Heret gave a tiny whine and covered his ears as Flow let out another horribly pitched howl. Most of their family was out hunting and almost everyone else had left the den, but Heret was tired and trying to sleep. Of course with his newest sister in the den as well, sleep was just about impossible. She was the loudest and probably the most energetic pup born all season. The blind wolf huffed and sat up as he felt a small furry weight fall on his side.

“Play! Play!” Flow yipped before she began nipping lightly at Heret’s leg.

The golden furred wolf sighed lightly and lowered his head to lightly nuzzle the younger canine. “Flow, if you sit still and be quiet, I’ll tell you a story.”

“A story?!”

“Yes, yes. Now shush.” Heret stated before he sighed lightly and lay back down. What was he going to tell… Oh well, he’d just make up it up as he went along.

“A long time ago, there lived a bear.”

“A bear? Cool!”

He frowned lightly, but continued on as if the interruption hadn’t happened. “This bear was a great big black bear who loved nothing more but to lay in a big patch of flowers all day. He thought that the flowers were so beautiful and smelled so good and he didn’t ever want to fall in love with someone who wasn’t as pretty as a flower. His name was…”

“Flow!”

Heret gave a tiny smile and nuzzled his sister, “No, his name wasn’t Flow. That’s your name silly. His name was Tris. Tris was a very handsome bear, so many, many other bears came and tried to make him fall in love with them but Tris didn’t like any of them. He said that they were all too dirty and too stinky for him. Soon, he had turned down every single bear in the forest and he began to get very lonely.”

“Awww, poor Tris.”

“Yes, poor Tris. Well, one day, Tris was laying in his patch of flowers he saw the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen. It was a butterfly with pink and purple wings. The butterfly was sitting on a flower, drinking the flower juice. Tris got to his feet and marched over. “Butterfly,” He said, “what is your name?” The butterfly looked up at Tris but did not speak. “Oh please, Butterfly. I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you. I think I love you.” But even with this confession, the butterfly still refused to speak.”

“How rude!”

“No, it wasn’t being rude. Butterflies just don’t understand bears. But Tris didn’t know that. He continued to try to make the butterfly respond, but soon the butterfly had eaten all it wanted to and it flew away. Tris was very sad. Soon, Tris found himself very angry at the butterfly. Tris was so angry, that he stomped on all of the flowers and tore them out of the ground until nothing but dirt was left. Afterwards, he was even sadder than before. He sat in the middle of where the flowers had been and started crying. What had he done? Now he didn’t even have the beauty of the flowers to rely on. “

“Poor Tris.” Flow whimpered, pouting up at her brother.

Heret licked at Flow’s ear, nuzzling her. “I’m not done yet.” He promised, before quietly continuing. “Tris cried and cried until the ground was all wet. But no one came to make him feel better because he’d been so mean and called all the other bears stinky. Tris was very lonely from then on.”

As he finished, Flow just stared at her older brother, looking rather horrified. “But Heret! Tris is going to be sad then! That’s not fair!”

Heret sighed lightly yet again, “But Flow, don’t you think he was mean to call all of the bears stinky?”

“Well… Yeah… But…”

“But when you’re mean to everyone, then you’re going to be lonely.”

“I’m not mean to anyone!” Flow protested.

“I didn’t mean you personally, sweetie. Tris was mean so he never found anyone to love. That’s why you’ve got to be nice.”

“Oh…. Well I guess that makes sense…. But I still don’t think it’s fair.” Flow muttered as she lay down next to her brother.

Heret sighed, snuggling against his sister. She’d never be happy.