The Friendly Lion

Lucy The Lion just wants to make friends but the other animals are scared of her.

The three friends had been running and playing in the jungle for hours and had wandered so far from home that they had become rather lost. They found themselves at a clearing and had tried to decide which way to go.

'It's this way,' said Ella Elephant, pointing left.

'No, this way,' said Georgie Giraffe, pointing right.

'Don't be silly, it's this way,' said Robbie Rhino, pointing straight ahead.

They stood looking at each other and at the different pathways, trying to figure out which way they should go, before they all suddenly started talking again, trying to convince the others that they were right.

Just then, there was a rustling in the bushes. The three friends turned to look, all thoughts of the way home forgotten. Just when they thought they had imagined it, they heard it again. They crept forward as quietly as they dared to get a better look when all of a sudden the leaves parted and out of the bushes leapt a ...

'LION!' screamed the three friends. And without stopping to think, they all turned and ran, each setting off in a different direction.

The lion started to shout out, 'hey wait, I'm not...' but it was too late. They had already gone.

The lion lowered her head sadly, tucked her tail between her legs and slunk back into the bushes. She had been following the three friends for the last hour. They sounded like they were having so much fun, laughing and talking and playing. She didn't have any lions of her own age to play with, all the big cats were too busy off hunting. She just wanted some friends.

After a while, she found herself at her favourite pond where she liked to stop for a drink. She lay down by the water's edge and let out a big sigh.

Just then, there was a fluttering and a shadow appeared overhead. The lion looked up and saw an eagle swoop out of the sky and land on a rock next to her.

'Why hello Lucy,' said the eagle. 'How are you today?'

'I'm sad,' said Lucy.

'Sad? Why ever are you sad?' asked the kind eagle.

'I don't have any friends to play with,' said Lucy. 'I thought I had found some other animals to be my friends but when I went to say hello, they just ran away from me.' She lowered her head onto her paws and started to cry.

'Oh Lucy,' said the eagle. 'The other animals were probably just frightened of you.'

Lucy stopped crying and looked at the eagle. 'Frightened?' she asked. 'Of me?'

'Why yes,' said the eagle. 'To them, you are a big, fierce lion.'

'But, but...' stammered Lucy. 'I'm not frightening.'

'You might be to them, Lucy.' The eagle thought for a moment. 'Take a look in the water and tell me what you see.'

Lucy thought this was a strange thing to see but she sat up and looked into the water.

'I can see my face,' she said.

'Right,' said the eagle. 'Now, give me a big smile. Yes, that's it.'

Lucy didn't feel like smiling but she tried her best and flashed a great big smile at the water. Then she stopped, closing her mouth suddenly.'

'You see, don't you?' asked the eagle.

'I'm, I'm' started Lucy. 'I'm...scary!' And she ran away from the water, burying her face into her paws and crying hard once more.

The eagle fluttered over to another rock to move closer to Lucy.

'There, there child,' he said kindly. 'You cannot help how you look. You are a lion, it is simply who you are.'

'I don't want to be a lion!' said Lucy, between sobs.

The eagle smiled softly. 'You cannot stop being a lion, Lucy. But you can change how people see you.'

Lucy stopped crying and looked to the eagle once again. 'H-how?' she asked hopefully.

'All the other animals can see is what you look like on the outside,' said the eagle. 'To them, you look like a scary lion. But if they got to know you...'

'Then they wouldn't be afraid of me any more!' shouted Lucy with delight. 'Thanks eagle, you're the best!' she said, and before the eagle could say anything further, Lucy was up and sprinting off through the bushes.

In no time at all, she found herself back at the clearing where she had first seen the other animals. But which way should she go?

Just then she heard a scream to her left followed by a faint cry of, 'Help me, help me!' Lucy set off, running down the left hand path to find out who was in trouble.

In no time at all, Lucy came across a great big pool of horrible, sticky mud. And in that great big pool of horrible, sticky mud stood a little elephant who was crying.

'Oh no, a lion!' said the elephant as she saw Lucy.

'It's okay,' said Lucy. 'I'm here to help you.'

'Y-you are?' asked the elephant, surprised.

'Sure I am!' said Lucy, and she started looking around for a way to help the elephant out of the mud. then she saw what she needed.

'Here, grab this with your trunk,' Lucy said to the elephant and, grabbing a big stick in her teeth, she stretched out to the elephant.

Ella was still a bit scared of the lion but she was even more scared of being stuck in this horrible mud forever. So she reached out her trunk and wrapped it round the big stick. The lion started pulling and, with a a loud SCHLOCK noise, her feet came out of the mud and she was pulled free.

'Oh thank you so much!' cried Ella.

'You are very welcome. My name is Lucy,' said the smiling rescuer.

'My name is Ella, Ella Elephant.'

