Maka nods at Viterro, saying, "This bear does not have a spirit of its own, at least not a whole one. Its lifeforce is a spark, a single ember, so-to-speak, given to it by the Great Bear Spirit. When he died, that spark returned to the Great Bear in the sky, so that it could be given to another bear about to be born. Sometimes, other angry, malevolent spirits try to capture the spark on its way back to the sky, because if they can manage to do so, they have a chance to be born into the physical world again, using the power of the spark. That is why we always pray for the spark to fly swiftly. The reason you can't feel the bear's essence is because it is small, and fleeting, barely a whisp compared to the spirit of a man."