Making People Happy
In an isolated area of a zoo a few zookeepers were observing the newest addition to their zoo. "Wow, look at her. It's amazing that she's so large for a new born cub," said one zookeeper. Those were the first words the young polar bear cub named Nuka ever remembered hearing. Of course, Nuka did not think it was strange that she could understand human speech even though she was just a cub, and especially because she was just an animal. That type of thing did not matter to her. What she did care about was the tone with which the zookeepers were talking about her in. It was nice the way they were talking about her, and they kept referring to her size as if it were something that made her special and good. She liked the way that those people were talking about her as her own mother licked her clean. The young polar bear soon drifted off to sleep while enjoying listening to the zookeepers talk about her.
A couple weeks later Nuka found herself being examined by the zookeepers. They were petting her and letting her know what a good bear she was. Nuka also noted how they seemed to be amazed at her rate of growth. "Just look at her. They grow so fast. She'll be larger than us before we know it," one of the zookeepers said lightly. The zookeepers kept praising Nuka for her impressive size and for how fast she was growing. Nuka basked in that attention and only wished she could grow faster in order to make everyone happy. For a normal polar bear that would not have been possible, but no one truly realized how special a bear Nuka really was.
After a couple more weeks Nuka made her first public appearance where she was able to have more praise than she could have ever imagined showered down upon her. The public had already fallen in love with the polar bear cub. Of course children could not help but shout about how large Nuka was for only being a cub. Nuka adored the adulation of the crowds that came to visit her exhibit daily. Each day they would comment in mass about her size and how fast she was growing. It made Nuka a very happy polar bear that she was able to make so many people so happy with her size and her growth.
As time passed the zookeepers started to notice that there really might be something very special about Nuka. When she reached the age that a polar bear normally stopped growing she had already broken the record for the largest female polar bear on record. That drew more tourists to see such a large female polar bear. But, the zookeepers were surprised to see that Nuka did not stop growing. Little by little she caught up to the size of a male polar bear. The zookeepers tried to find out if anything was wrong with Nuka as she soon broke the record for the world's largest bear ever recorded. They never could find anything that was causing her growth, but since it did not seem to be causing her any harm they tried not to worry that much about it.
The zookeepers did keep up the tests though. With the number of tourists that Nuka was able to draw in she practically paid for her own medical care and then some. Nuka liked all the extra attention that her size was getting her, both from the people that watched her from her enclosure and from the zookeepers in charge of her care. She really did not understand why the other polar bears in her enclosure did not try to get much larger than they already were. Growing just seemed to make everybody happy. The only thing that really puzzled Nuka was why nobody would ever get all that close to her. Sometimes she wished that she could just step right out of her enclosure and be as close to everyone else as she pleased, but she was still too small for that to be anything more than a dream.
In the coming weeks the zookeepers were pleased to see that Nuka had finally stopped growing. Still, Nuka was a giant among bears. She was an extra third the size of the next largest bear on record. Fortunately, she also still seemed to be perfectly healthy. Actually, the zookeepers noticed that she was actually considerably healthier than any of the other polar bears in the exhibit. They hoped that was a good sign and the public sure seemed to take it that way. People were coming from all around to see the "miracle giant" polar bear. There had even been quite a few news stories done on her that helped to spread her fame. People could not help but be amazed by a bear that, when standing on her hind legs, was tall enough to look over a one story building.
The zookeepers were also relieved that Nuka had stopped growing for another reason. She was by and far the friendliest polar bear any of the zookeepers had ever dealt with, but she was still a polar bear. Dealing with a carnivore of that size was always intimidating. There had been one time Nuka had the ability to maul one of the new zookeepers when he accidentally let himself get cornered by the bear without noticing, but the most vicious thing she did was give him an actual bear hug and not let him go until she was finished covering his head in licks. It had taken a few minutes to pry that zookeeper out of the apparently affectionate bear's grasp. That may have been a friendly encounter, but the zookeepers did not want to take any chances with something as potentially dangerous as Nuka.
