Cherry & The Bear! 🤎

 

            She stopped. There was a strange little cry, repeating. She looked all around, but didn’t see anything. She looked up. Something was about 80 feet up a fir tree, that is by our lights, 80 feet. It was dark, and seemed furry.
            “What are you doing up there?” Cherry said. She didn’t get an answer, just more crying. It wasn’t exactly clear who was up there either.
            What could she do? Naturally, being Cherry, after all, she drifted up the tree trunk until she was near the creature. It turned out to be a bear cub. Not very old.
            “Why did you climb up here, Bear,” she said, kindly.
            The cub, who had been crying and hanging on, with his eyes closed, opened his teary little eyes and looked at her. He was so shocked that he almost lost his grip on the bark.
            He closed his eyes again, and turned his head away.
            “Can you talk?” she asked.
            There was more crying, and tree clinging.
            “I think you should talk. Would you try please, Bear?”
            “Mama!” he blurted suddenly.
            “That’s a good first word, Bear. Everybody wants their mama. Especially when up a tree! Do you have a name, or don’t bears have names? I don’t know because I’ve never talked with a bear before,” Cherry said.
            “What’s a name?” said the bear cub, actually looking at her curiously at this point.
            “The sound your mama makes when she is calling you, maybe,” said Cherry.
            “Oh. Wruff. That must be my name,” he said, actually smiling a little.
            “How would you like to climb back down, Wruff?”
            “I’m afraid!”
            “Why?”’         
            “I’m lost. I’m hungry. I figured I would have to die up here,” said Wruff. “And I saw a big scary creature like you.”
            Cherry laughed. “You probably saw my father. He is very big, but not scary.”
            “What if he picked me up and ate me?” said Wruff.
            “Don’t be silly! I can’t help you find your mama if you stay up here,” she pointed out.
            Wruff lowered himself down a few feet. “Do you know where my mama is?”
            “No. But I bet she is looking for you right now. I bet she won’t be hard to find, but you gotta come down. Your mama is too big to climb trees to go looking for you!”
            He dropped down a few more feet. Cherry stayed right with him. So, he wouldn’t be scared. They worked they way down, bit by bit.
            About the time Wruff and Cherry were head height, for a Squatch, they heard a lot of commotion in nearby bushes. It sounded like an enormous animal on four feet.
            “Wruff! Wruff! Wruff!” the approaching voice called out sternly.
            “Mama!” said the cub, who let go entirely, and fell to the ground.
            “Oh! Where did you find him?” she said when she saw Cherry bobbing gently in the air above Wruff.
            “He was up in this tree here. I heard him crying to I went up to see,” said Cherry.
            “Well! Thank you, Ralph’s Child! Maybe now he will learn not to wander when I sleep!” said the mama bear, as she marched her son away. Cherry could hear some of what she was telling her son as they went off to wherever bears go when they go.
            “I’m glad you found him,” said Maeve, from a branch overhead. “She wanted me to search from the air.”
            “I never talked to bears before, “said Cherry.
            “Well, now you have, Ralph’s Child!” said Maeve.
            So, little platinum blond Cherry, standing in a bit of snow, smiled up at the great black Raven, who gave her a little wink, and a Raven smile.

🖤🐦‍⬛🖤