The Cave, part two

Synopsis of yesterday's episode: Bearnacle Bear is reunited with his crew. They are living in a cave. He doesn't know how long they have been there and how they got there. When he sees that there are bear cubs in the cave, Bearnacle Bear realizes that he may have been a prisoner of the humans for longer than he realized. Bearnacle Bear feels anger and hatred against the humans for having treated him so badly.
The bears had a giant feast to celebrate the return of their captain.
After that, I slept soundly for many hours.
When I awoke, I saw another painting in the cave. It had more detail and brighter colors than the paintings near the entrance to the cave. In this part of the cave, the sunlight never penetrated. There were lanterns all over to give illumination to a dark place. I sat up slowly. Every bone in my body hurt. I had not relaxed in many months, ever since the ship crashed on the shore of the land of the humans. All of the pain of two crashes and of being held captive filled my body. I sat slowly and then fell back onto the soft bed that the first mate had made for me. I could barely move.
The ship's cook brought me a light broth. I looked at it and at the cook. I did not want anything. My crew was marooned, and it was my fault. The cook, however, would not take no for an answer. If I didn't want the cook to keep staring at me, I had to eat the broth.
It was delicious. It had a beautiful aroma, of fresh herbs that had been gathered that morning. Small pieces of herbs floated on the top. The broth tasted of springtime and of green fields and of better days to come.
And there would be better days to come.
In the weeks following, my strength returned. I got to know my crew again and to delight in the cubs that had been born when we were separated. Their antics delighted me. I went with the cook to gather the herbs for the soups and stews that we were to eat. We all sang in the morning and danced in the evening.
One day, I watched the sun rise, and I knew that it was time to go home. It was time to gather the materials to build a ship. We had, among our crew, several ship builders.
Within a few weeks, the ship was built, and it was time to set off for home.
Even though I knew that the time had come to leave this island that had healing herbs growing wild, I felt sad. All of us had grown contented in our stay here.
We moved our possessions into the ship, and we pulled up the anchor and...
(to be continued on Monday)