If they could have looked into Nuka's thoughts they might have discovered that she had absolutely no intentions of harming anyone at any time. That close encounter with the zookeeper had been a very special moment for her. It had been nice to show how much she actually cared for her keepers for once. They rarely let themselves get close to her anymore. That had been a true bright spot in Nuka's life since she had stopped growing. Sure, there were still plenty of people that came to visit her, but they did not seem quite as happy as they did when she was still growing. No matter how much Nuka willed herself to keep on growing she just could not get herself to do it. She wondered if that was what had happened to the other polar bears in the exhibit with her. They must have just reached a stopping point and then given up.
Nuka thought about giving up too, but then she cast that thought aside. She had already made it further than the other polar bears and she was sure she could go even further. Day after day Nuka kept searching for a way to make herself start growing again. She had little success, but she never gave up. All those happy faces that showed up at her exhibit every day just encouraged her to keep on trying. She never lost confidence that she would succeed in her task. Nuka absolutely would not disappoint all those people by remaining at her present size forever.
It took about a year for Nuka to find what she was looking for. She was not sure how she found it, she could just sense something inside of her. Instinctively, she knew that it was what had allowed her to grow so much earlier in her life. But, for some reason, it was now closed. Nuka could not open it at first, but she was patient. Now that she had done the hard part of finding it she knew it would not be that hard to open that part of her again and restarting her growth. The polar bear was right about that too. After taking a year to find the thing that controlled her growth it only took her a couple of days to figure out how to open it once more.
No one had really known what Nuka was up to. They had just thought she seemed awfully focused on something for a bear. Nuka had not been trying to figure out how to trigger her growth while she was in private either. When she started growing again she wanted to do it in front of everyone. Nuka figured out that the thing inside of her that had been making her grow when she was younger had only been partially open, but now she was going to open it fully and she was going to do it for everyone to see. So it was that one day, in front of a very large crowd, Nuka triggered her growth once more for all to see.
The polar bear did not just shoot up in height right away, but Nuka could tell she had started to grow once more. It took the people a few seconds to notice that she was growing too. Her growth was a gradual thing. It was slow enough that most people thought they were imagining things as they watched Nuka. That was not something they could continue believing for long, however. Just by comparing Nuka's size with other objects in her enclosure they were able to tell that she really was growing at a slow, but noticeable rate. When the children noticed it they shouted with glee. Watching a polar bear grow right in front of them was something spectacular to behold in the mind of a child. The adults were not quite as pleased as the children, but they still watched in awe, thinking of the things a giant bear would be able to do to a person.
As Nuka continued to grow, so did the crowd watching her. The zookeepers were summoned to see what was happening with Nuka, but they could not really do any more about Nuka than the crowd could. It was not like they could just stop her from growing with anything they had on them. All they could think to do was get their tranquilizer guns prepared in case Nuka started to get aggressive. Fortunately for everyone at the zoo Nuka was not thinking a single aggressive thought. What she cared about was all the people gathering around her enclosure. She had only planned on growing a little bit that day, but with all the people gathering around she thought that everyone was really enjoying her growth. If they liked it that much then she decided that she was just going to keep on growing.
It was not long before Nuka had reached twice the size of a normal male polar bear. Since bears were already impressive in size Nuka's new proportions were definitely a draw for the crowds of people in the zoo. There may have been other animals in the zoo that were still larger, but none of them grew as fast as Nuka seemed to be growing. Some people did start to get nervous enough to back away from the growing polar bear's exhibit, but there were always more people to replace those that left. Even though most of the other polar bears in the exhibit were starting to look nervous about Nuka as she approached the size of an elephant, the crowd around Nuka still continued to grow.
The zookeepers were starting to get really nervous as the polar bear continued to grow. Nuka's enclosure had only been meant to contain a normal sized bear, but at her rate of growth the exhibit would only be able to contain her for long. A lot of people were not aware of just how little protection the tall walls of the polar bear exhibit were truly giving them. Nuka was already as tall as a giraffe and she had not even tried to stand up yet. That was what was fooling people about just how easily she could get out of her enclosure at the moment.
