On the far bank of the stream, two big green frogs saw the whole thing…

“Whadya make of that performance then?”Asked the first frog.

“I’d have to give it 7 out of 10 for technical difficulty but just a 2 for artistic impression,” replied the second frog, as if he were a judge in an Olympics diving competition. “When it comes to artistic impression, well, frankly bears suck.”

“Yup,” agreed the first frog. “Too big a splash when she entered the water. No finesse. Bears just ain’t got what it takes when it comes to water sports. To be fair on the big hairy guys, we amphibians are a hard act to follow.”

The second frog nodded in agreement, flashed out a log tongue and expertly swallowed a passing fly without moving his body, then executed a perfect dive into the water, leaving barely a ripple.

“Now that was sheer class,” the first frog proudly declared to nobody in particular, before diving in after his friend.

The next morning found the bears still following the stream but much lower down the valley. Here the snow had already gone and the valley was lush and green. Gently sloping fields of grass were fringed by fragrant pine forest.

Several bears were dotted around the valley, some with cubs in tow, and the mother bear put a gentle paw on Aries shoulder pointing to one of the big female bears eating clover at the edge of the forest.

“Look Aries it’s your aunt Ethyl,” she exclaimed.

She waved both her arms in the air to attract the other bears attention and shouted over to her.

“Hey Ethyl. It’s us.”

The two bears ran together and hugged.

“Hey sister, it`s so nice to see you again. So how was winter?” Ethyl asked.

“How would I know? We slept through it the same as you did,” the other bear replied. Ethyl then turned to look at Aries.

“And who is this young lady with you?” She asked.

“Surely it can’t be Aries? My you’ve grown since I last saw you.”

From just inside the forest a pinecone came flying through the air and hit Aries firmly on the back of the head.

“Ouch!” she complained, and picked up the offending object, studying it closely. Ethyl and Gentle turned to see where the pinecone had come from and saw two male cubs much bigger than Aries coming bounding towards them from the tree line.

Ethyl let out a long-suffering sigh. “Oh, no. Here comes trouble.”

“Bor and Bru behave your selves! Come say hello to your aunt and cousin.”

“Hi Aunt Gentle,” the cubs said together. “Hey cousin, nice to meet you”, said Bru.

Bor pointed at the large white patch on Aries chest. “Wow, cute fur cousin. How did you get the white markings?”

Aries puffed out her chest proudly. “I am part polar bear on my father’s side. My great, great, great grandfather came from the far North,” she told them.

“Interesting,” said Bru. “But not as interesting as what we just found in the forest.”

“Yes, we found an old dead log just inside the forest and it’s just full to bursting with ants!”

His brother added. “There’s enough for everybody. Come on, what are you all waiting for? Let’s go before some other bear finds them.”

With that, the two cubs scampered back off to the forest.

“Now that’s an offer you can’t refuse,” said Ethyl. “Maybe those two rascals are good for something after all. Let’s go to lunch ladies,” so the other three bears followed the cubs to the forest.

Aries was still examining the pinecone and she now held it out to her mother.

“What’s this Mom?” She asked.

“It’s a pine cone,” she answered.

“Can I eat it?”

“Well you could I suppose…” but before she could finish the sentence the hungry little bear popped the cone into her mouth and bit down hard.

“Urgh”, spluttered Aries, spitting out the cone.

“That’s absolutely horrible”.

“But they are very hard and don’t taste very nice,” continued her mother.

Ethyl chuckled at this.

“That wasn’t very nice of you sister,” she said.

Ethyl turned to her two cubs. “Ants you say? Mmm, mmm. I just love ants for breakfast. I do hope they are the red ones. So much tastier than termites I find. Lead the way boys. And boys…”

“Yes mom?”Asked the cubs.

“It’s very rude to throw pinecones at young ladies.”

Bor and Bru faced each other trying to look innocent.

“Pine cone? What pinecone? I didn’t see any pinecone,” said Bru.