Chameleon is a majestic creature in many aspects: their vibrant colors, their casques on the heads and their ability to look completely unbothered. These reptiles strut around in the territory while showing off their bright garments with crowns on their heads, scaring off peasants who don't deserve to be near them. It might be uncommon amongst the humans, who had witnessed the glory of the lions, but in the small world of the reptiles and the insects, chameleons are the true emperors.

- Get out and work your magic, Mr. Zoologist. - Mikage ordered. - I want you to get the remaining eggs hatched. I'll keep one of them, the other will be sent to the zoo. They're lacking those anyway.

The businessman ordered as they were standing in the middle of a valley in South-Western Arabian Peninsula. In front of them was a burrow of newly born chameleon eggs and their mother, who seemed to have been attacked by a snake just before the humans had arrived.

- Are you sure?

- Are you questioning me? - Mikage didn't raise his voice, his side glance was enough to silence the other.

The zoologist got out of the jeep at once and did his job surprisingly well. After gathering the eggs, they left the valley, not without (Mikage forcing the zoologist) burying the ill-fated mother in the burrow that she dug.

After 7 months and 2 weeks (Mikage would refuse that he was keeping count), the eggs hatched, healthily and beautifully. All of the young chameleons were the same shade of pastel green, resembling the spring leaves outside the window where they first met the world. They were fascinated by the world around them, their eyes rolled as they looked everywhere without moving their little heads.

The babies were still adjusting when Mikage came to adopt one, at the third week after them being hatched. The zoologist did his best to keep them at their best state: letting them live with other captive chameleons, providing the same environment to their original home,.. but it was evident that their once vibrant colors were slightly dulled, like any other chameleon that was kept captive. Mikage was just about to feel disappointed when something caught his eyes. An arrogant little chameleon was looking at him provokingly, challenging him to something. His appearance was striking, too: he was dressed in a green suit, adorned with yellow stripes. More especially, he had drops of violet along his spine, as if he was encrusted with amethyst, a jewel of the royal, exclusive to the normal veiled chameleon. Compared to his siblings, he seemed to be doing better as his casque was the biggest of them all.

- This one is going to be with me. - Mikage declared. - You can send the others to the national park. It seems like you're doing an awful job.

- Y... Yes sir.

Mikage got home with his new pet chameleon, looking more happy than he had ever been after taking over the company. He even let the animal sit in his passenger seat (in its cage) next to him in his car.

- Isn't it strange, chameleon? That you have the eyes that I look for in most humans. - He laughed. - I'll bet you'll be a good listener. - He added after a while of silence.

- You'll need a name though. - He said. - I can't keep calling you chameleon. It's lame.

He snickered, unable to even think that he would ever say something like that.

- What would you like for a name, chameleon? I don't like something basic like how people name their pets. You agree too, right?

The chameleon stared back at him, opened its mouth and closed it, then kept staring back at him.

- I'll take that as a yes then. - Mikage winked at the chameleon. - But what to name you though...

Mikage tapped his steerwheel eagerly, as if a name would jump right out and confront him. And it did. A grand jewel store appeared in his view. The image of the royal purple jewel flashed through his mind, a rustling sound from the cage reached his ears, he patted the steerwheel excitedly as he said:

- How about Reo? Reo Mikage. "Re" as in the sound of jewels, and "o" as in king. How does that sound?

He saw the chameleon inched closer to the door of the cage and warped its tail around one of the bars.

- Reo Mikage it is.

Mikage kept humming happily until he suddenly went quiet, then burst out laughing.

- I can see what my friends mean when they say they loved naming their kids. It is truly entertaining, right Reo?

- Ack. - Reo opened his mouth and made the noise, which seemed like an agreement.