Nuka had sort of forgotten that she could stand on her hind legs at the moment. She was too busy basking in all the attention she was getting and the thought of getting out of the exhibit had not even crossed her mind. The polar bear found all the stares and the chattering children to be a pleasant experience. It was not until she remembered how nice it would be to get closer to all those people that she thought about escaping from her long time home. Nuka knew it would take her a little while longer before she was large enough to just walk out of the enclosure, but she might just be able to climb out know. The polar bear could not wait to get closer to all those people and made the decision to climb out right away.
When Nuka reared up on her hind legs the crowd was left speechless. The bear looked so much larger standing up than she had before. Of course Nuka was still growing, but what made her really look larger was the fact that even within the exhibit the bear now towered a few feet over the crowd. Paws the size of people were coming down on top of the walls of the exhibit. There were plenty of people around that area too, but Nuka was careful to give them enough time to get out of the way. She did not want to crush anyone after all.
Nuka started to heft her impressive bulk right out of her cage and the inevitable happened. The crowd broke into a panic as children still screamed with glee at the possibility of finally getting to pet the huge cuddly looking bear. There was not a parent in the crowd crazy enough to let their children get close to the polar bear though. Nuka had no idea why all the people were running around like they were as she finished pulling herself out of the exhibit. Then she guessed that they must have all been so excited about her growth that they did not know what to do. It made Nuka a very happy bear that she was able to bring so much joy to the humans.
Most people were trying to get out of the zoo now that there was a giant polar bear on the loose. Nuka did not even consider that fact that all those people might be afraid of her. She was just walking around the zoo, being extra careful not to step on anyone, and giving people that came close enough to her an affectionate lick. The zookeepers were trying to make their way through the crowd to get to Nuka. They planned to try and tranquilize her before she ate anyone. It took a while to get to her, enough time for Nuka to have doubled in size since the time of her escape.
There was a child that seemed to have gotten away from his parents that was underneath the bear and trying to jump up and touch her belly. One of the zookeepers wanted to try and get the child out from beneath Nuka before they attempted to put her to sleep. The problem was that the polar bear was looking directly at all of the zookeepers and none of them wanted to have to pass directly under her. Still, they could not just leave the child there and one of the zookeepers eventually worked up the courage to approach the massive, and still growing, bear.
Nuka thought she was still doing good. When she saw one of the zookeepers approaching her without any bars between them for once she thought that was a good sign. The zookeeper looked a little hesitant, but when that zookeeper was close enough she gave him a nice big friendly lick. It was a friendly enough gesture to Nuka, but it was a slightly different experience for the zookeeper. The polar bear's tongue was nearly as wide as he was and he did not even want to look at the bear's teeth. Still, it came as a relief that Nuka did not lick him up and he continued on to the child. Nuka did not try to stop the zookeeper's progress, which came as an even bigger relief to the man.
What was not nearly as much of a relief was actually being under Nuka. If she were to decide to lay down at that moment the zookeeper knew he would get crushed. It was a good thing for him that Nuka was fully aware she had people under her and had no plans on laying down while they were there. The zookeeper was able to get to the child without incident, but the child was reluctant to leave. He was still trying to touch the bear's belly even though it was getting further from the ground as Nuka continued to grow. It took a little convincing to get the child to come with him, but the zookeeper eventually convinced the child that he needed to get back to his parents. The zookeeper did not go back past Nuka's head. This time he opted to go behind the bear and hoped she would not turn around. The zookeeper did not even notice he had been holding his breath until he was out from beneath the bear's huge barrel shaped body. Despite how scared he was he noticed that the child was in good spirits and was even waving goodbye to Nuka as she walked off through the zoo.
With the child out of harm's way the other zookeepers tried to use their tranquilizers on Nuka. It was easy enough for them to hit the giant polar bear. They would have had to try to miss her at her size. She looked large enough to eat an elephant in three bites. Just because they hit Nuka with the shots did not mean much though. Nuka did not look like she was getting tired at all. By the way she did not even seem to notice getting hit by the shots made them wonder if they had managed to penetrate far into her thick hide. The zookeepers knew that they were now powerless to do anything about the giant bear and tried to concentrate on helping all the people evacuate the zoo instead.
