Story! Story!!
A long time ago in the animal kingdom when all was fair and fun, there lived a boastful lizard called Liza. He was always proud of himself and his achievements. He never thought anyone was better than him.
"Did anyone notice I just fell from an iroko tree without breaking a bone? Well, I am simply the best," he would say to call other animals' attention to his strength.
" Why will the deers be scared of wolves when they can just fight them? If I had half the height they had I would fight the wolves myself."
"Swimming is so easy to do, fishes are not doing any justice to it, if I were a fish I would be a better swimmer because I am always good at what I do," he would always boast.
The whole animals knew Liza and his pride, some just allowed him to be while others planned to teach him a lesson.
A festival was organized in the kingdom to celebrate the new cub born into the king's palace. Every animal was present at the party, there was enough to eat and drink and enough to take home.
"This party is not as big as I thought, if I were to be the king I would do better," Liza commented immediately after he got into the palace.
"Here comes the booster," an animal who heard Liza's comment said.
"Liza, we all know you are so good at everything you do. Would you love to come to have a drinking competition with us? The winner of it gets to control the other animals for a whole month." Mab, the snake, informed him on behalf of the others. For all they knew, Liza never backed down on a challenge and they knew how desperately he wanted to be better than anyone else.
"A drinking competition! That's like a child's play to me, why not challenge me with something worth my time?" Liza said.
"Let's start with drinking, then we could do another challenging game," he was told.
Soon a big pot of boiling liquid was placed in front of him. He was then asked to drink from it.
No one had ever drunk more than two spoons from this pot without backing down, if you can drink more than two, we will all respect you for life and you would get to control all of us for a month." He was told to get his pride and make him participate.
Liza thought about it, he had been trying all his life to get these animals to respect him and now an opportunity had surfaced. He looked at all the animals' faces, then at the boiling liquid. He could do it, just three spoons and that was it, he said to himself.
"Give me the spoon," he ordered. Immediately the spoon was brought to him. He scooped the boiling liquid and gave it a big gulp. The hot liquid burnt down his throat causing an unbearable pain but since he was being cheered by the surrounding animals, he went for a second round. The pains increased but he held on and went for the third round, "this is the last Liza, you are almost there," he said to himself and gulp in the third spoon, the pains this time caused the nerves in his neck region to be scratched.
"Heyyyyyeeeeeee, he did it" all the animals cheered when he took the third spoon. Liza was so proud of himself. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out, he tried again but all he could do was nod. Before he realized what had been done to him, there was no animal left for him to complain to.
Alone he cried out, but instead of his voice coming out, his head kept nodding. In silence, he regretted his actions. But it was too late because the illness was transferred to all his generations.
Today, all the lizards kept nodding their heads whenever they wanted to boost or say something.
MORAL LESSONS
1. Be careful not to be prideful. Pride prevents us from acknowledging our human weaknesses.
2. When we begin to want to feel good about ourselves and make sure others look up to us, admire us, and see us as competent and powerful, we are heading to our destruction.
3. It is difficult to sustain an intimate relationship when you are always right and other people wrong; nobody likes being with a know-it-all. Try to accommodate others without making yourself feel superior and others less.
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