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Nate always felt anxious every time he stepped out of his den into the world beyond. He knew he had a destiny, and it wasn't a destiny to look forward to.

When he was just a very young cub, a Porcupine Witch had come to his mother and bestowed this curse on her, "From this day forward, each and every one of sons will someday get hurt where it hurts the most, so bad that they will wish that they were dead. But with this curse also comes a blessing, for no matter how they get hurt, no matter how bad, no injury they receive will result in permanent damage."

Well, needless to say, Nate's mother had been horrified. At first, Nate wasn't sure what she'd meant by "where it hurts the most," but he didn't like the sound of "they will wish that they were dead."

Now that he was older, he thought he got it now, and somehow that hadn't made it any more comforting.

He'd remembered hearing the screams of his brothers bursting through the trees as one by one they had come face to face with their fate. He didn't even want to know.

Sitting down, he looked around the woods cautiously, nobody in sight, he lowered his front paws to feel himself. He flinched, his paw coming in a little too hard. He couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be hit down there, it was just so sensitive and... exposed, right there in the open where anything could get him.

He clinched his legs together, but that didn't help really, just made him feel weirder. He just felt so sensitive there, he didn't want to think about what it'd be like when he faced his "Big Moment."

"What'cha doing?"

Suddenly, Nate shot to attention as a cute girl bear, same age as him, stepped out from behind the trees. She'd just seen him, hadn't she?

"I, uh, nothing." Nate quickly announced.

"It's okay, I understand," she said, "males are weird. I'd feel weird if I was a male too, I think."

Nate didn't know how to respond, so instead, he just got to his paws, "I, uh got to go. It was nice talking to you." And he turned to go.

"We didn't really talk," the girl called after him.

As he left the area behind, little did he know that he would be joining his brothers in a world of pain in just a few days.

A few days later, Nate was walking through the forest when he came upon a quiet clearing. It looked nice and peaceful so he decided to step out and soke in the warm Sun.

He was only a few steps in when he saw something glinting in the sunlight hidden in the grass. A sinking feeling began to grow in the pit of his stomach. Cautiously, he kicked a stick toward the glint...

SNAP!

Nate's heart quickened, his suspicions were correct, it was a bear trap.

And as he saw a bunch more glints of sunlight in the grass, he realized he'd stepped into a whole field of them.

Nate had heard how painful it could be to get trapped in a bear trap and he wanted no part of it.

So cautiously, he backed out of the clearing.

Once back at the edge of the woods, he began to relax, he was out of the woods, or more accurately, he was back in them, but that was more comforting.

Exhausted from his panic, he sat down, back to a tree.

SNAP!

At first, he didn't know what happened, his whole body just jerked. And then he looked down at his lap.

And clamped into him was a bear trap, biting into him right where he was most sensitive.

And then the pain hit him full force.

Nate cried out in pain, falling onto his side. This hurt worse than he'd feared, much worse than he dared to imagine, and he had imagined a lot. It was pain beyond all possibility to bear, yet it was happening to his poor Soul right now! Nate writhed on the ground, roaring in agony.

It was so tight! Clamped down as hard as it could be with no room for relief, trying so hard to dig in! The only thing holding it back the blessing part of the curse where no injury he received would result in permanent damage. But that didn't ease the pain much! He writhed and roared, unable to get the thing off of him! No! He didn't want this happening to him! A bear trapped clamped as tight as it could be, right where it hurt the most!

"PAIN!" He cried, kicking out his legs as he rolled on the ground, unable to escape it, "PAIN!"

Is this what his brothers felt when they met their curse? What it felt like to be male? Before he had dreaded the idea of meeting his curse, now he knew that that dread was not unfounded, now he dreaded every moment of his existence while he was still caught in this trap.

"What on Earth is going on!" the cute girl from the other day demanded, bursting from the woods, alerted by the roars of Nate's pain, "Probably just another boy having boy issues." She grumbled to herself, "Seriously, what is it with you boys?"

And then she took in the situation and gasped. She could have made a retort about how she was right about another boy having boy problems, but she'd known how bear traps were. And a bear trap was no joke.

"Are you okay?" She asked running up to him, knowing that he clearly was not. The thought of getting caught in a bear trap in any way made her nauseous, and she knew how boys were with their weak spot. Oh oh oh, she didn't even want to dare imagining what he was going through. Why were boys so weird?

"I'll survive," Nate gasped struggling to form any sort of words (or coherent thoughts even) through the all consuming pain, "part of the curse is that I'll quickly recover from any sort of thing like this."

Okay maybe a bear trap was kind of a joke then (Though she had no idea what he meant by curse). Of course the idea of what he must be feeling was nauseous still, but if he wasn't going to be "ruined" or anything, she'd leave those nauseous feelings up to him, this could be amusing for her.

