Sunrise over the snow capped mountains. It shone it's yellow brilliance over the trees, over the river, over everything. You could hear the birds singing their songs to the morning.

A new day has come! A new day has come!

But for three bears, nice and snuggled up in their cave, they paid no attention to this. Well, except for one.

The only female of the trio stretched her forepaws out in front of her, arching her back a little. Then, standing and facing out at the dawn, she gave a yawn and rubbed her eyes with a paw. She inhaled, taking in every smell. Then, with a smile, she leaned over and tickled the little dark brown cub at her side. He muttered a little, but turned over and snuggled closer to the third bear, the big, brown male. She chuckled a little under her breath, but continued to tickle his ribs with her nose. "Koda? Koda, wake up."

"Sit sprin' yet?" The cub, who really wasn't all that little anymore, yawned as he spoke, his brown eyes blinking sleepily.

"I think so," she answered, smiling. "But remember our plan?"

This snapped Koda right awake. "Course I do, Nita, I was the one who came up with it!"

"Shhh, not so loud or you'll ruin it." Nita gently warned. "Now, on the count of three, ready?"

Koda nodded, trying not to laugh as he started to count. "One..."

Nita grinned as she did the same. "Two..."

Then, together, they both shouted "Three!" And then they jumped on the last sleeping bear. His eyes popped open and he gave a startled yell, bursting out from under them and running into the wall of their cave, causing Nita and Koda to nearly roll with laughter.

The third bear, after sufficiantly calming down and regaining his breath, glared at the two while rubbing his head. "Not funny."

"You're right, Kenai, it's not funny." Koda looked up at Nita, grinning. "It's hilarious!"

"I couldn't agree more, Koda." Nita giggled. "That was priceless."

"Oh yeah, ha ha, laugh it up." Kenai grumbled as he laid back down in his previous sleeping spot. "But I'm going back to sleep."

Koda immediately went and jumped on his back again, leaning down over his head and staring at him. "Why? Spring's here, you should be up, after all, we have to be the first ones at Crowberry Ridge, remember? Since we didn't get to go last year, because somebody-" He poked Kenai's nose, "- had to go and fall in love. And you promised to take us back to those funny ice mirrors so we could laugh at how stupid you look, and play the skinny-fat game, and -"

Kenai opened one eye, staring a bit cross-eyed at the cub perched on his head. "You mean that place where we saw that freaky looking bear?"

Koda grinned. "Yeah! Wonder if we'll see that guy again, I think his name was Bob. And then we can show Nita our paintings, and go find those two mooses, and then we can go through that fire place, and then -"

"Whoa, slow down, Koda." Nita smiled. "You'll have us going everywhere across the world before your finished. How about we just stick to Crowberry Ridge for now, okay? Then, on the way to the Salmon Run, we'll go stop by whatever those 'ice mirrors' and whatever else you want to do. Will that work?"

Koda thought for a minute, paw under his chin, before nodding eagerly. "Sure! Then, on the way, I can tell you all kinds of stories! There was this one time, me and my friend Bucky were digging through the snow, and -"

"Koda, I'm trying to sleep." Kenai muttered, shaking his head and trying to knock the cub off. "Can the Bucky stories wait another five weeks, hmm?"

"But it's spring now, Kenai, not in five weeks! If you go back to sleep, we'll never be first to Crowberry Ridge!" Koda whined. When he got no reply, he started tugging on his ears. "Giddy up, Kenai, let's go!" Kenai still ignored him, placing his paws over his eyes.

Nita rolled her eyes and sighed, shaking her head at Kenai and giving a small, teasing smile. "Fine. You stay here and sleep, Koda and I will go to Crowberry Ridge. Alone." She winked at Koda, who grinned and played along.

"With no big, strong bear to protect us from hunters or rotting logs, or raccoons, or avalanches, or falling rocks, or -"

"You're trying to guilt trip me." Kenai growled. "Won't work."

Nita arched an eyebrow. "Well, even if it won't work, we're still going. I'm sure we can find another big, strong bear to protect us. Right, Koda?"

"Yeah! We can get Tug!"

"No, I was thinking Mato."

"Oh, the new guy? With the blonde fur and blue eyes?" Koda made a face. "How can he stand having blue eyes? They're just so... weird."

Nita smirked as she answered. "Actually, I think he's kind of handsome. I'm sure he wouldn't mind going with us, since Kenai's being lazy."

Koda shrugged. "Okay, whatever, we'll go get Mato..." He jumped down from Kenai's head, and the two walked outside.

They walked down the hill, snickering quietly, as Koda counted down. "Three, two, one -"

"Hey, wait up!" Kenai was racing down to them. As he caught up, he tried regaining his breath. "You guys... you weren't really... gonna get Mato... were you?"

Nita shrugged coyly. "Well, I guess I can't now, can I?"

Kenai glared at her. "Sometimes I really don't like you."

Koda looked at his adopted brother, his expression one of confusion. "But I thought you loved her?" Then he decided to continue, very dramatically, standing on his hind paws and clutching one forepaw over his head, the other over his eyes, stumbling about. "With your whole entire being! You're so consumed by your love for her, that you can't even remember the way to Crowberry Ridge, so you tried to get us to forget about it, but no! Now you're forced to admit -"

"Koda," Kenai tried to be patient.

"- that you really did forget, and so you must ask your little brother, the all-powerful Koda -"

Nita arched an eyebrow at Kenai. "He's all-powerful now?" Kenai just shrugged as Koda continued.

"- for directions to the place where all berries grow! Huckleberries, blueberries, blackberries, red berries -"

"I know what kind of berries grow there, Koda." Kenai interrupted. "And I never forgot the way, you're just making it up as you go along."

Koda grinned and shrugged his shoulders as he fell back on his four paws. "Yeah, but I did a pretty good job of it."

"Oh yeah, mmhmm." Nita rolled her eyes playfully. "You sure did."

The cub narrowed his eyes at her, grinning. "I saw that, Nita, and I'm gonna get ya for it!"

"Oh no, save me!" Nita laughed as she took off down the hill, Koda right behind her.

"That's right! Beg for mercy from the ragin' ball of brown fur!"

Kenai chuckled, watching his brother and his mate playing. He was glad Koda had finally gotten to know Nita more, and had stopped being upset about him and her being together. He grinned and ran down, passing them easily. "Last one to the river's a fat gopher!"

"Oh! Fat gopher, where? I want 'im!" Koda abandoned Nita and their game and quickly ran after Kenai. Nita, laughing, joined them.

They were one happy family.

But it wouldn't last for long...

--

yeah, i know, corny and not very good, but it's just one of those beginning chappies. now, i'm sorry if Nita, or any of the other characters for that matter, seem a little bit... Mary Sue-ish. to me, Nita is sort of a Mary Sue, but i still like her. now i don't want hate-reviews, complaining and saying 'nIta iznt aa Mary Su, she iz purfect and awzome and teh grtst charcter everrrr!', okay? i like her, but she just seems that way a bit to me in the movie. speaking of which, i can't find my BB2 dvd, so yeah, another reason to say sorry in advance. i recently watched it on some website with Japanese subtitles, please forgive me and my stupid computer for not wanting to work. oh, one last thing, REVIEW!!