Since We've No Place To Go, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Drífa chuckled lightly as Ignatius told her how he'd been keeping busy. It always seemed like the list of things to do was never-ending. Every time she turned around there were two more tasks that needed to be tended to. For every task she got done, four more would spring up in its place. She could only imagine how exacerbated the situation would be when one was a pack leader.

She listened somberly as Ignatius spoke of some of the missing pieces from his cultural knowledge. "I will have to show you some time. Not much beats a good musk ox pelt, I can tell you that much!" She chuckled to herself. It had been ages since Drífa had been on a proper musk ox hunt. She pondered his request for stories for awhile and shrugged lightly. "There are so many I hardly know where to start, but if you will humor an old woman I would love to tell you a story from my childhood that Im rather fond of. It is the story of how the bear lost his tail."  It was a children's story, a story to explain why bears didn't seem to have the lovely tails that predators like foxes, wolves and mountain lions had. All in good fun, a traditional folk tale.

"You see, long, long ago the bear had a beautiful, luxurious long tail. It was the finest tail of all the forest creatures and he would preen and fuss and go out of his way to show it off. Most of the forest creatures humored the bear but the fox soon became annoyed with the bear's posturing.

"One day, in the dead of winter the fox stumbled across a fisherman who had opened a hole in the ice of a frozen lake. He'd caught a bunch of fish and the crafty fox stole a whole string of them before the fisherman could catch him. Then the fox waited. Eventually, the fisherman left with the fish he still had and the fox dragged the stolen fish across the ice toward the hole and waited.

"Sure enough, the bear smelled the fish and came over to the fox. 'Wow,' said the bear, 'how did you catch all of these fish. Teach me so that I may catch dinner for myself.'  The fox agreed and explained to the bear how he caught the fish. 'You see this hole in the ice, my friend? I put my tail through the hole into the water and waited until the fish started to bite. When my tail got good and heavy I pulled it out of the water and got all these fish. Why, with your beautiful tail I'm sure you could catch far more than this!'

"The bear eagerly agreed. Of course he would catch the most fish! Carefully, he put his tail into the hole in the ice and waited. And he waited. And he waited some more. The bear looked to the fox. 'Do you think its been long enough?' The fox shook his head and insisted that the bear keep waiting. He'd feel an incredible weight on his tail when it was time. After all, surely the bear didn't want to pull his tail from the ice when he only had one or two fish.

"So the bear waited, and waited and waiiiittteddd…. the bear waited all night and without meaning to he fell asleep. When the bear woke up the next morning and tried to stand he realized his tail was now frozen in the ice. Angry, he pulled and he pulled and he pulled until SNAP- he pulled himself free leaving his poor tail still frozen in the pond.

"And that is the story of how the bear lost his long tail and why all the descendants of bears have their short stubby little tails." Drífa chuckled to herself, hoping the silly little tail amused Ignatius.