This piece of land must be where the end of the world is starting, he thought. He was so startled that he began to rapidly hop away from where the noise had come from.
A deer saw him and asked what he was doing.
Without stopping, the rabbit said, "The world is falling apart!"
The deer thought this silly at first but then decided he didn't have anything better to do, so he followed. The rabbit hopped and hopped, passing many other animals along the way. One by one, they asked what he was running from and decided it might be safer to join rather than doubt him.
The rabbit came to a grinding halt when a lion stood in its path.
"What is going on?" the lion asked. "Why is everyone running?"
The rabbit, adrenaline and fear driving him, said undoubtedly, "The world is falling apart back there!"
The lion rolled his eyes and looked at the other animals. "And why is it that you all believe this to be true?"
The other animals all said, "The rabbit told us!"
The lion looked back at the rabbit. "How are you sure of this?"
"If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself near the coconut tree," the rabbit said plainly. "I'm getting out of here."
The rabbit hopped away with half of the stampede following him still. The other half of the animals now had their doubts and stood around, watching the lion.
"I will go look, and then you will all see that it is careless to follow someone just because everyone else is." The lion then journeyed to the coconut tree.
But the lion never returned, for the moment he neared the coconut tree he fell deep into the fissure that had formed in the ground. The animals who waited for him ran yet again when the earth began to shake and the ground began to split open all around them.
~~~
Author's Note: I really liked the meaning of the original story (not doing something just because everyone else is doing it), but I also think that a lot of times the crowd is right, and it's better to follow them just to be safe. I decided to change the ending to fit this idea because I felt the rabbit deserved some sympathy. I do think it is important to do your own research and investigate things before following a crowd, but sometimes that's just not realistic in the situation. My ending is kind of dark...but at least it gets the point across!
Bibliography: Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
Image Information: "Steaming fissure" by John of Wirral is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Hi Brooke!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! Your writing is very clean and the pacing is perfect! I would have maybe liked to read more animals explicitly joining the mob, instead of the more general "they decided to join him" sentence you have. Maybe this would be a good place to set up people who really do question the rabbit? I don't know, just something to think about. I really liked the ending though, definitely unexpected based on the original story, and you got me laughing a bit! Can't wait to read more!
Hi Brooke! I like that you kept the main elements of the original story and made it your own! Your writing style is great too and it really helped the story flow. There was a lot of dialogue, but it definitely worked for the story since it's more character-based.I can see that you've been writing for a while and it shows in the quality of your work! The ending is dark, but I think the little twist added your own personality to the story and it definitely got your point across! Great job and I'm interested to see what you come up with next!
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