From that day onwards, Reo was definitely his best friend. He took Reo with him everywhere he went, even to his office or his important meetings. This weirded people out at first, with them eyeing Mikage and the chameleon concerningly, as if Reo was going to disappear. It was big news at first, as the two were all over the media, but still, no one dared to question him, let alone thinking of stopping him. And being the witty businessman he was, Mikage used this point to get out of any meeting that he didn't care about by excusing himself to feed Reo. Or he just blatantly told Reo:

- The person before us is obviously barking nonsense, right Reo? It's a pity, Mister, but Reo and I can't see any truth in that presentation of yours. Maybe you should prepare yourself better instead of wasting our time.

At every conference, Reo would stare at anyone who sat across from his owner, as if he was looking into their souls, finding fault in the poor person. Mikage noticed this habit of his, so he trained the chameleon to sit on his shoulder, allowing him to meet people at eye level. So Reo would always be resting on Mikage's shoulder, with his tail wrapping around his arm or swatting behind his back, which doubled Mikage's powerful presence. Occasionally, when Mikage was considering a contract, Reo would travel down to the table by his arm and stare at the paper, then went back to his place or crawled to the pen that Mikage used to sign contracts. If he crawled to the pen, Mikage would definitely sign it without thinking back, that was how much he pampered his pet chameleon. People had tried to use bait to get Reo to do this, but they either failed or were detected by Mikage, so Reo's streak of "signing" successful contracts remained.

- Say, we worked pretty hard didn't we? I say it's high time we gave ourselves a rest.

Mikage said as he tapped his pet lightly on the head while they were hanging out in his large garden that he built only for Reo. It was four months after they first met. The short span of four months couldn't do any change to the man (except that he looked happier now), but the step of time was evident on the chameleon. His casque, which Mikage loved to call "the crown", got larger, it was now as big as the leaf of the gardenia tree, his favorite one in the garden. His skin changed from looking like spring leaves to being bright green like healthy leaves in the sunlight. On his skin were more stripes and mottling, but the sapphire drops still stood out, making him more and more like a king. Despite his flashy looks, Reo loved to rest himself in the shade of the gardenia tree with its white flowers, whose petals were white, thick and smooth like velvet. The simple coloring of the tree complimented his color scheme so it looked even more vibrant, while Reo made the flowers look purer, like they were reflecting the sunlight.

Back to the topic of them going on a vacation, Mikage chose British Columbia as their destination. Before finalizing his decision, he had done his research on numerous sites if British Columbia's weather, vegetation, etc would fit a veiled chameleon, which then proved Reo could just go anywhere as long as there were insects and water. And white things, because it would seem like Reo had developed a strange liking towards the white color.

They settled in a nice hotel near the coastal forest region of British Columbia. Mikage took Reo to the forest right in the first morning of their stay, wanting him to "stretch his limbs". He planned to let Reo explore some trees, with him placing his pet on the tree branch until he thought it was enough, then try to see if he could hunt in the wild.

Spoiler alert: That was just a mere plan.

Mikage let Reo sit on his shoulder and went from tree to tree, occasionally placing his hand on a branch, making a bridge for the animal to crawl up to the tree. But Reo refused to climb onto any tree Mikage suggested, until he chose one with white flowers. As soon as he saw the white flowers, Reo climbed right up to the tree and approached the flowers, getting as close as he could. The human smiled as he saw Reo getting comfortable on the tree with his skin slowly turning into celery green, a neutral color, indicating its relaxed state. Mikage found himself a place on the earth of the forest, he settled down without tearing his gaze from his beloved chameleon, eyes filled with adoration. His mind started to drift off to Reo's recent behavior. He recognized the tree from reading an excessive amount of information, it was the western flowering dogwood. While chameleons were not negatively affected by this particular kind of tree, he had never read anything about them liking it either. Maybe it was due to Reo's uniqueness, he thought. Reo had always been attached to white flowers, that might give him a lead into what was going on in the chameleon's mind.

Chameleons could see colors better than humans. With them being able to see ultraviolet light, their world might be even more colorful than the one we saw. Reo might have seen something in those white flowers, or he might just want to rest his eyes from seeing too many colors.

