Nature's Twist

by Ayoola Olafenwa

CHAPTER 2 : DAWN OF LIFE

  Like the dawn of everything else, the dawn of life in the animal kingdom was very lovely. Everyone in the animal kingdom was living happily and peacefully. The king of the animal kingdom was Dale (a Lion).There was abundant food in the animal kingdom. Everyone related freely together and there were no foes. The animal kingdom was beautifully adorned with different beautiful creatures and the evergreen vegetation that housed the animals. The state of the kingdom was an Elysium that showed the perfection of the work of nature. A festival was held annually in the animal Kingdom, it was known as the "Festival of Harvest. " During the festival, there will be abundant food and everyone will be merry. Every animal was feeling so excited as the festival came near. All necessary preparations were done for the festival. The elephants, zebras, antelopes and Kangaroos were to perform a circus. The Monkeys were the music band in the animal kingdom. The festival was started by Dale. “Every animal in this kingdom is welcomed to this year’s festival. Everyone can enjoy himself as he wants.” The Monkeys started the music with the circus animals performing beautifully. All the animals were extremely glad and there was merriment till the end. The animals continued their blissful life till the next year when the rain that usually blessed the kingdom’s beauty began to reduce. The little rain resulted to shortage of food. Everyone was really sad, moping about how awful their festival is going to be because of inadequate food. Despite this, the festival was held, food, dancing and singing was minimal. The climatic condition grew worse as if the clouds had been sealed by an unseen force. Rain ceased to fall. Famine arrived gently to the discomfort of everyone. It seemed strange as this had never happened before. The famine made life terrible for every animal in the animal kingdom. Some food was stored in reserve in Dale’s kingdom which only the sick animals were entitled to. Almost every animal practically had no food to eat and there was little water for consumption as almost all the water bodies had dried up because of famine.

  Dale knew that something must be done before every animal in the kingdom starved to death. He therefore decided that a meeting must be held to find a solution to this interminable problem. Dale immediately sent out his messengers to disseminate the information that everyone must come to the king’s palace for an urgent meeting. The animals wasted no time, they all arrived the palace promptly. Dale addressed the animals saying, "we are all gathered here together to discuss the issue of the famine that we are all suffering from. There is no food in the kingdom, there is no longer hope for any “festival of harvest” to be held in this kingdom, this must stop urgently before we all die of hunger. We must all think together to find a solution to our problem, I will really be happy to have anyone who has a good suggestion to contribute." Everyone remained quiet, ruminating over this matter. It was difficult for anyone to make any decision. If only it was possible to fly up and open up the clouds to pour out water or make crops grow magically from the soil. No reasonable suggestion was forthcoming. The silent environment remained undisturbed for long until a voice spoke out. It was the big Elephant, Pomana, "It will be very good if some of us can leave our land in search of food somewhere else, I think that the Famine might not extend to every place and if we can get food at any place, we will bring it to our land". "That is a very good suggestion," all the animals chorused excitedly. Dale and all the animals were very happy with Pomana's suggestion. "Does anybody have a better suggestion?" Dale asked. Xoxo, a cat spoke out, "I think a better option that won't make us to stress ourselves by traveling to a very great distance is that we should dig the ground until we reach water and we shall use the water to plant crops and there will also be drinking water for all…." Shut up! Danny an Antelope shouted without letting him finish his statement. If you don't have any reasonable suggestion, keep your mouth shut, so you expect all of us to start digging the ground until we reach the water table". All the animals busted into laughter, making poor Xoxo feel so desolate. Dale called them to order and informed them that Pomana's suggestion will be followed. Everyone was very happy and they chose Pomana (Elephant), Hopsy (Zebra), Danny (Antelope), Aris (Kangaroo) and Donny (Tortoise) as the animals to go in search for food. Everyone went home feeling happy while Xoxo was very sad with the way is opinion was rudely rejected and mocked by everyone. But he was comforted by his best friend Lolly, a Rat. The next day they woke up very early. On arrival at the king’s palace, the king’s messengers gave them large bags. They set on their journey and Dale wished them a successful journey. Everywhere was dry, all the crops had wilted. It was a strenuous journey because most of them had not eaten. When they got out of the kingdom, they realized that the animal kingdom was not the only place affected by the famine. "I believe we shall be lucky to get to a place not affected by the famine." Danny said. "Do not worry, I am sure that the famine doesn't extend to every part of the world," Pomana replied Danny. "I hope so,” Aris cut in. "We shall continue our journey till we find a place where there is food.” Pomana said hopefully. They continued their journey, but it wasn't as easy as they earlier thought.

