The law of the Jungle,

Once uon an ancient jungle, a lion, a hare, an orangutan , a serpent, a mole, a dove, an elk, a bear, a wildebeast, and a wolf got lost in the jungle, separated from their respective groups, whether by destiny or confusion. In their confusion and fear, they immediately sized up the situation and decided that the Lion would be their leader for he was the strongest. Lion, at first, did not want the responsibility, knowing it would soon become tedious. So he laid down his first law to free himself from the rest of the group.

"None may disagree with any decision I make, for I am your ruler. You must follow me no matter what I say."

The animals saw this as a wise decision as it would allow Lion and them to be free of tedious arguments and petty fights, and so they agreed. It was then that Lion established a chain of command, so that those lower than him would have to ask through the chain of command to see him. It was as follows, in order of most important to least.:
Wolf, for Wolf was quick of mind, fast, and strong;
Wilderbeast , for he was assiduous, and was wise;
Panda, for he was strong and loyal;
Elk, for she was fast;
Orangutan, for he was quick of mind and could do much;
Serpent, for he was the slyest in the jungle
Dove, for she was winged;
Then Hare; then Mole , for they were small. Lion was satisfied with this, and so he retreated to his plains.
It came to pass soon afterwards that the serpent ate one of Mole’s new friends. Mole, infuriated, demanded to see Lion. So he went to the hare, and told his tale, who told Dove, who told the Serpent. Serpent, however, did not tell Orangutan, for he was at fault. Mole at once knew what Serpent was doing and so set off to see Lion himself. When Mole reached Lion, Lion was sleeping. In no mood to wait, Mole awakened him, and started presenting his situation. Lion cut him off with a mighty roar, but Mole was not afraid.
”Did I not say that to see me, you must present your case to all of those lesser than me first? I did not receive notification from Wolf of this visit; therefore, you must go through protocol first.”

”Your system would be just, but your subordinates are corrupt. Therefore, your system also is corrupt,” said Mole. ”Whilst you are the supreme ruling force, the lessers have power also, and can use them to their advantage; Serpent refuses to tell orangutan of my case, for it is he who is at fault.”

And so, Lion thought:

The other animals must not hear of this. They must be able to look upon me as a competent and just ruler. Otherwise, they will resort to chaos, for they will believe that they are without a proper ruler, and in the chaos, much will be lost. And so, for the safety of the rest of the animals, Lion struck Mole with his mighty paw, rendering him dead. Lion disposed of the body.

But while Lion was burying Mole, Dove happened to pass overhead. When she saw what Lion was doing, she called the other animals to a meeting. They gathered far away from the Lion’s den except for Serpent, who was nowhere to be found: he had run as soon as he found out that Mole had gone to Lion. Fearing the Lion’s wrath. Dove explained what she had seen, then pieced it together with the plea for justice that Mole had sent up the chain of command.

”It is clear something what must be done,” said the orangutan. ”We must remove Lion from command. He is an incompetent ruler, and he will only bring us chaos and upheaval , for we will be without a true, wise ruler. Much shall be lost otherwise.”

Everyone agreed to this conclusion, except the Panda for he was loyal mean.

”Lion should be given a chance to repent of what evils he has done. Just because he made a mistake once, does not mean he will make it again. We trusted him for a reason,” said the panda.

”We trusted him for the wrong reason.” Orangutan spouted. ”We looked to him because he was strong. But look! He is using his strength to his own ends . Is that the ruler you want?”

”Why do you stand by him?” asked the elk.

”Because we elected him as a leader,” replied Panda. ”We must abide by our decisions, though foolish they may seem. If we start a mutiny, much that we established will be lost in chaos”

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”But it is chaos now,” said Orangutan, ”We must establish order, and the first step to doing this is removing the Lion from command.”

”I won’t be part of it,” replied Panda stubbornly. The wildebeast growled at him, but let him be.

”So it shall be,” said the Wildebeast. ”We must all take Lion down, with the exception of Bear. Now, here is the plan.”

”Wolf and Elk will come in from the north. The Elk will run in from north, right past Lion, then run away South. As Lion, confused, looks South, Wolf will emerge from the north and seem to attack. I’ll come in from east and ram his side. We’ll finish him quickly.”

”However, just in case something might go wrong, Orangutan will wait in the trees to the west and when Dove gives him the signal, he’ll barrage Lion with a shower of rocks that’ll slow him down until Wolf or I can catch up again. Rabbit, you stay here with Panda to make sure he doesn’t try to help Lion or anything. And so, everyone left except for Panda and Rabbit. After a while, they heard a pained roar from Lion. Panda became anxious.
”I cannot stand by as my leader is overthrown!” he exclaimed. ”Rabbit, let me go, and I will owe you the debt.”

