The Lonely Walrus

I'm sure you are all aware of what a walrus is and how a walrus is supposed to behave. They spend their time laying on rocks in the warm sun, eating, swimming, attending lessons to learn the walrus ways and eventually, have a family.

Well, this story is about a walrus, named Wilber, who didn't behave like a normal walrus would. Wilber was different from birth. He wasn't content to play with the other Walrus children. He liked to explore and had very little fear of getting lost or eaten. This worried his parents and they tried telling him to be a good boy, but it didn't help. As Wilber got older his friends made fun of him and wouldn't spend very much time with him. Wilber didn't let it bother him enough to make him change his ways. He would just say “I'm not like you guys but someday you will see I'm special in my own way”.

The other walruses thought Wilber was out of place when he was a child, but they were in for a big surprise when he became a teenager and grew tusks. Wilber was amazed with his tusks and thought they should have a better use than just making him look tough. He did a lot of thinking to decide what he could do with his tusks.

One day he was moving along as walruses do and he saw an ice cliff in the distance. As he looked at it a thought struck him. The thought he had was “I wonder if I could climb that cliff by using my tusks?”. He decided to act on his thought, so he went right up to the cliff, pulled his head back, and slammed his tusks into the ice. To his great joy, the tusks stayed in the ice! His joy soon turned into frustration as he found he couldn't get any higher on the cliff, and after many hours of trying he gave up. Wilber's friends saw him trying to climb the cliff and made fun of him for being a silly walrus. For some, being laughed at would've crushed their spirits, but not Wilber. It just made him more eager to prove them wrong.

Starting the very next day, he set out for the cliff with the same result as before, but he kept trying over the next few weeks. At the end of the third week, his frustration had reached its peak. As he was hanging on the side of the cliff, he let out a yell, gave a heave with his flippers in anger, and to his amazement he moved up the cliff a whole walrus length! He did it a second time which moved him up again! Over the next two hours of climbing the cliff he reached the top. He'd done something no other walrus in history had done! It took some thinking to figure out how to get down. To do this, he stuck his tusks part way into the ice and slid down tail first. When he returned home he told everyone what he'd done and nearly all the Walruses told him he was crazy. The one's who didn't thought it was a useless idea. This turn of events caused the other walruses to ignore him even more.

Some days later, Wilber was a long way from the herd exploring the edge of the ice, and as he was moving along he heard someone calling for help. This puzzled him and he wondered who or what would be calling for help way out here? He started moving forward and the pleas for help started getting louder. Suddenly he recognized the voices. It was his parents! Wilber moved faster searching everywhere for them. He almost gave up hope, but to his joy and dismay he spotted them. They were stuck on a nearby iceberg with a polar bear slowly approaching them. The iceberg was turned the wrong way! The sloped side was too far for him to reach. Only the steep side was facing him. Wilber jumped into the water and swam to the side of the iceberg. He pulled his head back slamming his tusks into the ice and climbed faster than ever to the top, just as the bear was about to attack his parents. Anger filled Wilber and he charged, ramming into the polar bear, knocking him off the iceberg! Wiber's parents were saved!

When Wilber and his parents returned to the herd, everyone cheered and praised him for his brave rescue. He was no longer alone and laughed at. He was a hero. Within that very year he met a wonderful girl walrus and started a family, in his later years he became the elder of the tribe and ruled with a kind hand(or flipper as we call it). The story of Wilber is told to all the walrus children and has been passed down through many generations.