It had been raining for a long time in the forest and all the animal friends could not come out and play. They waited and waited and finally the rain stopped, the dark clouds moved away and a big rainbow stretched out right across the sky. Chuti the dragonfly asked his mum if he could go out and play with his friends. So she put her face out of the window and could see that the rain had stopped, and said, “You can go, but come back before the sun sets”. Chuti was not going to stick around for her to change her mind, so he flew across the grass fields and over the trees towards to where his human friend Saman was living.
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Saman had also been waiting for the rain to stop; he had been making paper boats and floating them down his drain. “Saman.. Saman..!” Chuti shouted, Saman was sitting on the steps at the front door of his house. Chuti landed on his finger like he always did and the two hugged and smiled and then smiled a bit more.
“Shall we go down to the river and see what the others are up to?” asked Saman, Chuti liked that idea, so the two friends headed in the direction of the river, it was a nice walk as the grass and the trees were still wet with rain drops. When the sunlight hit the rain drops they shone like a field of diamonds, it all looked very magical. Just then they heard the sound of someone shouting “left...!! right...!!” It was the ant’s brigade! Saman looked for their friend Jess; she was one of the hardest working friends they knew. Sure enough Jess was walking in line with the others. She could see Saman and Chuti waiting for her, “Where are you two off to?” asked Jess, “We’re going to the river to meet with the others, why don’t you come along with us?” said Chuti. So Jess got on to the palm of Saman’s hand, and the three friends walked along the path enjoying the trees and sunlight.
“Jess, why are you always working so hard? It’s as if you don’t have time for anything but work!” said Chuti. “See.. us ants all have a job to do, we are all equals with each his own job, we all work to take care of the baby eggs” replied Jess. “Equals?” asked Saman. “Yes! It means we are all the same, no one is better then the other, we all have the same needs in the end, don’t you think? “Food, water and a place to sleep” shouted Chuti. “Yes that’s right”, said Saman, “but us children also need education.” “But us dragonflies don’t go to school, so we don’t have any education” said Chuti, “Yes! You do, your mother teaches you where to find food and how to clean yourself. And when you learn how to fly, that is also education.”
“Jess, why are there so many of you ants?” Asked Chuti, “It’s because we are so small. But no matter how small we are, when we work together we can do big things. We need each other” said Jess.
Just then the forest echoed with a “Croak.. Croak..” sound. It was Siva the frog; he was one of the laziest friends they had. He would sit around and do nothing for most the day, but he loved to sing even though he could not sing very well.
“Siva? Where are you?” called Saman, it was very hard to find Siva as he was green as the leaves and the grass in the forest, and his favorite places to be were the big leaves of the trees. “I am over here…” Siva croaked. “Where are all of you going? Don’t you want to sit and soak up the sun?” Siva loved to sit around and take in the morning sun.
“We’re all going down to the river to meet up with the others and play some games. Come on Siva, join us.” said Chuti, but Siva was not going to give up his sun bathing for anything, “No thank you” he said, and turned his back to the others; but Chuti being the one with wings, flew over the other side of the leaf and started flying circles around Siva. He flew to the leaf that was over Siva and shook it so that the rain drops on it fell on Siva’s head. This made Siva angry and he turned his back to Saman, but this did not stop Chuti, he was having too much fun. This only made Siva angrier. Siva hit Chuti hard with his tongue, which made Chuti lose his balance. Chuti hit his head on a tree branch and fell down to the ground. Everyone went quiet and looked down at Chuti, now at the root of the tree. He was not moving or being his playful self. All the friends got very worried, and Siva looked more worried than the others because this was all his doing. He jumped down to the root of the tree and held Chuti up, “I am sorry! I am sorry! I did not mean it.” he cried. Jess being the clever one got a rain drop that was at the edge of a grass leaf and placed it on Chuti’s face. For a moment there was no movement, this moment felt like time had stop for all the other friends. But just then Chuti coughed and woke up. He had got a big bump on his head. “I am sorry Chuti!” Siva said, he was feeling so bad. “Its ok” said Chuti. Siva hugged Chuti and said sorry again and again, he was feeling very bad for what he had done.
“I am sorry too” said Chuti,” I did not think that flying around and dropping water on you would make you angry; I was just trying to play with you”. “Sometimes what we think is fun may not be fun for another” said Saman. “But getting angry and being violent is not the way to sort out things like this. We need to talk about the problem, let the other person know how you feel about it. Anger and Violence can only lead to more anger and more violence from the other person.”
