The Dangerous Forest

In sweltering hot Africa, there lived many animals. They often fought over who would wear the crown of King of the Jungle. So, they all lived in separate settlements. Of these settlements, there was one called Feiyishijikala. The animals there all cooperated with one another, and so it was a very peaceful settlement. They didn't fight with other settlements. So, many animals moved to that settlement. Eventually, the population there became very big, and the other settlements were very small and they had no way to attract other animals to come live with them.

The king of Keiyishijikala was a very intelligent monkey named Kaladijiya. He called all the other animals in the settlement together for a meeting. He told them, "You all came here because you were fighting over the crown. Now all the animals have come here. Now we can select a new a courageous king. What do you all think?" All the animals agreed. Kaladijiya said, "in 10 minutes, we can all begin the voting. We will select ten from among all the animals, and then we will choose the king from among those ten. The first challenge will be a fight, the second challenge will be an intellectual competition, and the third challenge will be a marathon."

After ten minutes, the ten candidates were selected. They were: Batola, a snake; Makaxinjinshi, a dragon; Kalasamiqi, an elephant; Qikejilawei, a tiger; Bailumixi, a cow; Salaxiluer, a cat; Laqimeiding, a monkey; Yilishoulalouerlu, a turtle; Quenhaohuanmizhuyin, a wolf; and Bashijiqierweiya, a fox.

In the first challenge, the snake beat the elephant. The dragon beat the tiger. The cat beat the cow. The wolf beat the fox. The turtle beat the monkey.

For the second challenge, the king asked three questions. The three animals who answered them correctly could continue on to the marathon. The first question was: "Why is it that during the wintertime, the temperature below the ice is warmer than the temperature above the ice?" The second question was: "Why do ants have to come home on time?" The third question was: "Why do ducks waddle back and forth when they walk?" The animals were all competing against one another to answer, so they knew they had to think quickly. In the end, the turtle answered two questions right. He and the snake took part in the marathon. The turtle ran very slowly but at a fork in the road, the snake took the wrong road and the turtle won. The snake was very angry.

So, the turtle became king. Under the turtle's rule, the settlement developed very well. A few years later, some hunters came to the forest to hunt for animals. Over the course of a few days they killed many animals! In this dangerous time, the turtle called all the animals together for a meeting. He told them all, "Now there are hunters in our forest and they've killed many animals. They want to catch the rest of us and put us in cages. Is there any way we can deal with this?"

Then, Najimeiding said, "I know a way, but I don't know if it will work."

The turtle quickly replied, "Okay, come on!"

"Let's get all the animals together first. Then, let's go to the great cave. There are many small caves inside the great cave, so each kind of animal can live in one small cave. Then, we'll look for food. Each kind of animal, send two out to gather food. Don't go alone, it's dangerous out there! Stay together! If you are in danger, call and alert the rest of us!"

Everyone agreed. The animals went into the great cave. They lived and played there together happily for many months. One day, an unfortunate thing happened. The hunters found the cave and all the animals, and they blocked the entrance, trapping all the animals inside! Inside the cave, the animals discussed their situation:

One said, "we can't let the hunters kill us!"

Another said, "we should defend ourselves!"

A third animal said, "there are only a few hunters, but we have so many animals...." All the animals spoke over each other and there was a big frenzy inside the cave. In the end, they decided to fight back. So, they charged, broke down the blocked entryway, and kept on charging ahead without so much as a care for their own personal safety.

One hunter was outside the entrance in a small clearing smoking a cigarette. He saw the animals coming through the mouth of the cave and he threw his cigarette down into the grass. Before that small clearing stood the great forest, and behind it was a small pond.

The animals charged ferociously, without a care for the hunters in front of them. They ripped through the hunters' bodies, killing them all. When they stopped to rest and catch their breath, the animals turned their heads to see a raging forest fire! They were all shocked. The elephant, the turtle, the monkey, and the ape went to get water to put out the fire, but it didn't work, there wasn't enough.

The turtle was very solemn. He said, "Everybody get in a line, single-file. We'll use the hunters' water buckets to put out the fire. The elephant will use his trunk to hose down the fire." Everyone hurried to get the buckets. The elephant stood on the bank of the stream, sucking up water with his nose and spraying it into the fire. The animals were very busy and everyone was sweating profusely. They fetched one bucket of water after another. They cooperated to fetch the water, and so the fire was finally extinguished. Everyone was happy!

From that time forward, all the animals respected one another. All the wars between animals ended and there was peace in the forest. After a few years of safe and happy living, everyone looked back on their experiences fondly. These experiences from the African rainforests went down in the history of the animal kingdom. Every animal will keep this legend in their hearts, never to forget.