”My duty is first to the sheeple , and second to authority,” replied Rabbit.

But when Lion roared again, Panda could stand it no more. He started at a slow run on all fours. Rabbit hopped in the way to try to stop him, forgetting that he was much to small to accomplish such a task, and was trampled in the attempt. When Bear reached Lion’s den, the battle was over. Lion lay on his side, throat bloody and ripped out. Wolf had blood all over his snout. Elk, Dove, and Orangutan emerged from the woods.

”What is this evil you have committed here?” asked panda.

“We have brought justice, growled the Wildebeast.”Stand down, or else we shall treat you as a threat.”

”He killed one, so you killed him?”
”I said, stand down, at threat of your life!” bellowed the wildebeast.

”A new command is called to order,” said Wolf. ”We must have one who rules with wisdom, not strength. Since this was the Wildebeast’s plan, I vote for him. All agreed?” and the Wildebeast nodded grimly.

”What would you all ask of me as a ruler?” he asked.
”That you rule with honor,” said Wolf.
”With integrity, abiding in our collective law,” said Panda

”With wisdom and not strength,” replied the Elk
”With equality and fairness to all,” suggested the orangutan.

”With reason and not with emotion,” said Dove.

The Wildebeast considered.

”Then I lay down my first law”, he exclaimed. ”All animals are equal, and are to be treated as such. This entails that everyone will get equal consideration, equal land, equal rights. Then, as equals, we may not judge each other, but we must live in harmony. I, too, am subject to this law. This One Law will meet many of those demands.”

With that, the Wildebeast divided the lands. Each animal got two square acres of land.
”What?!” exclaimed Wolf. ”But there are thirty square acres of land in this forest.”

’As a ruler, I must have more space, so that I don’t feel stress from being confined. That way, I’ll be able to better serve you.”

”I thought you said you fell under the law of equality!” said the orangutan.
”I do,” replied the Wildebeest, with an air of calmness. ”But I fall equal as a ruler. I have what other rulers would get. You get what other underlings get. You see?”

All of the animals, dumbfounded and confused, agreed anyway. The Wildebeast happily trotted back to his areas, and the animals separated as well.

The next morning, Wolf woke up hungry. The forest was only on the edge of his territory, and that’s where all of his prey was. Every time he started a chase, the animal would bound into the Panda’s territory, and Wolf would be forced to give up the hunt. So he went to speak to the Wildebeast about the equality.

My dear Wildebeast,” said Wolf, ”I must say, I feel that this equality is a bit unfair”.
”Oh?” queried the Wildebeast.

”Yes,” said Wolf. ”I don’t see why Panda gets as much land as me, for one thing. He was against taking Lion down, whereas I was the one who finished him off. Don’t I get some sort of payment?”

”Your payment was being rid of a tyrannical leader,” snorted the wildebeast.
”And what about Dove? She doesn’t need much land. She and I can divide up land so that she has more tree space and I can have more hunting room.
”No! bellowed the wildebeest. ”If the law bends for anyone, then everyone will want to bend it this way and that. The whole system would be jeopardized.”

”You’ve already bastardized it,” said Wolf, and left.

That night, he called a meeting. It had to be on the edge of the Panda and Wolf territory, because Panda refused to step off of his territory and into Wolf’s. Wolf told them of what had happened with the wildebeest, and how the wildebeast was just deceiving them.

”We must leave,” proposed the elk. ”Wildebeast will not cross into our territories until it is too late. By then, we will be deep into the Jungle.”

Everyone but Panda agreed.

”Give Wildebeast a chance,” pleaded Panda. ”It’s only his first few weeks. You can’t judge him already.”

”Would you rather that we waited until he becomes a tyrant?: asked the Elk. ”We must leave now.”

So they left, except for Panda and the Wildebeast. Panda was afraid to step off of his territory.

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The orangutan rode on Wolf for the sake of speed, as Dove rode on the elk for the same reason. They fled for two nights and two days, as they had left by moonlight. Finally, they stopped.

”What are we going to do now?” asked Dove. She looked at Wolf.

”No,” said Deer, meeting Dove’s gaze. ”No ruler. Every leader we’ve had led us to chaos and self-destruction. Their power takes them too far, it makes them crazy. We must live without a ruler. Then we can have peace.”

”That would be insane,” said Wolf. ”How would we solve all of our problems? Make decisions?”

