“Yup,” agreed the first frog. “Too big a splash when she entered the water. No finesse. Bears just ain’t got what it takes when it comes to water sports. To be fair on the big hairy guys, we amphibians are a hard act to follow.”
The second frog nodded in agreement, flashed out a log tongue and expertly swallowed a passing fly without moving his body, then executed a perfect dive into the water, leaving barely a ripple.
“Now that was sheer class,” the first frog proudly declared to nobody in particular, before diving in after his friend.
Chapter 2. Meet the Family
The next morning found the bears still following the stream but much lower down the valley. Here the snow had already gone and the valley was lush and green. Gently sloping fields of grass were fringed by fragrant pine forest.
Several bears were dotted around the valley, some with cubs in tow, and the mother bear put a gentle paw on Aries shoulder pointing to one of the big female bears eating clover at the edge of the forest.
“Look Aries it’s your aunt Ethyl,” she exclaimed.
She waved both her arms in the air to attract the other bears attention and shouted over to her.
“Hey Ethyl. It’s us.”
The two bears ran together and hugged.
“Hey sister, it`s so nice to see you again. So how was winter?” Ethyl asked.
“How would I know? We slept through it the same as you did,” the other bear replied. Ethyl then turned to look at Aries.
“And who is this young lady with you?” She asked.
“Surely it can’t be Aries? My you’ve grown since I last saw you.”
From just inside the forest a pinecone came flying through the air and hit Aries firmly on the back of the head.
“Ouch!” she complained, and picked up the offending object, studying it closely. Ethyl and Gentle turned to see where the pinecone had come from and saw two male cubs much bigger than Aries coming bounding towards them from the tree line.
Ethyl let out a long-suffering sigh. “Oh, no. Here comes trouble.”
“Bor and Bru behave your selves! Come say hello to your aunt and cousin.”
“Hi Aunt Gentle,” the cubs said together. “Hey cousin, nice to meet you”, said Bru.
Bor pointed at the large white patch on Aries chest. “Wow, cute fur cousin. How did you get the white markings?”
Aries puffed out her chest proudly. “I am part polar bear on my father’s side. My great, great, great grandfather came from the far North,” she told them.