In the Jungle – Social Short Story
Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com
Once upon a time, in a jungle, there was a dog family. The father died in an accident when he went out to hunt. The mother had three sons. They were three puppies. One day, the mother found a kitten in a cave when she was hunting.
“Oh poor little thing!” She thought “He is too fragile even to stand up.”
Seeing him being untaken for and crying due to hunger, she took him back and raised him up like the puppies.
At first, the kitten didn’t notice himself being different from others, and other puppies didn’t pay special notice of him, just thinking him as a little puppy. As he and his counterparts grew, the puppies started to notice that he was different from them. His sound was different, and his body colour was different. And more importantly, he was more frail and weaker than others. He ran slower, his strengths are weaker, and he lost in running competitions with them.
The puppies looked down upon him. And they even mocked and jeered at him.
“Listen, guys. Hear how strange his voice is!”
“Yeah! It sounds really odd and creepy! ”
“He is so different. I mean, look even his body shape and body colour are different!”
The kitten felt slighted and sad. He didn’t understand why his brothers didn’t like him. He had always respected them, but they treated him badly. He was given the most unfavourable work to do. He had the least share of food as his brothers had secretly taken part of it away from him. He was alone while others played and hunted together. He felt lonely and his confidence was seriously impaired.
Despite his mother treated them equally, he couldn’t stand the discriminations by his brothers. And finally one day, he came to his mother and said,
“Mother, I am leaving. I wish to see more about this world. Before I leave, I must thank you for your good care and I am greatly indebted to you. I respect you and my brothers, though they weren’t quite fond of me. I will certainly miss all of you. Please take good care. Adieu.”
His mother was sad at his leave and asked him to stay. But he made up his mind to leave and his mother respected his decision at last.
Some years later after he left, the three puppies had grown up to be big dogs, and their mother became old and not going out often any more.
On a fine morning three dogs went out for a hunt, and ran into a pack of wolves in the jungle. The dogs were heavily outnumbered and beleaguered by the wolves. The dogs felt nervous and frightened because they knew the wolves were easily irritated, unreasonable and cruel. Suddenly, they saw a large figure emerged and a stentorian roar was delivered that really gave shivering down the spines. The wolves were intimidated and retreated.
The figure was a big cat. The dogs all saw in amazement and marvelled at how strong and ferocious the big cat seemed to be.
The big cat turned and saw the dogs. And previous memories flashed back to him. There they were, once his brothers. He recognized them despite the changes in so many years, but they seemed not to recognize him.
All these years he struggled for life, and he succeeded. And now he is not weak any more. He is independent and powerful. He is a mighty tiger.
The tiger and the dogs finally met again and they once again recognized each other. The dogs were filled with mixed feelings of delight and shame. The tiger said,
“You are my good brothers, always.”
And they remained good brothers ever after.
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