This is the story of Lucky the Lion. He was a very cowardly
lion. Perhaps it was because he was the third cousin of the Lion from the Wizard of Oz, or maybe it was because he
was almost trampled to death by a thundering stampede of gazelle; which is
actually how he got his name…he was very lucky to come out of that situation
alive!
Either way, Lucky was
very much afraid of just about everything. He would hide behind his mother when
the other lion cubs in the pride asked him to go play out on the savanna with
them. He was always paranoid that he would get separated from the group, and
then be lost forever in the tall grass of the endless land.
One day Lucky’s dad decided that he was going to get his son
over his fears once and for all. Lucky’s dad, Chance, took him out to the
savanna to explore all the mysterious areas and investigate all of the
“frightening” creatures.
For the next hour or so Chance showed Lucky all the
creatures of the savanna. They looked at the zebras, the elephants, the
gazelle, and even the very small creatures like the mere cats. Lucky was
beginning to feel much more confident and less afraid of all the creatures of
the savanna. However, he was also getting very hungry.
“Dad,” said Lucky. “Is it almost time to go home for dinner?
I am getting very hungry.”
“Well son,” said Chance, “Why don’t you help out your mother
by catching something to bring home for dinner?”
“How am I supposed to do that?!” exclaimed Lucky.
“I want you to capture that small bird perched on that rock
over there,” said Chance.
Feeling oddly sure of himself, Lucky crouched down and began
to stalk the bird. He was just about to pounce, when all of sudden he heard a
loud grumbling noise. It was so loud that it startled the bird, scaring it
away. It also frightened Lucky, and he quickly ran back to his father.
He was in the middle of telling his father what had happened
when he heard the awful noise again. “Dad! What is that awful sound?” asked
Lucky.
“My dear son, that is only your stomach growling,” said Chance.
Lucky let out an embarrassed chuckle, and the two lions made
their way back to their den where they knew they would have a nice meal waiting
for them.
Besides conquering his fears of the mysterious savanna,
Lucky learned a very valuable lesson that day: Never hunt on an empty stomach!
Author’s Note
This story is based on Aesop’s Fable The Frightened Lion. In
the original story, the Lion is frightened by a croaking frog; moral of the
story being “Imaginary fears are the worst.” In my story, I kept the lion as
the main character. However, I made his growling stomach be his fear. I wanted
to keep the fear something irrational, especially for a lion, just so it would
be similar to the original story. Nevertheless, I added my own moral to the
story just for fun!
Bibliography
Book: The Fables of
Aesop
Author: Joseph Jacobs
Year Published: 1894
Web Source: Internet Archive
 |
| Lucky the cowardly lion Source: Wikimedia |
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI loved your story! It was entertaining and easy to read. I like how you switched up the story from the original, but kept a good moral in the end. The lion is silly and funny to think about, but I think the story was really well-written and enjoyable. I also liked how you tied the lion to the Wizard of Oz and gave him his own back story so we knew more about his character. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletesorry got impatient and posted this like 3 times on accident....
DeleteThis story was a great retelling of the original. You did a great job of keeping the irrational fear moral in your new story but also added another fun message of don't hunt on an empty stomach. I think it was clever to connect his cowardly-character to that of the lion in The Wizard of Oz. I also like how you named the father Chance to show that you have to take chances and face your fears. You also did a great job with the punctuation and grammar of the dialect in the story. Often it can be hard to follow, but you made it easy to read. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great story! I loved the Wizard of Oz and Lion King references. I also liked your naming of the characters. The writing was descriptive and it kept my attention very well. The characters were also greatly improved by the details you provided. I also liked the second moral you added, I thought it was cute and worked great with your retelling of the story. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour writing is wonderful, Shelbi. It really kept me interested! I feel like you really portrayed the cowardice in this storytelling in a great way, especially by putting in detail for the examples that Lucky is afraid of! It really made me smile at the end where his lesson learned is to never hunt on an empty stomach! It was a clever way to put a new twist on the story instead of using the croaking frog, because it really does bring out the irrationality of the character. Overall, good job!
ReplyDelete