The War Against Bears

Fox cowered inside the rock crevice, squeezing himself as hard as he could against the dank walls. Outside two black bears roared and threw their heavy bodies against the stone he was hiding under. Anytime now, and the whole thing would crush him.

Fox called out with a shiver of desperation in his shriek, "Please, please give me more time! I will pay you back. I promise. I will pay you back!"

A roar and another thump trembled through the stone onto Fox's back. A bear thrust his nose into the hole and growled, "I don't believe you. You were sly enough to go to different bears to get your loans. It is impossible for anyone to pay back that much to all of us in one lifetime. I might as well tear you into pieces and send off your body parts to all your creditors."

"But that will achieve nothing. Each of you will barely get a mouthful."

"We will make an example of you. We will wear parts of you like a necklace around our neck, and tell every potential debtor about your story. We will make you pay."

"No, no, wait! I have an idea. I know how to pay back my debts double, oh no, triple to all the bears."

The bear's nose disappeared from the hole and a holler of laughter thundered outside. The second bear said, "Wait. Let's hear him out. I am curious to hear what he wants to say before we tear him to pieces."

Fox trembled and tried not to whimper as he said, "Thank you. Thank you for listening. I notice that not a lot of animals go into your territory. Am I right?"

A thoughtful silence later, the first bear said, "Yes, you are right. What has that got to do with you paying back your debts?"

"If I can persuade an army of animals to go to your area to openly fight you, will you consider that as payment enough?"

The second bear asked, "Why would we agree to a fight?"

"Because bears are the greatest animals in the jungle. Nobody can fight you and win. You can eat them to your fill, and sell off the carcasses to other carnivores in the neighboring valleys and jungles."

"Interesting idea," the second bear said. "But how will you persuade them to do it?"

Fox swallowed. "In that respect, I will need your help to do something that will make them incense enough to want to fight you. I need one of the bears to do something that will be considered so deplorable that it will make the animals declare war on your kind."

The first bear poked his nose back in the hole. "And what is this that you want us to do?" he said with a low growl in his throat.

"To eat the President."

"Hah! I thought this idea was too good." The bear pulled out his nose, stood up, placed his forelegs on the edges of the stone and began to press down with all his might.

"No, no, wait!" Fox called out from underneath. "After the war, you can blame one of the bears for it. If you can produce a criminal, then you will not be accused of the crime. You only need to produce this scapegoat after you have had your fill."

The second bear said, "That is a good plan. Maybe we should discuss with the others first." A pause. "Stay hear with him, Bruce. I will be back before nightfall."

Bruce, the first bear, grunted and lay his full length against the opening of the crevice. The scent of his musk permeated the small hole, and by the time the second bear returned with six other bears, Fox was close to fainting from the heat and stuffiness. They agreed to his plan.

A few days later the jungle was shaken by the shriek of President Monkey. He had been torn to pieces and the fleshier parts of his body eaten. Fox, who happened to be the last person to reach the scene of the crime, pointed to a bear track and called out, "Look! A bear track. A bear ate him."

A deer shouted, "Those arrogant beasts. Have they no respect for our government?"

Fox said, "They are bears. They are brutes, and they have no sense of guilt or mercy. Imagine what they will do to the rest of us. Imagine what they would do to our children."

Gasps of terror rose from the crowd. A squirrel squeaked, "We must do something! We must do something!"

"Yes!" Fox said. "We must do something. We must take revenge. We must kill them before they kill more of us."

Wolf, who had been silent up to that point, said, "Calm down. The bears are larger that most of us. We cannot fight them, and their numbers are large and hungry."

Spittle foamed around Fox's mouth, "You don't care about us. You don't care about our children. They may be big, but we are many." He turned back to face the crowd and barked, "We can win this war! We can win this war!" and soon his cries were repeated by all the young animals in the vicinity.

In the next three days, a stampede of youngsters drafted in the army and Fox showed them the way to the bears' territory. With urgings and promises of a glorious victory these youngsters rushed into battle. Day after day the casualty reports came in: 16 stags and 8 squirrels fell on the first day. 20 more the next and 50 after that. Soon the number reached the thousands. The more Fox claimed victory, the more drafted into the army and more animals died.

One day, Pilfry the tortoise journalist decided to see what was really going on. He couldn't understand why they were winning when so many were dying. He squeezed under bushes, climbed roots, tumbled over logs until finally on the dawn of the fifth day, he reached the battlefield.

There were bears everywhere. Fat bears, small bears, heavy bears, brown ones and black ones too. Pilfry was terrified, but none of the bears gave him the time of day as they hurtled past him and crashed into stags or stomped down on macaques and squirrels.

Suddenly a buffalo bayed and the ground shook as a stampede rolled across the field. Pilfry crawled under the shadow of a rock and waited for the dust to settle before poking out his head to look.

What he saw horrified him. A proud young bull was being clawed and gorged by 3 giant bears, a monkey's back snapped in the jaws of a brown bear and a squirrel was halved by 2 young cubs. The animals from his jungle were being slaughtered by the hundreds. Pilfry shivered and stayed hidden in his shell until nightfall, when he crawled out and stealthily made his way across the field of slumbering bears.

It took Pilfry another week to return to his jungle and report what he saw. When he did, Fox barked a laugh and told him that his news was old. In fact he had heard from the frontlines that they had taken over an important turf from the bears. Anyway, why would anyone listen to a cowardly tortoise who could not even outrun a duck out of water. Plus his report was an insult to the courage of their boys.

Pilfry returned dejected to his pool. There he found a throng of animals waiting for him. Squirrels and birds perched on branches, monkeys squatted on rocks and roots, deer kept watch with keen senses and buffaloes chewed on the grass. They listened once more to his recount and agreed to return the following night to plan for a way to be rid of Fox, their new president.

The following night, when they returned to the pool, Pilfry was nowhere to be found. The animals demanded for a re-election, and Fox lost his presidency to old Tiger.

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