Highly Commended Story - The Rat and the Lion

“The Rat and the Lion” by Duveena Yadav, Kothari International School, Noida, India, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2018.

Duveena Yadav is a 7 years old effervescence and fun girl. She loves listening to music and her current favourite band is BTS! She loves animals and enjoys taking care of them as a family member. She also wants to take care of stray animals when she grows up.

The Rat and the Lion

Once upon a time there lived a rat and a lion in a jungle.They were best friends. They would eat together and also lived together. They would go everywhere together. The lion had no family of his own so the rat was his only family. The rat and the lion were so close that nobody would trouble the rat as they were scared of the lion. One day the rat went out to search for food and didn't come back for hours. The lion was very hungry, "What is taking him so long to get food? He is usually back after two hours! "said the lion to himself. After a few minutes the rat returned to their home but he had no food with him, instead he came home with other animals such as Deer, Monkey, Elephants and many more. "Why have you brought so many animals here? We cannot possibly eat them!" said the lion to the rat. The lion was angry with the rat because he did not like anyone coming inside his home except the rat. The other animals felt relieved as soon as the lion said he didn't want to eat them. "I did find food but we all had to run as soon as we heard gunshots!" said the rat. The lion was confused as he didn't know what the gunshots meant. "What do you mean by gunshots?" asked the lion, to which all the animals replied together "HUNTERS!!!"

The lion then understood why everyone was running but he did not like that the rat brought everyone to his home because after all, he was the king of the jungle! No one should be allowed to enter his home without his permission. The lion was being mean to the other animals and would roar at them. The rat did not like this. He never thought the lion could be so mean since he was always nice to the rat. "Why are you being mean to the others?" asked the rat but the lion ignored him. The rat then said "You are always nice to me, why can't you be nice to them too? They are all scared and you should help them as the King!". The lion then understood what the rat was saying. He should be nice to the animals because he was also scared of the hunters and he understood why they were scared. "I am sorry"said the lion. The rat then smiled at him and told him to help the other animals. The lion went out and searched for food near his den and brought it inside for the other animals to eat. They all stayed together the whole night and enjoyed getting to know each other. The next day, the hunters were gone and the jungle was once again a happy and peaceful place where all the animals helped each other. They were always kind to one another and lived together happily in harmony.