The Mice Who Saved the Elephants

Once upon a time, beside an old ruined town at the edge of a forest, there lived a great colony of mice. They had tunnels under every stone and nests in every crack: grandmother mice, baby mice, and everyone in between. Their king was a small grey mouse with a big, brave heart.

Not far away lived a herd of elephants: huge, grey and gentle, led by a wise old elephant king.

Every day, the elephants grew thirsty. And every day they walked to the lake to drink, along the same path, which went straight through the town of the mice.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

The ground shook. Stones tumbled. Tunnels caved in. Each day, more of the mice’s homes were squashed flat, and the mice ran squeaking in every direction.

“This can’t go on,” said the mouse king. “If the elephants keep walking here, soon there’ll be no town left.”

“But what can we do?” squeaked his friends. “They’re elephants! We’re mice!”

“We can ask,” said the king.

So the very next morning, the little mouse king walked out to the path, and stood right in the middle of it, as the elephants came marching along.

THUD. THUD. The elephant king stopped. He looked down, and down, and down, and there, by his enormous foot, was a tiny mouse, bowing politely.

“Good morning, great king,” said the mouse. “I am the king of the mice. Your path to the lake goes right through our town. Every time your herd walks by, our homes are crushed, and many of us are hurt. Could you, please, take another path?”

The elephants behind began to rumble with laughter. A mouse, giving orders to elephants!

But the elephant king did not laugh. He was quiet for a moment, thinking.

“I didn’t know,” he said at last. “We never looked down. I’m sorry. Of course we will take another path.”

The mouse king’s whiskers trembled with joy. “Thank you, great king. And I promise you this: one day, if you are ever in trouble, the mice will come and help you.”

This time even the elephant king smiled. How could a mouse ever help an elephant? But he nodded kindly. “Thank you, little king.” And from that day, the elephants walked to the lake by a different path, all the way round the town.

Months went by.

One day, hunters came to the forest. They had been sent to catch elephants, and they had brought thick, strong ropes. They hid huge rope nets near the water, and when the herd came to drink…

SWOOSH! TWANG!

The nets snapped tight. The elephants pulled and stamped and trumpeted, but the ropes were too strong. Even the elephant king could not break free.

“The hunters will come back for us tomorrow,” said one elephant sadly. “There’s nothing we can do.”

The elephant king lay still. And then, he remembered: a tiny mouse, bowing politely in the middle of the path.

He called to one young elephant who had not been caught. “Run,” he said. “Go to the town of the mice. Tell their king we need him.”

The young elephant ran faster than he had ever run. And when the mouse king heard the news, he didn’t stop to ask a single question.

“Everyone!” he called. “Grandmothers, babies, everyone with teeth: the elephants need us!”

That night, out of every crack and tunnel came the mice, hundreds and then thousands of them, pouring through the grass towards the lake. They swarmed over the ropes, and they began to gnaw.

Nibble-nibble-nibble-nibble…

All night long, under the moon, the forest was full of a soft, busy sound. And one by one, the great ropes snapped.

Snap. Snap. SNAP!

By sunrise, every elephant was free.

The elephant king lowered his great head until his eye was level with the little mouse king.

“You kept your promise,” he said.

“And you kept yours,” said the mouse. “You listened to us, when you didn’t have to.”

When the hunters came back that morning, they found only chewed-up ropes, and a few tiny footprints. The elephants were already far away in the forest. And from that day, the elephants and the mice were the very best of friends.

The end.