Folk Tales 29

Lion and the mice .....

If one will look at the Lion and compared that to the mouse, well, its an imbalance for sure. Its like comparing the  earth to the sun. But if there are .................

So our story began.

Now the Lord of the jungle is the mightly Lion. He is a three hundred pounds brute with a large head that is crowned by a clutter of golden hair. Some said the Lion is more blonde than the Blonde, and I can only agreed, so maybe.... never mind we will just read on.

Now the mice are made of a number of mouse which inhabit the jungle too. As they are too small and mostly appears in the dark, they always missed the Censure Department when its comes to population counts. True, they get devoured by the snakes and other reptiles, but they are next in line to the rabbit in terms of productivity. So one day, there was a mouse named Mighty who was given the task to voiced their grievances at the plight of the mices; they had a long list and they wanted to heard like the other creatures on their griefs. So Mighty went to see the Lord of the Jungle with that list.

Mighty walked up to the Lion’s den, and he was awed by the size of the place. Its humonguos; bigger than the potato sack he took from the farmer’s shed. Now the Lion was sleeping and so the mouse treaded carefully. But he had to step on the twig on the cave floor. Twack! And Twang! The paw of the Lion was on the mouse. Mighty struggled to break lose, but the hold was too strong.

‘Who dares to invade my den?’ roared the Lion.

‘Its me, your lordship. I am the mouse who served you your lunch, dinner and at times your supper. I know you did not see me before, as the food I bring to you is higher than me. So you can’t actually see me at all.’

‘But you sound not like my regular help, and moreover you smell differently.’

‘Darned perfume.... Sorry if I did not speak out loud. I WILL SPEAK LOUDER NOW. IT’S THE MEXICAN BEANS. I SHOULD NOT HAD EATEN IT.’

‘Oh! Leave my den now or I will eat you’ roared the Lion. But Mighty was here to speak to the Lord, so he stayed on to plead his case. The Lion was agitated and roared; ‘I said LEAVE.’

‘But your lordship, hear me out. I come with a thousand voices who needs your ears.’

‘A thousand ears? Hmmmm... that is a thousand vote in the next Common Gathering. And I need the votes to defeat the Tiger for the Lord’s position. Okay, speak the one of a thousand voices.’

So Mighty spoke of the grievances and it took all day and night to complete the list, By then the Lion was asleep and awake now. His remark was; ‘you finished? Good, I need to rest now. But don’t forget to vote me.’

So Mightly done his work and he left to tell his fellow mice, of the task completed and the Lion said to vote him in the next Common Gathering. They did and the Lion won to be the continuing Lord, but the life of the mice are the same. So they approached Mighty, and asked him; ‘ did you see the Lord Lion and spoke of our grievances?’.

Mighty said ‘Aye’.

So he was asked to go back again and raised the same issue.

And this time the Lion said to vote for him in the coming Senate. The mice did and nothing happened to their lifes, except the same grievances. This time the mice were upset and they confronted Mighty; ‘Do it right or we will removed the Senator Lion.’

Now Mighty thought hard and know inside him, the Lion will not take care of the mice. So he decided to try a different approach.

‘Senator, the mice came to see you to thank you. Can you come out to see them? They numbered about ten thousand so that is ten thousand votes in the coming Chairman’s election.’

Now the Lion was impressed by the support given todate by the mice so he walked out with his mane all spruced up like the peacock as becoming of the Senator. As he walked out, a cage was dropped on him. And then men came out and he was carted away in the metal cage. As he was loaded on the truck, he saw Mighty the Mouse.

‘Help me. I will grant your mice all their wishes.’

But Mighty smiled and replied;’ Nay, Senator. we don;t need you now. We got the Tiger to back us up in the Senate. As we speak, he is helping the mice with their grievances. As for you, I have arranged a showroom for us at the Zoo. Incidentally, they named you as LION KING. So enjoyed yourself in the new den.’

And so the Senator Lion was shipped away.

And the Tiger took over as Chairman. The Chairman did solve the mice grievances, he reduced their odds of in the voting numbers so they cannot make a difference on the count.

As for Mighty, he was last seen in the homestay with some man as a local rat.

Sadly Lion enjoyed his new home; he was fed well, and had two Lioness for company, as for Mighty, he was moving hole to hole to avoid capture by the cousin of the Lion, the Cats’.

( Politicians in exile are still enjoying their earnings but the dissidents in exile are still running from one exile to the next. )