Story! Story!
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A long time ago, in the kingdom of rats lived Basil.He and his family just moved into the big community of rats not quite long. Basil, being an observant rat, noticed that a particular set of rats lived in the comfort of human homes while others seemed to be okay living in the bush.
"Why can't all the rats live with humans?" He one day asked the elderly rats out of curiosity and jealousy.
"It had been a custom laid down by our ancestors that a chosen set of rats should live with the humans for a period of time, after which another set gets in till it gets to every family's turn in the clan" one of the elders informed him.
"Why such rules?" Basil asked confused because to him sure custom was absurd.
"There was a time when humans really hated rats and could not stand them," the elderly rat explained, "so to live and survive, a group of rats visited an oracle which gave them a powerful spell to cast on the humans. The rule of the spell was that not more than one family of rats could live with any human and any family chosen by the clan must do all to avoid the humans' properties except when given."
" If any rat who is not part of the chosen family of rats gets into the house or takes what was not given to them, the spell cast on the humans would be broken and they would return to hating the rats again," another rat added.
"To avoid these from happening, a rule was made that any family chosen to stay with the human must keep the entrance to the humans' house hidden from other rats."
As Basil listened to the elders' explanations, all he could think about was how long his family would have to wait for their turn since they just moved in. He felt he might not even live to see that time. With these thoughts he decided to find ways to get into the human house before he and his family were chosen.
Basil began his quest to find ways to get into a beautiful house close to where he lived. He knew the house was safe and had a lot of food, but for some archaic custom created by mere rats, pretending to have visited an oracle, he couldn't have access. He planned to get in there whether by hook or crook. He told his friends his plans and convinced them to buy it and they all did.
He worked day and night cooking up a plan to discover the secret entrance. One day,a bright idea came to him.
The chosen family of rats living in the house close to Basil's hole had a beautiful daughter named Sasa. She always came out of the house every fortnight into the bush to get green leaves to make her family's beddings.
Basil saw this as an opportunity to make friends with Sasa. He approached her one night on her way to get some leaves and offered to help her. Sasa, who had been looking forward to having a friend, was so pleased. She went home very excited and couldn't stop telling her family about her newfound friend. She told them about how he found her, helped her get some leaves and promised to always wait for her when she was out. "You can't have friends." Sasa's father said in a harsh tone.
Sasa, whose excitement had been shortened, was confused, " why?" She asked.
" Do not ask why, just know you can't mingle with other rats. " came the reply.
Sasa was so sad, he told Basil about her parent's decision and asked that he stop seeing her. Basil, who was on a mission, tried to convince her to keep their relationship a secret from her parents.
" Are you sure they would not find out?" She asked to be assured.
" They wouldn't," he replied.
With that, Sasa agreed to their secret friendship. Basil on his part kept helping her every fourth night until she had trusted him as a friend.
" The house you live in is so big, how do you get in anyway? " Basil asked one night while helping her cut the leaves. He planned to know the secret entrance into the house.
"The entrance is a secret one, my parents had warned me never to let any rat know about it," Sasa said.
" Too bad, here I was thinking I was your friend not knowing you don't even trust me," Basill said, pretending to be hurt.
"You are my friend; my only friend and I would love to tell you what you ask but I do not want to disobey my parents'' Sasa tried to explain.
Basill told her he understood but started acting all moody. Sasa was so worried she might lose her friend.
"There is no harm in telling where the secret entrance is, besides it's not as if he will show anyone" she thought to herself.
"I will tell you how we got into the house but you must promise not to let other rats know about it." With that, Sasu told Basil the secret entrance.
Basil, pleased with himself and the crafty stunt he pulled, told his friends about the secret entrance and they made a major plan to invade it.
When the day of the invasion came, they launched into action and went into the kind lady's house. They ate all her beans, yams, groundnuts, cassava and every other thing they could lay their hands on. When the kind woman got home to see the havoc the rats had caused , she became so angry and started finding ways to destroy the rats.
Meanwhile, the spell that protected the rat kingdom was broken and every house that had rats tried to destroy them.
Up and till this day, humans still hate rats and are finding all possible ways to eliminate them and stubborn rats like Basil have decided to invade their spaces because the spell had been broken. But some calm rats now find their solace in the bush. Those are the ones we now call the BUSH RATS.
MORAL LESSONS.
1: Be careful who you tell your secrets to.
2: Greed leads to bitter consequences.
3. Some people you call friends maybe wolves in sheep clothing.
4. It's better to be alone than be surrounded by jealous and envious friends.
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