Nuka was blissfully unaware of all the fear she was causing. It did not help that not many children were afraid of her and were in fact encouraging her to grow even as their parents tried to run off with them. Nuka just ambled behind the crowds of people, trying to see what they were doing and growing all the while. She followed everyone out into the parking lot where there was even more confusion as some people tried to make it to their cars to get away from the bear even faster. Nuka had inadvertently blocked off the escape path when she stepped into the parking lot. Some people did not know what to do, but eventually one brave bus driver decided to drive underneath the bear.
Actually, the driver did not think it was all that brave a thing to do. The bear had not killed anyone yet and he could have sworn he saw Nuka trying to avoid stepping on anyone. He gambled on the bear being considerable less dangerous than everyone else thought she was. All Nuka did was look on at the bus at it got closer to her. She had never seen one before and it was an interesting curiosity, but nothing more. All Nuka knew was that she had to avoid crushing it since there seemed to be people riding in it. The polar bear let it pass under her without bothering it, giving the people on the bus a rather spectacular up close view of the bear.
Some of the people on the bus were truly amazed at the sheer size of the bear. Nuka had legs thicker than tree trunks, a head that soared high into the air, and a body so huge that it did not seem like it would be able move as easily as Nuka seemed to be moving around. They did not have to worry about the top of the bus scrapping against the bottom of Nuka's belly either. At her present size they would have been able to fit multiple buses stacked on top of each other beneath even the lowest point of Nuka's belly. It was such an amazing sight for everyone that the bus driver slowed down to take in the view while he was beneath the mammoth polar bear. Even though the bus driver really did not notice that he had slowed down, other drivers had. They saw that the polar bear at no point even hinted at wanting to destroy the bus and that gave others the courage to try and get out by driving under Nuka. Soon after that people began to seriously take note that Nuka was not displaying any hostile intentions whatsoever. Some people stopped panicking and just observed the massive bear as she did nothing more than walk around and give the occasional person the biggest lick they had ever had.
People were starting to realize that there was not a hostile bone in Nuka's body, but it was only the people that stayed behind to observe the bear. Everyone else thought that Nuka was a rampaging monster waiting to happen. That was why when Nuka started wandering off toward the sparkling city in the distance orders to evacuate the city were given.
Nuka was fascinated by the city even though it was kind of far away. She could tell it had been built by humans and there must have been far more of them there than there were at the zoo. The polar bear wanted to show as many people her growth as she could and that city seemed like the ideal place to do such a thing. It was hard for the people to miss the bear approaching their city and they all made sure to head in the opposite direction.
Nuka could see the crowds of people evacuating the city from where she was. There were far more of them in that city than the polar bear had thought there would be. That made her want to catch up with them even more. She thought all those people would definitely love to see her growing. There was one problem for Nuka, though, as she reached the city. It turned out that the city streets were a bit narrow for her. That was not much of a problem at first. She had grown large enough that she was able to walk right over smaller buildings. But, as she followed the people fleeing out of the city she had to pass by buildings of increasing size.
It finally got to the point where Nuka grew so big that as she tried to pass by a couple of large apartment buildings she ended up getting stuck. The buildings were actually much more sturdy than Nuka had thought they would be. As hard as she tried, she just could not free herself from the predicament she had managed to get herself in. The situation might have been a bit more dangerous than comical if the area had not already been evacuated ahead of Nuka. That was also why it was not a disaster that Nuka's growing bulk freed her from her predicament by knocking the buildings over.
Nuka did not really know what the apartment buildings had been for and she did not care all that much since they were not currently filled with people. Still, Nuka at least tried to avoid knocking over as many buildings as she could while traveling through the city. That became more and more difficult to do as Nuka expanded in size, but she still managed to do a pretty good job considering just how big she was getting. She went from being at around eye level with small apartment buildings, to medium sized office buildings, and all the way up to skyscrapers. At that size even a glancing blow from Nuka's massive body was enough to topple the fortunately empty buildings within the city.
