Seaward would have been having a fine afternoon if it wasn’t for all the bears. He’d been working his tail off all day to keep the furry fiends from causing too much chaos and potential danger around town, and it was starting to get incredibly tiring. Who knew bears could be so darn persistent? He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to head home and relax but, well, duty came first, and until the bear problem was resolved breaks would be few and far between for Seaward. He was trying to take one now, actually, having rested against a tree for a moment. He’d just settled down when a voice called to him from above.

“Hey, uh, a little help here please?” asked a female voice, causing Seaward to just about jump out of his fur. He whirled around and looked way, way, way up to the leaves and branches of the tree, only to see a purple Cinna in a yellow striped shirt and overalls looking down at him. Next to her was a very confused-looking bear. 

Naturally, this was confusing for Seaward, too. All he could stammer out was some incoherent string of words that he assumed his brain and mouth had intended to be “What” and “Why” and “How” but had failed to properly articulate. 

Seeing the confusion on Seaward’s face, the strange Cinna immediately jumped into an explanation. “I’m so happy someone found us! This bear was nosing around in my garbage cans on my farm when I saw it and chased it away,” she began, then sheepishly added, “I admittedly got a little carried away…”

Anyone with more than a bag of bricks for brains knew that following a bear up a tree was way more than getting a “little carried away”, but Seaward didn’t argue with her. “And… do you… need help getting down from there?” he asked very tentatively, causing the Cinna in the tree to roll her eyes.

“Of course we do, doofus!” she responded. “It was hard enough climbing up here. If Steven here or I tried to climb down now, we’d probably break every bone in our bodies!”

“Steven? You named the bear Steven?”

“Try not to question it too hard.”

Seaward looked at the bear, seeing if it had anything to say. The second he made eye contact with it, it shrugged at him as if to say “I’m just as lost here as you are, buddy.”

“I… How am I supposed to help?” Seaward asked before pausing. “Sorry,” he followed up, “That was rude of me. What do you need me to do?”

The other Cinna and bear unanimously pointed to a rickety old ladder laying in the grass about five yards away from where Seaward stood. From the looks of it, it would be tall enough to lean against the branch the odd duo were perched on, and from there they could climb down and make their way back to the safety of the ground. It didn’t take any further instruction for Seaward to grab it and do just that (after all, leaning ladders against trees isn’t rocket science). 

“Thank you!” the purple Cinna called before clambering down the ladder, followed closely by Steven the bear. When her paws touched the ground, she was off like a shot to go shake Seaward’s paw. “I don’t know how long we would have waited up there if you hadn’t come along Mr… what’s your name?”

Seaward chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Seaward. Just call me Seaward.”

“Seaward! I’m Peggy!” she chirped in reply to his words, enthusiastically shaking his paw. Seaward felt a little like his arm would come loose with how vigorously Peggy was moving it, and stood there through that feeling for about a minute straight before his paw was let go of and Peggy bolted down the road, looking back at him over her shoulder. “Thanks so much for the help! I gotta get home before my girlfriend gets too worried about me! Have a great afternoon!”

Steven the bear snorted and Seaward gently moved to take his paw in his. “Here, I’ll walk you home.”

Whenever bears are out and about, strange experiences are always sure to follow.