Engulfed in his own thoughts, Mikage didn't notice when a stranger crept up behind them. Under the bright sunlight, the huge figure seemed to be glowing softly due to its wet white fur, as if it were the jungle spirit that they talk about in the fairytales. It turned out to be a kermode bear, or spirit bear, a native of this forest.  It seemed to have no interest in the two though, since it waddled across a tree, slowly lied down and  curled up in the pool of sunlight. It was not long before the bear closed his eyes and started to breathe deeply, he was in a nap.

Mikage's eyes were getting droopy too. Maybe the workload was too much for him, or maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep since he was cutting his rest to make time for the research. Either way, Mikage was later found leaning on a tree, sleeping soundly.

Perhaps it was the light of the strange bear which reflected in his eyes, but Reo's eyes glowed up as he silently  climbed down from the tree like a flash, without Mikage's acknowledgement. Reo traveled through the short distance to the sleeping bear, only to stop dead in his tracks as he was a few small chameleon steps away from the bear. He must have thought that the large distance for the chameleon meant the same for the gigantic bear, to which he thought it would give him time to flee if anything happened. Reo cautiously watched the white bear, waiting for him to move or do anything at all. In response, the bear's instinct woke him up, he opened an eye, letting his look pierced right into Reo.

Being confronted, Reo flinched and turned to bright neon red while slowly backing up. Seeing the change in his skin color, the bear's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. There was a moment of consideration before the bear inched closer to take a look at the amusing creature that he had never seen before. Sensing no danger, Reo stopped moving backwards but kept his eyes glued on the bear.

Maybe he wanted to see his color change again, so he closed an eye and let the other stare at Reo, but the chameleon got confused and stayed the same. The bear started growling lowly in his throat while sniffing aggressively in an attempt to get to know the strange creature. Scared by the bear's behavior, the black dots on Reo's skin darkened along with his skin. Seeing the change in his color, the bear stopped at once and breathlessly stared at the chameleon.

Reo daringly took a step forward, resulting in the bear finching and lifting his paws to take a step back, but then he stopped again when Reo's skin changed to a bluish color, indicating interest. Reo made a hooting sound, which was originally used to communicate between chameleons, to see if the bear would react. Hearing his noise, the bear sat down and grunted, eyes still glued to the chameleon. Reo slowly moved closer to the other animal. When he touched its short leg, he stopped and eyed the bear intensely. Seeing the bear had no reaction while still keeping his eyes on him, Reo clumsily climbed onto his thick leg. The bear seemed to understand what he was trying to do, so he also clumsily shifted in his seat, trying to help Reo climb up.

After a while, Reo successfully got himself onto the bear's large leg. From there, he slowly crept up along his frame. Reo found it hard to climb along his body, because unlike his trees, there was nothing to grip on. He couldn't get a grip on his wet white fur, which was slippery and short. Noticing his struggle, the bear brought his left front claw to support under Reo's belly while his right one held him tight, bringing him to his shoulder. However, he was a klutz. Therefore, he dropped the poor Reo onto his shoulder, resulting in him slipping and falling back-first  right onto the forest's floor.

Reo flipped himself over while turning dark brown, his mouth wide open while hissing at the animal. The white bear glanced at him apologetically, dropping his short "arms" to his sides disappointedly. Seeing the bear's dilemma, Reo gingerly crawled back to his side in an attempt to climb up again. This time, the kermode bear carefully held the smaller animal and placed it onto his head, where there was enough space for the chameleon to stand on. After Reo had steadied himself, the white bear stood up cautiously while keeping his head high, not wanting to drop the chameleon again.

Tardy but meticulously, the bear waddled away, bringing the chameleon to his seemingly favorite place in the forest: the creek. For context, this kermode bear was a lonely one, although kermode bears were by no means endangered. But with him being one of the few white ones, he had been the center of attention from other bears, and being the laid back individual he was, he disliked the spotlight. So he slowly isolated himself from other bears and stayed alone at a very young age. Not that he minded the solitary, but meeting someone as interesting as Reo once in a while was quite rewarding. By their first impressions, the spirit bear assumed that they had now become friends, so he was eager to learn more about the other. It also had to be mentioned that, by living at the border of the forest, the bear got to witness many of the "humans' activities", including their courtships, so he learnt from them instead of his fellow bears who lived far away from him.

