Why a Bearhug

1. The Video

In the woods of Critterville, sunlight slipped between the leaves, turning the mossy ground into a show of sparkles. Birds chirped the kind of songs that made the most focused person to go outside and live that moment that could never be experienced again. Somewhere far off, a brook giggled over stones, as if even the water was in a good mood. The trees stood tall and proud around the village like a wall. In summary, it was a peaceful afternoon, a perfect day for playing. And the Smiling Critters had decided they were going to play hard.

Hoppy Hopscotch was the first to make woods her personal playground. She bounced from rock to stump to root like gravity had personally given up arguing with her. Each hop landed with a springy boing sound that didn't match the sing of the birds.

"Last one to the clearing is a soggy carrot!" Hoppy shouted, already a hundred feet away from the rest of the group.

KickenChicken yelped and sprinted after her. "Hey, that doesn't even make sense!" he said annoyed while panting exhaustingly.

"It makes perfect sense!" Hoppy called back opening a large smile. The only thing she finds more funny than soccer is getting under that shown-off chicken's skin. "Because it's humiliating!"

Dogday laughed, jogging along. "Be careful, Hoppy and Kicken! You two may trip down!" he said

"I'm not going to trip down!" said Hoppy, who saw a tree root right ahead and purposedly dug her left foot under in while moving her body forward as if she was about to suffer what Dogday just warned her about a couple of seconds ago.

"Hoppy!" the dog exclaimed. But then instead of going all the way down ungraciously to the floor, the bunny crawled her body like an armadillo and did a summersault that ended with another of her most iconic hops.

"See?" she announced smugly, earning another grumble from Kicken.

Craftycorn followed Dogday. "Can we at least pick a game with more meaning? Something artistic?"

PickyPiggy trotted beside her, holding a small basket she'd packed with snacks. Bubba Bubbaphant was right behind her, carrying a thick book.

CatNap, the cat of few words, was lagging behind the group like a shadow, eyes half-lidded, tail wagging lazily. Sometimes he felt less like a friend and more like a slave of their routines full of daunting contents with strict schedules and minimum time for oneself and take a rest. He yawned so widely that his little moon pendant bounced against his chest.

Dogday, the one who truly respected CatNap's more reserved tendencies looked back and saw the feline clearly not in a good mood and decided to turn around and approach him. "You okay, CatNap?"

CatNap lifted his head up, just slightly unamused by the question. "I'm... okay," he mumbled. Then, after a pause, he added: "I was going to take a nap."

"Come on, CatNap!" We all understand how you love to sleep but you should do things with us sometimes! We are a group and that is what groups should do!"

"Ugh, fine!" CatNap finally gave in

The next hour didn't change much. Kicken chased Hoppy through the bushes. Bubba was studying the local flora. CatNap had asked for Crafty to make a drawing of him sleeping and he could be the model. With the speech that Bobby finds him cuter when sleeping, he convinced her eagerly of his request. CatNap grinned as he finally got an excuse to take a nap that day. Dogday couldn't complain if CatNap was just helping Crafty with her talents. Crafty grabbed a stick and staring at CatNap laying near some bushes began drawing a sleeping cat on the ground. She then got mad when Picky accidentally stepped on it. Picky apologized while offering snacks as compensation. Dogday kept everything watching everyone have fun as if he was watching an exciting movie.