  After three days journey, they finally reached a place that was not affected by famine. Everywhere was green with crops and ever-green trees. They were very happy that they finally got to a place where they would get food. “You recall that I told you that the famine doesn't extend to everywhere," Pomana said happily. “Let us be quick, we must begin stuffing our bags with lots of food.” "Before we begin to fill our bags, we must first of all fill our stomachs.” Donny said jokingly. They all laughed. As they were laughing, Hopsy saw a man coming afar off and she shouted, clouded with fright. “Let’s runaway, look at that man coming afar off, quickly hide under a large tree." “I don't think that it is possible for us to get any food here because if the humans see us, they will kill us." Aris said. "You are right Aris, this is a death trap." Pomana said looking from under the tree at the man coming and she realized that he was coming straight in the direction of the tree. Pomana quickly made an alarm, "Let's run into the bush the human is almost here. " They immediately ran into a nearby bush. They stayed inside the bush, the man soon got to the tree. "We are very lucky to have left the tree before he arrived," Pomana said. The man started plucking mangoes from the tree, dropping them into a basket. "So it is a mango tree and none of us noticed it, if I had known that it is a mango tree, I would have plucked some mangoes to eat." “Shut up Donny! I knew that it's a mango tree, if we were plucking those mangoes, how would Pomana detect that the human had almost reached us? The human would just meet us there and will kill us easily." Aris said. Danny said to Aris, "We have two options, either we go and get the food and the human sees us and kill us or we will go back home and starve to death. "We just have to know how we are going to get the food without being seen by anyone. It doesn't make any sense if we return back home without food. Let's us wait here, we shall go out when he leaves." Pomana counseled. They stayed inside the bush watching the man.

  After sometime the man climbed down and he went away from the sight of the animals. "Now the rest of you should go and get food." Pomana told them. "What do you mean, are you trying to tell us that you are not coming with us?" Danny asked Pomana? "This is what I mean, you and others will go and get the food while I will be here to monitor any human that might be coming so that I will be able to alert you quickly," Pomana replied Danny. Donny talked laughing, "You are very funny Pomana, you will stay inside this bush and do you think it is possible for you to see any human coming afar off from this bush, you better tell us the truth that you are afraid to go out with us." Aris said fearfully, "Me too, I am afraid of going out because of humans." Danny retorted, "If every one of us is afraid to go out how then, shall we get food to eat?" Donny faced Danny and said "you are right but I think Pomana and Aris are also right because if we go out there, we are risking our lives, we should stay in this bush still night and then come out when no human will be able to see us." "That is not a better idea as far as am concerned, hunger has almost killed me, I don’t think that I
can stay here till night while food lies outside, even if anyone of you will not follow me I will go out and I won't share the food with anyone of you." Danny said and he stepped out of the bush. "Do not worry I will go with you." Aris said as he followed Danny. When they got outside they looked around and they didn't see anybody. "Let us be quick, " Danny told Aris. They started harvesting the food crops as if they were the farmers that planted them, filling their bags with food. Pomana and Donny had come out of the bush to join them. "What is this? Elephant, Zebra, Tortoise and Antelope on my farm," Someone shouted. They looked back and they saw the same man holding a cutlass. Their spirit almost jumped out of them, they abandoned their bags, took to their heels and fled into the bush. The infuriated farmer chased them into the bush. "You stupid animals, I will make sure I kill you." They could hear his running footsteps behind them. They ran as fast as they could, this created a wider space between them and the man. The farmer became frustrated when he saw that they had gone very far. He decided to always be on his farm and make sure he killed any animal that comes to his farm to steal his crops.

