The late sun rays shined through the northern bay, warming the late summer tundra. Massive glaciers melted slowly into a nearby bay, with mammoths grazing along the lush coastline for the last remaining shoots. Alongside them, herds of caribou and musk ox nibbled on the remaining grasses not picked by the mammoths. The day's aura calmed all the beasts nearby, giving them a calm demeanor. Even the normally savage sabretooth lied about lazily like a kitten in the fleeting rays in bliss. Overhead, the sky was filled with early flocks of geese and wildfowl, leaving due to the soon approaching ice age winter. Soon the sky would too be filled with the Great Spirits presences, which could be made notable by their holy green-blue glow. All seemed to be well for the creatures on the northern tundra.
Well, all except for two. Actually, only one with his accompanying big brother. That would be Koda, a dark furred bear cub, who somberly made his way through the edge of the forest onto the open landscape. Following close behind him was his adoptive big brother, a man turned bear called Kenai. It had been half a season since he chose to remain a bear due to the strong bond he had developed for the cub. Now, the two had come across their destination, Nerriungnerk* Bay. Kenai raised up onto two feet to survey the beautiful scene before them and let out a content sigh. It reminded him so much of his old life, of kayaking and hunting with his blood brothers Denahi and Sitka as the little brother But now, he had to switch roles, needing to guide Koda as a big brother while also getting caught up in his antics.
" Alright, Koda, we made it. Nerriungnerk Bay." Kenai proclaimed " I told you we'd get here on time thanks to a mammoth ride. Now we'll be able to all the stuff you wanted to do up here."
Koda just look gloomily down " I guess so. C'mon then."
While the expressions of a bear differ from men, they're still very readable. Keani gently lifted Koda by the scruff of the neck as his began to walk away.
" Ok, spill."
" What?"
" Koda, you practically went on all of last week about how much fun you had up in this bay, and when I finally take you, you're practically a bear rug. What is it?"
The little cub gave a slightly sad shy look toward Kenai " The truth is-"
" Hey! Check it out, eh? It's Bear Boy and Smallish Bear!" a familiar Canadian voice called out.
The two bears turned to see a familiar set of moose brothers clopping down toward them from the shoreline.
" Oh, hey Rutt, Tuke. What are you guys doing up here?"
" We've always been coming up here. Good place to unwind and all."
" Unwind? What do you two need to unwind from?" Kenai questioned humorously.
Rutt waned on in finding an excuse, flapping his droopy snout. " Oh, ya know. From ah.. twig searching!"
" Yeah, yeah! And shoot chewing, and hoof trotting and more that. It's hard work, don't you agree, smallish bear?"
Koda just looked up in uncharacteristic gloom " Yeah, yeah sure." The little cub waddled away with his head down low to a nearby rocky outcropping.
" Jeez, what's eating at him?" Rutt wondered
" Might be worms, eh?" Tuke responded.
Kenai just looked at the moose with a raised brow.
" Hey, I ain't joking about that stuff, ok eh? That's what happens when you eat too many rotten twigs."
" No way, dude, you got it from soggy bark."
" No, are you crazy. Don't you remember, it all started when we met up with that reindeer Sven and he-"
Kenai ignored the tangent and looked over to his sad little brother. He walked over to Koda and plopped down beside him.
" Koda, you can tell me anything. I promised I looked out for you, but I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong."
The brown bear cub looked up into Kenai concerned brown eyes. " I- I guess that's just it. I know you care about, really I believe that. But you gave up so much to take care of me. Your home, your brothers and your whole future. I just don't want things to be harder for you."
Kenai heart both warmed up and ached over Koda concern. After making the worst mistake of his life and getting to know him on his journey of retribution, Kenai felt he owed it to Koda to give him a good quality of life. But he didn't want Koda feel guilty in his decision to stay a bear. Suddenly, Kenai gave a small smile on his face as a plan came across his mind to cheer up the cub. It would definitely be ridiculous for him, but right now, a little ridiculousness is just what Koda needed.
" Oh, come on. How hard could it be to take care of a hairball like you?" Kenai questioned.
" Kenai, I'm serious."
The older brother just gave a small scoff " So am I. And I'm telling you, if there's one thing you've taught me, it's that life isn't all that complicated. In fact, most of the time, it's pretty fun."
The cub looked back to Kenai " How do you know that?"
Keani then rose up on two feet " Because, all we've got to do is-" he than clapped his paws together and did something that Koda thought he'd never see: Kenai was singing.
"Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life"
Koda had turned from gloom and doom to completely awe struck. Sure, Kenai didn't chirp like a songbird or howl like a wolf, but the fact he was doing so at all left him with flies entering his mouth.
Even Rutt and Tuke were thrown off. " Hey, Smallish Bear, what's going on with your brother, eh? He eat the wrong berries before or what?" Tuke questioned.
Kenai still kept going, knowing well aware of the attention held by his adoptive brother.
"Wherever we wander, wherever we roam
I couldn't be fonder of my big new home
The bees are buzzin' in the tree
To make some honey just for you and me
When you look under the rocks and plants
And take a glance at the fancy ants
Then maybe try a few"
Kenai proposed as he held a few grubs to Koda's face. Kenai big smile was infectious, making Koda grow one on his own face. He may not have known fully why Kenai was doing this, but whatever it was, he'd happily go along with it. The cub snatched a crunchy grub and popped one into his mouth as Kenai placed him onto his shoulders and wandered on.
"The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!"
And so the two brothers went on and on with the medley into the late afternoon, enjoying each others company while having a grand time, doing all the things that constituted "the bare necessities"; chasing fish, swimming in the bay, rolling around in the coastal hills, and doing humorous impressions of the fellow animals in the area. Even Rutt and Tuke joined in, singing even more crudely than Kenai. As the daylight waned, the two sets of brothers relaxed and settled down at a high outcropping that overlooked the whole bay at the forest edge.
" Oy, what a day, eh? I'm telling ya, we oughta do this more often." Tuke said with what little breath he had left in him.
" Amen to that, eh! Who knew you had a set of lungs on you, bear boy?" Rutt agreed.
Kenai just let a little laugh " Yeah, well don't expect me to do that anytime soon again."
Koda, looking down from a low branch he was now resting on, made a mockingly sad face " Really?"
" Sigh, alright, I'll did it went you're ever in the mood."
" You'd really do that, Kenai?"
" Course I will. Cause you're the bare necessity of my life. Now come here!" Kenai finished as he grabbed Koda and began to noogie him hard. It wasn't too long until both sets of brothers got locked up into a friendly dogpile. Brotherly love was evident in the air, setting any doubts Koda had aside for good and placed a sense of good fortune for both of their futures After all, all they needed to do from this point on was:
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life!
Author's Note
*Nerriungnerk is the Eskimo word for Peace
I personally think that Brother Bear is one of the most criminally underrated Disney movies made, so I definitely wanted to express my joy towards these characters in this, as I noticed how there are relatively so few stories on Brother Bear on here. I gotta thank the new 2016 remake of the Jungle Book to jogging up my love for this song and decided to mash the two together. Hopefully you guys all enjoyed this as much I did. And obviously, I don't either property and both are owned Disney. Later!