The country of Educationia was overall a nice place. All the bears were kind, they all helped each other, and were all smart. No bear was ever shunned, beat up on, or ever friendless. However, in certain northern regions of Educationia during the final days of the year, a harsh winter would set in and threaten the lives of all unprepared bears. Such places included the infamous Berryhuckle forest, where bears needed to know caves of all different shapes and sizes in order to overcome the bitter cold. Another miserable place was the Realm of Shunk where extra fat must be stored all year if a bear wanted even a chance to survive the test of time. But worse than both Berryhuckle forest and the Shunk Realm was the wood of Jiller. Due to a perfect easy going first three quarters of the year, Jiller was a pretty popular place, but the three months of winter really packed a punch.

One lazy young bear named James had lived his entire life on the southern tip of Educationia where he lived an A+ life with all the luxury and leisure and none of the trials. One day James just couldn’t resist moving up north to Jiller because of all the good things he heard about it. James siblings6. were constantly explaining how, “Jiller is the easiest place to live in and you can still do whatever you want every day.” Well it finally got to James and he moved to the Jiller Woods.

It was unbelievable. Jiller had the best weather James had ever seen and every day and usually far into the night James would be out with his friends messing around, hunting, and occasionally just resting in the beautiful sun. So, it turned out that everything that James brothers and sisters said was true. Throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall James was having the time of his life, but then in mid October James began to get warnings from the wiser bears that he needed to prepare for the Winter by fattening up and finding a good hibernation spot. Instead of following the more experienced bears, James scoffed in their faces and made fun of them behind their backs, and continued to mess around with his friends every night instead of following the advice to prepare early.

By the end of November even James laziest friends had started to prepare for the harsh winter by putting on some weight and scouting around for a good hibernation spot. James argued that he still had a month to prepare and that he would start on the first of December. By mid December it was getting really cold and storms were getting closer and closer, and yet James had still done nothing. Every night he would promise himself that he would prepare the next day, only to find something more important to do and put it off. The first big storm came in late December and had James huddled under a tree shivering for and entire day and for half the night. It was then for the first time that James began to worry about the winter, and about the cold, and about hibernation.

The next big storm was said to hit on Thursday and it was Monday. James knew that he needed to get ready but decided it could wait. Tuesday James walked idly around the woods watching as all of his fat friends huddled into their warm caves for the winter while he did nothing. All day Wednesday James walked around pretending to look for a hibernation spot when really he was just worrying about what he was going to do the next day when the storm hit. Late Wednesday night James finally took action. He hunted through the woods for whatever food he could find and found a dead deer and two rabbits, barely enough to last December and January, but it was all he could get. Then he hunted through the woods for any nook or crevice that could be used as a hibernation spot.

In the end James was able to put on a little weight, and find a tiny dent in a rock where he slept through the winter in a very restless uncomfortable sleep. James survived the winter, but only barely with no meat on his bones. James continued to live in the North in all the coldest places, but as the time went on he grew more and more accustomed to the harsh winters. Although he never prepared quite as early as some of his friends as the years went by James prepared earlier and earlier and his winters got more and more comfortable.