Blanche and Ozwald continued down the jungle path going deeper and deeper into oblivion. They saw many things such as skeletons of what had been pirates who long ago, also found their way to this mysterious and seemingly inescapable land. Strewn along the once beaten jungle path, now overrun with vines, were the remains of treasures and signs of what was once mutiny among these long silent buccaneers.
Finally the jungle began to thin, so that more light began to shine through. Then they came to a clearing, at a beach. They heard music, bongo drums, dancing and rattling. As they went toward the noise, they saw smoke rising, coming from around the cliffs cape.
They wandered along the ancient path, making their way around the various items of booty and plunder. Ozwald tripped over a huge pink diamond. He got up and dusted himself off. “I wonder who would leave all of this treasure here? Obviously someone inhabits this place.” Ozwald was curiously examining the sparkling pink gem.
“Ozwald put that down! Hmmm, obviously whoever lives here has no need for such treasures. Maybe they are simple people.”
They made their way around the bend and there was a huge civilization nestled in the open clearing of a jungle, right along the beach. Large trees with little huts in them made of mud like hornets nests, and some grass and mud huts on the ground. Some of the huts had pieces of gold or gems randomly crafted into the walls. Apparently used for nothing more than solid pieces for added structure and support. There were rope bridges going between the huts in the trees and an intricate series of vines for swinging down to the ground or place to place.
As they approached closer they could make out tiny figures gathered in the center of the village. The whole of the architecture was tiny, obviously populated by very tiny people. Right in the center of the whole city was what seemed to be a temple, larger than the other buildings, and curiously appeared to be made completely from treasure, gold, gems and the boxes they were stored in. It was a huge pile of pirate treasure, all carefully stacked in a pyramid, with a door and windows and everything. At the pinnacle was a large golden candlestick, with one of the 3 arms broken off, and only two remaining.
Suddenly there was a loud squeak and chirping noises. Someone in the village had spotted them and let out a warning.
They saw as the little things began to gather and run out towards them squeaking like little chicks. As they came closer Blanche saw that they looked like little naked bears. They were about 1 or more feet tall and had no fir. They were pink and bumpy like a chicken after it’s been plucked.
“Should we run?” Ozwald said.
“They don’t appear to be dangerous, and they have no weapons it seems.” Said Blanche. The little bears were running as fast as their little legs would carry them, and began to bounce once they picked up speed.
“That’s cool, they bounce!” Suddenly they were surrounded by the tiny naked bears, and could see they had little beady blue eyes. Up close you could tell that they all had slightly different tints of color. Very light blues, yellows, pink, and mauve. They all seemed so excited and were jumping up and down, pulling on Blanches blouse. They began to nudge and push them towards the village.
“I guess they want us to go with them. They seem very enthusiastic don’t they?” So the two followed the bears into the town, with the entourage all around them.
As they entered some of the naked bears were bungee jumping out of trees, tied to the vines, coming within inches of hitting the ground. Some were jumping in and out of wells of water, next to the temple. The bears were playing little drums and blowing into hollowed out reeds of wood. They were in the middle of some kind of celebration.
“They are like a village of little children with no parents. And they are cute with little mouths and eyes. Like chubby little flesh colored gummy bears.”
They were taken to the door of the temple as the music and chanting grew louder and louder. All of a sudden they stopped, and it was silent.
Then this little old bear with a dark green tint came out of the treasure temple. “That must be their wise man or tribal leader Ozwald.”
He wobbled when he walked, and came up to them and said “ei chocl ait u sup nien wagga noofu funjui” with a squeaky little voice. He then took the hand of Blanche and motioned for her to follow him into the temple. Ozwald followed behind. Inside it was a large empty room all except for a golden bed in the middle. On it laid a very old looking man. A human, either dead, or fast asleep Blanche could not tell. His white hair and beard flowed out and coiled up in a pile, suggesting he had been there for a very very long time.
The old bear went over to a shelf on the wall and pulled something down while they watched the old man with curiosity. He laid before their feet a book, with a leather binding and pages that looked several hundred years old.
Ozwald stated impatiently. “It looks like, from these pictures anyway, that these bears once had hair. I mean they are drawn in here all furry. Then for some reason, I’m not exactly sure, their hair went away; but it is unclear why. It shows a picture of the pirate ship in here, and drawings of some of the treasure. Oh ok, here it is, there is a figure drawing of what looks like this guy here. He fell asleep right here in this spot.” She studied the next few pages. “That’s odd, apparently the bears built this temple around him after he fell asleep here. Piling up the gold and jewels. And it looks like they expect him to wake up again someday. They have a festival every time the moon is a full moon it looks like, hoping he will wake up.”
