Damon Rutherfield - The Race for Kingship
A long time ago in the parallel universe humans and animals lived on the earth harmoniously side by side. Respecting one another, also going out of their way to be friendly and useful to each other on a regular day.
The Tiger being the King of the animals made a decision that there should be a King of the Air, Rivers and Marshes. He thought it would be more productive to have a group responsible for alerting people to the coming of the first rains, so that they would have time to be ready and start preparing their tools and seeds for the season.
The king then sent out his trusted town crier, the cockerel Thomas, with a message for the animal community that any animal who wanted to be considered should attend the ceremony to be held at the King’s court the following morning.
The cockerel dutifully made his way all-round the animal village making sure the message was passed correctly, passing the King’s messages to all and sundry. The next morning the Tiger came into his court yard after having had his breakfast, and found a great number of candidates for the position had gathered there. The cat, the monkey, Toad and frog stood side by side, flamingo was there and the crab had also turned up most of all the most respected of the ants was there.
The Tiger inspected each one of the candidates himself, and started comparing their qualities to know who can handle the position.
After checking the cat he said: “Cat, I know you don’t like water. You will run away and hide at the first sight of rain. So how can I make you the king of Rivers and Marshes?” Immediately, the cat was dismissed.
To the monkey he said: “Monkey my friend, I am very happy to see you here, but you are too playful and forgetful, I am very afraid you will forget your duties because you put playing first. So I can’t consider you for the position”. The monkey was dismissed.
To the flamingo he said: “Mr. Flamingo, I’m sure you would be very good for the post, you love being in the river, but I am afraid that your voice is not loud enough. Nobody would hear you! I can’t make you the king of rivers and marshes.” the flamingo was dismissed.
To the Crab he said: “Mr. Crab. How would I make you the King? You don’t even have a head we can see! Where would we place your crown? You can’t be the king of the Rivers and Marshes please, I’m afraid.” the crab was dismissed.
That left toad and frog to be judged. The Tiger scratched his face, “Fellows”, he said, “I don’t know how to make up my mind between the two of you. I am sure the both of you would be very good at the job, you both have wonderful voices. I’m finding it really difficult to choose”. Then the cockerel suggested that there could be a race to decide on the issue. The king agreed almost immediately. “Let there be a race”, he said. “We will begin it here in the court yard, and the first to get to the river bank amongst the both of you will be crowned as king of the Rivers and Marshes!”
And so the race was organized. The king, in company of a host of animals, made his way right to the river bank so he could see with his own eyes who the winner would be. The cockerel stayed back in the court yard with the two contestants, so that he could give the starting signal. When all was ready, the cockerel let out a loud screech, and toad and frog took off. They jumped and jumped as fast and as long as they could. The toad was the quickest, and he had built up a small lead then suddenly he came to a halt. Lying in front of him was a wide and deep ditch. He could not remember it being there before, so it must have been created during the last storm. He was not sure he would be able to jump across it. In the meantime frog had caught up with him, and also stopped. “Hurray”, he exclaimed, “a ditch, that’s nothing for me!” He went for a huge jump, using all the strength he had in his legs, and successfully made it to the other side. Toad knew he just had to get across, so he took a deep breath, and used all his strength to jump, but the poor toad, he didn’t make it, he hit the side of the ditch, and fell all the way down to the bottom of the ditch.
So the Frog was the first one to reach the river bank so he won the race. The King congratulated him, and he was immediately crowned king of the Rivers and marshes. At his coronation, the king of the animal community, Tiger, made a big speech. “Frog”, he said, “now that you are King of the rivers and Marshes, your first duty is to always announce the coming of the first rains, so that all farmers in both the human and animal community can get ready to and start doing their important work. You shall always do this by singing you Croo Croo song as loud as you possibly can, and for as long as it takes to get the message to everybody!”
This is the reason why till today, when farmers hear the frog’s song, they are always very happy, because they know for sure that the dry season is over and the rain they need to grow their crops is on its way.