Children Short Story – The “bleating” Lion Cub
Photo credit: hamper from morguefile.com
Far away from human civilization, was the “jungle” that was “alive” with wild animals, birds, and bees moving around freely without the fear of humans. The jungle looked very dark and scary with thick tall trees, prickly bushes, and noises made by the insects and other non-human inhabitants of the jungle. Only the animals ruled this jungle. Obviously, the timid and meek animals were always scared and in constant state of alert while the wild beasts like lion, cheetah, elephants, boars etc. had the challenge of making a “successful hunt” everyday to feed themselves and their family. The respective “new borns” had to be educated and protected by the parents and other elders of the clan until they too “understood’ their own “placement” in the jungle and learnt well to cope up with the demands of the jungle environs to survive.
“Morza” the majestic male lion now sat in its cave with its little baby male cub “Miza” fondly licking him and playing with him. The cub was just a week old. Unfortunately, the lioness died soon after “Miza” was born and Morza was left alone with “Miza.” Morza had promised his dying wife that he would take care of “Miza” and he had kept his word. He took good care of Miza. Morza now felt hungry, so he told the cub “Miza, do not leave the cave until I come back.”
Miza faithfully followed this advice from Morza. Morza went out hunting everyday and would bring home whatever he could catch and both Morza and Miza fed on that. The cub never went out of the cave and was quite content at napping until Morza returned. This went on as routine for some time. However, Miza was growing fast.
One day when Morza went out for his routine hunt, Miza hesitantly stepped out of the cave and looked around. From the high rock where the Lion cave was, he looked down to see a lot of “other things” that seemed to be jumping, dancing, rolling and enjoying. These “other things” were actually wild sheep that fed on the delicious grass that grew near the rock. Miza was tempted. He ignored dad’s advice and slowly climbed down the rock and mixed with the flock of sheep. Since he was still “small” in size the sheep did not mind and within a week’s time Miza was “one amongst them.” They now played together, and Miza began to thoroughly enjoy with these “friends” of his and soon began to mimic their antics. Miza never however forgot to return back to the cave before Morza came back from the hunt and Morza NEVER knew about Miza’s “little” secret.
As time went on, Miza grew in size and had the look of a full-grown Lion. But he was still a “child at heart” and went to play with the sheep and the sheep had befriended Miza since such a long time that they too were not “scared” of his big size or of him. Miza was harmless and they were happy to play with Miza, and Miza too was happy to play with the sheep. However, one day….
A BIG ENORMOUS looking wild BULL came charging around to that part. It looked fierce and dangerous and it bellowed loudly now running here and there with its tail taut in the air. The sheep were scared and started bleating aloud warning all others to escape and not come in the way of this fearsome wild bull. The sheep ran here and there and hid themselves. Miza followed what the sheep did. He too emitted a “bleat” now and then, felt “terribly afraid” of the loud bellow of the “HUGE DEADLY LOOKING BULL” and he ran fast as he could, reached his cave up the rock, and sat there inside in a corner shivering with fright.
Within a few minutes, Morza was back from the hunt. As he entered, he looked at Miza lying silently in the corner and was taken aback!!! His darling cub was sitting in an “abnormal” position with a body language that spelt “fear.” On closer look, Morza saw that Miza was actually “shivering.” Morza felt Miza to see if he had any fever and was unwell but felt no high temperature. Nothing was wrong with Miza. Then he asked Miza. What is wrong with you Miza? Why are you shivering. What are you afraid of?
Miza slowly opened up to Morza “Daddy while you were away, something terrible happened. I was playing there down with the sheep and a HUGE ANIMAL CAME there. His voice was very loud and he looked so dangerous.
No sooner had he said this Morza snapped. WHAT???!!!! .. Did I hear you CORRECTLY???.. you went to play WITH THE SHEEP you said??”(to which Miza nodded yes and told him that he went everyday since quite sometime and that they were his “friends” now).. Morza growled “Oh My God!!!..and he slapped Miza hard. Morza continued “NO wonder Miza, you are “bleating” like the sheep and I can see “sheep” has entered your heart too.”