“Woah!” “What?! Tell me! What is it?” Ozwald said.
“This picture shows two others coming and the one that looks like him wakes him up. Apparently they believe he can only be awakened by another one of his kind. Or another person.”
“Then it shows pictures of them being furry again. Strange. According to their prophesy he is supposed to somehow give them their hair back. So they have been waiting for him to awake for what looks like generations. Hundreds of years even.”
Blanche got up and walked over to the sleeping man. She stared at him with wonder not knowing what to do. “Maybe you are supposed to kiss him! You know, like true loves kiss.” Ozwald suggested.
“That is disgusting!” She put her hand on his shoulder, leaned in close, and shook him violently. “Wake up! Hey buddy, time to get up! Come on!”
“Oh!!! What the!” The old man lunged up in complete shock. “What’s that, who’s there!?”
“Calm down, sit down, hold still and let me explain.”
“Where am I? Who are you? Oh my gosh my beard is huge!”
Blanche grabbed him and shook him a bit to get him out of the shock, and sat him down.
“You have been asleep for a long time. These bear people have waited for you to wake up. Who are you, what is your name? And how long have you been here?”
“I don’t know… I..I…I don’t remember. My name, I don’t know my name. But I came here by…”
“By what? Ok we will call you Rip Van Winkle. But how did you come to this land? Did you come with the pirates?”
“Yes, I was a captive of theirs. They came here to the shore. I don’t remember anything else.”
“You don’t know where you came from?”
“What will we do with him Blanche?” Ozwald wondered.
“I suppose we can take him back with us. But we must try and figure out how to help him restore the bear’s fur. They have waited so long for this.”
They helped him up. The strength in his limbs was gone, as he had not used them in a long time. And they helped him to the door, with the ancient bear leading them. As they emerged into the outside sun, Rip repulsed from not being used to sunlight and covered his eyes to avoid blindness. Immediately the bungee bears exploded in an uproar of cheering and jumping around. The one who would vanquish their nakedness had finally awakened.
Once Rip Van Winkle’s legs gained strength and he tried walking a few steps.
“Hey you’re doing all right.” Said Ozwald.
Blanche explained the pictures to him amid the noise of the celebrating bears.
“How am I supposed to do that? I can’t give them their hair. They will be disappointed. Tell them I can’t.”
“They don’t understand. They won’t know why you won’t do what their prophecy says you will do. You’ve got to do something, look at them, they are cute, and innocent.”
“This is crazy! I’m getting off this stupid island, I can’t do this.”
Rip began to stomp away looking for a way off. He got tangled up in his beard which was a good 65 feet long by now, and lacking balance still, fell face first into the sand. He jumped up and yelled “Oh this troublesome beard! He grabbed a nearby pirate sword and began to cut it off. After some sawing he got it off and threw it down on the ground exclaiming, “That’s enough of that thing!”
Immediately the little bears began to run around hysterically and look for anything sharp they could get their little nubs on. One bear ran up and cut off a little patch of hair from the end of the disembodied beard and using some mud applied it to his backside. He began to run around and dance as if he had won some great victory.
The other bears stood in awe for a few seconds then with enough clamor to sink the island into the ocean followed suit. Putting patches of beard onto legs, backs, heads, anywhere they could reach.
“What in the world are they doing?” Said Rip.
“It looks as though they think you gave them fir and are putting it on themselves” Observed Blanche.
“That doesn’t count. Don’t they see that can’t possibly be the prophecy they had expected? They can’t be serious, it’s just little patches of glued on hair.” Said Rip.
“Well they don’t know any different. It has been so long, so many generations, that none of them even know what it’s like to have fir. They don’t know any better. To them this is sufficient. It was just the story they were waiting for, that they had always been told, not so much the fir they cared about.”
“But the mud will wear off their bodies, the fir will eventually fall off. That’s ridiculous!”
“So what. Look at them, they are happy. And you did it.”
“I guess so…. Yah, I guess I did, didn’t I?”
“Lets go home.” As they turned to leave, the chief came over and bowed down, then handed Rip a purple crayon, that was among the various piles of loot, as a peace offering.
They smiled and then turned back down the path to the portal from whence they came. Passing the suspicious looking bowl of petunias on their way.