The bear, with Reo lying still on his head, went to a bush, which seemed to grow right out of the water. It was purple loosestrife. He first met the beautiful plant in his first summer of being alone. It was when he hated seeing his odd self reflected in the water, so he wouldn't get anywhere near the creek, even to drink. He was lucky that there was enough rain to keep him from dehydration. The rain also brought him another miracle: mesmerizing flowers bloomed along the creek overnight. Their vibrant violet color immediately caught his sleepy eyes first thing in the next morning, so the bear let his curiosity get the best of him and went to study the flower. But being a klutzy bear he was, he fell into the shallow creek, sending water splashing everywhere. He saw the water drops fly over his head, glistening in the sun, making a small rainbow and dropping onto his face. He came to love the creek and its purple flowers. And now, seeing the same violet on Reo's back, he wanted to give him one of his flowers as a gift for the new friend.

The white bear reached down to pick the flower, which proved to be harder to pick than he thought. He tried to apply more force, but stiffened as he was worried that he might ruin the gift. So he bent down to figure out if he could bite it off with his teeth instead. As soon as his head tip, the clueless chameleon slipped down from his head and straight into the creek, which was shallow for a bear, but too deep for a chameleon. With a screech, the poor chameleon met the water, sending glistening sparks everywhere, which reminded the bear of his first encounter with the river. But he sober up rather quickly and tried to scoop the chameleon out of the river without hurting him. However, there was no need for that as Reo knew how to swim. It was the natural instinct of a chameleon to swim when thrown into water, but they mustn't do that often for their own sake. Reo got to the other side of the creek, which was considered a whole river to him, and lay on the grassy field, catching his breath.

The kermode bear seemed pleased when he saw that Reo was safe, so he quickly bit off the stem of the flower and brought it to the chameleon. He held the flower stem in his mouth to cross the river, get to Reo and lowered his head so the long stem would be within the chameleon's reach, then stared at him in hope that he would get the signal. The smaller stared at him right back, long and hard. The two continued their unexpected staring competition until the white bear blinked, and in that same moment, Reo ate the flower.

The bear was stunned. He dropped the remains of the flower. Reo still had the purple plant in his mouth, he hadn't broken eye contact with the bigger one, and it seemed like he still hadn't had a clue of what was going on. The larger one wasn't expecting this kind of reaction, so he didn't know what to do next.

After some time of fretting and whimpering, the bear carefully (and clumsily) held Reo between his paws again and brought him over the creek, back to where they met. It seemed like they hadn't been gone for long, since Reo's human was still there, sleeping like there was no tomorrow. The spirit bear lowered Reo to the ground and backed up slowly into the woods, disappearing magically, which was true to his name. Reo stopped looking at the direction where his new friend disappeared to and walked back to his owner, climbed onto his shoulder on his own (the fact that Mikage didn't have wet fur helped a lot) then waited for his owner to start blabbering humans, like he had always done.

Reo didn't have to wait long as Mikage woke up shortly after, apologized for falling asleep and expressed his relief about Reo being okay without his supervisor (Reo was not). They went back to the hotel and had the same evening that they had always shared together.

In the next morning, Reo woke Mikage up early by climbing onto his face, to which Mikage found annoyingly cute of him. Mikage got dressed, did his human's stuff in the bathroom and came out only to find Reo looking out of the window to the direction of the forest they saw yesterday and started hooting, much to his human confusion. He figured that Reo might want to go to that forest again, so he took him there, and repeated what he did the previous morning. But Reo didn't react, even to the western flowering dogwood that he adored so much just yesterday. Mikage walked his chameleon deeper into the forest only to stop by a creek. He was hesitating to cross it, dreading something might happen to them, when a glowing creature crept up in his view. It was the first time he saw such an animal in real life, but apparently the same couldn't be said for his pet. Reo started to make hooting noises at the intruder and in response, its eyes seemed to lit up. It was the kermode bear from yesterday.

