Chapter 322: On the Ground
Jonas took a breath as he could see something happening with the stellar bear. When Sonya had started going down, he quickly entered the shadows in order to avoid getting caught in whatever she might fly through before she landed. Patrick and Patricia only came with him when he pulled them in more on a reflexive action than conscious thought.
When they came out of the shadows moments after having entered, he could see that Kim had at least entered the bear's mouth. Yet at that time, there didn't seem to be any real effect from Kim having entered. Patricia and Patrick left Jonas' awareness as he waited, hoping that something would become apparent with the bear.
A minute later, however, the bear stopped. At first it wasn't noticeable with how slow the bear moved before that, but it was clear it had stopped. It's paws hung in mid-air, no longer walking forward. Jonas couldn't tell if it might continue moving forward or not, but what he could tell was that something was going on with it.
While he would like to know what happened to Sonya and anyone who hadn't gotten off of her back before she landed, he knew his focus should be on the bear. If only for that moment. Just so it wouldn't start moving again without him being aware of it.
Patrick and Patricia themselves were on the ground and Jonas couldn't say if it was from having travelled through the shadows with him, Sonya having started to go down, something else that he wasn't aware of, or any combination of all of those put together. He didn't expect them to recover quickly, but he wasn't going to try and do anything for them until he knew what was going on with the bear.
Then before is eyes, what looked like the skin, or surface, of the bear started to distort like an oil painting did when the paint started to run. Jonas wasn't sure if this was natural or not, but he held out hope that whatever Kim had done, that this was at least an effect of that. Despite not having any idea of that was true or not.
As the surface of the bear looked like it was starting to 'run' down the bear, he couldn't help but notice a rich russet brown fur begin to appear. As the 'surface' slid down the bear, like a layer of dirt or debris that was getting washed off, it started to catch fire as it reached the ground, or dripped off of the bear's paws that were stopped in mid-stride.
The flames were black, as if they absorbed light rather than giving any off. In addition, if that wasn't a sign that they weren't natural flames, they didn't seem to spread. Even as they landed on plant life that was in the bear's original path, the flames didn't catch any of that on fire.
Jonas couldn't help but wonder if they gave off heat or not, but at the moment he didn't think it was a good idea to approach any closer to find out. Not with the bear still standing. While he didn't know what was happening to the stellar bear, he at least recognized that it was possible that whatever it was wasn't the end of the bear. That there was the possibility that it still might be capable of attacking when it's 'surface' finished dripping off of it.