Once upon a time, a group of lions was wandering around the desert heading to the waterhole. The baby cubs were closely following the older lions on the journey there. The mother lion kept telling the baby cubs to be good and they would soon get to eat and drink. It began to get dark so the lion family decided to find an area to spend the night in. They found a little group of trees so they decided to rest there for the night. The next morning the mother and father lion got up extra early to go hunt for food so the cubs could eat. They quickly captured a deer and drug it back for the cubs. Each of the cubs eagerly ran up to the deer and began to eat, however, the littlest cub stayed behind. He only ate the sparse grass he could find in the area. The other cubs were growing bigger each day, except the little one who was not growing at all. That afternoon, the lion family set out again to find the waterhole. They were getting closer when they noticed the little cub was falling behind due to his size. The father put the cub on his back and they continued their trek. They finally arrived at the waterhole where they met other animals from the desert. The cubs played in the water and the adults laid down for the day watching their young play. That night the adults once again ran out to go get more food for their cubs and when they arrived again, all of the cubs ate except the little one who was eating the grass. The cubs and adults gathered around the waterhole and began to settle in for the night.
A few hours later, the mother lion heard tree branches snapping and what sounded like yelling from men. She quickly woke the father lion and they began to peer around the trees to see what was going on. They noticed a group of men carrying large guns heading straight for the waterhole. The men were yelling at each other to capture and kill any animal they saw. The two lions ran back to the animals at the water hole and informed them that they needed to run quickly because hunters were approaching. The mother and father lion put the cubs on each of their backs and began to run away. The little cub was not scared of these hunters and jumped of his father’s back. He ran towards the hunters and because he was so little, they never saw him coming. He bit the leg of the lead hunter. The other hunters rushed to his side, and the little lion once again bit the leg of another hunter. The hunters began to panic and the lion roared as loud as he could. The hunters ran away and got back into their jeep, each filled with fear. The animals slowly came back to the water hole and congratulated the little lion for standing up for himself and his community.
Author's Note:
I first began by reading the Jakata tale, "The Forest Fire", and was inspired to take my own twist on it. In the original story, a family of quails was in the forest with one little quail who was not eating anything but grass seed. He was the smallest of the family. One night a forest fire began to spread, and the little quail was not scared and ran up to it and stood its ground. The fire shrunk back and the family was saved. I wanted to keep the theme of a little underdog animal who sticks up for itself and becomes the hero of the community. I decided on a pack of lions with a little cub who sticks up for itself against the hunters. I chose hunters in this case because I wanted the little lion to realistically be able to scare the group away. I also combined some of my other stories including the waterhole and animal tales. I thought this was a really fun story to write because I love writing stories based on animals. I really enjoy reading Jakata tales because of this. I hope this story was as fun to read as it was to write!
Bibliography:
Title: The Forest Fire
Author: Noor Inayat
Link:Â Story