So saying, Morza said “GET UP… NOW!!!.. and come with me.” Morza had already assessed that it might have been a wild bull and as they stepped down the rock, they saw that the “bull” was still there bellowing loudly and damaging anything that came in the way. It felt proud of itself that it had scared all the sheep away. It now looked at the 2 approaching lions and thought it could “terrorize” these two also and stamping its feet on the ground hard, it prepared to charge. Miza immediately panicked and tried to back off and said “See.. daddy.. I told you this animal was dangerous.. be careful dad.”
Morza was enraged. He slapped Miza again this time more harder “You stupid cub…you fool!!… it is time you understood YOUR OWN strength. Now do as I say. Jump on the neck of this wild beast and hit on its head with your paw with full force. Do NOT let go the neck until you have brought the bull down to the ground and it is killed.” Miza panicked. Again he bleated “but.. dad” he pleaded.
Morza was even more outraged to hear this. He said “MIZA… NOWWW!!! OR I WILL HIT YOU HARDER.” That did the trick. Morza’s voice was so threatening that Miza did not want to be slapped again with THAT HUGE Morza paw… and so he instantly obeyed. He took one GIANT leap now at the beast, snapped his jaws on to bull’s neck and hit the bull hard on the head. The bull was surprised by the “force” of the attack and the sheer power behind it. It felt like some BIG ROCK had cracked its skull. Its strength ebbed away and it could not stand on its feet for long and fell down. The grip of Miza on the neck was so strong that the bull lost all its power and had little breath left. The fight was OVER within 3 minutes.
Morza let out a ROAR now..ROAAAARRRRR!!!! Even Miza was dumbfounded and had goose pimples all over him for “The ROAR” of MORZA was a dozen times more louder and terrifying than the “loud bellow” of the bull that he had heard earlier. He realized now that he too was a “LION” and he too should ROAR and not “bleat” like the sheep. The bull now lay dead. Miza released his hold on the bull and he opened his mouth wide, raised his neck to the sky and he ROARED!!!…ROOAAAAAARRRRRRR… Oh my!!!! what a ROAR it was!!!! the whole Jungle shook with fear. He ROARED AGAIN because it felt so good now. He looked at the bull now satisfied. He looked at Morza and saw that his dad was looking lovingly at him. He had made his dad feel proud of him. Miza had learnt to feed himself and Morza was happy Miza got his successful FIRST hunt. They celebrated with roars and ate the bull together.
Morza hugged Miza and had a word to say “Miza.. bleating sheep are TIMID CREATURES that are always afraid of facing challenges. They are always in flocks because they can bleat and share their fear with each other and feel unhappy and weak all the time. But Miza, we are LIONS.. we stand up to ANY challenge with courage.. and without fear or panic of the outcome. Our ROAR itself is enough to weaken all others and when we ATTACK we NEVER DOUBT in our abilities. Sometimes we may not get success and may return from the hunt without anything and it does hurt our pride, but we DO NOT let that affect our LION heart and we wait for the next opportunity eagerly. We the LIONS are afraid of NOTHING remember.”
Miza understood the wisdom of these words from his dad and was very proud to be the son of MORZA. Now that he had realized his MIGHTY POWERS, he went alone for his hunts like his dad and when both of them met once in a while, they sat together over a “meal” and shared their adventures and thrills in the beautiful forest, while the monkeys chattered and the birds watched in envy at the two handsome Lions up from the trees.
Then, one fine day…. Miza met Nizzy (female cub) and a wonderful romance started … well friends, sorry.. but THAT is the beginning of another long story that happened in the deep, dark, mysterious jungle. Will tell you later…;) :)
BOTTOM LINE: In every human being there are both “Lion” and “sheep” instincts. Some people always choose to keep “bleating about problems” like the sheep. They have a crowd of sheep around them and are only contented to share their own misery and sadness and feel “comfortable with that” not realizing that their “bleating” does not solve problems.
However, if they ONLY realize that there IS a LION inside them that they have to encourage to COME TO THE SURFACE and ACT, they too could also let out a ROAR and face challenges of life bravely and go on to WIN.. but alas!!! who will counsel these “human sheep” and encourage them to be a LION and not a sheep??!!! I hope those who read this story can do that, become LION themselves and also help their near and dear “sheep friends” to stop bleating “poor me, poor me… someone help me” and make them all bring out the LION within themselves and ACT.
Friends.. Hope you love this “courage” installing story. Please do let me know. Thank you. :) :)
__END__
