The Ostrich and the Hyena

“The Ostrich and the Hyena” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Eoin James Tenga, Al Muntazir Boys Primary School, Tanzania.

The Ostrich and the Hyena

Ostrich and Hyena were friends. They lived together in the plains of the Serengeti. They had lots of food and lots of water and were able to live together without any problems. One day, they ran out of food so Ostrich told Hyena, “Hyena, we seem to have finished all our food. We should start making plans of our own on how to get more food so we can survive.” Hyena agreed with his friend and said, “I will be making beans.”

Hyena began to plant beans but they did not grow well in the heat of the Serengeti and with limited supply of water. Ostrich knew the beans would not grow so he had secretly planted some apple trees. The apples were starting to grow well but Hyenas beans still would not grow and he could not understand why.

After some time the apples had finished growing but the hyenas beans had not grown at all so he was very sad. Hyena told Ostrich “Ostrich my friend, my beans did not grow and now we will starve. I am sorry my plan didn’t work.” Ostrich smiled and said “It is Okay, Hyena. I had secretly planted many apple trees as a backup plan.” Hyena was happy he had such a smart friend.

However, Ostrich knew that even though his neck was long, it wasn’t as long as a giraffe’s neck so he would not be able to reach the tree to collect apples. So he asked his good friend, Hyena, if he could climb the trees and they can share the apples. Hyena agreed to give it a try but he also knew that he cannot climb as well as lions can. He was a quite embarrassed as Ostrich had a lot of faith in him to get the apples as they were both so hungry, he tried to climb the trees many times but he just couldn’t do it.

The two friends took shelter under the apple trees while they thought of a new plan. “If only my neck was as long as a giraffe’s neck” said Ostrich. “If only I could climb as high as a lion,” said Hyena. At that point both animals looked at each other as they both realised the new plan at the same time. It was such a simple plan – ask for help from those who can do it!

Ostrich and Hyena jumped up from under the tree and ran as fast as they could to find a lion and a giraffe to help. Instead they found many lions and many giraffes that were all willing to use their skills to collect the apples. Ostrich led the way back to the apple trees and the animals got to work. Once all the apples were down, Ostrich and Hyena shared them with everyone who had helped, and they had quite a feast in the Serengeti that day under the apple trees.