Bears in Boots
It was a bright, breezy morning in Pinecone Forest. Leaves whispered, brooks bubbled, and four bears had a big idea.
Big Bruno Bear had the biggest, strongest paws. He could lift a log like a loaf of bread. Tilly was the tiny cub with the biggest ideas. Grizzle had grumpy eyebrows but a giggly belly. Coco was cocoa-brown and loved anything colorful.
Across Muddy-Buddy Bog was Blueberry Hill. The berries there were round as buttons and sweet as giggles.
"We need a bridge," said Bruno, flexing his furry muscles.
"We need… THESE!" squeaked Tilly, pointing at a pile by an old stump—boots! Red boots. Yellow boots. Boots with polka-dots and zigzag laces. A little sign on a stick read: FREE BOOTS.
"Boots for bears?" Grizzle blinked. "Do bears wear boots?"
"We do today!" Coco cheered.
They each chose four. That took a while.
Bruno slid a red boot on his front paw. Squelch. Then another. Splop. Then another. Splish. The last one went on with a loud… PLOP!
Tilly put two on the same paw by mistake and tried to hop. Boing. Bonk. She toppled into a pile of ferns, giggling.
Grizzle put one on his ear and frowned. "This hat feels funny."
"Ear boots aren’t a thing, Griz," Bruno rumbled, smiling.
Coco peered through a boot like a telescope. "I can see a frog! He looks surprised!"
The frog on a lily pad did look surprised. "Ribbit. Nice shoes," he croaked.
Wobble-wobble, stomp-stomp, the bears marched toward the bog. Their boots went squeak, squelch, squish to the beat of the woodpecker tap-tap-tapping a tree.
"Boot parade!" sang Tilly.
Bruno wrapped his big arms around a fallen log. Heave-ho! Up it went. He took one step. Squish. Two steps. Squelch. His left boot got stuck. He tugged. Tug. Tug. POP!
The boot flew off like a red rocket and landed on a branch. A squirrel popped up under it, the boot now a bouncy hat.
"Stylish!" the squirrel chirped, tipping the boot brim. Everyone laughed so hard that Grizzle’s grumpy eyebrows wiggled into happy ones.
They carried the log together. It wobbled like a pancake on a plate. Coco steered. "Easy now."
At the edge of the bog, Bruno set one end of the log across the water. It teetered. Tilly stepped onto it. Squeak-squeak squeaked her boots.
"I’m a brave tightrope bear!" she said, arms out wide.
The log shivered. Tilly slid. "Whee—!"
Bruno’s strong paw scooped her up mid-swoop. They spun once, twice, and landed in a soft puff of cattails. POOMF! Everyone burst out laughing again.
Bzzzz. Bumblebees floated over the wildflowers tangled in Coco’s boot laces. One landed on Tilly’s nose.
"A… a… achoo-choo!" she sneezed.
Acorns pattered down from somewhere high. The squirrel poked out of the boot-hat tree again. "Hey! My secret snack!" He stuffed his cheeks like little balloons and grinned.
Bruno planted the far end of the log firm and steady. "Bridge!" he boomed.
One by one, they crossed in a silly stomp. Left boot, right boot, splish-splash-squelch. The frog cheered. The woodpecker played a drum solo on a hollow stump. Even Grizzle hummed a happy tune.
Blueberry Hill was bursting with blue. Blueberries hung like tiny moons—well, tiny blue buttons—on every branch.
"Let’s fill our boots!" Tilly cried.
"Wash first," said Coco. "Clean boots make clean berries!"
They swooshed the extra boots in the brook until they went squeaky clean. Then they scooped berries by the pawful. Plunk-plunk-plunk went the berries into the shiny boot-buckets.
Bruno lifted two boots in each paw and one on his head for fun. "I can carry them all!" he said. He wobbled. He wiggled. He steadied. "Ta-da!"
Grizzle stuck a blueberry on his nose. "Do I look serious now?"
"Very serious," Tilly giggled. "Very blueberry serious."
On the way back, their boot parade was even sillier. Squeak-splish, thump-thump, giggle-snort. The squirrel marched behind them, still wearing the red boot hat, saluting like a tiny captain.
They shared blueberries with their forest friends. Frog got a blue beard. Woodpecker drummed a thank-you song. The bees buzzed a happy hum.
Bruno hung the clean boots on a low branch. "Boot tree," he said. "For rainy days, muddy days, and bear parades."
"Next time, hats?" Tilly asked.
Grizzle poked the boot on the branch with one claw. "Only if the hat doesn’t tickle my ear."
Everyone laughed. The forest laughed too—leaves shivered, water giggled, and the woodpecker tapped one last silly tap.
And that is how four strong bears, in a forest full of friends, discovered that boots make mud fun, bridges possible, and blueberry adventures very, very giggly.
