My mother (Ntathu) is in a guest posting as she wanted to explore different styles of writing
So here is the story she wrote :)
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Many moons ago, there lived a Wise Old Monkey. The animals in the forest would travel far and wide to hear Wise Old Monkey share his views on life. There wasn't much Wise Old Monkey didn't know. He knew the colour of the bottom of the ocean and could recite the names of all the planets known to man and beast – backwards whilst standing on his head – and Wise Old Monkey could tell the time. That was his greatest gift. The gift of time. Every time there was a dispute in the village, Wise Old Monkey would sit quietly and summon the great gods of the ancient rivers and seek their guidance. One day, whilst in the middle of a squabble between the water hogs and zebras, Wise Old Monkey received a sign from the gods. He was to leave the safety of the forest and travel far and wide and give people the message of hope. Wise Old Monkey was excited. It was great honour to be called by the gods to travel and share his knowledge.
So with a happy heart, Wise Old Monkey packed his rucksack (the one he inherited from his forbearers) and set off to spread the message of hope. Everywhere he went Wise Old Monkey was struck by the sadness and heavy hearts, especially of the buffalos. It seems they had lost their sense of humour an no longer played with each other. As winter drew near, Wise Old Monkey was worried that the buffalo would fall prey to the winter winds and not survive the damp cold misty mornings.
Wise as he was Wise Old Monkey couldn't understand what made the buffalo sad. So he sat under the mango tree and dreamed a dream. He dreamt that the sun was shining and in the midst of the sun he saw a blue light circle the hearts of the buffalos. All the other animals had bright shimmering heart lights and wise old monkey knew what he had to do. So he bowed to the earth and summoned the buffalos. Slowly-slowly the buffalo came. The blue ring hung heavy on their hearts and it was hard for them to step forward and hurry come.
When they were all gathered round Wise Old Monkey declared, "Buffalo, I know why you have a heavy heart. I saw the blue ring around your soul and it stops the sun shining, you must bathe in the river of golden juju berries and in there say a prayer and remember what life was like before the blue ring came and sucked the gift of song from you."
"Phew," said grey buffalo Todd, "the river of golden juju berry is so far away, how we can get there. Our hearts are too heavy to travel that far. Why do you want to kill us?"
"No, no, no!" exclaimed Wise Old Monkey, "I want you to be happy to remember how glad and elated you were before the rains came and washed your happiness away."
"No, no, no!" exclaimed Wise Old Monkey, "I want you to be happy to remember how glad and elated you were before the rains came and washed your happiness away."
Wise Old Monkey knew the buffalos wouldn't make the journey, so using his gift of time he blew the earth closer to the sea and watched as the buffalos rolled into the Cleansening Sea of the juju berries. As the waters covered the buffalos, their hearts became light and they splashed and rolled around on the swampy banks of the golden river juju berry. Happy as Larry (Larry the Jaguar but that's another story.)
And that boys and girls is why when you feel blue you must do what the buffalo do, find a river, or have a bath and splash all your worries away.
By Ntathu Allen http://thenextgoal.com/