  They continued running through the bush, the bush path led into a small village. Everyone in the village was stunned by the presence of these animals, some became frightened and ran away from them. While some brought out their weapons to deal with these animals. They started chasing them with various weapons. This worsened the situation for the animals. A small boy threw a stone at them and it landed on Pomana's head. They continued running endlessly as the humans continued to pursue them until they reached the dead-end of the village, the people stopped the futile chase. These animals still continued their race for survival until late in the evening when they realized that the humans have stopped pursuing them. They reached a place, almost as dry as desert, it had been greatly affected by the famine. They continued walking and every one of them was feeling so sad, thinking that they may all starve to death if the famine continued. "This is very pathetic, no food, this is just a fruitless journey". Aris said almost weeping. "Hunger will kill us all". Danny said sobbing. They felt so tired and after walking a while they had to rest under a tree. So soon they fell asleep. Very early in the morning they woke up. They began their journey back home. They did not have enough strength to embark on another search for food. After trekking for about three kilometers, they reached the animal kingdom and they went straight to Dale's palace. Dale was happy to see them, but he was surprised to see them in a very sad mood and with no bags filled with food. "How was the journey, did you get any food?" Dale asked them. “The journey was not as easy as we thought, we got to a place where there is food, but it was where the humans live and the humans almost killed us, we were lucky to escape from the them, so we couldn't get any food.” Pomana explained to Dale. Dale felt very sad after listening to Pomana's explanation.

  He decided to call a meeting of all the animals to discuss on the next step to be taken to solve their problem of lack of food. It was an emergency meeting. Dale sent out his messengers to inform the animals that Pomana and his friends had returned back from their journey. They were very happy with the hope that the team came back with large amount of food. Their happiness was tarnished when Dale explained to them about the journey in search of food, how Pomana and others were almost killed by the humans. All the animals were put in the dilemma that they might all die of starvation. "This is a great challenge for all of us, does anyone of you think of a better way for us to get food?" Dale asked them. All of them remained quiet, none could think of another way for them to get food. "Okay, if none of you have any suggestion on this matter I think we shall go with Xoxo’s suggestion, recall that he suggested during the meeting before that we should embark on digging the ground till we reach water and use the water to plant crops." Dale told them. They all agreed that they should do what Xoxo suggested, because that seemed to be their only hope of survival. Xoxo was extremely happy that his suggestion which had been rubbished by everyone was finally considered very important. They decided that the next day, they will start the digging work. The digging work will be done under a large tree located in the centre of the animal kingdom and all animals were expected to be there very early in the morning with their various digging tools. Xoxo out of his excitement poked fun at Danny, who had criticized him a lot because of his suggestion. "Danny, Danny, Danny, I think Pomana's suggestion is the reason why you were almost killed by humans". Danny who was very hungry and weak ignored Xoxo’s mock. Danny, Pomana, Aris, Hopsy and Donny all went to see Dale again. They complained to him that they were all hungry and weak. Dale gave them the permission to go to his palace and collect the little food remaining (the food kept for sick animals) from his messenger.

  As they were trekking back to Dale's palace feeling weak and hopeless, Donny spoke out, "Please, wait for me, let me go and ease myself." "You better be quick," Pomana told Donny. "Do not worry, I will soon be back. " Donny assured them. Donny quickly left, he started running, although a slow runner he ran through a path which was a shorter distance to Dale's palace. Pomana and his friends could not wait for so long, they continued their journey to Dale's palace. They decided that they will collect his food and give it to him when they returned. Donny had quickly reached Dale's palace, he told Max (Dale's messenger) that Dale sent him to collect food for him and others that went for the journey in search for food. “Where are the rest of you that went in search of food?” Max asked. “They are busy discussing with the king.” Donny quickly replied. "Didn't you get food on your journey?" "No, we didn't ". ”please be quick," Donny hastened Max. Max gave Donny all the food. Donny quickly left the palace and ran back home. Pomana, Aris, Hopsy and Danny later arrived at the palace. They told Max that Dale sent them to collect food from him. They were astonished when Max informed them that Donny had come to collect food on their behalf. "Donny told me that Dale sent him to collect food for all of you that went to search for food." Max explained to them. "What! So Donny was lying when he told us that he wanted to go and ease himself. " Pomana said angrily. They narrated to Max that Dale sent them to collect food from him and on their journey to the palace, Donny lied to them that he wanted to ease himself and he didn't return till they arrived at the palace. Max was very surprised that Donny was lying. By this time, Dale had arrived at his palace he met them and they explained to him what Donny had done. Dale was very furious and he demanded to see Donny immediately. Pomana and his friends searched for Donny in his habitat but they didn't find him there, they searched everywhere for him but they found no traces of him. They were very angry and returned to the palace to inform Dale that Donny had fled. Dale assured them that he will make sure he apprehended Donny the second day and he gave them little food to eat.