OH MAN! I’M IN so much trouble!” Leo cried, running as fast as he could. His face wore misery, anxiety and worry. I wonder what's happened to her this time, Julius wondered. Last time she screamed like that was when she said she saw a shark in the neighbor’s kiddie pool while she was swinging over their fence.

Horace tripped over a log. “Ouch!” he cried. The Club stopped and looked back at him, waiting for Horace to get up. “Don’t worry guys,” Horace said, rubbing his knee. "I just bruised it a little. Go on ahead.”

Leo nodded.

“Come on guys,” Julius said.

“She’s over there,” Mark said pointing to a faint lump lying on the autumn leaves.

“Oh no,” Leo whispered. His walk faltered after he saw his sister’s body. Her hair covered her face and she lay by an oak tree. Leo dropped to the ground and put his three middle fingers on his Julia’s neck. A few seconds later, Leo lifted his head, smiling.

“She’s fine,” he said.

“Fine! Fine!” Julia shouted in her brother’s ear. “How can I be fine when I just saw a BEAR?”

The boys gasped.

“A bear!” they said together.

Julia leaned forward and shoved her ear-struck brother with her hand from her face. “You better believe it.” She kneeled and looked at the boys eyeing them mysteriously. “I saw her right over there—”

“Her!” Horace said as he limped over to where they all sat. “There’s a she-bear in these woods?”

“Uh, huh!” Julia mocked, brushing her hair from her shoulder. “That’s why it’s called ‘King’s Forest’.”

Virgil (the historian) piped up. “Actually, if they had known how much females there are in these woods, the settlers would have renamed this ‘Queen’s Forest’; so that means—”

“Oh pipe down, Virgil,” Julius said. Virgil usually rambled for about half an hour or more. “Continue Julia.”

“With pleasure,” Julia said nodding her head. “Anyway, I saw her and her two cubs. One cub was straying away from its mother till it finally fell over the small ledge over there into the creek. I screamed with shock and the mother roared at me but was so focused on the cub she didn’t try to scare me off. She jumped into the creek and headed downstream. Just to make sure that I wouldn’t be eaten for sure, I played dead. That’s when you found me.”

Horace thought for a moment. “Isn’t playing dead bad for you because, like, the mother bear could think you are actually dead and try to eat you?”

Julia shrugged. “I don’t know. But here's the problem: am I dead?” she said with a smile. Horace shook his head and said, “But still, aren’t you suppose to—”

“Who cares about that!” Leo exclaimed. “There is a mother bear in King’s Forest! We gotta’ tell the grown-ups.”

“Nah, let’s go follow it,” Mark said. You may think Mark was pretty insane but here was what was in his head: If I track down an animal in the legendary King’s Forest and actually hunt a bear with only my bare hands, the girls at home would be banging on my door! (As you can see, Mark had a wild imagination).

“Are you ludicrous?” Virgil asked with dismay. “How could you possibly imagine the odds of us tracking down a female—what sort of bear was it my dear, Julia?”

“My 'dear'!” Horace exclaimed standing up.

Julius groaned, “You know what he means, Horace.”

Julia thought for a moment. “Umm… The mother was brown… a kinda’ hairy…and really BIG! Probably like a Grizzly bear.”

“Exactly," Virgil said, "what are the odds of us tracking down a female Ursus arctos horribilis?”

“A what-ark-what?” Julius whispered quietly to Captain. Captain whimpered in a 'I don't know' manner.

“—It’s simply impossible,” Virgil concluded.

Mark stood on top of a rock. He paused, then stuck out his chest so much that a button on his shirt popped. The bright sun shone on his dark brown hair through the branches on the trees. This, he knew, was his time to shine; to show those cronies of his that he could get all the girls on their block before summer vacation.

“You can do what you want,” he said bravely, “but if you don’t see me by sunrise… Tell Jennifer Lauren that she can have her stuffed bear back that she gave me for Valentine’s Day four years ago. Also, tell Erin James that I was about to ask her out to the Valentine Dance…. Good-bye, farewell. Mama Bear—I’m coming for you!” Mark yelled. He walked with perfect strides, his friends watched in awe. Everything was quiet.

“You know Jennifer is going to kill you if you do come back!” Julia said with a smirk.

Mark turned to look at her.“Who said I’m coming back—”

“RRROOOOAAAR!!”

The roar was heard all around the forest. Squirrels ran into their dreys, wolves lifted their heads and went back to their evening nap; robins flew away in fright.

The Mother Bear was angry.

It didn’t take the Club even a minute to know what to do. Five boys, girl and a dog scrambled back to the campsite, jumping over fallen trees, tripping over dead logs the Club rushed forward till they saw the grown-ups dead ahead.

“Ted! Ted!” cried Mrs. Parker, “John and the children are back!”

For the first time, Julius realized that Mark was actually with them. His best friend was very out-of-breath and kept saying, “Wadder! Somebony gemme wadder!”

“What?” the Club said at the same time. Captain cocked his head to the side in a questionable way.

