Week 10 Story: Oh Silly Hare

There once existed a nervous and ever dreadful hare, Demar, who got frightened at the slightest of sounds. He was born to strong and loving parents, who could not understand why in the world their child was always so afraid. When the parents, Delia and Somar were around Demar was a bit less easily rattled. One nice spring day Delia and Somar went to visit some relatives leaving Demar with a a family friends, the Lion. Demar loved Lion like an uncle and thought he was smart and strong. Lion took Demar to park nearby with many blooming trees.

While playing, Demar ran into a tree and caused a fruit to fall down. Demar could not see the fallen fruit and assumed the worst was happening, "the earth is collapsing!" Shouting over and over again that the earth was collapsing Demar ran as fast as he could. Lion tried to stop him, but the young one was just to fast for him. Demar ran past a few other hares in the parks and they started running as well when they heard what Demar was shouting. Soon the birds heard and told the deer who were grassing on the perennials. The wild boars saw the massive group of animals running all shouting that "the earth is collapsing" and started running also. Not much time later the tigers, lions, elephants, buffalos, monkeys, and camels had joined in and were shouting "the earth is collapsing" at the top of their lungs.

The Lion who was left behind at the park by Demar finally caught him and made him stop. Demar was so afraid that he was fighting his uncle to let him go so he could continue to run. At this point the Lion was utterly confused as to why Demar would think that the earth is collapsing. He had Demar explain what he had encountered to make him think that. Demar reiterated how he had ran into a tree trunk and heard a loud crack sound. With that Lion took Demar back to the park to get to the bottom of this mystery.

All the animals followed them and started to wonder why earth was still here and no gone. Demar lead the Lion to the tree and Lion walked the perimeter to discover a fallen coconuts in the back. In a low voice he called Demar over to the other side of the tree to show the fallen coconuts. Soon others started coming over to the tree when they heard Demar repeating "Oh no, what big mistake I have made!" Instead of laughing or getting mad at him the other animals understood that mistakes happen and left after saying "Next time just look before scaring yourself and assuming the worst." Realizing his mistake, Demar slowly became less easily frightened. Whenever Demar was frightened he thought back to his mistake before running off again.

Author's Note: So I revamped this story to hold the original message of the story, but adding a few characters names and made a few events different. Overall the story's message was to think and look before you ask. That was the lesson that the Lion in the original story teaches the Hare in the end.

Bibliography: The Hare That Ran Away, Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock

The animals gathered around the tree