In the land of icebergs and snow, there lived a polar bear. He was a bit of a loner. He didn’t need friends or a polar bear wife. He was happy to live alone. He rode on ice floes, rolled around in the snow, and swam in the icy water. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, and he was happy that he didn’t have to take care of anyone. But one day something happened that changed the bear forever.
It was early in the morning, the sun was just starting to show itself, and snow glittered all around. The polar bear was sleeping when something started to press against his paw. He opened his sleepy eyes, stretched, and his gaze dropped to the spot where his paw was resting. An egg lay there.
The bear leapt back, staring at it in disbelief. After a while, the egg started moving. A small crack appeared, then another, and finally a tiny penguin emerged from the egg. It looked at the bear and said: “Mommy.”
“No, no, I’m not your mommy. I’m a boy bear. I’m not a girl,” the bear protested immediately.
“Bow?” the penguin asked. “Not a bow, a boy. Just a bear,” the bear explained.
“Oh, daddy,” the penguin replied.
“Not daddy. I’m not your daddy. I’m a polar bear and you’re a penguin. How could I be your dad? That’s silly. A strong wind must have carried your egg here. It was windy overnight,” the bear explained. But the penguin kept looking at him, not understanding.
“You know what? Let’s go. We’ll find your parents,” the bear picked up the penguin in his big paws and they set off.
They crisscrossed the area, looked absolutely everywhere, but they couldn’t find anyone. Not a soul to be seen. No penguins or tracks in the snow. Just a bear and a small penguin. The bear had no choice but to take care of the tiny black and white baby.
After the long search for parents, they were both getting quite hungry. The bear prepared food for them. Once they’d eaten, he lay down in his den, tired. The little penguin scuttled over shyly and snuggled up to him. The big lone bear didn’t know what to do. He squirmed. Until now, he’d always been alone. He didn’t know what it was like to have someone so close to him. But when he saw the little penguin snuggling up to him, looking for safety, it warmed him up. He felt something strange. And he knew right away that he had to take care of the penguin.
Days flew by and the bear got used to being alone. He liked the penguin, even though at first he didn’t want to. He’d grown to love him. They had a lot of fun together and the bear realized that when he had someone to share his joy with, that joy is much bigger.
After some time, when the penguin was a little older, the bear saw someone in the distance. Two penguins were floating on the water, on a large broken-off ice floe. They kept looking in all directions constantly, as if looking for something.
When they got closer to the polar bear, they asked: “Good morning, a few months ago it was very windy at night. A snowstorm even came. We had an egg just then and inside it was our baby. We tried to protect it, but the wind was stronger and ripped it out of our grasp. We lost the egg. We’ve been searching for our baby ever since. Have you seen a lonely penguin around here somewhere?”
At that very moment, the young penguin walked out of the polar bear’s home. He looked at the two penguins, unsure what was happening. Once everything was cleared up, the parents were happy to have found their lost baby. They thanked the polar bear profusely for taking care of him.
Afterwards, they spent a long time talking about the long journey they’d undertaken before finding the little penguin. And the little penguin told them about the fun he’d been having with the polar bear. The penguin’s parents could see that the friendship between the bear and their son was strong. And so, they decided not to go very far, but to build a new home close to the bear. From then on, the lone bear has never been alone. And he could enjoy everything with his close friends.
