And so ends my first series of short stories! There are more to come!

The fourth and last installment of my animal stories!

India, 1951

            Mohan the White Tigress

                            Based On a True Story

                                        By Kyla Taylor

   Once again, my father is on a hunting trip.

   Before you start making judgments, you have to know something about him. First, he’s a hunting-o-matic. Every month he has to go away on a hunting trip with all of his friends, leaving me in charge of myself and my little brother. I wouldn’t mind if he did it every few months, but this is getting ridiculous, if I must say so myself. Also, I would like it if he would actually catch or at least find something once in a while. He always comes home empty-handed, and our food supply is running low.

   Oh, if only mother were here. She would straighten things out.

   Anyway, like I told you, my father is on another hunting trip. I’m really hoping to get a little meat in my stomach. The village we live in is growing weak from not getting enough protein in their bodies. Over the past few months, I have seen many die. I am thinking that for sure there is no hope.

   But then the letter arrived.

   One morning, I got a letter from my father. It was odd to get a letter from him, but I unfolded it and read it nevertheless. This is what it said:

    My Dear Anita,

          I have great news! The hunters and I have finally found something! We were walking through the forest when we came across a tiger. We were about to shoot when I saw that the tiger was white.

          It was actually the tiger who helped us. It was about to pounce on a few deer, and automatically the hunters and I raced to get to them first. We got all four! Tomorrow, when I get home, we feast!

          I am dearly sorry that it took me so long to realize that you were aggravated with me. So now I am promising that I won’t go on a hunting trip for ten months. I am going to stay home with you and your brother, and help tend to the farm. And once the ten months are up, I might even take you two out there with me!

          I am giving this letter to a messenger from our group, hoping he will get this to you faster than I can. You can ask him any question you want, for he is probably still waiting. He saw it all.

          For fear of this letter getting too lengthy, I am afraid that I must say goodbye. I love you, and I hope to see you soon!

                                                                                                                           Lots of love,

                                                                                                                    Father

  

   The first thing I asked the messenger (who was quite handsome, I must say) was, “Was that all true?”

   “Yes,” he answered.

   “Did you name the tigress?” I inquired curiously.

   Before answering my question, the messenger asked if he could sit, for he was tired from his journey. Of course, I gestured to a chair in the middle of my family’s hut.

   “Yes, I did.” he began. “And all of the other hunters agreed with me. We decided on Mohan.”

   I had no idea what “Mohan” meant, and why he named the tigress that. But it sounded beautiful, nonetheless.

   I couldn’t wait for my father to come home.

   My father kept his promise, as usual.

   The day he returned, we feasted, and spoke about Mohan. My father described her to me. He said she had “eyes as blue as the Arabian Sea” and “fur so white, it was blinding.” I hope I will remember those words for many years in the future.

   My father also told me things he had left out in the letter. He said that as soon as the hunters fired their arrows, the tigers vanished. Half of the hunters kept searching for them, while the rest returned home with what they caught. I was glad my father hadn’t stayed in the forest.

The third installment of my animal stories!

        No Ordinary Cubs

                             Based On a True Story  

                                              By Kyla Taylor

   At first glance, my brother and I would seem like ordinary white tiger cubs. That would be a complete understatement. In fact, I’ve decided to tell you our story just to prove it.

   Of course, I have to start at the very beginning. If I didn’t, none of this story would make sense. No, I am NOT talking about when we were born! I’m going to skip to the part where it gets interesting. And a bit sad, I must say.

   My brother and I started out ordinary. We wrestled each other every day and helped our mother catch dinner. Also, we had friends. Many of them, too. As two siblings, my brother and I did not fight much, but occasionally a fight would break out. Our mother loved us as much as possible, although she was always out doing something. Despite that factor, we fended for ourselves.

   But then disaster struck.

   Hurricane Hannah swept through our home, causing major devastation. It separated us from our friends, and our mother. We haven’t seen any of them since. There is no telling whether they were killed or stranded in the destruction of the storm. It was a horrible loss for my brother and me, but we could not take too long to grieve. We had to fend for ourselves until someone found us.

   Luckily, just as we were tiring out, help came.

