Meat and Berries

~Some cubs are keen on listening, while some would rather learn by trial and error. What was the first truly valuable lesson your Reosean learned in their early years?~

The sun was high in the sky when class started, all the cubs were huddled together to keep warm against the frigid air. But since they were born in Roenden they were pretty used to the freezing tempts and angry winds. Soft snow fell upon them leaving a fresh fluffy blanket on the landscape and the backs of the unfortunate students. Ullr sat alone at the back of the group in silence, his mind ran with ideas of what he could be doing instead of this class. But he still stayed for it was the most important time in his life. His equine tail flicked the snow off its long hairs and kept his paws warm when he huddled back into himself.

“Alright class, today we will be learning how to forage.” The elder stood tall in front of all the cubs and ignored their collective groans.

“Who were can tell me the name of a certain red berry that can be found on this continent that bears love to eat?”

A collective silence soon erupted into roars

“Chokecherry?”

“Elderberry!”

“Gooseberry!”

“It’s obvious guys… its bearberry”

The elder’s head flicked to Ullr whose eyes widen and he swayed side to side from the sudden authoritative eye contact. The elder nodded and turned back to the class.

“ that’s right Ullr! It is bearberry which you all will be finding for me today!”

Ullr took in a deep breath of the nipping air to release the pent of stress from the exchange that just happened, the class all glanced at Ullr then all took off as fast as their stubby legs could get them, the chunky pullers were a ways behind the slim runners, which seemed a bit like an unfair advantage, they are faster and will get to the berries before the pullers and definitely before the tiny chasers but it is what ever, Ullr just has to focus and stay on task. He sat there at the class sight for a good second before slowly standing up and trotting into the undergrowth, pine needles riddle the trails and give off a citrusy odor.

“If I was a bearberry where would I be..” Ullr kept trotting and thinking and thinking and trotting until an idea slapped him in the face, or well a branch did but it gave him an idea!

“ if I was a bearberry I would be by some bears!” he smiled and began running to the highest point he could find to scope out the land. After a good five minutes of eye squinting, he finally found a group of bears huddled around something. He decided that must be the berries so he slowly made his way down the large rock incline and crawled ever so closer to the group, every second was painful and the fear was building up to the point of his very short hairs standing tall on his back. His tail flicked as his nerves got to him and he took a deep breath in to calm down.

He arrived at the location of the bears and had to figure out how he would get them away, obviously, they were hungry since it’s always cold here and they need fat to survive so they won’t give up this free meal easily.. But maybe if he sneaks hard enough they won’t notice his soft grey fur against the pure white snow… yeah no this is gonna be hard. He sat in the undergrowth and waited until one left.. Then two… and now one bear is left at the bush eating the last of the berries. This what his chance. Ullr took a deep breath then ran as hard as his little muscles could muster and yoinked a stem of berries from the bush but the bear was not happy about this. It quickly gave chase and was gaining on Ullr faster than he likes to admit. A beast of that size could rip him to shreds in seconds so he had to think fast, he dodged through trees and dove through hollow logs but the bear still gave chase. He ended up getting back into a boulder and had to face the bear. It stood on its hind legs and let out a deep roar that made Ullrs ears flatten to his head. Just when he thought it was now his time to become a meal the bear fell to the ground with a tremendous thud and a snarl rang out, the elder came to the rescue and was now attacking the bear, blood flew all over the blanket of soft snow, and the bear and elder became a flurry of claws, paws, and maws. Ullr shut his eyes tight and waited for the fight to be over and for it to hopefully be the elder which was the winner. Once the noise died down he slowly opened one eye to see the elder standing on the bear panting heavily, his ear was torn and blood ran down his face.

“Elder! Are you okay?” Ullr came running over and tried to find any other wounds, which there was quite a few

“Nothing that will kill me boy!” the elder chuckled and then huffed as he sat down.

“Well, sir, I uh have the berries” Ullr knew it was a bad time to mention it but he did want the teacher to know he completed the task that was given to him.

“I’m glad.” he let out a sigh and stood up

“Mind helping me bring this back to the teaching area? It’ll be hard for just little old me to drag this beast” the elder chuckled and ate the berries Ullr had risked his life to get.

“Sure thing sir”.

Ullr got back to the center and the classmates all erupted in intense noise as the elder and him returned with a monster dragging behind them.

“ Ullr gets extra points for helping me bring down this beast, but know that if you EVER get in a deadly situation I won’t always be there to save you so you must avoid it at all costs, you hear me kids?” he growled loudly and they all nodded and began to eat the bear after the elder had skinned it. It was a feast for the large class, meat, and berries!