"If you'll recover," the girl bear said, "then wouldn't it be funnier if I left you like this for a few extra seconds to watch your expression?"

"No no!" Nate cried, "Make the pain stop!"

"Okay, okay, fine," the girl said, "By the way, I'm Martha."

"JUST GET THIS THING OFF ME!" Nate wailed.

Martha sighed, apparently he wasn't in the mood for small talk right now. She kind of could see why though. "Okay, let me see what I can do."

Martha moved around Nate to look at the bear trap. Oof, that's got to hurt. Okay, how to get it off?

"Okay, I'll need you to stand up," Martha said, "That way I can get at the trap better."

Nate moaned pitifully as he rolled to his paws, front half still hunched over, back legs raised in the air. Martha suppressed a giggle. What a funny pose.

Martha moved toward the trap - feeling awkward being this close to him. "You smell weird" she announced, "better not toot while I'm here." (Though Martha doubted he was in much mood for "tooting" at the moment, if he could even control such things when in this sort of pain. Martha didn't want to admit that she herself was capable of doing something as weird as "tooting" as well.) Martha grabbed the trap in her teeth, and yanked.

Nate screamed, his brain doing flip-flops in pain. The bear trap held fast; it was too tight.

"Okay, that did not work." Martha observed calmly.

"YOU THINK!" Nate cried, not sure how somebody in this much pain could still exist to experience this nightmare.

"See, this is exactly why I was born female. Weird stuff like what you're going through is just not for me."

"Like I had any choice myself!" Nate moaned.

"Okay, okay," said Martha, once again observing the trap. "I think I can release it if I can find a way to grip these two levers on the sides and pull." She said. She looked at her paws, "I just hope these bear claws can get a good grip..."

As she went to work trying to maneuver the levers aside, using her paws and teeth, she looked at Nate, speaking through her awkward mouthful of bear trap lever, "You know, for me doing this, you should at least admit how weird boys are compared to girls."

"Okay, I'll admit it," Nate wailed through pain, not able to take it much longer, "girls are better than boys, boys are just stupid."

"I didn't say boys were stupid, I said boys were weird, there's a difference." Martha paused, mumbling to herself, "Though I do wonder considering how you managed to get caught in a trap like this."

But Martha probably should have left that last part out and focused on the trap rather than talking.

Because Martha nearly had the trap free, just pull a little more...

And then her teeth lost their grip on the lever, her paw slipped free of the opposite one.

SNAP!

The trap slammed back closed. Nate cried out, crumpling once again to the ground. He had no mind left outside of pain.

Apparently words really do hurt. A lot.

Martha sighed. Boys. Must feel so weird to be so tough, only to be completely leveled by something so ridiculous that a girl has to help you out. If boys weren't so weird, then she wouldn't have to go out her way to help him like this. He must be so jealous of her freedom from this sort of pain right now. She knew she'd be if she were him. Good thing she wasn't.

Not that Martha not being Nate brought Nate any good fortune.

"Okay, let's try this again," she sighed.

So, giving it one last try, she successfully managed to maneuver her paws and her mouth around the trap, pull and release it. Making sure it was still open, she flung it away as quickly as possible, sending it skittering across the forest floor as it slammed back shut. The sharp Snap made Martha wince. She'd hate to be anything caught in the way of that collision course. She looked at Nate. Oh yeah, he already had been. Twice.

Now free, Nate laid on the forest floor moaning his pain away. Martha stood by patiently, waiting for him to recover. It was ridiculous how much pain he must have been in to lay there as long as he did. Boys, count on them to have long recoveries from this sort of thing. Not that she could blame him, it was just... annoying.

(Boys boys boys. Why did she think of boys so much? It wasn't like they were cute or anything. (Actually, they kind of were. Especially Nate. Even when they got hurt in that weird way of theirs.))

Finally, Nate gathered his legs under him, and managed to get to his paws. He looked at Martha awkwardly.

"Thank you for that," Nate said, "sorry about... being a boy or something." This was really weird.

"No need to apologize, it's not your fault you were born weird."

Nate stood their awkwardly, not knowing how to respond.

"By the way," Martha continued, "There was something I've been meaning to ask you."

Martha paused, waiting for it.

"Will you marry me?" She asked.

"Wh-what?" Asked Nate, taken off guard.

"I need to have a husband whose existence is weird to make me laugh every time I look at him in my life right now."

"Why you-!" Nate roared indignantly.

And Martha took off into the woods.

"Come back here!" Nate yelled, chasing after her.

From in the shadows of the trees, a lone porcupine sat watching Nate chasing Martha, at first indignant by her insult, but hidden down deep, even from himself, with a slight edge of playfulness. The corners of the witch's mouth rose slightly. She was a great matchmaker, wasn't she?