[أرب جمـال]

The Brave Little Tortoise and the Monster
A short story about bravery and fear control


Basic Elements

Characters

A tortoise and a monster

Setting

A desert land with a big mountain

Moral of the story
The only way to successfully deal with a life and death situation is to face up to the fear it brings.

Once upon a time, there was a tortoise on a ship, and the ship sank. Some time later the tortoise made it to a desert land surrounded by water on all sides except for one. The landward side led up to a big, steep, craggy mountain. To avoid starving to death, the tortoise decided to climb to the top of the mountain, hoping that he would be able to cross to the other side.
When he got to the snow-covered summit he was freezing cold, and then a blizzard started. He just managed to make out a small pathway leading down the other side of the mountain. But the path was guarded by a big monster that wouldn't stop shouting.
"Uuh uuh uuh!"
Such a sight and sound almost killed the tortoise with fright, and all he wanted to do was hide his head inside his shell. But, looking around him, he saw that many other animals were lying frozen to death, and with looks of horror on their faces. So the tortoise didn't go into his shell.
He summoned up all his courage to move down the path towards the monster. The closer the tortoise got, the more the monster changed its shape. Then, when he was almost upon it, the tortoise realised that what he had thought was a monster, was only a great pile of rocks, which formed a shape just like a monster. As for the "Uuh uuh uuh", the tortoise realised this was just the sound of the wind blowing through a small cave.
The tortoise carried on, and eventually descended into a beautiful valley, filled with woods, and plenty of food. The tortoise lived very happily here, and became known everywhere as the Brave Little Tortoise.