The spirit bear lowered himself slowly, he figured that this was something that wouldn't scare off most humans, then sat down beside the purple loosestrifes, trying to look as harmless as possible. Mikage stopped in his tracks and made a side glance to the pet on his shoulder only to be surprised by seeing him turning bluish. The human knew that blue skin meant interest, but he had never actually seen it in his pet before. Therefore, he figured the bear might be the cause, so he also lowered himself and let Reo travel to the bear from his shoulder. Mikage backed up and watched the two with great interest. What in the world would these two animals have in common?

The kermode bear had a flower ready in his paws when Reo crawled to him. He tried to offer him the flower again, keeping the "flower" part away from him this time. It wasn't clear if Reo got the signals or not, but he shot his tongue out at the stem and pulled it into his mouth, successfully receiving the flower. Then the bear slowly scooped the chameleon up in his paws and placed him onto his head again, but the chameleon hissed and turned bright green, indicating that he didn't like it. Must be the lingering trauma of yesterday.

In response, the bear whimpered and put the chameleon down, then lied down with him on the ground, flat on his stomach too. The two animals were laying down while facing each other, and Reo inched closer, so his snout would touch the other's wet little nose, which resulted in the bear grunting softly. Upon watching the scene, Mikage giggled, like a little school girl, and shook his head in disbelief. The large and the tiny animal lay there in the sunlight and stared at each other endlessly without moving. They would continue staying there, if Mikage didn't decide that it was enough and they needed to come back to the hotel. It took him quite some time to separate the two though: Reo was hissing at him, for the first time, and the bear was whimpering as if he did something horrible to him.

Mikage had no choice but to visit the forest every morning of his stay in British Columbia. At first, he was skeptical and would stay back to watch the two carefully. But after seeing the two, he decided that he would give them their personal space and took his time to explore other sites, then come back to find his chameleon right by the creek.

Now that the two had figured out more about each other, they pulled more daring moves. The bear sniffed and licked Reo every time he met him, like how bears sometimes did in front of his young self. He didn't know it was intimate until later on. Reo in exchange would crawl up to his back then stay there to sunbathe with the lazy bear, and from time to time, he would catch the bugs so they wouldn't bother the bear.

The spirit bear really enjoyed his new company and would wait for him every single day by the creek with a flower in hand, or claw to be exact. And every day, without fail, a human would show up with his chameleon friend on his shoulder, then the chameleon would gladly waddle to him on his little funny-looking feet with his mouth wide open in a smile. After 3 or 4 mornings like this, the bear stepped up his game and put more effort into picking different flowers for the chameleon. The shapes of the flowers may vary, but they were all the ones that were native to his home forest, and they were all in different shades of purple.

Mikage once laughed in amusement as he saw the bear giving Reo a branch of winter vetch, whose color was almost exactly the same as the purple drops on the chameleon's back. He said:

- Your sincerity is truly moving, bear! I should give you a name for that.

The bear let the man pat his head as he continued:

- Your name should be starting with "Sei", which is sincerity in Japanese, and...

He trailed off as he saw Reo sink himself into the white fur on the bear's back.

- And "shiro", for white. You'll be Seishiro, is that good enough?

The bear didn't quite understand, but seemed like the human meant no harm, so he rubbed his nose into his hand.

- Then Seishiro it is. I'm really a genius in naming animals. - He jokingly commented.

And like the usual, Mikage let Reo and Seishiro play on their own while he settled for other places. Somehow the two never got bored of hanging out with each other. Everyday Seishiro would introduce Reo to the flower bushes that he picked to give him earlier, and Reo would shift from green to blue in excitement, which never failed to intrigue the bear. Seishiro also noticed that Reo would change to yellow when he was in the mood for hunting, not without a few hits of Reo's tongue to the nose, so he often found a tree to let Reo hunt for his meal while he watched with great interest. Seishiro was fascinated by the way Reo's long tongue worked, and he often secretly tried to stick his tongue out as fast as he could, but he was still no match to the chameleon. The larger one was also interested in Reo's long tail, which curled or swatted his claw every time he poked at it.

