THE LATEST IN THE FOREST

There was somehow some measure of tranquility in the forest for quite sometime. Things somehow were different, as compared to the past weeks. Except with her reported encounters with the wild boar and the jaguar, it was surprising that the hippopotamus a.k.a. mad dog has kept quiet and confined himself to her swamp.

It was a hornet who buzzed to the ears of the ram that the hippopotamus confronted the wild boar and bluntly asked, “Are you one of those that the ram tried to convince to rise up in arms against me?” As the hornet reported, the hippopotamus growled so loud in consternation when the wild boar sarcastically said, “How can we rise up in arms against you when what we have are feet, we have no arms.” The hippopotamus was obviously irked tried hard to control her temper and said, “Don’t you understand that ‘rising up in arms’ is an idiomatic expression? What I mean with that is to rebel against me.” “Ahhh, okay, pardon my ignorance. But, why don’t you just talk to the ram and ask him whom he tried to convince about that rising up in feet, I mean arms.” After saying that, the wild boar scampered away leaving the hippopotamus extremely displeased.

That was surprising was when the hornet told the ram that the wild boar divulged that sometime ago, the hippopotamus ordered him to carry to a cave some mineral resources of the forest. When the wild board checked, after a few days, the mineral resources were no longer in the cave.

Then the sheep recalled that the cheetah, one of the guardians in the gates of the forest who was accused by the hippopotamus of wrongdoings and was eventually banished from that forest gave him a tablet of stone where written in cuneiform were the reports about the unusual movements of mineral resources from the forest by some stranger-animals.

There was some weaving together of information that the sheep performed. He also recalled the jaguar telling him one time about the hippopotamus’ questionable acquisition of some goods from the outside and questionable utilization of the forest’s materials. Then there were these bees a few days back telling him of the same things. The sheep was so confused, he could really not figure out what was going on. He thought it was not just a matter of the hippopotamus mistreating many of the animals in the forest but there were other things the bloated animal was doing and must explain.

The jaguar was actually summoned also by the hippopotamus in his swamp. According to the jaguar, the hippopotamus, who would once in a while transfigure into a mad dog during their verbal tussle, tried to bully her. But the jaguar, tired of the autocratic antics of the bloated animal, refused to just listen to the badmouthing of the hippopotamus. She defended herself fiercely and at the end the bloated animal was dumbfounded, not believing that the jaguar would no longer bow to her bulldozing ways.

Gone are the days when the animals in the forest would just bow their heads when the hippopotamus starts to open his big mouth and growl at them as she wishes. There is in a way another miracle that happened in the forest – that is the animals learned to finally stand and defend themselves against the tyrannic tendencies of the hippopotamus a.k.a. mad dog. They have learned to fight for the only treasure they have – DIGNITY as an animal – DIGNITY as children of the loving Almighty One.

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Chapter 14 – The Council of Elderly Animals