How Tashik the bear got lost in the forest. Валентина Басан

hik the bear was walking through the forest, stepping on a thick carpet of needles, cones and small berry bushes with his paws. The forest was big and dark, and the bear cub was very small. He lifted up his nose and sniffed the air to determine where his family lived. He went into the dense and dark thicket further and further away from his native, bright and sunny edge, where there was a house of his large and friendly family.

      Tashik the bear listened and pressed his ears to his head. The terrible and black crowns of the trees creaked like giants with big spruce paws. A tiny bear cub ran up to the stump and hid behind it. A real thunderstorm was beginning in the forest and the bear shivered from cold and fear. The wind swayed the tall trees from side to side with terrible sounds. It seemed to Tashik that one of the old and thick pines would fall on his stump, which hissed and creaked like Tashik's great-grandmother. He closed his eyes with his paws and sobbed, wiping the tears from his small eyes.

      – Mom! Mom! – Tashik desperately called for his mother, because he always knew when his mother would protect him from any danger.

      One day, the bear cub fell off the bank right into the rushing river, which carried him in a stream right onto the rocks. Tashik desperately beat the water with his paws, but he could not swim ashore, it was too far to him. A little more and Tashik would have crashed against the rocky cliffs, but someone grabbed him by the skin and dragged him to a safe shallow shore. She was the strongest and bravest mom in the world. Tashik hugged his mother by the neck, and she severely punished Tashik, leaving him without honey and raspberries in the evening. But the Bear was not angry, he knew that his mother loved him and was very afraid that he would drown.