Soon enough, Seishiro forgot how it was to be alone, because Reo the chameleon came in and added too many colors into black and white life. But all parties have to come to an end. After three weeks of staying in British Columbia, Mikage had to return to his company although he tried to hold the responsibilities back as long as possible by working online. He valued the connection between the two animals and wanted them to spend more time together. Moreover, what he wanted most was for Reo to be happy.

On the last morning of their stay, Mikage brought Reo to the creek and met Seishiro, who had a white flower in his mouth, which was a small branch of yarrow. It seemed like the variety of the purple flowers ran out, just like their time together. Mikage smiled sadly while he watched his chameleon run to Seishiro excitedly like always, and Seishiro gladly greeted him with a touch of the noses like always. It was not like he hadn't noticed before, but now it really sunk in that their relationship seemed to run deep like it had been going on for millennia, like they were soulmates that were stuck in two very different bodies. Mikage absentmindedly followed Seishiro while the bear was carrying Reo on his back to the common yarrow field and watched them happily hang out with each other. It would forever be magical to him how the two completely distinct animals could be as close as them. Maybe nature still had so much in store for humans to learn from.

It pained Mikage to leave but he had no choice other than bringing himself and his pet chameleon home. He couldn't make them understand that the split was necessary and would only be temporary, which pained him even more. Meanwhile, Seishiro woke up the next day, picked a branch of white meadowsweet and waited by the creek. The bear watched as the sun climbed up to the top of the highest trees, then climbed down again, dyeing the world in red, but he still saw no sign of his friend nor the human. When the light was completely drowned out, he disappointedly placed the flower next to the creek and decided to sleep right next to it, so he would meet Reo sooner if he did come the next day. But Reo didn't. So he waited for the next day. And the next day. Then days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. The green leaves which resembled his friend's color were changing to yellow and red, which also resembled his friend at some point, and fell like rain onto the bear's head, who was still waiting with flowers in his claws. He had picked one of every white flower, so he switched to yellow, then to red, to pink, but his friend still hadn't shown up.

Soon enough, the winter came and draped a thick white layer of blanket over everything, including his flowers, drowning out the last drops of color in his life. Seishiro was ready for his hibernation, but he still believed that Reo and his human would show up for him. Therefore, he moved the location for his sleep to the now frozen creek, so that they would find him if they came. He was sure if it was them who woke him up before winter ended, he would be pleased.

But he slept soundly through the winter, and the spring rain was the one who woke him instead of his little friends. Seishiro was disappointed. He stopped gathering flowers, but he still remained near the creek because some parts of him still believed that they would come back. Seishiro watched as the young leaves sprouted out, remembering that Reo sometimes looked like them. Then the leaves grew as the sunlight became more aggressive, then between the green of the leaves, shades of white and purple bloomed, signaling the start of summer time.

Seishiro was lying lazily in the creek when a familiar hooting hit his ears. The chameleon that he was missing for the whole year came back to him, the same chameleon who had jewels on his back, the one with the hooting sound that he could never forget showed up to him. Seishiro hurriedly got up on his feet and ran to the chameleon, who had his human following him like always. But when Reo saw him, he backed up and turned dark while eyeing him cautiously, just as he did in their first encounter. Reo had forgotten Seishiro.

Seemed like they had all forgotten a key point of nature: it was harsh to each and every creature. Therefore, it didn't let Reo, a reptile with a small brain remember Seishiro, who he hadn't met for a whole year; and it didn't let Seishiro, a mammal with a more complex brain forget Reo, who had been his friend in the summer. The human, Mikage, who had an understanding of the situation silently watched as confusion wrote itself all over the bear face and let tears roll down his cheeks.

