Chapter 1 - The story of the starfish lioness

You may have seen a very strange lioness. She is light brown with dark brown and blue toes. But that is not the strange thing about her. She is called Neela and she has a starfish stuck to her face. Wondering how Neela got a starfish stuck to her face?
It happened long ago then both Neela and her sister Lace were cubs.
Neela and her sister Lace journeyed out to the seaside for a day of fun and rest. They took some food in a leaf bag and hurried down to the soft sand and the beautiful blue ocean.
Neela and Lace had never seen the sea before, even though they lived quite close. It was a completely new experience to them. The sand underneath felt strange and shifted over their paws. The pair soon managed to get used to it and ventured down to the sea.
They watched in amazement at the way the tide washed old bits of wood up to the beach and they took them away again. It was as if the sea couldn’t make up its mind whether it wanted its cargo or not.
Soon this escalated into a game. Neela and Lace would chase the bits of wood down to the sea as the tide tried to wash them away, and then when they reached the bottom they would turn and run back away from the incoming tide.
After a good long game of this, Lace decided that it might be fun to explore the nearby caves. The cave was huge at the opening with strange smooth rocks that looked like they had veins. In these rock pools were small little creatures and plants, so the pair sat and watched for a while.
After a while Neela wandered off to explore deeper in the cave.
“ Come and look at this Lace” she said. The cave was huge at the opening and got smaller as it neared the back. At the very back of the cave was a small opening not big enough to get though, but provided at peek into the depths of the cave.
“I wonder what’s in there” said Lace
“ could be some sort of treasure” Neela replied
“Yeah” agreed Lace “ or a portal in to another world!”
Neela turned and gave her sister a quizzical look.
“What?” said Lace “ it could be!”
Neela shook her head, while her sister peered into the hole hoping to catch a glimpse of another world.
“ You are really strange” said Neela after watching her sister.
“Come on” she said and walked off back to the beach
“ But there could be” called Lace after taking one last look and ran to catch up with her sister.
“Oh yeah I expect in the world lions can’t talk and are only boring brown colours.” Neela teased “oh and the wizards magic doesn’t work and metal birds things can fly!.” She laughed
Lace looked away sadly
“ Aw, come on.” said Neela” ill race you to the top of the beach” and of they both darted, not aware how right they had both been.
Unknown to them a starfish in one of the rook pools they visited was watching them with interest, having never seen a lion before.
After a day of playing games and enjoying the sea air they were feeling very hungry.
Soon the pair found the starfish by a rock pool and began to feed it some of their food that was left over. Then they and the starfish were full they put the leftovers back in the bag.
Neela played with the starfish while her sister had a nap. It mainly consisted of gently batting it with her paw and running away when the starfish moved. Once or twice Neela batted the starfish a little too hard and it fell into the rock pool causing Neela to gently pick up and carry it out in her mouth.
“This is fun” though the starfish. It had got free food, attention and a free lift! “Lucky me” it thought.
And soon it was time for the pair to head off home since it was sunset. But the little starfish had had too much fun today and didn’t want to be left behind! So the starfish quickly made a plan.
It began to eat what was left of the food and tried to hide in their leaf bag they had brought with them, but Neela found it before they left!
" Oh no you don’t" she said playfully and put the starfish on the ground.
"Neela, come on!" said Lace "its getting dark"
"Coming" called Neela. But in her hurry to grab the bag she tripped and fell face first on to the starfish!
" Oh no!" She screamed "I’ve killed it!" but when her sister looked at her she saw that the starfish was stuck to her face!
" Its not dead! Its stuck on your face!" said Lace. "Let me help you get it off"
" What?!" cried Neela and ran to the rock pool to look at her reflection. And indeed the starfish was stuck to her face.
"Come here!" said Lace "Ill get it off you!"
"NOOO!" screamed Neela. " You might hurt it!" and ran away from her sister.
"You cant have a starfish stuck to your face forever!"
"You might hurt it!" she cried again "No, lets go home and maybe it will come off tomorrow."
so off they went, back home. But by the time the starfish got off of Neela's face she had grown so used to it that it seemed wrong to be without it!
So now the starfish lives on Neela's face and they often take trips back to the seaside so that the starfish may swim in the water and Neela can have some time without the starfish which she named "Starry". Surprisingly they are now both very happy with the arrangement!

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment