After Bearnacle returned from his magic adventure that took him beyond the stars, he began learning how to build boats. His dream was to be the captain of a great sailing ship, but the bears had no such boats. Only the humans had those large ships with many sails.
When Bearnacle was a cub, his human friend and his parents took him on a tour of a tall ship. Bearnacle tried climbing to the top of the sails as soon as he got on the ship.
“Oh, Baby Bear,” said Bearnacle’s friend. “You could fall off before you reach the top. Remember the day when you fell out of a tree?”
Bearnacle, who was then known as Baby Bear, climbed down, laughing.
“Yes, and you fell out of the tree, too,” Bearnacle said, and his friend laughed gleefully.
“Fortunately, we landed on a leaf pile,” said Bearnacle’s friend.
Bearnacle sighed as he remembered the friend who had gone so far away, to the Land of the Humans. He wondered if he would ever see his friend again. He wondered if his friend would like the small boat that he had built. His very first boat. It felt wonderful to work with the wood and the cloth and to create a boat. It felt even more wonderful when his teacher, who was a gruff old boat builder, pronounced the boat sea worthy.
Bearnacle got into the boat and sailed around the bay all day long. He tried sailing into the ocean, but the water was rough, and time was short. His parents said that he needed to come home after his first sailing adventure. They didn’t say why. They just said come home. Usually, Bearnacle reflected, his parents were happy with whatever he did and where ever he went. He always came home with stories, and that was sufficient for them.
This time, Bearnacle’s parents asked him to come home.
Bearnacle sailed again into the ocean. It didn’t feel as scary as it had earlier.
“Oh, the sunset is so gorgeous. But it’s time to go home,” Bearnacle said.
And home he went…
(to be continued)
Alice, Bearnacle’s adventures are mesmerizing. You must publish! The Arizona Authors’ Association has a well-known literary contest, deadline June. You could submit some piece of BB’s journeys as a short story first, and later more, as a novella. Also, I love the colors of the sky in this image. Wondrous!
Oh wow, thank you for your comments and your suggestion!!! I think that I would love to do that!!!
Bearnacle is an interesting name and I tried to understand its significance. Maybe I missed the explanation in previous part.
Thank you for asking! Bearnacle got his name because of his love for the sea. It’s a variation of barnacle, a sea creature that attaches itself to the bottoms of boats. To protect the boat, barnacles need to be removed. Bearnacle is a bear, but he will face adversity from those who would want to remove him from boats.