Story Challenge (Bears, Bees, and Pumpkins)

This page is quite unique from most Wiki pages. It does not focus on giving information, advice, or tips. Instead it challenges people to take a few details and write a short story using them. People can write in the comments, or use edit to add a story. This is an experimental page, so it might be a bit strange.

The Story The challenge of this page is to write a story inspired by the words bears, bees, and pumpkins. Any story-line connecting to these things will do, and as long as they are appropriate for the site, they can occur in any way that the writer thinks up. Example (Please note that there will be no paragraph transitions in this example)

"Work more!" Chant the bees in their droning, buzzing tone. "Work harder!" One small bee sighs, unhappy with the huge load of work placed on his tiny shoulders. Another worker slows to stand next to the young bee. "Don't worry," he says, "we always get enough honey to last us through winter, but that doesn't mean we can stop working." He lets out a sad sigh, "There is still plenty to be done, especially since that bear keeps stealing our honey each year." The young bee turns to the older worker. "Why hasn't anyone done anything about that bear?" He asks. "Then maybe we would be able to relax a bit." The old bee sighs again, "We've tried. That bear's so stubborn that he hardly feels our stingers. Some of our best workers died stinging him, and for what? Attacking him just made him a bit angry, and caused him to tear down a wall of our home!" The young bee looks thoughtful for a moment then exclaims, "Ahah!" He continues to buzz about collecting pollen for honey with the old worker bee. "What if we gave the bear a better choice than honey? Then maybe he would stay away from our hive!" Meanwhile, the bear was in his den, plotting how to get as much honey as he could, without getting stung. "Those dumb bees," he grumbles, "have no manners! For years I've tried to ask them politely if I could help them make honey so that they could share with me, but they never listen." He sighs, "Now to get honey I have to steal it!" He slowly lumbers out of his cave and stops to sniff a dandelion. "If only they would let me help them! I could help by digging up sweet flowers and moving them closer to the hive, or maybe gather some pollen!" Sitting stiffly in the dandelion is the young bee. He hears every word the bear speaks, and realizes just how well his plan might work. As soon an the bear is gone, the bee quickly zooms away, back to the hive, where he asks for entrance to the queen bee's chamber. When he is finally allowed to enter he quickly explains his plan to her. She nods, "This is a well thought through plan, I must say. But what could we give to the bear as an alternative to honey?" The young bee shuffles his feet, "I'm not sure about that yet... but I'll figure something out! I promise that the next time I come here I will know exactly what we need to do." With that he turned and left the room. He knew that he had to continue working because there was no time to rest, but as he flew to and fro across flower fields he searched for something, anything, that he could use for his plan. Eventually he comes to a farm. Intrigued by the farmhouse, he buzzes by and flies up to an open window. He peers inside and sees something sitting on the windowsill. A wonderful smell drifts from it. "I bet that bear would love this!" he chuckles, "But how would I give it to him..." He zips back to the hive to talk with the queen once more. "Did you find something?" she asks when he enters. "Yes," he replies, "I saw something interesting sitting in the windowsill of a farmhouse. The farm grows pumpkins, and I think what I saw was a pumpkin pie!" The queen bee is intrigued. "Go on," she says, "I'm listening." The young bee takes a deep breath before continuing, "If a group of workers went to the farm, we could pick up that pie, and bring it to the bear. Then I could negotiate with him." Astonished, the queen responds, "Do you really think we could spare enough workers?" He sighs, then says, "Yes... I think we have to take this chance. It would spare us from having to rebuild our home over and over again because it wouldn't get destroyed, and we would have to make less honey!" When he is finished speaking, the queen says, "I think you're probably right. It would save us work later on. Gather up some bees for this expedition." Only a few minutes later, a group of 25 bees zooms away to the farm. The now cool pie is still sitting there, just waiting to be taken. The pie isn't too heavy, but to the bees it feels extremely heavy. they carefully lower it to the ground, then stop to rest. "We aren't strong enough!" One bee yells. "We just need more help," the young bee responds, "One of you should go fetch help." Those bees soon returned with many more bees to help. Together the bees were able to lift the pie up, and carry it into the woods, where they set it on a tree root and then collapsed in exhaustion. Once they had rested, the bees returned to their work. All but the young bee. He hurried off through the woods to find the bear. When he reached the bear's cave, he saw that the bear wasn't there, so he sat down to wait for him to return. Only a few minutes later, the bear game snuffling through the bushes. The bee stiffens in fear at the bear's long claws and gaping jaws, but tries to relax and be brave. He flies up right in front of the bear's nose and calls out a greeting. "Good day, Mr. Bear! I have something I must speak to you about." The bear's eyes widen in surprise, but he gruffly responds, "Well alright then, what do you need to say?" Then the bear sits down, and the bee lands on a daisy right at the bear's paws. "Well..." He says, "My colony needs all of our honey, and we can't really give any to you so we must ask you not to raid our hive anymore. We know that you need something in return, so I have found something you might like." The bear tips his head, intrigued. "It's a pumpkin pie. I know it's not much but it's all we can give you. I hope it's enough." The bear let out a chuckle, "That's mighty kind of you, and I think I might agree with you. I don't want to hinder your work, but I'll miss that delicious honey!" A thoughtful look crosses the bee's face. "Maybe we could give you a tiny bit of honey each year if you move some different flowers nearer to our hive. We can't do that this year, and I must first ask my queen, but I think we could do that!" The bear's face lights up. "I would love to make that deal! At least, if your queen allows it." The bee quickly gets up. "I'll ask her right after I show you where the pie is." Then they hurry off into the woods. Later that day, the bee meets up with the bear again. "The queen says yes!" He cheers. "Now we can all get exactly what we needed, no injuries necessary." As years go by, the bear and the bees are all happy to share the forest and work together to succeed.

Stories
 * Once there was a bear that loved honey so much that each year he took some from a hive of bees. He moved around a lot, and never took honey from the same hive twice. There were many ways that he stole from the bees. One year he knocked down the hive with a small shriveled pumpkin. The hive came crashing down and the honey went everywhere. The bees were furious. They looked around everywhere to see what had caused this awful event. They saw no living creature but the bear, so they charged. Howling in pain, the bear crashed through the brush without getting so much as a lick of honey.