Week 2 Story. King Trumpet and the End of the World

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit fast asleep under a mango tree. She was having a bad dream, as rabbits sometimes do, and this was an especially bad dream: the rabbit was dreaming about the end of the world! All the rivers were flooding their banks, earthquakes were shaking the ground, and the sky itself was falling down.

Meanwhile, some mischievous monkeys up high in the mango tree saw the sleeping rabbit down below and decided that it would be most amusing to drop a mango on her head. So they did.

THWUNK.

The rabbit woke up from her bad dream, screaming, "The sky is falling! It's the end of the world! I have to go tell King Trumpet the Elephant! He'll be able to save us." Then she started to run. Fast.

And because the rabbit was running fast without looking where she was going, she ran right into a squirrel.

"Watch out there, Rabbit!" said the squirrel. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" squealed the rabbit. "I have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us."

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" squeaked the squirrel. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a duck. "Hey there, Squirrel and Rabbit!" quacked the duck. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the squirrel squeaked.

"We have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us," the rabbit squealed.

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" quacked the duck. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a lamb. "Hey there, Duck, Squirrel, and Rabbit!" bleated the lamb. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the duck quacked.

"We have to go tell King Trumpet!" the squirrel squeaked.

"He'll be able to save us!" the rabbit squealed.

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" bleated the lamb. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a jackal. "Hey there, Lamb, Duck, Rabbit, and Squirrel!" barked the jackal. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the lamb bleated. "We have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us."

"And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Lamb?" asked the jackal.

"The duck told me so," replied the lamb.

So the jackal asked the duck, "And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Duck?"

"The squirrel told me so," replied the duck.

Then the jackal asked the squirrel, "And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Squirrel?"

"The rabbit told me so," replied the squirrel.

And without waiting to be asked, the rabbit squealed, "I saw it in a dream! And then a piece of the sky fell on my head! It's the end of the world!" She paused to take a deep breath and then she started squealing again. "We have to go tell King Trumpet the Elephant! He'll be able to save us."

"Ahhhhh," said the jackal as he hatched a plan of his own. "Ahhhhh, yes. The end of the world. The sky falling down."

And then he smiled. "My dear little animals," he said, "our good King Trumpet has already heard the news. He himself sent me to find you and keep you safe from the end of the world!"

The little animals looked at the jackal hopefully.

"To be specific," explained the jackal, "King Trumpet orders you to come hide inside the walls of my house."

"Your house and its walls cannot protect us at the end of the world when the sky is falling down!" squealed the rabbit.

"Do not worry, Little Rabbit," said the jackal. "I live in a cave. It's very safe inside my house, even if the sky is falling down. Does that sound like a good plan?"

The rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb all looked at the jackal gratefully, nodding their little heads.

"Let's go then," said the jackal. And so the jackal took the lead, and the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb all followed close behind, running together through the woods.

~ ~ ~

It wasn't very far to the jackal's cave, and when they got there, the jackal explained, "The entrance is very narrow, so you'll have to come in one at a time. I'll go in first!"

So the jackal went into the cave, and then he turned around to greet his guests.

The lamb was the first animal to go into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the lamb's head and threw her into the corner to eat that day for lunch.

Then the duck went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the duck's head and threw him into the corner to eat that day for dinner.

Then the squirrel went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the squirrel's head and threw him into the corner to eat that day for dessert.

Then last of all the rabbit went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the rabbit's head and gobbled her up, nom nom nom.

And so it really was the end of the world for the foolish rabbit and her friends.

Moral of the story: Don't believe everything you hear! Get the facts. It could save your life!

~ ~ ~

Author's Notes. Yes, I wrote this story as a political allegory. I am not a fan of fear-mongering in general, and I am unhappy that one of the chief fear-mongers in our country at the present time is President Trump. In the original jataka tale, there is no King Trumpet the Elephant, but the story is very much about creatures who foolishly believe things without evidence and who then act foolishly as a result.

The ending of my story is also very different than in the jataka story. In the jataka version, the stampeding animals run into the lion (the Buddha in a past incarnation), and he enlightens the rabbit and the other animals so that they learn the truth: the sky is not falling, and it is not the end of the world.

For my story, I used the jataka story to get things started, but then I shifted to the English "Henny-Penny" version of this folktale where, instead of getting educated at the end, the animals get eaten. The "Henny-Penny" version also gave me the idea of the animals going to tell the king about the end of the world. Here's how that story begins:

One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!--something hit her upon the head. 'Goodness gracious me!' said Henny-penny; 'the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king.'

Henny-Penny and the other animals run into a fox at the end of that story, so I used a jackal, who often plays a role in Indian folktales similar to that of the fox in English folktales. Then, since the jackal is going to eat the other animals, I had to use smaller animals. In the jataka, the animal chain is rabbit-deer-fox-elephant, but I used rabbit-squirrel-duck-lamb. I thought they would all make very nice food for a jackal!

Bibliography.

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit in Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt.

Henny-Penny in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.

Image Source.

Elephant Clip Art, to which I added words.
Jackal at Branson's Wild World.