'Very pleased to meet you,' said Lucy.

Ella looked down, sheepishly. 'I'm sorry we ran away from you earlier,' said Ella. 'We were just a bit...well, you know...'

'Frightened?' offered Lucy.

'Yeah, I guess so,' said Ella.

'That's okay,' replied Lucy. 'I understand. I guess I can look pretty scary.'

'You sure can,' said Ella, smiling. 'But you seem nice. Would you like to be my friend?'

'Oh yes!' beamed Lucy. 'That would be wonderful!'

'Well come on then, friend, let's go and find the others.' And so Lucy and Ella retraced their steps back to the crossroads. This time they went right, following a trail of footsteps until they came across a big hole in the path. At the bottom of the hole, they saw Georgie Giraffe. She was stuck.

'Hey Georgie,' said Ella.

'Oh, hey Ella, I'm so glad you...Ella look out, a LION!' cried Georgie.

Ella smiled. 'It's okay Georgie. This is Lucy. She's very nice. She's my new friend.'

Georgie was surprised but, the more she looked at Lucy, the more she started to think that perhaps she wasn't as scary as she first appeared. 'Say, could you help me out of this hole? I was running away from, er...'

'Me?' asked Lucy, smiling.

'Yes. Sorry,' said Georgie. 'Anyway, I was running and wasn't looking where I was going and I fell into this hole, now I can't get back out.

'We'll get you out!' said Ella.

But how? It was so far down. Then Lucy had an idea. She saw a strong looking vine that was dangling over the edge of the hole and grabbed it with her teeth. Realising what she had in mind, Ella climbed over her and, using her trunk to grip, grabbed hold of Ella's tail, lowering herself down just far enough so that Georgie could climb over their backs and out of the hole.

'Oh thank you both so much!' said a very relived Georgie.

'You are quite welcome,' the two friends said.

Georgie looked at Lucy. 'Can I be your friend too?' she asked.

'Oh yes, that would be wonderful!' beamed Lucy, and the three new friends headed back to the crossroads. This time, they took the path straight ahead, looking out for Robbie Rhino. They were able to follow his footprints for a while but suddenly they noticed some other sets of footprints. Someone else had been here!

After a while, they came across a big tree and saw a very strange sight indeed. For in the tree, stuck on a branch, was Robbie Rhino!

'Robbie, what are you doing up there?' asked Georgie.

'Oh Georgie, I'm so happy to see you!' said Robbie. ' I was running away from the...LION! LION!' screamed Robbie.

The three friends laughed. 'It's okay,' said Ella. 'This is Lucy, she's our friend.'

'Oh,' said Robbie. 'Well, I was running away from the lion when I started getting chased by a pack of hyenas who chased me up this tree and now I can't get down!'

'We'll help you,' said the three friends together. Lucy ran up to the tree. Ella quickly climbed onto her back, then Georgie climbed onto Ella's back and stretched her neck up to the branch.

'Cool!' said Robbie. 'You guys made a slide!' And Robbie slid down Georgie, Ella and Lucy all the way to the jungle floor.

'Thanks you guys,' said a very grateful Robbie. 'And thanks Lucy, it's nice to meet you.'

'It's very nice to meet you too,' said Lucy, beaming. 'Would you like to be friends?'

'That's a great idea,' said Robbie. 'Er say, we're a little bit lost. You don't happen to know the way back home, do you?'

But before Lucy could answer, they saw a shadow pass across the sky and an eagle swooped down to land in the tree.

'Hello eagle,' said Lucy.

'Why hello Lucy,' replied the eagle. 'And who are these animals?'

'These are my friends,' said Lucy proudly.

'Are they indeed?' said the eagle. 'Well it is very nice to meet you all. But it is getting so late! Come, follow me, I'll lead you all back home.' And with that the eagle took off back into the sky, the friends following along the path.

But they hadn't got very far when all of a sudden, out of the bushes, jumped a pack of shireking, laughing hyenas.

'Aaargh!' screamed Robbie, Ella and Georgie.

But Lucy wasn't scared. She was angry at these nasty hyenas scaring her friends. She took a deep breath and then let out a mighty ROAR! The hyenas panicked and ran away, back into the forest.

The other animals looked at Lucy, shaking with fear.

'B-but I thought you were a nice lion?' asked Ella nervously.

'I am,' said Lucy, smiling. 'But they don't know that.'

And the four new friends laughed all the way home.

Reviews

[matpat]

I love your story, you could use a bit of more detail when Lucy and Ella are helping Georgie I got a little confused. Other than that I loved it!

[Dirkgently1066]

Thanks for the constructive feedback. I wrote this in one sitting making it up as I went along and by the end was concerned that it was too long, so may have skimped on some detail as I went. I'll bear your comments in mind if I ever get round to a redraft.