Not a lot of this has gone how her subconscious expected. Put it on the "to think about later" pile.

Emily smiles up at the beautiful stranger. "'r you'n angel?"

UM. She'd been assuming Emily would recognize her. She sure hopes that's magic and not a concussion!

"I'm going to keep you safe," she tries.

"Keep m' sist'r safe too."

Emily doesn't have a - OH!

That might also be a concussion, but still.

"I will."

Just as you straighten up, you hear yourself think, "I came as fast as I could, everything's crazy, I don't know what's happening, I don't know if I can carry you but I'll -- ooh! Pretty!"

Sophie turns around, carefully, still holding Emily. To the bear, because this is obviously the bear, she says, "You again!"

And then, because that seems ungrateful, "I'm glad you came. Can you walk with me? My friend is hurt, so I need to take her to the school, but I really want to talk to you."

Yep, it sure is the bear. Sophie hears herself think, "Wait, who are you?" Then, a beat later, "You're the girl who was looking for the other girl? You changed..."

It's staring at Sophie with open fascination, like she's the most complicatedly marvelous thing it's ever seen.

That is not a look Sophie gets much, and it touches her even though, you know, bear. "Yes, I'm still me, and my friend still needs help."

Uh, is Emily reacting to SUDDENLY BEAR at all?

Her head REALLY hurts, and most of her attention is on the angel glowing stranger no probably she was right the first time. The angel can have a bear servitor if she wants, that seems fair.

Where's Sophie?

Honestly it's all getting to be too much to pay close attention to. She closes her eyes.

Yeah it's time to get Emily indoors.

She'll start off walking, then experiment with moving faster: how quickly can she go and still be absolutely sure not to jostle Emily in any way, or hit her with branches, or anything like that? And does the bear follow her?

Under those constraints you can manage a sort of fast power walk. On your own, you're sure, you could go much faster.

The bear follows, but has a weirdly hard time keeping up. He only has two speeds: a casual amble that's too slow, and a sprint that's too fast. He alternates awkwardly between them, and doesn't complain.

She seems nice, he thinks, in thoughts that don't readily bend into human language, and Dad will want to know about her. When he gets back.

Sophie wants to go faster but she'll keep a leash on it. Some problems can't be bludgeoned into submission, she tells her new other self. Be patient for now.

Sophie hears herself think, "When did you start glowing like that?"

Sophie is guiltily aware that she's not paying the PSYCHIC TALKING BEAR THAT SHOWED UP IN A THUNDERSTORM TO HELP HER as much attention as she really should. Her brain is mostly focused on Emily (is she still conscious? Is she still breathing?) but she's already doing the best she can there, focusing more won't actually help things go better. She should talk to the nice(?) bear. If nothing else there are probably a bunch of magical secrets at her fingertips, free for the asking, but she's just having such a hard time mustering the interest.

She can at least muster politeness, right? "It was a little before you showed up, everything sorta happened at once."

And then, because she can't seem to help herself: "But, I'm sorry, could you stop talking in my head like that? It's jarring. Can you speak out loud, like I'm doing?"

Emily is still breathing. Her eyes are mostly shut but she's mumbling to herself, too quietly for anyone to make out the words.

That's weird, Dad never minded. But really, what does he know about what humans do and don't like? In his whole life he's met four, and one of them's been asleep this whole time.

He'll give the nice lady his best effort, and emits a rasping growl. It sorta sounds like "no", if you're a generous listener.

"Don't worry about it then, I'll get used to it." She's not so sure about that, it's REALLY annoying, but...magical secrets. Probably-nice bear. She casts about for a way to continue the conversation, something friendly that'll teach her something useful about this weird world she's suddenly found herself in.

What do you ask a talking bear, anyway? She wants to start with "Please explain everything about today," only it already said it didn't know.

Lacking clear direction from her brain, Sophie's mouth takes initiative: "So, have you always been a talking bear?"

Oh good, a question he knows the answer to.

"Not really? It was already starting to get cold for this year when I figured it out. But I've been living here a lot longer, with my dad, only..."

He trails off, as he suddenly remembers why he's not at home right now.

"Only?"

"...I think something bad happened. He left on an errand, day before yesterday. He said he'd be back yesterday but he wasn't, and a bunch of other people came, and they went down in his lab. He never lets anyone down in his lab. I was outside, so I don't think they saw me."

Up until then it was the worst thing he'd ever felt: watching, and knowing he should be doing something to help, but not knowing what.

The feeling right before his next question is worse, but he has to know. "He always said never to let anyone see me, that people would get scared. You're not scared, are you?"

He immediately decides that asking that question was a mistake. What if she says yes?

Only one possible answer there. Luckily for Sophie, it's true: "No, I'm not scared of you. You were scared of me before, weren't you? I'm sorry about that."

Was she scared of the surprise bear, three hours ago back when everything was normal? That wasn't the question, so there's no need to talk about it. Now all she wants to do is give it a hug, just...not badly enough to put down Emily or stop.

Uh, but come to think of it there's another way to get this wrong, isn't there. "Other people might be, though. Probably they would be. So, keep hiding for now. But I'll introduce you to some people, don't worry." Sophie said that without really thinking it through but she endorses it, other people will want to meet the psychic bear and it seems lonely. "Hey, what's your name, anyway?"

Does the glowing human...like him?!? It kinda seems like maybe! He does hear the other stuff about other people but it doesn't seem that important.

"It's Otso! Dad said it meant 'forest apple'. What's yours?"