Daylights warm soft lips breached the darkness, swarming the landscape and shone through the trees making them seem skinnier than usual to the naked eye. Over the mountains and through the woods it traveled quickly yet smoothly as if the light had no real schedule and went about hugging every inch of the land in a warm embrace. Bear awoke with the touch of sunlight. He had slept in again and wasn't the least worried about it. As he got up and shook off the leaves and twigs he had slept on he gave out a wild yawn as he stretched every inch of his body arms outreached high in only the way possible after a good night's rest. It was quiet except for the gentle howls of the beasts of the trees most definitely doing the same as him. Bear chuckled to himself at the thought of this, he shook once more and began his ever growing struggle for something good to eat. Being an omnivore he had a huge manner of choices from which to choose from yet he was quite picky. Searching the forest floor he went about the way his mother had shown him looking in the darker areas for big glowing mushrooms or the higher brighter places for the sweet berries the howler beasts always enjoyed. The morning sun warmed his back as he searched the undergrowth, the crackling and crunching of the leaves and chalky white remains under his feet as he went about humming one of his very best songs. Bear was definitely the creative type as he had wrote and composed many songs all by himself. And judging by the looks and screeches of the flying howlers he was quite good as well. Bear was easily into his fourth recital of Why does my arm itch when he came across a beautifully delicate green bush covered in big juicy red berries, His second favorite food. He bounded up on the crumbling brick to reach them. Quite a while later Bear found himself painted red with juice relaxing smoothly besides a green bush stripped of any color red. The sun was lower but still high enough to warm a well deserved nap. Bear was always quite sleepy as he had a very busy schedule of singing, searching, eating and napping! As bear cuddled up to a chalky white rock that stared back at him he made sure to tell the two curious howlers to keep watch and make sure nothing disrupted his nap. Of course, they both just squeaked, looked at each other then back at Bear turning their heads sideways in a unison of confusion. Bear was nonetheless still convinced they had at least understood a little as he slowly watched the world behind them grow more and more distant as the images swirled together. Bright lights, crashing, screams, and crying. Running, lots of running, father strong and defending, fighting off the beasts. Bear grunted and woke up, again woken by his own very loud ravenous snoring habits. The sun was much lower and the two howlers had gathered a few friends to watch poor bear sleep like a new hit show they found hilarious as they all squeaked and squawked like critics judging Bears performance. Again Bear got up and shook off the dirt growling and grunting about the brick being too stiff to sleep on and turned to look out onto the landscape as he relieved himself over the ledge. In a quite unfortunate turn of events for the few howlers standing directly under. As the howlers flapped their great wings squawking angrily, Bear watched them fly over the heavily forested and crumbling land till the howlers were only specs in the distance. Great shades and hues of colors greeted him as he looked out. Greens, reds and the occasional glowing blue spanned out between the occasional tall teeth like structures that darted the view. Quiet, strong and beautiful was the forest and its view. Bear spied a rather pleasant looking pond out in the distance, he decided to head there as he was in fact simply parched and always enjoyed a good bath. Bounding down the crumbling slope he startled some remaining howlers and ferocious bun buns. Furry little bun buns were always good eating but they were also very fast and Bear decided he wasn't hungry enough to give any chase, besides the spikes always hurt his mouth. As Bear wandered in hopefully the right direction he was suddenly startled by shiny movement. A red rusted post with strange markings, the same as the ones covering the tall silver mountains, flickered blue and green. He stumbled closer, entranced by the strangeness of it. Sniffing around led to no answers either, according to his nose nothing living had been around for months. The post flickered like a flame, and hissed like a danger noodle. Bear got up all his courage, puffed out his chest and swatted at it. The post dented, BZZZRT, It screamed as it popped, fizzled and stopped all together. Satisfied that the odd threat had been neutralized, Bear grunted and started to turn. Suddenly a bright blue figure of a creature flashed into existence before him. Confused and scared, Bear growled and stood tall as it flashed the same image on repeat, silently, as if trying to warn Bear of some long forgotten threat. Either way Bear came down with great force and smashed the post to pieces. Growling and panting, bear paced back and forth, picked up the pieces and threw them about in triumph. It was still light and bear remembered that he was now very thirsty and was still on a mission to be satisfied. It was quiet as It always had been ever since Bear was young. Soon bored Bear decided to serenade the howlers, but much to his surprise their consistent background chattering had come to a dead silence. He didn't want to disrupt the peace as that seemed rude to him. Bear descended into the wooded valley, approaching the lake he slowly felt more and more uneasy as the warm breeze slowly turned frigid and the shadows cast by the great silver mountains and trees blanketed the entire valley in the cool shade. Seeing this change in mood and temperature Bear sped up his pace a mere tad just for good measure. Bear wasn’t afraid of course, he only glanced