"I -- You trained me against paper balls, not bears!", Adrien squeaked. "And -- and I left the staff in the practice tower!".

"Don't worry", Valerion said, soothingly touching Adrien's shoulder, "I can take care of us both. Besides", he added, smiling, "I do think you could defend yourself against a bear. The spell wouldn't be any different...".

"Yeah, but paper balls and bears are not the same thing at all!", Adrien laughed.

"How so?", Valerion said with an impish smile.

Adrien chuckled a little as he tried to think of a clever answer. "To start with, paper doesn't have teeth and claws...".

"That depends entirely on what you write on it", Valerion giggled.

Adrien laughed as well. "And you say that as a writer... Have you ever written anything with teeth and claws?".

Valerion took in a deep breath. "I can't say I have", he said with a faint smile.