What a sight Earl was, all bear arms and mountain legs, and sky eyes. He stood there, quite still, and watched, scratching one big hairy arm with the other. Next to where Earl stood, there was a brook, a noisy little brook that tumbled and flowed over pebbles and stones. The brook saw Earl, with all his goofy extremeties, and laughed out loud. All the little water particles were doubled over laughing and giggling at such a strange sight, and the brook began to froth and foam. Little droplets of water flew up and landed on Earl's face and, where they landed, a sweet little mouth began to form. Earl began to play with his newly formed mouth, and opened it up wide. Right at that moment, the brook decided to play a trick on Earl, and spouted a little fountain of water right into his open gob. Earl swished the water around for a moment, and then suddenly, without warning, let loose a wild, carefree laugh. He laughed and laughed, and the brook laughed back. This was how Earl got his mouth and his voice.
A little round robin heared this laughter and alighted on a branch near earl. She looked him up and down, as it was difficult not too, and decided that Earl was an interesting creature, but was lacking something very vital. It was something that every other creature had, yet Earl stood there without it as though nothing even mattered. The robin hopped to and fro trying to figure out what exactly was the missing piece, when suddenly it dawned on her that Earl was missing his heart. This made the robin nervous, for she has never met a heartless creature before, and she twittered uncertainly. The robin knew what she had to do to remedy this empty state in which Earl had been existing for as long as time, so she hopped off her branch and landed on Earl's breast. She puffed herself up and tweeted a little tune, and suddenly Earl was filled with a warmth that he had never felt before. It raced through his boulder legs, and flowed out of his bear claw hands, and he opened his new mouth in awe. Earl had a heart, made of robin love and spring-time grace, and he could finally feel. Earl stopped merely existing, and began to live.
He looked around with a new appreciation, and saw the splendor of the trees and the softness of the clouds. He touched the grass with his paws and felt...good! This was the first time that he felt anything at all. Earl longed (yes longed!) to race through the forest and picked up his legs one and a time and bounded through the shrubbery like a jack-rabbit. The breeze tickled his face, and he laughed, and the branches caught the hair on his bear arms as he flew past. He saw a pretty tree leaning daintily over a river and hugged it with all his might; he watched a little ant crawl on is hand and it made his heart swell. Earl was feeling, and Earl was truly alive.
As the sun began to set, Earl became tired, and looked for a place to rest for the night. The stars began to come out one by one, and Earl took in their beauty hungrily. As he entered a small clearing somthing small and white caught his eye: it was a little dove, lying in the grass. Earl was curious, and went over to inspect this wonderous little creature. He picked it up gently and turned it in his hands, and realized suddenly, with horror, that this poor little thing had no heart beat. The little dove was dead. This was Earl's first experience with death. A sudden pain pierced his chest, and tears began to well in his eyes. He held himself with his bear arms but it made to difference. He tried to run but his legs buckled beneath him. Earl was scared that his heart would break into a thousand pieces and he would lose the abilty to feel. He sat in the grass, rocking the dove gently, and wept. These were the first tears to fall from him new sky eyes.
After a while, Earl lifted his head and asked, to nobody in particular, "What is the point of having eyes if they can cry? And what is the point of having a heart if it can break?" A moment later, a thousand tiny butterflies flitted out from the darkness of the woods. They surrounded him, and for a moment he was soothed. All the little butterflies began to speak in unison, as soft as a flap of a wing. They said "Dear Earl, poor thing, the pain you feel is a very important part of life. You have felt the sunshine on your skin, and now you have felt the pain of heart break and death. You are complete, dear Earl. Now you are whole." The butterflies came together and landed all over Earl, and he began fuller and more tangible. His heart felt a little stronger and he wiped the tears from his face. This is the moment, the very special moment, in which Earl found his spirit.
He stood on his boulder legs, and lifted his bear arms to the sky. With all the voice he could muster from his lovely brook mouth, Earl yelled to the world a great, resounding "YES!"
THE END
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