A visit to Wolf Nation

Today is day seven of Inktober and of the Ultimate Blogging Challenge. Today’s prompt is passport. Imagine if you had to get permission to visit the lands of mammals and insects and birds and the waters of the fish. Imagine if the animals themselves gave you permission to visit them. And imagine visiting them and respecting their culture, their way of life, and maybe even understanding their way of communicating. Maybe that would help us to become better and kinder humans. I’d like to think so, but I might be too optimistic. So, back to my story…the Bears have collected stamps in their passports and they are ready to visit the lands where the critters live as they travel on their trek to the great bear gathering…

It was late, and Baby Bear couldn’t sleep. He was so excited about the trek. Before he had attempted to fall asleep, he had taken a look at his parents’ passports and had seen all of the places and all of the different species they had visited.

“Wolves and fish and insects and birds,” Baby Bear said. “I hope they will all be happy to see us on our adventure. I can’t wait to see the fish! That’s my favorite, I think.”

In the morning, the bears joined a whole community of bears and began walking east toward the sunrise. That’s where the mountains were the tallest. They were walking away from the sea. Baby Bear turned around and stared longingly to the west, but the sea was out of sight. And then, the eastward trek began.

In the afternoon of the first day, the bears collected berries from the bushes. They were all types of berries: raspberries, black respberries, blackberries, and more. The berries were tasty and sweet, and the bears shared the berries with the wolves, as they had arrived in Wolf Nation. The wolves howled happily, which sounded like music to Baby Bear.

“What’s it like to be a wolf,” Baby Bear asked. “You’re the first wolf I ever met.”

“We live with our packs and we share everything,” the wolf said. “We teach our babies how to hunt so they always have enough to eat. At night, we sing to the moon because the moon gives us light so we can see our way when the sun has gone. We love the forest. The leaves are soft and the trees have many stories as they have been here far longer than we have.”

“Oh,” said Baby Bear. “Can I become a wolf? I want to travel the seas, but, if I can’t, can I be a wolf instead?”

“I don’t think so,” said the wolf. “You must be the best bear you possibly can be. But you can be a friend to wolves by telling our stories and by bringing water to us when the creeks run dry.”

“Okay,” said Baby Bear. “If I howled like you, would you change your mind?”

“Let’s hear the howl,” said the wolf.

“Grrrrrrrrrrr,” said Baby Bear, very loudly.

“Oh, my howl turned into a growl,” said Baby Bear sadly. “I guess I won’t be a singer any time soon.”

“You can sing your own song,” said the wolf. “And your song is beautiful because it’s yours.”

Baby Bear looked at the mountains in the distance and at the wolves and…