This Little Sun Bear's World Is a Scary Place | Short Film Showcase
[Music]
When the sky roars, I climb to the top. The sensation when thousands of cool drops pelt against my body, the chill sends me into a kind of giddy madness.
[Music]
The clouds lift. Warm rays permeate the canopy.
[Music]
Muddy river banks blacken my paws, fog moistens and beads in my hair. We call the forest home.
[Music]
Faint smells guide me on a constant search for food. I traced the musty odor of a soft log to termites. I didn't always walk the forest alone. I had a mother and brother once. We used to rip open logs and dig for earthworms together.
But one day mom's foot got stuck in a snare. I was off eating fruit when I heard gunshots ricochet through the trees. I saw my mom leave the forest in a bag that day and my brother in a small metal cage.
The worrying of bees always reminds me of my mother. She described honey as being the treasure of the forest. No matter how high, I'll always climb for it. I'm alone now, but there are others. Sometimes I try to mock fight with them like my brother and I used to. They don't understand me though.
I pile branches and damp leaves until the moonlight fills the cup of my nest. My eyes fall to a close on the scene of peaceful awe.
[Music]
An unfamiliar racket interrupts the morning choir and a ring Aang sounds his alarm: an intruder.
[Music]
After weeks, the noise finally stopped, but it was replaced with the smell of ash.
[Music]
It's the ones who took my mother and brother. They now take away the only place we all call home and replace it with endless rows of strange trees.
[Music]
The forest is too small now; fruit is scarce. I am forced to leave or starve. But can I live here with all the men and roads?
[Music]
I enter a form of hysteria when my paw gets stuck in a snare, like what happened to my mother. Is this where they took my brother? There are new smells here, but I can't get out to find them. A constant itch on my stomach drives me to insanity.
Will I ever smell the forest again? Will I ever feel the aroma of snake fruit and banana? A sort of silver lining.
[Music]
I'm gaining weight and feeling stronger. I can stretch my limbs to climb again. They try to simulate the forest: honey hidden in smooth logs, miniature downpours, leachy stuffed in rindes. My teeth can't puncture. My heart aches less here, but I yearn for the forest. Where are they taking me now?
I awake under a disorienting prism of light. A swarm of familiar smells sends me into shock. Wild blood rushes through my body: tan in water, heavy rain, the others, boundless.
Oh!
[Music]
[Applause]
I wonder how long the forest will remain standing. How long will they let me stay?
[Music]
For
[Laughter]
[Music]