Peace in the Animal Kingdom

 

Once upon a time, there was a big green forest. The forest was so big, that the only way out of it, was to fly up, up, up into the sky. Even then, the fastest flying animal would take a couple of days before it flew to the end of the forest. Inside the forest lived as many creatures as you could possibly think of. They ranged from all the ordinary animals such as the birds, cows, dogs, foxes, tigers, lions to the rarer ones, dragons, munchkins, dwarfs, fairies and so on.

 

All the creatures lived in peace. They helped one another. There were sometimes where tiny quarrels broke out among them, but it happened rarely. Everyone was happy.

 

One day, a new creature moved into the forest. She was as beautiful as the prettiest fairies, as graceful as a swan on a lake and as sweet as honey. Every creature took one look at her and immediately decided that she was a perfect little thing. They called her Angel for her looks and her gentleness. But the question was… was this Angel really an angel? Was she as sweet as she was meant to be or was she … something else?

 

A fine sunny afternoon, a little mouse was angrily walking down the stream. He stamped his little feet (though nobody could hear it) on the ground so hard it hurt him. Angel happened to be sitting on a rock nearby. When she saw the little mouse stamping and muttering, she walked over to him and asked what was wrong. The little mouse’s face immediately brightened up and he answered: “Oh beautiful Angel, if only you had been through what I had just now. Big Elephant annoyed me so much! What is there to be afraid of a little humble mouse like me? Big Elephant nearly made me a pancake! All that stamping!”

 

Sympathetically, Angel sighed. She replied “Poor you”. For a moment she was silent, for something was going through her mind. A minute or so later, she perked up and said “Do you know what I heard Big Elephant say one day? He said that you were such an annoying little rat whose only use in the great forest was to make everyone fall!!!”

 

Of course the mouse was already angry, but when he heard this, his face flushed and he screeched, “THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING OVERSIZED BUFFALO ELEPHANT! I’LL…I’LL SHOW HIM!” Angel, pretending to be sweet said, “I think Big Elephant is towards the left! Do be nice!” The mouse stomped off without saying anything leaving Angel grinning to herself.

 

As soon as the mouse was gone, angel ran the opposite direction knowing Big Elephant was sitting there. He smiled when he saw Angel and asked her how she was. She answered, “Fine and thank you! But I came here to tell you of what the mouse said! He said you were an ugly brute and useless in the great forest except for making pancakes out of everyone! I just thought you ought to know that…” Big Elephant reacted just like the mouse did. He became flustered and said “WELL, LET’S WAIT FOR THAT RAT!” with that the Big Elephant stomped off towards where the mouse went.

 

The mouse looked for Big Elephant and found Big Elephant stomping after himself.  Big Elephant was just about to say something when the little mouse shrieked, “YOU MONSTER! YOU UGLY GIANT ELEPHANT! YOU THINK YOU’RE SO GREAT, DON’T YOU? BAD MOUTHING ME!”

 

Caught by surprise, Big Elephant just stared with a blank expression. But as the mouse went on insulting, Big Elephant decided this was no game. He shouted back, “YOU LITTLE RAT, DON’T YOU DARE CALL ME MONSTER! AND I NEVER BAD MOUTHED YOU! IT WAS YOU WHO SAID THINGS ABOUT ME! DON’T THINK I DON’T KNOW!”

 

They argued like this for a long time. Other animals gathered round to listen or try to break up the fight. Angel sat upon a tree and giggled. This was fun! She decided to go hunt for more victims. She flew up into the sky and travelled for a little while until she spotted a little white bunny. She flew down and landed right behind her. The white bunny smiled and said her name was Bun-Bun. Angel also found out that Bun-Bun had an identical twin sister called Mun-Mun who unfortunately had broken her leg. Angel was very nice to Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun was so happy that Angel liked her so much, she asked Angel to be her best friend. Of course the ‘sweet’ Angel agreed. This time an evil plan cooked up inside Angel’s head.  She said a happy goodbye to Bun-Bun and went looking for… Mun-Mun. Quickly enough, Angel saw a limping bunny. She asked if her name was Mun-Mun and the bunny said yes.

 

Like the way Angel treated Bun-Bun, she treated Mun-Mun extremely nicely. Of course Mun-Mun wanted to be Angel’s best friend and Angel naturally agreed. Now all she had to do was wait for Bun-Bun and Mun-Mun to meet.

 

A few minutes later, Bun-Bun bumped into Mun-Mun. Just as identical twins are, they never keep secrets from each other. Both told each other about the new best friend and oh, what a shock it was for both sisters. They began to argue that there might be a mistake and that the other sister was just jealous. The argument turned into a fight and soon both sisters were not ever speaking to each other.

                      

Angel watching from above laughed her head off. This was more fun than she ever imagined! The days went on, and each day a new prank got into her head. She made good friends worst enemies and the whole forest grumbled on. Everyone complained about each other and no one was at peace. They were all so angry with each other, no one realised that it was Angel who started it all. To them Angel was still the darling who was trying to stop them fighting. 

 

Angel was bored. She had set everyone she knew in the forest at battle, there wasn’t much left to do. She flew about from corner to corner of the great forest, eavesdropping on everyone’s arguments and laughed to herself. The arguments were so silly! The more dangerous arguments were of course those of the enchanted creatures. The witches threw spells at each other and the unicorns fought violent battles. Anyhow, as she was flying about, she met an ugly little munchkin. This munchkin was so tiny he was the size of a thumb, yet he was so ugly that even the ugliest duckling couldn’t bear looking at him. Nobody seemed to like the munchkin because no one ever talked about him and if ever he were mentioned in a topic the other animals would just shake their heads in disgust.

