Kings for Hire

As the celebrated childhood days had been undergoing its inadvertent fadeout, I suddenly woke up and started writing a playful animal story in order to rescue the magnificence of the immature days from dying away. As I recollected in my previous post, writing animal stories was the favorite pastime of my childhood days.  So, if I stop writing such stories, that simply signifies that I lost my childhood. I didn't want to submerge such a beautiful phase of my life into a bottomless chaos made of destiny, nature and time. And so, as a final attempt, I tried to scribble something. The outcome was qualitatively better than my prior writings, but it possessed only the one third of innocence that my earlier stories had done. Here is the synopsis of my last animal story written several years ago. It was written in the format of a drama, and was divided into five or more acts.

In the first scene, all the animals were marching to the daily conference that happens in front of the Lion King’s home. This particular day, they all were shocked hearing a news from the Minister Fox, regarding their greatly loved and adored King. According to a Messenger Monkey who reached that forest from one of the neighboring forests representing its aged reigning Lioness, the Lion King had to resign from the present forest, and had to take over the charge of the neighboring forest. The eldest of all animals was Uncle Bear, who had some memories regarding the claim by reigning Lioness of the neighboring forest. The Lion King’s grandfather actually was from the neighboring forest.  He had some quarrels with his father, so he came to this forest, with his wife and son (the Lion King’s father). The old Uncle Bear was a toddler then, and since he and the Lion Kings father were of the same age, they became great friends. As Uncle Bear claimed, it was him who named the Lion King on his birth.  

The Lion King also was very sad just like his subjects to leave the forest. But, as per the order of the forest, the words by the elder ones had to be obeyed. The most desperate one was the Uncle Bear, who always wanted his surroundings to be in order. A King to rule the forest (preferable a lion), was what he always wanted. So, he decided to do something to make the Lion King stay in the forest. Along with his two disciplines, a Cheetah and a Cat, he left the forest in the coverings of the night.  

The next day morning, at the daily conference, the Messenger Monkey came back to the forest to take the Lion King to the neighboring forest. The Lion King was so sad, and so were his subjects. But, the Messenger Monkey was so obstinate (there is even a synonym in Malayalam for obstinacy that is connected to monkeys), and he stuck on his claim raised by the reigning Lioness of his forest. Just then, the Old Bear, Cheetah, and the Cat, entered the conference area. All the animals were surprised seeing the three with two lion cubs. Uncle Bear informed the Messenger Monkey that he could took one of those lion cubs to his forest, but the Lion King should remain in their forest. The Messenger Monkey was okay with this suggestion. But, the cubs were not okay. They both were so scared seeing other animals and the greatness of the Lion King. They said they wanted to be neither the king nor the minister. Just let them go, they pleaded.

The animals were so curious seeing the awkward behavior of the cubs. Uncle Bear, the Cheetah and the Cat explained the animals how they got these two cubs. They found these twin lions from the circus company set among the neighboring human settlement. They attacked the tent in the night and rescued the lions and other captive animals, who were all on their way to that forest.

The animals tried to make the cubs understand the benefits of being a king. The lion kids initially were afraid of even the rabbit, but when Uncle Bear boosted them with courage, they understood they were lions and were destined to be kings. So, they went to the platform along with Lion King and the Minister Fox. The Minister Fox was just curious, so he mocked them to test their courage, but when the cubs roared out of anger, the Minister Fox got scared. So, the lion kids were ready to be the King. But who will go to the neighboring forest to take charge.  Initially both the cubs insisted the other one to become the king, but later they both wanted to be the king. 

The Uncle Bear solved this problem too. While waiting for the Cheetah and the Cat to bring the cubs from the circus tent, Uncle Bear had met another monkey from a different forest. The monkey also was a messenger, whose country also needed a lion king. Though Uncle Bear was not sure about the availability of more kings, he had asked the monkey to visit the Conference area the next morning.

Just then, the second Messenger Monkey also reached there. Seeing the celebration mood of the animals, he got surprised. Everyone happily invited him to the conference area. The cubs were ready to go to two different forests, after the Lion King assured them that the three forests would remain in friendship forever.