The two friends hugged and promised each other to talk about things like this and not let anger get the best of them. Siva was feeling so bad about the whole thing but happy that Chuti was ok, so he thought that he would make Chuti happier, and agreed to join them. He jumped onto Saman’s other hand and the four friends headed in the direction of the river. Chuti also landed on Saman’s hand, the hand that Siva was sitting on. He put his arms around Siva, and the two of them smiled at each other, “Best buddy’s?” Siva asked Chuti, Chuti smiled and said “best buddies!”
With all this going on, the sun had risen high into the middle of the sky. They were now close to the river, just then some one said “Quack…. Quack.. Where are you lot going?” It was Amelie the duck, she was doing some gardening; everyone thought of her as the helpful Amelie. “We are going to the river, come with us” said Siva. Amelie ran into her house to tell her mum that she was going out with them, and when she came out she was carrying something in her hand. Her friends did not know what it was, so Chuti asked her “Hey, Amelie what’s that? It looks dangerous.” “No, it’s just a toy my father gave me, it’s called a catapult, see? you can shoot rocks and stuff with it.”
So now with the new member to the group the five friends were going towards the river, you could nearly see it now. The five friends began to sing a song.
The sun is up in the big blue sky
With even a rainbow close by
So jump... jump...
And touch the sky
It looked like they were having a lot of fun, walking in a line, one behind the other.
After some more singing and dancing Chuti, Siva and Jess got back onto Saman’s hand and Amelie followed behind. After some walking Amelie took her toy out and started to shoot rocks, suddenly someone shouted, “Hey!! What are you trying to do?” in a very angry voice. It was Reef the Turtle who had come in to the river as it was joined with the sea. Reef was still quite far from the friends but you could see that he was very angry. Reef was a slow walker but he was one of the wisest animals around. He was a good friend to Saman and the others, but now he did not look happy.
“What do you think you doing shooting rocks at me?” “No! It was not at you, Reef” said Amelie, ”I was shooting at the sky, I am sorry if it hit you.”
“Don’t you know that that is not a toy?”, demanded Reef, “No, my father got it for me. He got it in the toy shop” said Amelie with a low toned voice.
“Don’t you know this can hurt someone? Toys like catapults, guns and tanks or toys that make us hurt someone or make us think of hurting someone is not toy- but a weapon! People use these guns and tanks to hurt and kill people, and to fight wars.That’s why I think that children should not play with toys like this. We all need more peace. Not wars that hurt others. Sometimes I wonder what adults think when they give children toys like these.” said Reef.
Amelie said sorry to him again and Old man Reef calmed down. “Come join us, we are going to the river near the sea”, said Chuti, so once again all the friends started to sing the song and do the dancing jumps.
The sun is up in the big blue sky
With even a rainbow close by
So jump... jump...
And touch the sky
As they were jumping and singing their song Thisula the friendly butterfly was flying by, she too landed on Saman’s shoulder and gave him a big hug, “Where are you lot going?” “We are off to the river, join us!” said Saman. Now Thisula liked nothing other than roaming around the trees, flying from flower to flower singing her songs. Unlike all the other animals she had a very beautiful voice. So she joined them on their journey to the river. She was flying and playing with Chuti, they loved to play tag as the two of them were the only ones that could fly, yes! Amelie the duckling could fly too, but she liked to walk like most of the others.
Again they all started to sing
The sun is up in the big blue sky
With even a rainbow close by
So jump... jump...
And touch the sky
“Saman.. Saman!” called out Reef, “now that we are walking right next to the river, can you put me in the water? My feet are getting tired and I think I will fancy a swim.” So Saman took Reef and put him in the river. Just then they heard a big splash and the water went all over, it was Naima who had not seen Saman, Chuti and the other friends for some time now. She would not come in that far from the sea into the river, but this time she had come in just a little, hoping to meet any of her friends. Naima did some flips for her friends, and at one point it even looked as if she jumped so high that she almost touched the sky. All the friends were together now. Smiling they all jumped into the water and started splashing each other, and once again they all started to sing :
The sun is up in the big blue sky
With even a rainbow close by
So jump... jump...
And touch the sky
It all looked so magical and so much fun. After all this fun, they talked about what a crazy day it had been and how they had all met each other. “Isn’t it so beautiful that we all are friends? We come from different kinds and different colours, each with their own shape and size. No one claming to be better than the other.” said Naima.
“Let’s always be friends and not let anyone or anything change that.” said Saman. They all nodded and hugged each other. It had been a day of smiles in the forest of the big trees, but by this time the sun had started to set, so all the friends said good bye to each other and walked back home singing the song once more.
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