behind him occasionally for safety precautions. Bear could now see his breath and shivered as he watched the white clouds rise up and dissipate like the ghosts of his confusing past. As he stumbled deeper and deeper the grass under his feet crinkled, crunched and cracked. With it the memories pounded louder and louder with every footstep, Crunch, crunch, crunch. The silence was now deafening with each step that he took. Crunch, Crack, bang, BANG, Red. Heat, crying, running, loud. Bear tripped and fell to his knees, lost in his troubling memories. Looking back after all manner of angry grunting and growling, he noticed he had failed to watch his cold feet and in result had tripped over the remains of some creature, the bones baked white in the sun, surprising since it seemed like the sun never reached the valley. As he rubbed off the dirt Bear looked around and realized he had reached the lake. From a distance the water looked crystal clear and inviting as well as blue as the shimmering figure he had dealt with earlier. This lake was nothing like that and instead was dark with wisps of fog inches above the surface water giving off the allusion the lake was bigger than he could possibly tell. Creatures below the fog and water swam and churned silently. This was a good sign as it meant this fog wasn't like the glowing green sea of fog that covered the lands where nothing grew and all things living choked and died swiftly in. Nonetheless, Bear was very thirsty and that much cool water only looked more and more inviting each second he took staring down at it. Bear bounded down the black sandy beaches, past the tree stumps and rusted steel and brick before jumping with great might and a ridiculous howl into the welcoming arms of the cool dark lake. Mother, Her green eyes shone bright and smiled with the warmth of a thousand suns. She smiled and laughed but there lied pain in her eyes, she opened her mouth to speak. Bear burst through the surface of the lake gasping for air. Definitely much colder than expected. He combed the hair and fur from his eyes as he stared up into the gloomy sky. Bear snorted and let the water float him onto his back. When he was under he had managed to grab one of the delicious rock creatures that had to be opened like walnuts. As he floated gracefully and pulled at the crack in the opening he had time to think. As far back as bear could remember he had been alone with only the howlers for company. As far as bear knew he was the only of his kind making him definitely the most talented Bear in existence. The closest thing to bear that he had seen would be the bright blue figure he had defeated of earlier today. He was still baffled and confused by the entire ordeal. The figure looked like him yet, different. Bear was much bigger and hairier. A howler screeched far in the distance, Bear took this as a sign of quiet assurance and pushed the confusion to the back of his head as he floated along in the lake steadily trying his hardest to pry open his snack. The valley was silent, Bear floated like driftwood on his back at peace as the cool wet fog smoothly glided over his body and surface of the lake. Bear decided to gently paddle back to the shore the sliding of rocks beneath him as he breached the sandy shore like a rowboat, the sand crunching and rolling beneath him, he opened his eyes and peered deeply into green eyes. Bear thought he was dreaming again. He then smelled purple flowers, saw the curls of brown hair and felt soft breathing. Quickly bear shut his eyes, and very slowly opened them again. Squinting, he realized She or what was gone. He looked about frantically and rolled over to his knees, now very curious. More surprised than scared Bear slowly got up and scanned the forest and lake, leading to no quick answers. The forest was quiet yet Bear could feel their eyes, he looked down and saw footprints, at least he thought so, they matched nothing he had ever seen before they were small and odd yet very familiar bear couldn't place where he had seen them before. Bear slowly followed them across the back sands of the shore CRUNCH. Bear jolted upright and they made eye contact once more. The beast, both Beautiful and majestic stood before him on the far side of the bank, leg lifted as ready to turn and run if things went wrong. Large curious eyes watched him as he stood awkwardly, Bear lifted his arm slowly in a show of hopefully good will. The beast only tilted her head in confusion then hesitantly lifted one of her front paws as well. Bear made a large sigh of relief and his voice cracked, making him squeal like a baby howler. Her fur was the color of freshly cut down trees, her skin pink like bears. Bear slowly inched his way forward as she did the same, both unsure about the other. Bear smiled a big goofy grin causing a small smirk and high pitched giggle from her. The night was soon to come and Bear decided he would impress her by building a fire, one of the last things his father had shown him before hungry beasts took him from Bear. It had been years now since he'd seen anyone that looked like him and bears heart was now at peace as he watched the girl help gather wood for the fire. They communicated through hand gestures and grunts very comically. Bear could barely remember his mother, Father had always told him she smelled of roses, though bear never understood what that was. Father had said the day the world burned she left us too. But now everything was okay, Bear was no longer alone and he finally had someone to sing to. Bear would call her Deer, they watched the sun slowly set past the silver mountains as the fire Crackled. Casting dark shadows over the land as the sunlight slowly withdrew its loving embrace from the land, until tomorrow when its love affair with the land would be once again revived. The great sun cast its last light on two sets of footprints on the dark sand. Matching, five-toed footprints of a species last hope.