The Grandparents’ Blog

Long, long ago, a beautiful princess lived in a tiny castle high up on Bear Mountain.  Her father John was the King of the valley and lived many miles away.  King John’s army was not very big so he gave his daughter just two of his best soldiers to protect her. The bravest of the two was Captain Henry who guarded the castle with just one young soldier.

One day wicked Baron Gnasty, from the dark forests beyond the kingdom, brought his army into the valley and decided to send some of his men to attack the tiny castle before moving on to attack the king.  The farmers in the valley near the castle ran with their wives, children, cows, horse, chickens, ducks and geese up the hill to the castle for protection.

The princess was very worried because she had only a few servants and two soldiers and a handful of farmers to guard the castle.  So she asked Captain Henry to send his young soldier on the fastest horse down the hill and across  the valley to her father’s castle to warn him that Baron Gnasty was about to attack and to ask for as much help as he could spare. The young soldier galloped off and then Captain Henry did his very best to prepare his defences.

The princess came to Captain Henry and cried "We won’t get help soon enough and we have too few men to protect us; we will all be lost."  Captain Henry thought very hard.  Suddenly he said, "Princess, we can ask the bears to help us, I know a way to reach them."  The princess had no choice but to send Captain Henry on this dangerous mission. She was so afraid that the bears might attack him or that he might get lost, never to return.

Early the next morning, Captain Henry  asked the princess to get everyone, including the cooks, maids and gardeners, to march up and down the ramparts. He suggested that they  wave anything that looked like a sword or pike and they wore any old armor they could find to stop Baron Gnasty’s army from attacking too soon.  Then he hurried off as fast as he could up into the trees and went higher and higher up the mountain. After a few hours of hard climbing Captain Henry sat down to eat the honey bun he had asked the cook to make for him.

The smell of the honey drifted into the trees and soon three very large, angry bears came charging up to him and stood over him on their hind legs. With a roar their leader said, "What do you have to say for yourself before we eat you?"  Captain Henry had been ready for this, quickly he took a small shiny red stone out of his pocket that he kept on a long chain. He held it up for the bears to see.  "This was given to me by George, the King of the Bears" he said, " He told me to use this if ever I needed his help!"                                                                                 

The bear’s leader looked very closely at the stone then told Captain Henry to climb on his back and they all galloped off into the forest.  After a while they came to a large cave guarded by two even larger bears.  The bear’s leader gave them the correct  password and took Captain Henry deep into the cave to George the Bear King. He took the red stone from Captain Henry and showed it to his King.  George stepped down from his throne and faced Captain Henry.  "So you are little Henry, now grown into a man!" he said, " As a young boy you helped me by pulling a large thorn from my paw.  I remember you well, and the red stone I gave you shall earn you my help".

Captain Henry quickly told the Bear King about the evil Baron Gnasty and the danger the princess was in.  George let out a great roar, "Baron Gnasty has caused me many problems in the other valleys and I have called all my warrior bears to join me just in time it seems.  I will send you back to the princess with twenty five of my best bears to help defend the castle. When the rest of my bears arrive, we will come to help you."  Captain Henry thanked the Bear King, then once again climbed on the leader’s back and, with twenty four heavily armed bears, raced off down the mountain.

When they arrived at the castle, Baron Gnasty’s men were just beginning to attack.  They had watched the castle carefully for several hours and had decided that they could capture it easily. They were not ready for twenty five ferocious, angry bears and young Captain Henry. The Baron’s men were quickly driven off and the few survivors ran back down to tell Baron Gnasty who waited below with the rest of his army.  "What’s few bears", he said angrily, "Tomorrow we will attack with the whole army!"

In the morning  the Baron’s army climbed slowly up the mountain pulling their baggage carts and carrying their tents and weapons.  It took a whole day to get to the castle and another day to prepare the attack.  On the third morning the attack began and the bears and the farmers and the servants did their best to defend the castle.  Even the wives and children and the princess and her maids did their best to help. Just when it seemed that the castle would fall, a loud roar broke out from the woods and Bear King George came charging down with over three hundred of his armed bears.

Baron Gnasty saw the danger and told his army to retreat.  They fled down the hill into the trees only to find  King John’s army lying in wait for them.  They had just arrived after their long march across the valley.  With the bears attacking their rear and King John’s army attacking their front Baron Gnasty’s army was very quickly defeated.  A few of the Baron’s men fled back to their forest but the Baron and the rest of his army were sent to the dungeons deep below the bear caves.

Captain Henry was promoted to Major for his bravery and Bear King George was invited to visit King John’s palace any time he liked.  This made the young princess very happy!