.
“Has the bear ever done you wrong?” she asked.
“No-oo,” said the girl doubtfully.
“Mother was prepared to sell us to a bear,” her instance pointed out. “I’d listen to your bear before I’d listen to her.”
Her instance had a point, the girl thought. So when she bundled up her things for the journey back to her castle, she hugged her mother and assured her she’d look at her bear-husband with a candle and be careful not to let any of the tallow drip on him.
“Why did she warn me about the tallow?” she whispered to her instance, wishing she could give herself a hug. “Is that anything to do with him being a bear, or does she just not want me to burn him?”
“I’ll try to find out,” her instance assured her. They’d discussed dis-instancing, but the girl not currently married to a bear wanted to know a little more about the situation before she committed to it. The other one couldn’t blame her.
When she returned for her next visit, her mother asked if she’d gotten a good look at her husband. The girl looked over her mother’s shoulder at her instance, who shook her head vigorously.
“Not yet,” she sighed. “I have never gotten up the nerve. I’m always afraid the sound of the match will wake him.”
Later, she and her instance went out to gather kindling to have a moment alone.
“I think she just didn’t want you to burn him, or thought the tallow would harden in his fur,” the instance said. “But I’ve asked around, and he is bewitched. If the candle dripped on him, your bond would be dissolved, and he would have to go marry a hag princess.”
“What kind of sense does that make?”
“None. But if you hold on another few months, the curse will be broken and he’ll be human all the time.”
The girl’s heart leapt. “That’s the best piece of news I’ve heard in—well, in forever.”
Her instance laughed. “You’re telling me!”
By unspoken agreement, as they looked at each other in the lightly falling snow, both girls reached out and clasped each other’s hands. Between one moment and the next, they were reunited as one.
As she once more left her childhood home, the girl dropped the candle in the snow. She returned to her castle, waited out the few months to break the curse, and lived happily ever after with her formerly-ursine husband.