 

Angel, of course sly and evil wanted to know what was so wrong with this munchkin. Perhaps she could even play a big prank on this small thing. It couldn’t be that hard! “Hello there!” she called out to him. The munchkin looked up and gave her a very polite bow. “Good morning young fairy,” he said in the croakiest voice ever.

 

Angel sensed that he was not a bad creature at all and probably easy to play a prank on. She knew he was the ugly munchkin, which everyone detested, but she asked what he was known as in the great forest anyway. He replied humbly that most people called him the ugly munchkin and he would not hate her if she called him that too. Angel pretending to sympathise with him said, “Aw, don’t worry. I’m sure things will turn out better. You know, I heard King Unicorn saying how ugly you were but I don’t think so.” The munchkin did not get upset but instead he smiled amusedly. Confused Angel decided to continue, “And her majesty the lioness called you a little gross, disgusting, revolting creature. But I doubt she meant it.” This must get that munchkin stirring, Angel thought. But the munchkin still smiled amusedly and simply took his hat off as a sign of politeness and hopped away.

 

Angel, feeling frustrated that she didn’t manage to make the munchkin angry, decided the only way to cheer herself up was to take revenge on that idiot munchkin. She went up to the oldest and wisest dragon. He was also very sensitive and loved respect. He enjoyed the Angel’s company, for she was as sweet as honey and as respectful as she should be. After chatting for a while, Angel said to the great dragon, “Do you know the ugly munchkin? He has been heard saying that you have a big ego and shouldn’t act as if you are so wise.” The dragon flew into a rage. He summoned all his other dragons to go hunting for the munchkin. When they heard what the munchkin had “done” they were as angry as the great dragon for they respected the great dragon greatly and did not tolerate any others who didn’t.

 

In a couple of minutes the dragons were off, burning parts of the forest in search for the tiny ugly munchkin. When Angel saw this, she doubled up in laughter. This wasn’t her forest anyway. She could easily go back to her fairy world once this place was done with.

 

It didn’t take long for the dragons to destroy almost all of the forest in search for the munchkin. The animals got angry at the dragons for destroying their homes. They started to blame each other and fighting began once more. This time it was worse than ever. The great forest nearly utterly destroyed, their homes bare, and worst of all, not a single animal had a friend. No one was happy, no one knew what to do, and no one wanted to do anything. All except for one person; the munchkin. He stood on top of the highest cave and looked down. Trees were burnt to ashes and the animals could be heard arguing. Tears welled up in his eyes. What had happened to the beautiful forest? True, he had always been tormented by the animals because of his ugliness but he had always managed to bear with it. After all, he knew he was ugly. But this? This was bad. The animals had never fought like this and it broke the munchkin’s heart that the once peaceful forest was as good as gone, destroyed because of rumours, lies and insults. He knew it was Angel’s fault but blaming her wasn’t fair. Depressed and disappointed, the munchkin mustered up all his little magical powers to get everyone’s attention. As loudly as his powers would allow him, he shouted out: “STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!”

 

The animals stopped fighting, the dragons stopped burning. They all paused and looked up. Obviously they could not see the munchkin for he was tiny, but they all could recognise his croaky voice. The munchkin spoke again.

 

“Listen to yourselves. Look around you. Do you deserve to go as low as this?  Just look at everything! Our homes are gone, friendships don’t exist, and some of us… are even fighting among our families!”

 

Guiltily Bun-Bun and Mun-Mun looked at each other. Some others did as well. The dragons flew lower and rested on the treetops (those that still stood that is). Angel, feeling a bit worried, decided to hide in the clouds nearby.

 

The croaking voice continued, “How could we let stupid arguments ruin our friendships? Your relationships with your friends, your families and even your loved ones? How could you be so blind and accept the rumours and lies as truths? How could you allow your beautiful homes to be destroyed? Your families? I know I am asking you to do this again, but look around you! None of you have the smiles you used to wear on your faces, none of your beautiful homes exist anymore.”

 

Slowly the animals looked  at each other; they felt pangs of guilt. They knew that the munchkin was right. They looked around. Their forest…their once so wonderful forest…gone. No more beauty. Angel crept higher into the air. This wasn’t good for her. She prepared to escape.

 

 

 

The munchkin was not done yet. “We were once a strong community. But now we lay in ruins. All because we let our minds step into negativity. We let lies, and rumours destroy us. We let it blind us all. Our enemy has won; I’m talking about lies and exaggerations. This war may have caused havoc, but we have learnt one valuable lesson. United we stand and divided we fall. Peace doesn’t come from the way we look; it comes from our hearts and begins with ourselves. If we can find peace within ourselves, we can extend peace to our families and soon to everyone else. Peace is to be shared, not to be kept within you. Our homes may have been destroyed but we are not completely ruined yet. Peace still flows through us and will always be with us as long as we are united.”

 

The munchkin’s speech ended with warm applause. Many were crying as they had been moved by the munchkin’s speech. All were terribly sorry. Everyone started apologising. The animals looked forward to the day where they would look back to this day, and laugh at all the ridiculous arguments they had had. They no longer hated the munchkin. He was made a lord for bringing all animals back to their senses. In the following years, the creatures worked hard putting their homes back together. Their friendships grew stronger as well as the peace among them. Angel or who the animals now referred to as The Evil One slipped away unnoticed. No one knew where she went but they hoped that she would not destroy another community like she had to theirs.

 

Of course, the animals in the great forest lived happily in harmony, and in long lasting …peace.

 

Written by Jie Ying, Seo Jin, Noriko, Hansa, Janet, Tasha, Navin