A friend from the pole

And a miracle is exactly what happened, out of sudden a loud and monstrous growl was heard, all the men got petrified and looked at each other, the elf knew very well who was that, it was a very "special" friend from the north pole who was very useful for situations like this one.

The men started to turn their backs at the direction of the growl and one by one ended petrified as they saw a 8 meters tall polar bear standing in it's hind legs, it was the most monstruos creature any of them had ever seen, it was bigger than a elephant, it was pure muscle, it's fur was thick and white as snow, the man who had Vanessa in his grasp was definitely not a coward, he was a veteran of the war, a soldier, but in that moment his knees started to tremble, his face went pale and his heart was deep sank in horror.

The beast was standing still, looking at all of the men but not doing anything, but it all changed when one of the poachers fired his rifle at the bear, the sound of the gunshot was loud and the bullet hit directly at the bear's chest, but did any damage at all to the beast, not even a scratch, the bear let out a terrible roar and charged against the hunter, the man fired again, the second bullet hit the beast's head and this one did any damage more than the previous one, the bear was already very close, the man couldn't even scream before the bear caught him with it's huge jaws and started to shake him then threw the body away at the distance.

As soon as they saw the beast attack their companion most of the poachers ran away for their lives, the bravest of them opened fire at the bear but it unfazed kept destroying the body of it's victim, but once he was done the bear stood in its four legs and stared at the leader, the big man had his eyes locked in the monster's and the monster's into his, his fear grew ten times bigger then, he felt like the creature could see through him, directly into his soul and wanted to eat it.

It was more than what him or any of his man could stand and all of them ran away from the place leaving the elf, Vanessa and the bear alone, the beast approached the elf and sniffed him, then the bear effortlessly ripped the net with it's teeth, the elf petted the beast's head and gave him a hug, the bear returned the gesture. Then both of them walked to Vanessa, once the bear was in front of Vanessa it opened it's huge jaws, Vanessa that saw what the bear did to that man feared that she was going to be it's next snack but instead of that the bear started to bump it's nose into her in a playful way, Vanessa couldn't help but be amazed by the creature, it was so strong and yet so sweet, of course his mouth was stained by the blood of the poacher but it the bear gave Vanessa a puppy look that was impossible to not smile, the bear's big tongue was sticking out and Vanessa petted the fluffy beast for a good moment.

The elf then said to the bear "thank you, I don't know what would have happened to us if it wasn't for you, you're the best" the bear nooded, he seemed to understand him, then Vanessa and the elf found the sleigh and set to fly again.

And about the poachers, not a single one of them forgot what they saw that night, all of them had nightmares with the beast, it's growls were still ringing in their ears, some of them delevoped a phobia of bears and never dared to walk out of their houses during Christmas night but others like their leader ended in the psychiatric ward in constant panic until the end of their days.