2017 Inklings Book Contest finalist: Padma Madhyasta
Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2017 finalist, Padma Madhyasta! Padma finished 2nd grade this past school year. The story she submitted is called “Big and Small Friends” We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did!
Leave a comment below on what you thought!
Big and Small Friends
by Padma Madhyasta
One afternoon, two hummingbirds, Hum and Gem, were flying around searching for a place to build a new house. Hum had shades of green, yellow and orange all over her body and had a dazzling blue neck. Gem had shades of green and yellow on her body and she had a pretty pink neck. They were the prettiest things, flying together from flower to flower sipping sweet nectar from their long, sleek beaks and looking for a tree to build a home. They stopped for a small break on a tree with purple fruits. They ate the delicious fruits and since it was getting dark, they decided to camp out on that tree for the night. Hum said, “We should build a house on this tree. It has delicious fruits.” But Gem said, “This tree has fruits and so it will attract many animals. We will not be safe here.” Hum agreed. In the morning they continued their search. They finally found a tree with two hollows in it. It had pink flowers all over the branches. Hum and Gem decided that it was the perfect tree to build their home. Over the next few days, they collected leaves, twigs, and yarn and started building their house together. It was finally ready and they were very happy. The house was small, warm and cozy. Hum and Gem started living in their new home. After a few days, Hum and Gem noticed that there was an owl in one of the hollows of the tree. They both were frightened that the owl would hurt them. But they continued to stay there as they liked their new home.
The owl’s name was Owlina. Owlina was white in color with a gray belly and a pink bow on her head. She had recently made the hollow her home. She did not have any friends there. All the small animals and birds living in the tree were scared to talk or play with her as she was much bigger in size than them.
One afternoon, Owlina knocked on Hum and Gem’s door. She wanted to get to know them and play with them. Hum and Gem looked through the keyhole and were scared. They did not open the door. Hum said, “Let’s fly away from here.” They crashed through their own house and flew away as fast as they could. Finally, Hum and Gem found another tree to settle down in and built a new house there.
One day Hum and Gem were playing outside their new house. They saw a few ladybugs playing there too. Hum and Gem wanted to join in the game and approached the ladybugs to talk to them. But the ladybugs were afraid of Hum and Gem and they flew away. Hum and Gem were sad and they flew back to their home. At home, they had an unexpected letter waiting for them. They were surprised. They opened the letter and it was from Owlina. Owlina had found Hum and Gem’s new home and she wanted to apologize for frightening them away from their old house. Owlina wrote,
Dear Little Hummingbirds,
I am the owl that knocked on your door at your old house. My name is Owlina. I was lonely there and I wanted to be friends with you. I am sorry that I scared you out of your beautiful house. I promise that I will not hurt you. I just want to be friends with you. Hope you come back and play with me.
Love,
Owlina
After reading the letter, Hum said, “I do not believe this owl. She is not telling the truth.” On the other hand, Gem said, “I think Owlina is not lying. We were scared of her just like the ladybugs were scared of us today. We should go play with her.” Hum said, “No. I am not going. I do not want to get hurt.” Gem said, “I will go and see if she is friendly. I will be cautious. We will never know if we do not go.”
Next day Gem flew to their old house to meet Owlina. She was cautious at first, but soon she found out that Owlina was friendly. Gem and Owlina played together the entire day and had a lot of fun. Hum was alone in the house, scared to go and play. She was also worried that Owlina might have hurt Gem. In the evening, Gem flew back home and told Hum about all the fun she had with Owlina. Hum missed out on all the fun because she was scared and did not want to try new things. Gem said, “Why don’t you come with me tomorrow? We can both play with Owlina and many other new friends there.”
From then on, Owlina, Hum, and Gem slowly explored all around their new neighborhood and made many new friends in all different shapes, sizes, and colors.
One summer evening, Hum and Gem were sitting on a tree enjoying the beautiful scenery around. Suddenly they heard a rumbling noise, an unusual gust of wind, and saw a cloud of dust. After the dust settled down, they saw two men, with guns in their hands, wearing boots, vests, and camouflage clothes getting down from their vehicle. Hum and Gem knew they were hunters. The hunters were looking around and they saw a young deer. They aimed and shot at the deer, almost hitting it but the deer was lucky to escape. The hunters were tired by now. One of them said, “Let’s go back home today as we are tired. We will come again tomorrow to the same jungle as it has lots of different animals.” Then the hunters went back to their vehicle and rode away forming a dust cloud again. Hum and Gem heard what the hunters talked about and they were frightened.