However, it didn't take long before Seishiro picked a stem of purple loosestrife and offered it to the chameleon, who swallowed the flowers, just like the first time. And then it hit him: Seishiro was patiently teaching Reo about their past, which broke Mikage completely. He couldn't bear watching them anymore, so he left the two together, just like old times.

And this became a tradition between the two. Every summer, Mikage would bring Reo to Seishiro, only to find that most memories of the previous summer had been washed out of the reptile's brain, and Seishiro would teach him all about them again. As the tradition repeated, Reo's brain could handle more and more information and by his fourth summer in British Columbia, Reo was able to recognize Seishiro and ran to him to touch noses with the bear. Mikage remembered seeing pure joy on the kermode bear's face as his eyes lit up when Reo's snout touched his.

But the cruel nature had another thing in store for the two, and the human noticed it first. Reo's pace when he ran to Seishiro got slower by each summer and by the eighth one of their relationship, the bear got impatient and moved to him first. His pace in receiving flowers also decreased, because he couldn't seem to use his tongue properly anymore. Seishiro started to notice the changes in the chameleon too, so he spent more time staring, sniffing and licking Reo to figure it out.

But even if Seishiro could comprehend what was going on, he could never stop it from coming as death was absolute. The only thing he could do was hanging out with Reo every summer, making their lives significant ones.

On the tenth summer of their relationship, Seishiro was waiting for his friend by the creek again. And his friend did come, like every single time. But he didn't go to him this time. He couldn't anymore. Reo arrived in a wooden box with a glass lid, his eyes were closed and his skin was dull, the iconic purple jewels on his back became barely visible. Mikage soundlessly placed the box onto the ground in front of Seishiro and turned away as he could not bear to witness this any longer.

Seishiro dropped down to the ground and sniffed at the box. He recognized his friend, and he also noticed that his friend was in a terrible state. Seishiro tried nudging the box, he even brought flowers and dropped them onto the box, but he couldn't get Reo to move or to even open his eyes. Impotent, Seishiro whimpered and looked at Mikage, begging for his help, to which the man shook his head and patted the bear in understanding.

Mikage then dug a hole right next to the purple loosestrifes while Seishiro watched and carefully placed the box into the hole. He then muttered a few words to his pet chameleon and filled the hole with dirt, not without Seishiro trying to stop him as he couldn't understand why Mikage was trying to hide Reo away. The bear even used his own body to block the hole, dug up the dirt that Mikage had filled in and stayed in the hole, looking up at Mikage with begging eyes, whimpering at him while keeping the box in which Reo's body was kept in his front paws. It took everything in him to stop himself from crying and calm the confused bear down, then to finish the ritual.

After Reo had been buried deep in the earth, Mikage sat down next to the fresh lump of dirt and stared off into the distance, feeling like he had buried a part of him. Seishiro settled down next to him and dropped a white flower into his lap. It was a western flowering dogwood, the first flower that Reo met in this forest. Mikage looked at Seishiro appreciatively and held the flower tight in his hand, as if something would come and snatch it away from him.

There was a human and a bear by the creek. They sat there, mourning the loss of a friend and a soulmate. The folklore had it that they were still there, spending every summer in grief.

Numerless summers passed by, then another one, when people had lost count, they didn't see the white bear anymore. Instead, there was a big lump of dirt beside the smaller one and a human sitting beside them, with purple and white flowers in his arms. After that summer, the residents of British Columbia saw him more often, not just in the summers but in every season, and every morning they would see him going for a jog along the creek, and picking the wildflowers that most people paid no mind about to decorate his house, which was right next to the forest.

As time went by, people saw his hair getting thinner and thinner, slowly turning white like the flowers that he usually placed on the small lump of dirt beside the creek. The human changed a lot, but he still kept a sapphire ring with him, which color resembled the flowers he placed on the bigger lump of dirt. And then another summer passed by, and another summer, one after another, they didn't see the man anymore. Instead, a gravestone was placed beside the small lump of dirt by the creek.

On the gravestone, there wasn't a name or date of death like any other ones, but there was just one sentence saying:  "Let's all go to the place where summer is eternal.".