Chapter 1

Moony

Moony was a young Moon Bear cub. He loved to play in the trees all day long with his sister, crescent. At night, their mother would always tell them the story of the Great Sun Bear, which was their favorite story.

"Crescent, you can't catch me!" Yelled Moony, as he swung one tree branch to another, giggling.

"Oh, yes I can!" Replied Crescent. She leaped onto a tree branch, and followed him as he swung. Crescent was getting closer to him, so she took a big leap, and landed right on top of him.

"Ow!" Yelled Moony as Crescent dug her claws into his fur to keep her balance. Crescent looked at him with a proud expression and said, "I told you I can!" Moony rolled his eyes and just then their mother called up to them, "My cubs, it's time for bed!" Moony looked at the sky and realized that the moon was coming up and the sky was dark. He leaped down from his tree branch onto a pile of leaves and his mom gave him a stern look.

"Moony, I told you not to jump from that high! You could get hurt! Climb down instead." She said to him. Moony replied with an "Ok" and he saw his sister climbing down the tree. When she got down, the two cubs walked into their den with their mother following them. Crescent and Moony snuggled down onto the floor of the den and them Crescent asked, "Mommy can you tell us the story about the Great Sun Bear?" Their mother smiled down at her and replied, "Of course, my cubs. A long time ago there was a Moon Bear who lived on the sun, and he thought he was a sun bear, himself, even though he looked nothing like the other sun bears. One day, he saw a star and when he tried to run to it, he fell off the sun! He discovered that he could float and he flew all the way to the star. But it wasn't a star, it was the moon. He landed on the moon and saw other bears like him and found out that he was a moon bear! He wanted to live on the moon but he wanted to live on the sun, as well. Another bear told him how he could live between, so he flew out into the middle of both and became a star. Now, the Great Sun Bear was a star bear that could guide all the other bears to there homes when they were lost. Now, my cubs, if you are ever lost, follow the guiding star, the Great Sun Bear and he will guide you back home."

"I love that story." Moony said and then he yawned.

"Ok, now go to bed, cubs." Their mother said softly as Moony and Crescent drifted off into sleep. Their mother smiled and curled up beside them, falling to sleep.

Moony woke up to a weird chattering sound. He stood up and stretched his legs, and quietly crept out of the den. He heard the sound again! He looked to the left and just a few bearlengths away, there was a flat-face. His mother warned him not to get near flat-faces. He gasped and started going back towards his den, but they spotted him and they pulled out a firestick. The flat-face pointed the firestick at Moony as he was running away, but he shot Moony with it. Moony fell to the ground. This wasn't what he pictured a death pellet looking like. It felt like a small needle poking into him. All of a sudden, he got really tired and everything went black.

When Moony woke up, he was in a strange place. It looked like the wild but it was only a mile long and there were other moon bears in there with him. He got up and went to see what this place was. He found a moon bear that had looked like him but he had white tips on his ears.

Moony introduced himself, "Hi there, my name's Moony! I just got woke up at this place. Where are we?" The bear turned around and said, "My name's Fengari. We're in a place called the Bear Bowl. If you ever think of escaping, there's no way out. The flat-faces would just hit you with a sleep needle and put you back in here." Moony looked at him, confused, and asked, "Sleep needle? What's that?"

"Didn't they hit you with one of those when they brought you here?" Fengari asked.

"Oh, I thought they hit me with a death pellet." Moony replied. Fengari laughed and said, "No, young cub. That was a sleep needle. Death pellets kill you, and sleep needles make you fall asleep." Moony understood now but was still confused about one thing so he asked, "I don't understand. Why would they want to make us sleep?"

"So they can move us places! I'm hungry, feeding time is soon. I'm gonna sit on that rock over there and sunbathe." Fengari replied. Moony still wanted to know why the flat-faces would want to move them, but he let Fengari go. He decided to explore. He started running to see where the end would take him, but he ended up at a fence and saw bears at the other side. But these bears were different, they were brown! Moony saw one sleeping by the fence a few bearlengths away, so he walked over to him and said, "Hi, I'm Moony! I've never seen bears that are brown before! What's your name?"

The bear opened one eye and said, "The name's Psaros. Now go away, I'm trying to sleep." Moony nodded and walked away. But then he thought, "If there are bears on this side, there must be bears on the other side!" He ran as fast as he could, not looking where he was going, and when he opened his eyes, there was a fence right next to his face. He tried to stop but he didn't make it in time, and he crashed his head into the fence.

"Owwwwww..." He said, rubbing his head with his left forepaw.

"Woah, you should watch where you're going!" said a voice in front of them. He looked up and saw a white bear on the other side of the fence that was really big. Moony was surprised that there were brown bears, but he was even more surprised that there were white ones.

"Woah... You're white!" Exclaimed Moony. The white bear laughed and said, "Indeed I am. My name's Pagos, what's you're name?"

"My name's Moony." He replied, still looking astonished that there were white bears. The two became really good friends and they talked every day, but one day, Pagos said that he wasn't going to be around for much longer. Moony was really scared that Pagos was going to have to go, but he knew that it was just how life works. He remembered a different story that his mother had told him, about where bears go when they die. Their spirit goes up to the moon. He realized that The Great Sun Bear must have also been a spirit of a dead bear, as well. He guessed that Sun Bears go to the sun, but he didn't know about the White Bears or Brown Bears.

"Where do White Bear spirits go when they die?" Asked Moony. Pagos smiled, being glad that he could tell a cub this story.

"When White Bears die, their spirits go under the ice, and other bears can see shadows of the dead bears. But when the ice melts, their spirits go into the little ice chips in the sky." Replied Pagos. Moony was surprised and he said, "Well, Moon Bear spirits go to the moon." Pagos nodded and he said, "Wow, I didn't know that. Well, my time here on Earth is ending soon. I'm too old."

Moony looked at him with tears in his eyes, saying, "No, Stay alive! I can't lose you!" But Pagos lied down on the floor and Moony smelled an awful smell coming from him.

"That's the smell of death!" Moony thought to himself, as tears started coming out of his eyes. He crouched down beside Pagos and saw him lift his head for the last time and heard him mumble, "Goodbye...", and his head dropped. Moony saw no sign of life from him. No heartbeats or breathing.

"NO!" Screamed Moony as tears were streaming from his eyes and he clawed at the fence, wanting to be by Pagos. Other white and Moon Bears heard him and they ran over to where Moony and Pagos were. Flat-faces heard, too and the ones that took care of them rushed inside of the bear bowl and took away Pagos. Moony sat there, crying for the rest of the day until he cried himself to sleep.