Adventure at the River

Story by C. C. Kimmel

Illustrations by T.B. Coates

In the middle of the forest, in a cave beneath the roots of a giant oak tree, lived four friends. There was a fox named Fox, a bear named Bear, a doggy named Doggy, and a kitty cat they all called Kit. Every day they woke up in their cave beneath the roots of the giant oak tree excited for an adventure.

Fox woke up first with a plan. Bear woke up second to start making breakfast. Foxes like to have a plan, and bears like to have a meal, so it was a good way for each of them to start the morning.

Doggy walked slowly out of the cave, rubbing his eyes with his paws, before putting his nose to the ground to track all the new smells.

Kit always exited the cave last, her tail proudly in the air, expecting her three friends to watch in amazement as she licked her delicate paws and cleaned behind her ears.

Breakfast ended the same way every morning. Kit jumped on Bear’s back, and Doggy lay on his back rubbing his fur into the dirt. Fox, with a glint in his eye, a mischievous excitement only foxes have, asked his three friends, “Are you all ready for a great adventure?”

“We’re going to the river!” Fox said, then let the excitement of his plan sink in.

“I love the river! Fish! Fish! Fish! Fish Fish!” Bear shouted, jumping and launching Kit into the air.

“Meow!!” Kit shouted as she flew through the forest, landing, as she always did, on her feet and offended. “I do not appreciate being thrown. Humph.”

“Sorry, Kit, I just really love the river,” Bear said, walking over to Kit and giving her a great big bear hug.

Doggy was wagging his tail with his tongue out the entire time. “Will there be trees next to the river?”

Fox, confused, answered, “We’re in a forest, Doggy. Of course there will be trees.”

Doggy had to run around in three more circles and bark at a squirrel before he could finally say, “I love trees! Let’s go!!”

Fox had a map and liked to use big words like “traversing” and “arboreal” and “fungi” and would try to use them in sentences as he led his friends on adventures. Bear, Doggy, and Kit didn’t understand the words, but were impressed all the same.

After they traversed through the arboreal landscape, past the fungi growing on the rocks, they arrived at the mighty river and all took a deep breath.

“I won’t be getting in, obviously, but I do love the river,” Kit exclaimed, jumping off Bear’s back and climbing on a rock in the sun next to the river.

“Trees!!” Doggy barked and began sniffing every one he saw.

“Fish!!” Bear ran into the river and began catching fish at once, throwing them onto the shore beside Kit, who loved the smell of fish and batted at them with her tiny paws.

Fox jumped into the river and then began running up and down, marking any updates on his map and doing experiments with river water and sand on the banks.

Kit, Doggy, Bear, and Fox were happy and planned on basking in the sun and smelling trees and catching fish and experimenting the rest of the day, but they soon discovered a different adventure was in store for all of them.

Doggy and Fox smelled the bunny first and stopped what they were doing. Kit’s whiskers started to twitch and she wiggled her ears to hear better. Bear was still busy catching fish when Kit yelled out, “There she is!”

They all looked up and saw, trapped on a small rocky ledge about halfway down the cliff that towered above them on the other side of the river, a tiny bunny, shivering and scared.

Doggy began to bark and yelled out, “Don’t worry, Bunny. We’re gonna get you, aren’t we?”

Fox’s eyes were already scanning the cliff and figuring out a rescue plan. Bear was waistdeep in the river water, trying to scale the cliff, but he couldn’t.

Kit called out to the friends, “Hey! Get over here and let’s work together.” All of them ran over to her. “Okay, Fox, what is your plan? What do we need to do?”

Fox paused for a moment, and then his eyes lit up and he began speaking very quickly. “Doggy, you need to stay down here with me and be as encouraging as you possibly can. Bear, find a large tree branch, break it off, and go up the river to the bridge and cross over to the cliff side with Kit. Kit, Bear is going to lower you down on the branch and you will use your mighty teeth on the back of the bunny’s thick neck as Bear pulls you both back up.”

