Mavourneen stayed for three days, every night dreaming of her Prince walking about the room, leaving her gifts and letters. On the last night she thought as though he came up to the bedside to tuck away stray hairs behind her ear. He would sit down on the floor beside her and talk about his home and all the things he wanted to do by Mavourneen’s side. 

On the last day, the bear took Mavourneen on his back and carried her to her father’s palace. There her father greeted her with utmost relief, having been worried for not knowing where she’d been. 

She smiled, letting him embrace her in his arms and in great detail she told the king of the past days. How Eoghan had left gifts every morning and how the bear would take her out each day after sunrise to see a new part of the forest. Her father listened attentively to the story of her short venture and he knew in his heart it would happen again. 

So it did happen, again and again. Each month on the new moon the bear would come and take Mavourneen out to Eoghan’s forest, and she would dream of him during the night and rise in the morning to find gifts he’d left for her. The bear would accompany her on walks through the forest during the day and they would come back in the evening to warm by the fire. Lastly on the theird evening, when the bear's fur grew spiney like evergreen needles, he would take her home. Each month carried on the same and with each visit the princess’s love for the bear and her Eoghan grew. 

As word of the princess and her bear spread through the kingdoms, less suitors came to the palace, many with the thought that she herself was a wild thing. Mavourneen was content with this however, for in her mind she had already chosen one and she waited patiently every moon cycle for him, and she didn’t mind waiting.