The Tale of Animalia (Part 1)

So this is a story I wrote from scratch, it takes the form of a sort of fairytale with a moral message, it was quite a bit longer than I intended it to be so I will post it in three parts, here is part 1.

The Tale of Animalia (Part 1)

Far, far away sits the world of Animalia. Consisting of six landscapes, five of them the same size centred around one large landmass. On the great platys Rock, sits not the Lion, the shark, the eagle nor the alligator, but the platypus.

How the platypuses came to rule Animalia is a tale that circulates the shores every day.

Many years ago, the residents of Animalia lived on one larland. Animals lived in harmony in a variety of different habitats. At the forefront of the kingdom were the Mammals, led by the most powerful beasts of the land – the Lions led by the veteran ruler, Leonardes. For years, it had been agreed that the mammals’ sheer power and how much many of them could adapt made them worthy leaders and as a result were immune from being eaten by other carnivores except themselves, but conflict was arising in the land…

The mammals were simply deemed to have too much power. At the forefront of this was the birds. Led by the notorious Eglé, the birds of prey have always been the mammal’s main rivals and with the recent arrival of the bats that also needed to fly, they were annoyed that their personal area had to be shared and argued that the mammals were being too greedy.

The reptiles were also annoyed. The known rebels of the animal kingdom, they were led by the oldest leader in the land, Alguerve, the alligator, who constantly rebelled against the system. A long time ago, they were the rulers of the land as the mighty dinosaurs, but time has not been kind and as that species died, the reptile’s dominance loosened and the mammals soon had full control. With these conflicts arising, the reptiles saw fit to bring up their usual arguments – that they were the rightful rulers of the land and that they deserve a place in the higher kingdom, an alligator and a snake can easily kill and eat an antelope and have proven their worth as strong and deadly fighters, so why were they relegated to ‘below’ the mammals. Algeurve & Eglé were known allies in Animalia in their hatred of Leonardes and saw their collective problems as an opportunity to bring down the mammals reign.

Elsewhere the fish, led by one of the most feared warriors on the planet, Xalthu the great white shark, had more reason to complain. They were the long time rulers of the sea; the sharks were amongst the most fearsome fighters of the whole kingdom. They were becomingly increasingly frustrated with having to share the seas with the large whales and dolphins, particularly the biggest mammal in the land, the Blue Whale. The fish saw themselves as the rightful rulers of the sea and demanded that the others found some other way to adapt, given they could not survive without their gills.

On the issue of no respect also applied to the insects. Due to their size, they were regularly seen as inferior and had no abilities; many deaths occurred daily for the poor insects as many animals viewed them or simply just don’t recognise or hear them. This was a problem for the worker ants, and the wasps and black widow spiders felt hard done by as they had proved they are deadly warriors and were not given enough recognition, the insects were very easy targets for all animals and the death rate was twice the amount of any other animal and they did not feel equal.

This left only the amphibians cowering in the corner. The known pacifists of the land, they hated any kind of conflict and believed that all animals should live in harmony. So much so that they had no known fighters and, as a result, they were very easily taken advantage of. They were forced into the conflict.

The subject of food was also a present conflict amongst all species. The species’ thought it was unfair that the mammals got this much advantage over the other species, as the birds of prey and other carnivorous animals needed to eat too, and they did not deem it fair that they had a restriction.

The kingdom was at a state of unrest and Leonardes saw no option but to declare war. Whichever species proved to be the toughest through a series of all on all battles was worthy of the rights to the whole kingdom.

On the battlefield, only the toughest predators were allowed. Meanwhile, the defenceless, herbivorous animals kept out of the fighting all they could. Not all animals were opposed to each other and some smaller herbivorous animals still stuck together for survival. Our story will focus on a small family of rabbits, Monceen and her five youngest children, Brent, Gale, Heath, Jiltan & the youngest, Filo. Two ducks & a family of frogs joined them; together they took it in turns to go down to the water every day to fetch food for the gathering. It was a challenge going down to the river or to collect food every day as any predatory animal not of their species who saw them would kill them instantly, the youths were not used to this but had to still venture down to the river. Through tough times, they formed friendships and lamented over the bloodbath their once peaceful kingdom had become, they longed for the day that they would see the error of their ways and that war is not the answer, but they would never be powerful enough to say anything.