there was a bear cub. he was a really fuzzy bear with sparkly brown eyes and paws that were too big. his name was aneirin (meaning "very precious little one") but everyone called him nye.

nye was exploring in the middle of the afternoon one day. he was trundling through green brush and slipping under the roots of trees that formed peculiar arches when they rose and returned to the ground. nye liked to think that the tree-roots were curious about the land above the rich-smelling soil and so they rose up to take a look around, decided it was more interesting down below, and returned to the cool silent region that lingered underneath the dirt he marked with his paw-prints.

it was a sunny day, the first sunny day after a long stretch of rainy ones. nye's mother had turned out her cubs suffering from cabin-fever and bent on quarreling about every little thing (from who got to eat which nuts to where someone was going to sleep) and told them to explore while she went outside to find some more food.

nye slid under another tree-root and stopped where the edge of tall grass and foliage ended, before the muddy banks of the river took over with the shallow, clear water running swiftly between them. nye suddenly thought that his mother would be absolutely delighted if he managed to bring back a nice juicy fish for dinner. he looked about furtively, but the riverbank was empty. he would have plenty of time to hunt undisturbed.

nye crept to the edge of the running water. he could see rocks gleaming underneath the surface - rocks that only a week ago had served as stepping-stones he could trundle along, perching and drinking when the sun made him thirsty. after the rain, the river's waters had swelled and his usual strategy of pretending to be invisible on a stepping-stone had become impossible.

nye sat at the edge of the bank and scratched his side with his back paw absent-mindedly. suddenly he was startled by a huge splash, which sent thousands of waterdrops cascading over the muddy bank and startled many birds that had been chirping happily in the treetops. Amid the chaos of squawking, nye stood in the place where he had frantically backed up (not very far from the edge of the riverbank, really) and shook the water from his fur. he looked around him and stared in surprise. in a huge puddle, a few paws away from him, lay a tumble of silvery, squirming fish. nye was about to approach the fish when a sudden surge from the edge of the river stopped him. he froze as a large wildcat climbed out of the bank.

the wildcat stopped in its tracks when it caught sight of nye. the two animals stared at each other. the wildcat broke into a goofy grin.

'that was amazing!!!!' cried nye joyfully.

'thanks,' purred the wildcat bashfully.

the two friends looked at the pile of fish greedily. nye and sholto both gathered in the fish. sholto tore a large leaf off a branch while nye found a long wiry vine lying at the base of a tree. he bit through the vine and dragged it over to the place sholto had gathered all the fish. sholto slid the fish onto the leaf and the two friends tied the leaf into a pouch with the vine.

nye asked if sholto could spare some of his catch for his family, to which sholto smiled and purred, saying that he wanted to give nye's mother at least ten fish in thanks for allowing him to sleep in her family's cave during the first night of the rainstorm. nye grinned and tumbled into sholto in thanks. sholto grabbed the pouch of fish in his teeth and the two friends set off into the woods happily. they made quite a pair going home, as sholto's fur dried in every which direction and nye (much to his mother's horror) left muddy footprints everywhere in their cave.

(ok i'll finish this later maybe - now i HAVE to do work!)