Brother Bear: Little Sister

Memories

As we were walking, my mind kept going back to Denahi. I hoped that he was safe. My mind flashes through several with him over the years:

"Tehya! You go that way and check the traps and I'll go this way. If an animal is caught in one of them, holler for me." Denahi said. My ten-year-old self nodded and I went in the direction he told me to go. For first couple minutes, there was nothing, but, then I screamed as my foot got caught in a trap and I was left hanging upside down from a tree. I yelled, "Denahi! Help!" Denahi came racing through the forest. Panic was clearly written on his face, but relief replaced it when he saw that I wasn't really in danger. He laughed, "Just wait till I tell Sitka and Kenai about this." He cut the rope and caught me as I fell to floor. I faced him and threatened, "You better not tell them or do you want me to tell them who actually accidentally lit the canoe on fire?" Denahi held up his hands in surrender and said, "Okay. Okay. You win. Now, let's go finish these traps."...

My eight-year-old self raced across the stream with my best friend, Ahanu. We had just finished our list of chores and we were enjoying the warm weather. We splashed each other and when we were done, we were drenched and we chuckled. "Come on. We better get back." Ahanu said beginning to get up. I stood up and said, "You're right, but it's so beautiful outside. I could stay here forever." I flopped back into the water with my head above it and Ahanu laughed. Suddenly, we heard something in the woods. A low growling noise. I gasped and quickly got up and stood next to Ahanu. Then, something popped out of the woods and roared. Ahanu and I both fell to the ground and screamed. That's when we heard the laughter. We both looked back and saw... Denahi. I was so going to get him back for that. "DENAHI!" I shouted.

My five-year-old self trembled from the cold. It was the worst winter that we have ever had. My parents had passed on not long ago due to plague that had encompassed the village. Many had died from it. As winter rolled around, the danger of the plague passed, but now new danger was ahead of us. Surviving winter. It was the first winter without my parents and my brothers and were barely getting along. Night had come. It was so cold. I was freezing and I was so hungry, but we had to do our best to ration our food. It was snowing outside and Sitka had taken Kenai with him to gather more wood while Denahi stayed behind with me before the blizzard set in. The fire was barely flickering. Denahi came and sat next to me and put his own pelt around me. I huddled close to to him and we tried to to take in each other's warmth. "I know it's been rough these past few months, Tehya, but we'll get through this. I promise." Denahi whispered. I looked back up to him and asked, "How do you know that?" Denahi gave me a soft smile and answered while hugging me, "Because we have each other."

I was snapped back into reality when Koda asked, "Why do they hate us, Kenai?"

"We're bears." Kenai answered.

"So?" Koda retorted.

"So, you know how they are. They're - They're killers." Kenai said.

"Wait a minute. Who's the killers?" Koda demanded to know.

"Bears." Kenai stated. Over the years, there have been incidents where people were mauled by bears. I shivered at the thought of that ever happening.

"What? Which bears? I'm not like that and you two are not like that." Koda pointed out.

"Well. Obviously, not all bears. I mean, you're okay, but most bears will look for any excuse to attack the human." Kenai explained.

"But, Kenai, he attacked us." Koda said. I thought over that for a while. What Koda said was right. Denahi did attack us first. Maybe there was a misunderstanding, but, then again, Koda was still a cub and had much to learn.

"You're just a cub. When you're older, you'll understand." Kenai retaliated.

"Fish, fish, fish, FISH!" A seagull cried out. It zoomed right past us.

"We made it. We're here! Come on!" Koda cheered.

"What? Koda!" I shouted. Suddenly, Kenai and I were both bombarded by seagulls and we tried to push them away, but we ended up falling into a stream. Filled with a ton of bears. So, naturally....

We both screamed.