Answer:
D. The characters are talking animals.
Explanation:
The story of "The Willow Wren and the Bear" is one tale from the Brother's Grimm's story for children. This story tells the war/ fighting between the animals of the forest and the willow-wrens who are considered to be the royal birds in the forest.
As given in the excerpt, the story has animal characters who are able to talk and act like any human being. They are also fighting against each other, just like humans do at times of war. This <u>characterization is also known as personification where the non-human characters are given human attributes</u>. This <u>personification or animation of the animal characters, who talk and fight and plan and kill each other shows that the story was written for children.</u>
The verb is past participle so that would be option A.
I am pretty sure it is "became". Hope that helped :)
B because I did that when I was in elementary school and it taught me a lot