   There was an animal rescue center called “T.I.G.E.R.S.” who came looking for us. After they’d looked through the wreckage of hurricane Hannah for days, they finally found us.    

   After the rescue squad brought us back to the shelter, Anjana, a kind-hearted chimp from T.I.G.E.R.S. helped us. She took us in after we lost our mother, becoming our surrogate mother. She acted as our playmate, babysitter, and even helped the zookeepers feed us!

   Now, all three of us are doing just fine. Anjana still takes care of us, and she does her work well. I’m not kidding. She has actually done this before! She’s helped leopard and lion cubs on several occasions. Now that’s something you don’t see every day! I assure you, I am NOT making up this story!! [If   you   still   don’t   believe   me,   comment on this post. I have pictures to prove it!]

  

   AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it very much, because I know I did! It is one of my favorite stories, and not because I wrote it in my own words. It teaches you that, no matter what culture, religion, or color you are, you can always be friends. You could even be different species or animals! I mean, look at what happened with the two white tiger cubs and Anjana!! Overall, it was a very heart-warming story about three animals that put aside their differences to help one another. If everyone in the world could do that, our lives would be perfect! But I guess that just wasn’t the way it was meant to be.

The second installment of my animal stories!

FINALLY!

                   Honey, I Shrunk the Porcupines!!!

    There once was a porcupine named Phoenix. He lived happily in Sherwood Forest with his family, friends, and foes. Phoenix was “living the dream”; he had good friends, he was the most popular kid in school, he was kind of a geek, and yet he was at peace with everyone. Well, mostly everyone, except for humans, of course. Humans were every porcupine’s nightmare.

    One day, Phoenix was sitting on his sofa in the shade across from his friends, Chester, Linda, and Jacob. The sofa was a large rock carved into a sofa shape and covered in soft, comfy moss (porcupines are very resourceful animals, and smart, too). The four friends were talking about typical teenage porcupine topics. You know, whose quills were the sharpest, who was the coolest kid in school, which teachers they wanted vaporized. “Why would you want Ms. Friday vaporized? She’s so nice!” said Linda, a girl who Chester had introduced to Phoenix only a few days ago. “I don’t think she is! C’mon, she makes us do Ah-ha Mom--” began Jacob.

    He never finished.

    BOOM!  Suddenly, something shook the ground—close. A loud horn sounded from behind them. Every single one of them thought the same thing: H-U-M-A-N-S! Phoenix had been in human drills at school, but obviously, this was not school! Jacob and Chester screamed like little girls and ran, or at least crawled, as fast as they could to get to safety. Linda actually hurried toward the sound. She was one of those tough, athletic girls who thought they could do anything. Phoenix made a quick decision and followed Linda into the bushes.

   

    The two, Phoenix and Linda, had secretly made a corridor through the large bushes. Nobody else knew about it or used it, so it was easy for Phoenix to follow Linda’s footprints. He finally got to the end of the corridor, and Linda was crawling confidently toward something that Phoenix couldn’t see. “Linda!” he shouted. Linda turned around to face him.

    “Why are you here?” she inquired.

    “You’re going to need someone to have your back.”

    “Who’s gonna have you’re back?”

    “I can have my own back!”

    Linda couldn’t make a comeback to that. “Fine. I’m trying to find out what the humans are trying to do. I have an idea that—“ Like Jacob, she didn’t finish. A large steel trap closed around Phoenix, and a separate one captured Linda. One pair of hands closed around the handle of each cage. A needle was injected carefully into both their forepaws. After that, they saw nothing.

    When Phoenix woke up, he was in a small, freezing room with odd, flashing lights on the walls and white tables everywhere. Phoenix’s and Linda’s cages were set on one of these tables. They were surrounded by test tubes filled with colored liquid.

    Phoenix waited a few minutes before Linda woke up. The two were silent, and soon a tall, skinny, dark-haired woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties wearing tinted glasses entered the room through a heavy-looking metal door on the far side of the room. After her came a man who was a bit thicker than her and had thick, brown hair that reached down past his ears. They both wore long cream-colored lab coats and didn’t look like they were in the mood for small talk. The woman had a name tag that said “Mrs. Jacquelyn Jones” and the man had one that said “Mr. Edward Jones”. They both filled their own small container with pale pink liquid from various test tubes. That’s when someone finally spoke. “Edward,” began Mrs. Jones, “this whole fight is silly. Plus, you’re freaking out Emma.” Mr. Jones flipped his lid. “Did you say that I’m the one  who started it all? Let’s not forget who was the one who wouldn’t pitch in!”