Mr. Walker chuckled and said, “I think he meant to say ‘Water! Somebody give me water!’. But from the way you were running I guess you all should be doing the same. What happened?”
Everybody started talking at once but it was finally Horace who told the tale in of course, a poem:

Not so long ago in the Forest of Kings
A maiden stomped by a rushing creek
She kicked the leaves everywhere
Then suddenly saw the Mother Bear!
The Mother Bear was strong and tall,
With teeth so big, she’d chew us all
Her bear cub fell into a creek
Mother Bear let out a saddened shriek
Dear Julia pretended to be dead
But found her brother’s face instead.

The grown-ups stared in shock, but the kids knew exactly what Horace was saying, not because they had been there but because Horace usually told stories in songs, poems, psalms or sagas.

The parents looked shocked. “W—What?” Mrs. Parker said dumbfounded. The Club laughed at the sight of the parents. Julius, being the leader, explained to the parents what happened. Mrs. Parker was not happy.

“Dear, can’t we please move to a different spot?” she begged. “I don’t like that there is mother bear in these parts.”

Mr. Parker chuckled. “Don’t worry Honey. Her den is probably far off, probably on the other side of the forest. And remember Mr. Walker and I also have our rifles.”

“And my bow,” Julius interrupted.

“And besides,” Mr. Parker continued, eyeing his son, “we can pack up in the morning and move to another spot. Then the next day, we’ll be home.”
Mrs. Parker didn’t look satisfied, but said nothing about moving for the rest of the evening.

“Hey kids!” Mr. Walker called from the campfire. “Come over here, I’ve got a cooler overfilled with hot dogs and marshmallows to cook!”

“Alright!” Julius cried with joy as he raced Captain to the campfire.

“Gruff! Gruff!” Captain barked excitingly.

THREE HOT DOGS AND six marshmallows later, Julius sat in a lawn chair almost dropping to sleep. The rest had already gone to bed, but Julius hadn’t even noticed. He didn’t even realize that Captain hadn’t been whining for him to give him another hot dog for the past hour. It had been a long day and the boy felt like he could sleep for the rest of the trip. He would have slept in the chair till morning but Mr. Walker dropped another piece of wood in the fire, making the fire bigger and hotter, warming Julius’s leg.

“OUCH!” He shouted.

Mrs. Parker looked frightened at her son. “What wrong, John?” she asked. Julius shook his head.

“Nah its nothing. My leg was too close to the fire.”

“Why don’t you go to bed,” said Mr. Parker.

Julius nodded sleepily. “Yep… (yawn)….. I guess so…. ‘Night everyone.”

Julius slipped into the tent and plopped down in the middle of Leo and Mark. He wished he had a tent to himself, but realized it was better than sleeping with Virgil and Horace. Virgil repeated the Viking sagas to himself in his sleep, and Horace would speak about every kind of plant he knew (Latin and American) in-between snores.

Julius thought about this as he drifted off to sleep.

THE DARKNESS COVERED THE campsite like a blanket over a bed. The stars showed birds and animals where to go. As Julius slept, he dreamt about hunting in the forest with a rifle and wearing buckskin clothing. Kind of like Daniel Boone, he thought.

He had checked his trap-lines and had caught one otter, four squirrels and six rabbits. It seemed like a good day.

Then suddenly, he heard a roar that shuddered his bones.

“Oh no.” he groaned.

An enormous bear came, burling through the trees and sending the forest into havoc. It seemed in his dream as if the bear was fourteen feet and TEN inches tall! Now that is a BIG bear, Julius thought to himself. The bear leaned forward and gave a deep and savage roar.

“GGGRROOOOOOOOAR!”

It seemed ten-times worst than when he had heard it that morning, especially since saliva was all over his face. YUCK! Julius thought as his coon-skinned hat flapped in the wind.

Just as the bear was about to swipe him with her sharp claw, Captain came bursting out of the bushes and leapt on the bear’s shoulder. The bear roared again and tried to brush Captain off her shoulder without a shrug. But Captain hung on, biting at her shoulder and ear. Finally, after twirling around in circles several times, Captain landed roughly on several piles of twigs. Julius was finally able to move after being thrown on a log while the bear was twirling. The boy rushed to him.

“Captain! Wake up buddy, wake up!” he cried. But the dog didn’t wake up; a shadow fell over them, and Julius lifted his head. The bear covered the sun and gave one big swipe.

JULIUS AWOKE AND JUMPED at least four inches in the air. He landed on Mark’s hand, who gave a small squeak.

“Sorry,” Julius said.

“What’s wrong with you?” Mark whispered harshly.

“I—I had a nightmare,” Julius answered running his fingers through his hair. He explained to Mark and Leo (who had now awakened because of all the movement) the horrible dream.

“I couldn’t endure watching Captain being torn up by Mother Bear,” said Julius.

Leo placed his chin in the palms of his hands, which showed he was thinking. Mark just yawned and seemed too tired to think of his friend’s dream. “Listen guys (yawn), I’m going back to sleep. Captain’s probably sleeping beside the campfire right now, dreaming about chasing rabb—”

“Wait a sec!” Julius exclaimed in a whisper. “I’m going to look outside.”

Julius quickly stuck his head out of tent’s flap and looked at the campfire. It’s embers were still burning, but there was enough light to let Julius realize something—something horrible.

Captain was gone.