Hum and Gem flew to Owlina and told her all that they had heard. Since Owlina was the wise one, they thought she could solve this problem. But Owlina said, “We are three small birds. We alone cannot protect the jungle. We have to call a meeting to inform everyone and make a plan for tomorrow.” So, Hum, Gem, and Owlina decided to go to the lion as he was the king of the jungle. Hum and Gem told the lion all about the hunters. The lion thought for a moment. Then he roared as loud as thunder. Hearing that roar, all the creatures in the jungle knew that they had to gather for a meeting at the big old tree. When all the creatures gathered together, the lion told them about the hunters.
A tiger walked to the front of the gathering and said, “I will roar and pounce at the hunters with my sharp claws that they will run away like the little mice.”
Next, an elephant walked to the front and said, “I will stomp my feet and shake the ground so that the hunters cannot move forward. And then I will pick them up with my trunk and throw them away.”
Next, the monkeys said, “We will eat as many bananas as we can and throw all the peels on the ground in the hunters’ way. Then they will slip and fall down and cannot move further.”
All the birds said, “We will fly to them and peck at their faces and eyes.” Hum, Gem, and Owlina were happy as they were eager to help save the jungle.
All the mice said, “We will clutter around their feet and make them trip over and fall.”
All the animals and birds laughed at the mice as they thought the mice were too small to help in any way. Though Hum, Gem, and Owlina felt bad for the mice, they agreed with others that the mice were too small to help. The ants also wanted to help save the jungle. But looking at the animals laugh at the mice, they thought that they were too tiny to help and so, they did not say anything. After it was decided that a few bigger animals were enough to fight the hunters away, all the creatures of the jungle went back to their homes and secured their doors and belongings and prepared for the next day.
The next morning all the animals gathered at the same place where Hum and Gem had seen the hunters before. Hum, Gem, and Owlina were perched high up on a tree and ready with their friends to attack the hunters. At midday, they heard the rumbling noise, a gush of wind and saw a cloud of dust. The hunters got down from their vehicles with guns in their hands and started walking towards the jungle.
Then the tiger let out a big roar. And the elephant trumpeted loudly. The hunters were scared. They fired their guns in the direction of the sound. Now all of the animals were scared by the gun sound and started running away in all directions. Hum, Gem, and Owlina also flew away to a far away tree and hid. But they could see the hunters. The hunters climbed up a tree and sat there waiting for some animal to come back so that they can shoot it.
Meanwhile, the mice and the ants were hiding and they saw all of that happened. The mice decided that they will not let the hunters harm their jungle friends. So they charged all at once from different directions and started going up the tree towards the hunters. The hunters had no clue how to face so many mice. The mice charged at them and bit their hands, legs, nose, ears, and face. Some mice climbed up the hunters’ heads and ran around in their hair and pulled the hair out with their teeth. The hunters fell down to the ground.
The ants saw the mice fighting the hunters and so they decided to go help the mice. All the ants snuck up from behind the hunters and get into their pants and shirts and bite them all over their bodies. The hunters screeched loudly with pain from the bites of the mice and the ants. Hum, Gem, and Owlina saw all this. They flew out of their hiding and pecked at the hunters’ eyes and nose. After some time, Owlina thought the hunters had learned their lesson and so, she asked the mice, ants, Hum, and Gem to stop attacking the hunters. Now the hunters got a chance to get up and run as fast as they could. And as they ran, they screamed, “We will never come to this jungle again.”
The animals came back and saw that the hunters had run away. The animals thought that it was all because of the tiger and the elephant. So they all thanked the tiger and the elephant for being brave and saving their lives. But Gem said, “STOP! The tiger and elephant are not the heroes. They were scared and ran away just like you all. Hum, Owlina and I also flew away. The mice and the ants are the brave ones. They are the real heroes. Even though they are small, they attacked the hunters and drove them away. They showed us that no matter how big or small you are, you are all important to the jungle. Each one of us has our own strength which is unique to us.”
The animals and birds realized their mistake and apologized to the mice and the ants and they thanked them for saving their lives. That day all of them learned a lesson not to laugh at others because of their size, shape or color as everyone is important and has his or her own specialty in this world which no one else has.
