Erika looked as though she’d been slapped, with a large dose of incredulity to go along with it. Audrunar was going to take a moment to insult her for [i]cowardice[/i], when she was faced with a massive bear? And she being the unarmed, fairly small girl that she was, what was she supposed to do? Fist fight it to protect her catch? There was bravery, and then there was stupidity. If Odin was angry with her for not pointlessly throwing her life away, then she didn’t know why she bothered offering prayers to him.

The others were doing what they could to either keep the bear distracted or drive it away, but they were having little success. Now Audrunar had his weapons drawn, and he was actually trying to draw the bear to himself. Erika subconsciously took a couple of steps away from him, though she did take her hatchet into hand. She didn’t intend on being entirely defenseless if it came after her again.

“Like I have any say in the matter?” she muttered, when Audrunar asked her if she were willing to give up the deer. “If it wants the deer, I can’t stop it. Let’s see [i]your[/i] show of bravery, [i]warrior[/i]. Give Odin something to laugh at.”

Erika was annoyed, obviously, mostly because she hadn’t expected Audrunar to say something so stinging to her, when she had seen no other sensible course of action, but if he wanted to fight the damn thing, she’d help how she could. She wasn’t a coward, even if Audrunar thought otherwise. She wasn’t a fool, either.