The Fall of the Mighty Lion

Animals in the jungle live their lives every day in fear, just because of the almighty lion. They know that they could lose their lives to the lion at any point in time. They have no other home to move in to; they couldn’t help but adapt to the forest and accept their fate.

Once upon a time, there lived a mighty lion who was full of himself because of his strength and power over other animals in the bush.

Sometimes, the great lion doesn’t kill other animals for food; he kills them for fun. The way other animals lose their lives to the lion terrified all the animals in the bush, they became so concerned about their survival.

One day, they all gathered for discussions on how to solve the big problem in the bush.

Some of the animals that attended the meeting were the deer, tortoise, hare, and monkey.

When the meeting started, the deer said:

“thank you all for coming, today I hope we come up with a solution that will save us and our children in this forest.”

He continued, “If the lion continues these killings, none of us will be left alive in this our small kingdom.” The deer stated.

“Yes, you’re correct. He kills much more than he supposed to,” yelped the small hare.

The monkey said, “It is important that we figure out the solution to this crisis.”

They all agreed to meet the lion and resolve everything with him.

When they got to the lion’s house, they all said together:

“All hail king lion! Our king, the king of the forest, we are here to make a humble request.

The lion was surprised and asked, “What’s your mission here, you prey?”

The tortoise decided to speak and said:

“you are the ruler in this forest, but if you continue with your massacre, in no distant time there will be no animals to ruler over.

Therefore we plead that you quit these unnecessary killings of yours. We have decided to be sending one of us every day for your food.”

The lion told them to leave and ensure they stick to their agreement.

When they left the lion’s house, they decided to be casting lots to decide on who was to be eaten by the lion.

The next day, the lots fell on the tortoise to visit the lion. They knew he was going to die, so they prayed for him and consoled him. Then, they sent him off to be doomed by the lion. He left in tears.

But one thing about the tortoise, he always uses his brain. He found being alive lovely that he didn’t wish to die at the hands of the deadly lion.

As he was moving and thinking about what to do, he came across an old well with water inside. The well appeared to be a danger for all the animals living in the bush. He quickly figured out something.

The tortoise decided to sleep near the well till evening. When he woke up around 5: pm, he made his way to the lion’s den.

The king of the forest was badly hungry after waiting for the animals to send him food. When he sighted the hunger-stricken tortoise coming to him, he became angry immediately.

“oh no, this is not what I expected after a long wait. You small thing, how dare you arrive here by this time? How could they send you little animal to be eaten by a whole king of the forest? For this act, I will make sure they all pay with their lives,” the furious lion growled.

The tortoise scarily said, “I am not to be blamed O king of the forest. Five of us supposed to be here for you. Sadly, on our way to your den, we were attacked by another lion. I just managed to survive. The other four tortoises were consumed by the lion. I am sorry, I couldn’t do anything.”

“You’re trying to tell me that there’s another lion in this my kingdom? Take me to him now! The lion said angrily.

The tortoise brought the lion to the well where he had some sleep before coming to meet him and pointed at the well from a distance.

“The other lion jumped out at us from inside the well over there (he pointed at the well) when we tried to drink some water from the well,” the tortoise said with a pitiable voice.

The lion rushed furiously to the well and looked deep down.

As he looked inside the well, he saw another lion staring at him. But he was so st*pid to understand that he was just looking at his reflection from the water in the well. He roared angrily at the lion in the well (who is his shadow). Another voice roared back to him.

But little did he know that what he heard was only the echo of his own roar. But he thought there was another lion in the well challenging him. He quickly jumped into the well and landed with a noisy splash.

This was how the tortoise killed the king of the forest and they all lived peacefully in the forest without the need to console any animal and send him to his doom.