    Phoenix and Linda had no idea what they were talking about. What they did realize was that when Mr. Jones freaked out, he accidentally poured too much pink liquid in his container. He didn’t seem to realize this in his rage, for he screwed a cap on his container, attached it to a needle, and rushed over to Linda. Before she could protest, Mr. Jones stuck the needle in Linda’s back paw and pressed the trigger. Mrs. Jones haughtily copied him. She gave Phoenix one of the pink shots, too, also pouring too much liquid into her container, for she thought Mr. Jones had done it on purpose. Mrs. Jacquelyn Jones stormed out of the room. The second the door closed behind her, Phoenix looked over at Linda’s cage.

    She was gone.

     Not the kind of gone you’re thinking, like someone took her. She had just disappeared into thin air! Unfortunately, Mr. Jones had noticed, too. He was staring wide-eyed at Linda’s cage. Suddenly, Phoenix began to feel like he was inside a walnut. Either I’m shrinking or my cage is growing. He thought, Never mind. I’m totally shrinking.  Mr. Jones rushed to Phoenix’s cage to watch the process of Phoenix shrinking. Soon, Phoenix the porcupine was as small as a thimble.

    Mr. Jones stepped back in awe and looked at Linda’s cage. Linda wasn’t gone after all. She was just as small as Phoenix! “Honey!” shouted Mr. Jones, “I shrunk the porcupines!!”

    Soon, Mrs. Jacquelyn Jones was back in the lab. And she was angrier than ever. “You think I’ll fall for a joke as dumb as that? Are you calling me stupid?” Then she looked over at the porcupine cages and instantly apologized. “Sorry. But how exactly did you shrink the animals this time?” she asked casually, like this had happened before. Mr. Edward Jones shrugged and sighed. “At least we can do one thing with them. Give them to Emma.” The couple took Linda and Phoenix out of their cages and let them crawl on their fingers.

    The humans took the porcupines of the lab and up a staircase.       At the top, the two knocked on the first door to the left. “It’s open!” shouted a female voice from inside. Mrs. Jones opened the door. Inside was a room painted sky blue. Two walls were covered by four white wooden bookcases filled with books. Another had the sliding doors of a closet and a tall mirror was leaning against the wall. The last wall had a large, square bed with bedspread that made the bed look like a giant book. It also had a desk with a green lamp, an “easy” button in the corner, and different-sized glasses of various colors of liquid. A girl who looked like she was twelve sat on the bed wearing a neon green elbow-length sweater and long flare jeans. Her fingernails were painted blue and she had long brown hair that she wore in a ponytail. Like her mother, she wore glasses and was skinny. She was reading a copy of The Secret Garden, which was in perfect condition, like it had just been bought. The overall effect the girl had on Phoenix was a creeped-out one. Phoenix knew that this was Emma Jones, daughter of Jacquelyn Jones and Edward Jones.

    “What do you need, Mother?” said  Emma politely, without looking up from her book.

    “Emma, we have a surprise for you. We accidentally shrunk a couple of porcupines. Could you keep them safe in your room?”

    Emma finally looked up. She put her bookmark in place, stood up, and walked over to her parents. “More small animals? Oh, the poor things!” she said as she took the two miniscule porcupines from her parents and set them on the deck, or at least tried to. Phoenix and Linda fell to the floor, bringing down with them a glass of green goo. When the porcupines hit the floor, the green goo oozed around them. They suddenly started growing until they were normal-sized again. “Oh, so now we know how to turn the animals back every time we shrink them!” exclaimed Mrs. Jones. Everyone laughed in relief.

   

    A week later, Emma and her parents brought Linda and Phoenix back to Sherwood Forest. Emma said she loved that forest because it reminded her of the book “Robin Hood”. Phoenix and Linda were reunited with their friends and family and, like every good story should end, they all lived happily ever after.             

Hope you liked it!