Donn, the brown bear, opened the newspaper and huffed.
Yet another announcement, with bells and whistles, about yet another project the Darling Deer had planned.
‘Grrrrr!’ The bear growled to himself.
‘For sure! Must be nice to have all sorts of plans when the forest warden feeds you, puts out everything for you! Even freakin’ salt! Easy to have plans and to do whatever, when you have no cares in the world!’
The bear threw the paper away and sulked inconsolably!
As time had passed, life had gotten more and more difficult for bears, and the new generation of bears had no survival skills whatsoever.
The bear looked at them, and worry regarding the future of his sleuth made him even more upset.
The young ones got their food from human bins, or they ransacked human yards, and they had no interest in how to survive in the forest.
‘Why work so hard to forage when you can get all you need from the humans? They just put the food out!’
Donn, was not against a creative survival solution, per se, but he was worried about the recent reactions he had noticed in humans. They were afraid, and as experience had taught him, fear bears monsters.
Donn, chuckled satisfied with his own intelligent pun. Bears, get it? Never mind!
What if the humans decided the bears are too close for comfort and … He did not dare think about it! Those careless cubs! They never listened!
Donn would have liked to take his sleuth and go up the mountain, life was more difficult there, food not as easily available as close to the humans, but the freedom! Freedom to roam unhindered, to forage all day long, to eat wild honey … that was the life! But there was no one to listen to him, the young bears only cared about easy wins, the forest was slowly becoming an unknown to them.
Donn leaned back in his comfy bed of leaves and allowed himself to slowly doze off. Nothing like a good nap to put things into perspective!
Not long after Donn was shaken awake by his youngest, Bran.
‘Daddy, daddy, wake up! You need to help!’
Awaking with a growl Donn got on all fours and looked at his son. The young bear was all covered in honey and dead bees stuck to his fur.
‘What happened?’, Donn had an idea but wanted to hear it from his son.
‘You need to help, come I will tell you on the way!’, the cub was already running, but Donn did not move.
‘Tell me what is happening, I will not run into a situation I do not know the details of.’
Bran rolled his eyes annoyed but knew that he had to do as he was asked.
‘Myself and Connie, we were … ‘
‘Connie and I …’, Donn muttered to himself ….
‘… close to the human village when we saw some boxes in the meadow at the end of the forest … we went to investigate and they smelled so good … the closer we got we could smell something delicious … so we started rocking the box and it fell open. You would not believe it! It was full of honey! We open the second and the same … then the bees came … and then the humans …’
Donn was getting very worried about his daughter.
‘Where is Connie?’, his tone was level but the worry shone through.
‘This why you have to come, she is trapped between the bees and the humans. She is hiding in a tree trunk but they will get her soon … ‘, tears ran down young Bran’s face.
‘Let’s go! I want you to show me where she is and then you must come right back here ok? I cannot be worrying about you too!’
‘Yes, daddy!’
Sad how they reverted to his children just when they were in trouble, just that morning Bran had thrown it into his face that he is an old brute who does not know how the world has changed.
When they got to the meadow Donn spotted the tree trunk well before Bran pointed it out.
‘I’ve got this, go home and tell your mother to get ready, we will have to go up the mountain for a bit until this settles down.’
The cub nodded and Donn knew this was the perfect timing to take his family away. Sneaky? For sure! But needs must!
Donn went slowly round the meadow, using the trees at the end of the forest to hide his presence. When he was right in front the hollowed out tree trunk where Connie was hiding he ran out making the loudest noises an old bear can make. He signaled Connie to run out and go in the forest.
As soon as she was safe, before the human even had a chance to form a plan to handle him, he went back after her and they both ran home.
Mamma bear was doing what every mamma bear does, putting her cubs before her own needs, so she was all packed and ready to go.
The Brown Bear family left the forest down below right then and there, going up the dark mountain in search of a simpler life.
Connie and Bran were so frightened by their close encounter with the bees and the upset humans that they followed their parents without grumbling or moaning.
Soon they discovered that the trip was actually quite fun. There were loads of plants that no longer existed at the bottom of the mountain, they saw the hugest burdock leaves ever, they drank cold, crisp water and ate weird looking berries, but so sweet that they could not stop eating.
There were dangers up here too, but Donn patiently taught them how to mind themselves and live a peaceful life.
Close to the top of the mountain, where the morning fog was denser and the cold sharper they met another sleuth, and then another, soon they were part of a community of bears living high up the mountain, and they found that they enjoyed the slow pace of life on the solitary mountain.
The young bears made friends and would often tell tales of ‘down below’ often exaggerating the beauty and the danger, but if they were to be honest with themselves, they were happy to be as free and careless as they felt now.
As for Donn, he felt years younger and now, knowing his sleuth is safer, naps were even sweeter, if that is even possible!