Professor Onestone's Brown Bear University: A Novel for Children and Adults

By Xlibris US

Deep in the green forest of Bitterland, Professor Medo Onestone teaches his brown bear cub students the art of survival and science of existence. He teaches about ozone holes, climate change, poaching, and most of all humans, who are responsible for the other problems. Professor Onestone is a sad bear. He misses his beloved wife who was killed by poachers for her pelt. His mother was also killed and his youngest brother was captured for the zoo. When Professor Onestone visits him there, he finds that living in a cage has given his brother an unexpected outlook on life and liberty.
Teaching about climate change convinces the good professor that he must take action. He and his prize student, Wince, along with Winces beautiful mother, set out for the Big City with three stones engraved with declarations and codes. The stones will change the way that humans and bears interact and puts humans on track for a better planet.
A sellout in Macedonia, Professor Onestones Brown Bear University has entertained and informed children there since it was first published in 1999 under the title, Profesorot Ednokamchev.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499019032

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Mimoza Ristova. 626864

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4990-1916-2

EBook 978-1-4990-1903-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 06/30/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

CONTENTS

Chapter ONE

Captivity

Escape

The bitter taste of freedom

Marko fishing at the pond

Chapter TWO

Awakening

Winter Dreams

Lessons about Survival

Children of the Stars

Snacking at the Meadow

The Hard Life of Mijana

Lessons about Humans

Muffo Onestone - the Hero

Brother Bears Meet

A Letter from the Polar Bear

Humans and Bears

Death of Bossana

Chapter THREE

Back to the Zoo

Freedom above All

Cub Hunters

Searching for the Cubs

Earrings

GPS for Bear Tracking

Global warming and Other Man Made Hazards

Splitting Matter

Love is in the Air

The Final Exam

Chapter FOUR

The Mission

At the Presidential Palace

Declaration around the Globe

Declaration of Love for the Earth

Back to the Green Forest

The proposal

Epilogue

Hey there!

Editors: Molly McKitterick and Naum Panovski

Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved Mimoza Ristova.

Author of the illustrations: Mimoza Ristova Copyright © 2014

All rights reserved Mimoza Ristova.

GreenPaw-bear.tif

To my children -

Kristina, Natalia and Mirko,

with love

Mimoza

Chapter ONE

Captivity

On a warm spring afternoon in May, the zoo in the Big City was just closing. The sounds of the zoo visitors were fading away, along with the daylight. Distant shouts and cries came from the ball fields, not far from the zoo. The Big City was the capital of the country of Bitterland, a country in the continent of Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean from America.

In the brown bear cage, Roxanne approached her companion bear, Marko to cuddle with him. Moving towards each other, they touched noses. Roxanne was sad. She dreamed day and night of giving birth to a tiny bear cub and becoming a mother. But it hadn’t worked for her and her beloved Marko. For three years, she had not been able to get pregnant.

In the fall, the zoo veterinarian had appeared on the local TV channel. He had said that bears from the zoo could not mate because they did not get winter sleep. Roxana and Marko, like all other bears, needed to hibernate. Their bodies and spirits needed winter rest to prepare for summer mating. Winter was coming. The zoo vet warned that it was time for the mayor of the big city to provide a peaceful winter retreat for the two brown bears so they could sleep during the cold, snowy time. Most of the brown bears lived deep in the high mountains that surrounded Bitterland on the east and west.

Marko and Roxana had dreamed of this place where they could mate and curl up next to each other while the first snow covered their den. Instead, they had spent the winter wide awake in their habitat in the zoo.

Now, nature was blossoming. The scents of flowers filled the air, doing strange things to the animals’ senses. They longed to roam freely among the grasses and new green leaves on the trees and bushes.

Instead, they were surrounded by a high wall made of stone. The bears’ cage was sunken so that visitors looked down on them. Sharp iron spikes had been stuck into the wall, preventing any possible contact between the visitors and bears.

Marko sighed deep and loud. He accepted Roxana’s gentle cuddle and returned it with just few quick licks. Caressing her gently, he looked at her in an extremely weird manner.

Seeing the unrest in his eyes, Roxanna started pacing the floor of the cage in a random way, crossing from the little well that contained their fresh water supply to the place where the keeper threw their supper to the tall stone wall. She stepped on food thrown into the cage by the human visitors. She crunched the crackers with her heavy paws. She hated the human junk food, that was thrown by the zoo visitors.

Marko stared at her for a long time following every single step she made. With a deep sigh, he turned to look at the tall stone wall surrounding their cage. The thick wall was topped with sharp iron spikes that clearly drew a line between captivity and freedom. To Marko, the fence was a border between sadness and happiness. Marko looked longingly at the tall poplar trees surrounding the zoo. They were taller than he could imagine. He went to Roxana, and licked the fur between her big brown eyes, as if it was for the last time.

Deep in her big bear’s heart, Roxana knew that something had changed. She sensed the presence of something new. She got shivers in her spine. Something was casting a shadow on their happiness.

Marko interrupted her thoughts. I love you, but I can’t live in a cage any longer.

Marko, I am begging you, don’t start again. Sometimes, you know, you are such an unbearable bear.

I love you, Roxana, but I love the woods as well. I love freedom as much as I love you. If you don’t let me go, I will fall apart and die, said Marko.

Don’t talk nonsense! Tell me how to help you? I won’t let you get sick. I can’t watch you suffer, oh Marko, love of my life, Roxanna’s hazel eyes were full of tears.

Mark stood up on his hind feet like a human being. If you love me so much, then help me escape. And forgive me, please for what I am doing to you, he woofed gently.

No!!! Roxana cried in sudden rage. Her loud growl made all the animals in the zoo aware of her pain. Angrily, she rolled several rocks from the ground and pushed them around. She growled loudly again in her despair. She felt as if her big warm bear’s heart had been torn apart in her chest.

Marko looked straight into Roxanne’s eyes. He wanted to roam freely in the wilderness more than anything. He also cared deeply about Roxanne. He gazed at her with eyes full of love. But his anger at being captured and his deep, primitive longing for a cub were even stronger than his feelings for her. He opened his mouth to try to tell her this but no words came out. He looked at her helplessly.

Roxanna watched Marko with unblinking eyes. With all her might, she willed him