The forest friends went right to work. Doggy started shouting out encouragement while Bear and Kit grabbed a branch and ran downriver to cross and get to Bunny, who was still shivering and softly crying on the ledge.

Fox watched with steady eyes as Bear and Kit appeared again at the top of the cliff above Bunny. “Okay! Now lower the branch with Kit slowly. A little to the right! Now a little to the left! A little bit more! There! Stop!”

Bear stopped lowering the branch, Kit at the end of it digging in with her claws. Bunny looked up and saw Kit’s soft, kind eyes and heard Doggy barking, “You’re gonna be okay!” Bunny started to smile.

“Can you lower me down a little bit more?” Kit yelled up to Bear.

“No can do, Kit,” Bear said, his arm already fully extended down, gripping the tree branch with all his strength.

Fox yelled up to Kit, “There’s another ledge just to your left. Try jumping there and then jumping to Bunny.” Kit did it, almost slipping on the second jump.

“Now carefully bring Bunny up to the other ledge and across to the branch.”

Doggy stopped barking and watched with his mouth open. Fox put his paw on Doggy’s back as Kit, with Bunny hanging from her mouth, navigated to the first ledge and then the next.

“Careful, Kit! Be so careful!” Fox shouted one more time as Kit took a deep breath and jumped from the ledge to the branch.

Doggy closed his eyes. Fox closed his eyes. Bear closed his eyes. Kit closed her eyes and sunk her claws into the branch the moment she felt it.

“Hooray!!” Fox shouted as he looked up. The rest of them joined in, and Kit proudly climbed back up the branch with the bunny to safety.

Bear put Kit and the bunny on his back and ran back to the bridge, across the river, and toward Fox and Doggy. Bear ran so fast he almost ran past Doggy and Fox. “Bear!” Kit shouted. “Slow down!”

Bears aren’t very good at slowing down, so he dug his feet into the ground and skid into a bush beside the river. Fox and Doggy ran up behind them and helped Kit and Bunny out of the bush, forgetting Bear was still in it.

Doggy licked Kit and then licked the bunny. “I’m so happy you’re okay. So happy, so happy, so happy.” As he spoke, he ran around them in circles, barking.

Bunny looked at Fox and Doggy and Kit and Bear, who’d finally got himself out of the bush. “I don’t know how to thank you,” the bunny said, tearing up. “I was so scared and I didn’t know if I would ever get down. I was just bouncing along, like bunnies do, and I forgot about the cliff and just bounced off. Oh, I was so scared.”

Fox spoke up. “No need to thank us. We are glad to help!”

All the forest friends gave Bunny a hug and Bear tried to give her a fish, but she just smiled and waved as she bounced away to her burrow.

“You looked so scared, Kit. Way to be brave!” Bear said.

“I was not scared! I’m offended that you would…cough, cough, caaaack!…Sorry, hairball!” Kit smiled with embarrassment as the rest of the forest friends laughed.

“Well, I think that’s enough adventure for one day,” Fox said. “Let’s head home.”

Back home, Bear made fish while Fox played a song on his guitar. Doggy and Kit danced and sang around the fire before they all ate a delicious fish feast. As the fire died down and the yawns started spreading among them, they all began walking into the cave under the roots of the giant oak tree.

Bear lay down first, and then Fox, and then Doggy, and then Kit. Each one of them snuggling in and slowly blinking their eyes. As Kit started to fall asleep, she asked, “Fox, can you tell us a story?”

“Of course, Kit,” Fox said. “In the middle of the forest, in a cave under the roots of a giant oak tree, lived four forest friends…”

Fox continued to tell of their adventures as each of them fell asleep. By the time Fox got to the end, he could barely say the last sentence before he closed his eyes and fell asleep himself.

Outside, the moon hung and sent silver streams of glistening light through the leaves, and the wind blew through the tall branches, singing a natural lullaby throughout the peaceful night as the forest friends slept, resting for another day of great adventures.