Story Contest 2016 #1 - Outstanding Stories » The Lion And His Sons

“The Lion And His Sons” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Ameer Hamza, Talking Heads International School, Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Lion And His Sons

Once upon a time, in a dense jungle, lived a lion and his two sons. One sunny day, the lion and his sons decided to go for a picnic. They prepared yummy meat and other delicious stuff to eat, packed their baskets and set off for the amazingly beautiful river at the North.

The jungle was full of scenic views: it had lush green grass and enormous trees where all the creatures lived. On their way to the river, many animals met lion and his sons, and wished them a happy picnic. The monkey gave them some bananas to eat. The bear gave them a jar of honey. The elephant presented them a sugar cane and the rabbit gave them some carrots.

On the way they also experienced a sort of semi darkness in the jungle. The sky was completely shut out by the canopy of leaves high above them. Thick vegetation grew all around. A peculiar but nice smell was all over in the air. All around were different sounds of insects, birds and animals. Jungle was somewhat looking spectral but they were used to it as they lived there and ruled it.

After walking for a few miles, they reached a lake. The lake was so transparent that the shadows of all the trees and the sky were seen in it and it looked like a different jungle in itself. They decided to rest there for a while, and lay on the ground. After taking a nap they had their food.

Then, the lion’s sons decided to play. Their father advised them not to go far off. The younger son of the lion, whose name was Samba, was very naughty. He never used to listen to his father.

While he was playing hide n seek with his brother Jacky, he saw a pond nearby. He was amazed to see such a beautiful pond hidden by thick trees just adjacent to the lake. As he peeped into it, he saw his own reflection. All of a sudden, he thought of hiding inside the pond so that Jacky would not find him and he would win. He smiled to himself on getting such a brilliant idea and silently stepped into the pond.

To his surprise, the pond was very deep and he didn’t get a footing. He was drowning. He started screaming for help. First, his father and brother couldn’t hear his voice but then they realized that it was Simba’s voice coming from somewhere inside the jungle. They started shouting for him too as they really didn’t have an idea where he was. Finally, they saw water splashing in the pond and ran towards it. They pulled out Samba but Samba was almost not in his senses. Water entered his stomach and he could hardly breathe. They made him lie on his back and pumped his tummy, to drain out all the water that he had taken in.

After some hard work by the father and the brother, Samba opened his eyes, and realized that he was still alive and his father and brother were standing with tears in their eyes. He hugged them and said, “I am sorry papa for not listening to you.” He also said sorry to his brother for putting him into trouble. They hugged him back and kissed him. They decided not to go to the river because of this incident and headed back towards their house.