Page 29 of Once Upon A Bear

“Was it bad?” Her nose wrinkled.

Gideon fought the urge to hurl again at the thought of the slime he had just ingested.

“I can’t say it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life,” he said diplomatically.

“So it was bad,” she said.

He grimaced. “Perhaps, but I think it could have been worse.”

Maybe. There had to be something she could have added to make it taste worse, though he wasn’t entirely sure how.

“How long does it take to go into effect?” he asked. How long before he would find out if he was going to turn back into a bear?

“Well,” Guinevere said, her words trailing off, “I think I may have misjudged one of the ingredients.”

Gideon frowned. What did that mean?

She started wincing as his view of her began to be obstructed—what was happening?

It wasn’t until a few moments later that he realized that it was his hair.

“No, no, no, no.” Gideon reached up, running his fingers through the mop of hair now covering his head and falling into his eyes.

What was happening? Somehow, his hair was growing longer by the minute.

“I wanted to take away the extra hair that came with being a bear,” she said as he turned to her in horror. “I didn’t expect it to make your hair go into overdrive.”

Gideon looked down at his arms, half expecting his arm hair to also be longer than the span of his hands, but fortunately, that hair seemed to be left alone.

“How am I supposed to explain this to my mother?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“We can try cutting it,” Guinevere asked questioningly.

Gideon glared at her. “Are we sure that won’t make it grow even faster?”

“I’m not sure of anything,” she said apologetically. “I did tell you I’m not very good at this.”

Gideon softened at the tremulous note in her voice.

“I know,” he said soothingly. “I’m sorry. I know you’ll figure this out. There has to be a way to reverse it, and if not, I’ll just hide from my mother until you can get another potion made.”

The thought of drinking another one made him gag, bile creeping up his throat. If she hadn’t been so downcast, he imagined Guinevere might have laughed.

But as it was, she was only upset with herself, and he hated that.

“I believe in you,” he said. “You’ll figure it out, and until then, I will sport a new shaggy look.”

He parted his hair to either side of his face and tugged it behind his ears.

Had it stopped growing? It almost seemed as if it had.

Running his hands over the length, he cocked his head. “I think it might be done.”

She mimicked him, tilting her head to one side and assessing him before nodding. “I think it might be. I’ll get my scissors. Let’s see what a horrible muck I’ve made of this one.”

Gideon sighed as Guinevere went to rummage through one of her shelves.

He didn’t want her thinking that she’d made a terrible mess of it, even if perhaps she had. She had worse self-confidence than he did, and that was saying something, because he pretty much felt like the screw-up of the Rendon brothers.