Once upon a time some of the young African animals were playing together in the dusty savanna. Young elephant was there along with young lion, young giraffe, young springbuck and young tortoise.
This group of friends enjoyed spending time together and they would play in amongst the tall grass and thorny bushes. The birds would sit overhead and watch the youngsters’ games.
“Catch this!” young elephant would say, tossing a small rock with his trunk. Young lion would bat the rock away with his big paws saying, “Easy peasy!”
They also loved to chase each other, kicking up the brown dust as they raced around and over the giant boulders and rocks. Tortoise was not able to take part in these games but he had fun laughing at his friends playing.
“Come and race Tortoise!” his friends would joke. And Tortoise would joke back “I don’t want to make you guys sad by beating you! I will watch from over here.” And he lazily bit a leaf as they all laughed and carried on playing.
One day the animals were lazing in the hot African sun when young lion said “I’m so glad I’m a lion! I will grow up big and strong and be the king of the savanna!” He jumped up and roared at the others! Tortoise got a bit of a fright at the loud sound.
Young elephant laughed at him. “When I grow up I am so big and strong that I can push large trees over! Not even a lion can hunt an adult elephant!” and he gave a loud trumpet. Tortoise got another fright but he didn’t want to show it.
Now it was young giraffes turn to laugh, “You two are going to be so big and strong, but can you reach the juiciest leaves on the tops of the trees? Can you see over the trees to spot danger far away? Oh no! Only a tall giraffe can!”
And he stood up and looked down at them from the top of his long neck. Tortoise struggled to look up that high.
Young springbuck looked at them and said, “Springbuck don’t worry about big, strong or tall! We are quick and we can jump beautifully high. We can even get away from cheetah!” And Springbuck gave a great big hop to show them.
Tortoise was starting to feel a little sad.
Now the animals started playfully arguing amongst themselves about who had the best talent. Springbuck jumped over lion, who roared at him while giraffe dropped fruit on top of their heads.
All the while poor young tortoise was watching and listening, keeping very quiet.
“What can I even say?” he thought to himself sadly. “I won’t grow up to be big or strong or tall! And I will certainly not be fast either!” And he started to feel quite sad that he did not have a talent. He watched his friends playing and jumping and pushing small trees over and wished he was more like one of them.
Later that day the friends were heading to the water hole when they heard the deep rumble of thunder, signaling that a rain storm was on its way.
“Oh no guys!” said young lion. “Rain is coming and I hate getting wet!”
“Me too!” said young giraffe. “Giraffes always struggle to find good shelter because we are so tall.”
“Maybe we should head back to our families and start looking for shelter,” said young Springbuck looking up at the dark sky, as fat drops began to fall.
Young tortoise said quietly “Tortoises don’t need to find shelter, I just pop into my shell and I stay warm and dry.” Tortoise pulled his feet into his bumpy shell to show them.
“Wow tortoise! That’s pretty cool!” said young lion.
“Ja! I wish I carried my shelter around with me!” said young giraffe. “It would be so useful, especially in this pesky rain!” Lightning split the sky.
Young tortoise started to smile. “Do you guys really think so?”
“Oh course!” said young Springbuck. “What a cool talent to have!” The rain started to pour down in sheets of water.
“I’m getting terribly wet! Let’s go guys! I think my mom is under the tall fruit trees. Bye!” And with that young Springbuck, lion, giraffe and elephant all ran off to find a dry place. Tortoise just smiled bye and popped into his shell. He was snuggly inside his bumpy shell listening to the drumming sound of the rain as he was warm and dry.
- And that evening when young tortoise lay next to his mother looking up at the sparkling stars after the rain storm cleared he realized that, even if he didn’t know it, he did have a talent, just like his friends.