All Nuka was trying to do was get closer to all the people on the other side of the city, but what it looked like to them was a giant monster going on a rampage. Even though very few buildings were getting destroyed, just watching one skyscraper get casually knocked over can make it very easy to ignore how careful a giant is trying to be. As the polar bear continued to expand the people found it harder to stay ahead of her. Those huge steps of hers allowed her to travel blocks at a time. The only thing really slowing Nuka down was that she was trying to be so careful not to step on things.
With Nuka's growth, there really was not much that the people could do to get away from the giant bear. Once she was tall enough that she could walk right over skyscrapers without any problem she had no problem catching up with the people that had been trying to get away from her. She was able to trundle right up to the hordes of fleeing people, but she thought it was a little strange that they were not stopping to look at her. Since they were all running in the opposite direction Nuka was coming from she just assumed that they had not noticed her yet.
People had stopped looking back at the bear a while ago. They did not want to see how big the bear was really getting. All they needed to know was that the mountain of flesh and fur was capable of crushing entire buildings beneath a single toe. They knew they would not be able to escape the growing bear, but they were willing to give it a try. Nuka did not let them try for long though. In order to be noticed Nuka had circled the crowd and the more than mountain sized bear took a seat right in front of the fleeing people.
A lot of people thought about turning around a changing directions, but they knew that would be futile. At Nuka's size she could easily just circle the crowd again if she had to. Just about everyone thought they were finished, that the bear was going to crush or eat all of them. But, as the seconds dragged on the polar bear just sat there, growing all the while and looking expectantly at the crowd. As time passed the fear of the giant bear started to be replaced with awe of her sheer size. She was not just large, she was impossibly huge. Even a whale looked like it would not have even made a light snack for her.
Nuka was actually very pleased with herself at the moment. The humans were so in awe of her size that they could not even speak. She was very happy that she could share her growth with them and she had to resist the urge to give them a friendly lick. All of the humans were so small compared to her that she might accidentally lick up half the crowd if she tried. She just continued to let herself get larger and watched happily as some of the humans finally started to approach her.
It was not that a lot of people were no longer afraid of Nuka, she was just so spectacular in size that some people could not resist getting close enough to touch her. It was as if some people were trying to convince themselves that they were not dreaming by touching the polar bear. Still, getting close to a bear that is large enough for a person to walk under the curve in its claws was very intimidating. The way Nuka just sat there and let them approach was a little encouraging. Then they got close enough to Nuka to see that she had strands of fur that were thicker than any tree any of them had ever seen. That made them feel very intimidated once more, but the bear still never did anything to harm a single person.
Seeing no harm come to anyone that approached the bear encouraged others to do the same too. It was not every day that people had the opportunity to pet a titanic polar bear. Nuka was overjoyed as the tiny crowd of people gathered around one of her paws. The entire city's population was able to gather around that one huge paw and it would have been quite a walk to get to the next closest one for them. Nuka did not think much about that though, she was just happy to finally be able to interact with the humans and let them see her growth from as up close as they wanted to.
Nuka continued to let herself grow throughout the day and the people's awe of her grew right along with her. People had to remember to back away from her growing paw, but it did start to turn into a fairly enjoyable experience. There were even quite a few people that managed to guess Nuka was trying to put on a show for all of them. Before long the air was filled with people remarking about how massive Nuka had become and Nuka could hear every last one of them. The mammoth polar bear was even more pleased than she thought she would be, but as the sun retreated across the horizon she started to feel a little tired. It was about time to stop growing for the day and get a little rest. She wanted to actually be awake to see how happy people were with her growth.
Nuka broke away from the people and walked far enough away from them to lay down without crushing anyone. The people watched in amazement as she walked. Her paws were actually a little larger than their city was at that point and it seemed like it was a miracle that she could even move. People did not know what to do as Nuka just laid down to sleep for the night. Just going back home did not seem like an adequate response for the situation. The world was also figuring out what to do about the mega sized bear that seemed to be friendly enough to people, if not as much to empty buildings. Other people from around the world had been watching the polar bear's growth from home and some were terrified of it, but others were trying to figure out how to get to that part of the world to see Nuka with their own eyes. What a lot of people did not realize was that even though Nuka had paws large enough to crush cities, she still planned on putting on another show for them when she woke up tomorrow.