”We’d take it on a step-by-step basis, each animal giving their opinions.”
”Without protocol?”
”We must abolish protocol. That’s what screws everything up.”

”You’re crazy!” cried Wolf. But he saw that there was no persuading her. So the Elk ran off into the woods to live as an anarchist. She lived in peace and harmony with herself until she was eaten by a bobcat three days later. Wolf ruled over the remaining animals. He said that each case must be approached with much care and consideration to both sides. He was so serious about this that it took three days to determine whether they would stay in the jungle or not.

They decided to go on.

. Wolf, Dove, and orangutan fled for a week more, then stopped to rest (in which time Wolf argued whether they should stay or not). There, they made the establishment that would be their home for a while. They found a day later that it was the wilderness of the

Serpent, and the serpent decided to rejoin them. He could not stand Wolf’s foolish indecisiveness, and so the serpent fooled everyone into abandoning Wolf.. Wolf fled north to the snow covered mountains to be free of the serpent.

The serpent had fooled them all and then ruled for four whole years, seemingly peacefully. But then, Dove learned that the serpent had fooled them into believing everything he said, and this infuriated the Orangutan who grabbed him by the tail and swung him into the mighty living tree. The serpent died instantly.

Then the orangutan declared that he would rule none but himself, and Dove declared that she would rule none but herself. And so, they went separate ways that day, with the promise that if ever they should meet again, it would be in friendship. The Orangutan found a group of other orangutans he begged to join them, and they allowed

Him to live peacefully on the outskirts of the troupe. He was peaceful and wise and taught the younger apes patiences, perserverance and equality.

One day, Dove happened to pass through the wood that the orangutan lived in. They greeted each other, and spoke of the times. Dove could not find any of her kind yet, and so she was wandering the world.

”I see that you’ve become quite happy here,” she commented.

”Indeed,” replied the great red Ape. ”I tell tales of my past, and those who are wise, learn. Those who are not, do not. But come. You are welcomed here. You see, they know of you from my stories.”

Dove stayed the night, but left in the morning.
”You should lead this group,” she suggested. But the happy ape shook his head and said, “Never. I made a vow, and I will keep it. I will rule none but myself. Good-bye, Dove.”

”Good-bye, my friend.” And she left, and never returned, for she finally found some of her kind and lived with them. She is, to this date, the wisest dove that ever lived, and she was the leader of he flock. She taught her daughter all that she knew, and her daughter also grew to be wise.

The great Orangutan died years after Dove did, of old age. He had no children, no possessions, nothing, but he died with a peaceful smile. These were his last words, spoken when the Elder ape asked him to receive a title for his wisdom and his stories.

”A title? I need no title ? Does a title make me wise? Does it make me a better storyteller? No, a title only recognizes me as such, and everybody already knows of this. I know that my life is done, but I will live forever in the  in the hearts and minds to thos who recieve the tales passed down. Tales of adventure, of escapes, and of foolish rulers. Do not give me a title, Elder, but instead, tell my story to as many who want or need to hear it, as you can, and make me live forever. I once made a vow, and I have kept it till my death.  And because I followed the true law, I have been redeemed.  I am my judge, my jury, and my lawyer. I am the only one qualified to judge myself, for I am the only one who knows my thoughts, my actions, my intentions. Know this: I gave myself an order and I carried it out until my death. And in this, I found my joy, my peace, and my happiness. It was this one act that made me who I am, and who I always shall be.” And he died.

And so, the mole died because a ruler was too afraid to admit his mistakes. A rabbit died because of a self-righteous fool, full of blind faith, who put his distorted view of honor and loyalty before reason. The serpent died because of his lust for power, so strong that he deceived his subjects to keep it. Lion died because the resolve of his people was fickle, and because they were too quick to judge and not forgiving enough. Panda was left behind because of his self-righteous stubbornness. The Wildebeest was left behind because of his unwillingness to change even when it was logical and necessary. The elk died with peace because she stood for what she believed in even when all others ridiculed her. Wolf died abandoned and alone, because he could not make up his mind, and blew with the wind. Dove died with wisdom, because she was able to analyze her past experiences and was intelligent enough to learn from them. And the orangutan died with peace, wisdom, honor, and reverence because he judged himself, and lived in harmony with himself, he took responsibility for all of his actions, right or wrong,

Tell this tale to all the youngsters in the jungle, some will fall by the way side and dry up,some will fall on unfertile ears and not be heard, other's will see and not believe andthen there are those who will clear a path in the Jungle for other's to follow of theirown free will and responsibility to their generations.

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