CHAPTER 3 : THE REALITY ON GROUND
The whole kingdom remained in sadness as there was no food for anyone to eat. Dale as the king was the saddest. He had no solution to tackle the hunger problem. Everyone fed on anything to sustain themselves. The wilted weeds became the main meal of many animals. Lolly and his friends managed the little food they had and sometimes fed on the wilted weeds. Xoxo found it extremely hard to feed on these wilted weeds. He decided to discuss with other cats (his friends) living in the same habitat on how they were going to solve their food problem. "What are we going to do, I hate feeding on those wilted weeds." Xoxo discussed with his friends. "I haven't eaten for the past three days, those weeds taste awful.” Catty said sadly. Xoxo had a lengthy discussion with his friends concerning Lolly who had some food in his habitat and refused to give him any part of the food. They decided to go into Lolly's habitat and forcefully collect the food from him. The second day, Xoxo and his eight friends went to Lolly's habitat. Lolly was amazed to see them and he felt uncomfortable. Xoxo no longer paid him visits since his refusal to give him food. "What brought all of you here? " Lolly asked. "Nothing," Catty answered . "Please do you still have some food with you, " Xoxo asked. "If it's the issue of food, I don't have any food." Lolly said firmly." “Ok, let us search your habitat if we will find any food." “Xoxo said laughing mischievously." Dolly, another rat in the habitat who already suspected that the cats came to steal their food had already taken the bag containing the food and started running. Xoxo saw the rat and he shouted, "That's the food! " All the cats started to run after the poor rat, the other rats tried to stop them but they kicked them away. Dolly vanished from their sight and they wondered where he could have hidden himself without being seen. They returned back to the rats' habitat and they threatened to deal with Lolly if he doesn’t give them food. Lolly refused, this infuriated the cats more and they attacked the rats. Lolly and eleven rats managed to escape but two rats were taken by the cats. The rats came across Dolly who was inside a hidden hole where he kept the food. They explained to him how Xoxo and his allies attacked them and captured two of them. They decided that the best way for them to be safe from the wrath of the cats is to hide inside the hole. The cats took the rats to their habitat and put them in a cage. They discussed on what to do with the rats they had kidnapped, whether to kill them or not. They decided to search for Lolly and the other rats and inform them that if they failed to give them the food, the abducted rats would be killed. The next day they went in search of the rats everywhere but couldn’t find them.
They returned back to their habitat puzzled of what to do to get food and whether they should kill the rats or not. "If we kill these rats what shall we gain, will that give us the food?" Xoxo asked his friends. "Ok, this is what we shall do, we will kill the two rats and take their dead bodies, we shall search every part of the animal kingdom to locate the rats and if we find them, we will show them the dead bodies of the rats and threaten to kill all of them if they don’t give us food." Hucy said. "I think that will be better. If they see the dead bodies they will quickly give us their food." Xoxo said to Hucy. Catty replied Xoxo and Hucy, "What nonsense is both of you saying, if we kill the rats with us, we will then set on another journey of searching for Lolly and co. The last time we couldn’t find them, the journey was so strenuous that I almost fainted because I haven't eaten in a long time." "You are right, the journey was so strenuous." Xoxo confirmed. "Okay, what is your suggestion?" Hucy asked facing Catty. Catty lowered his voice to a horrible whisper, "Let me tell you what I think will be better for us to do, we should kill the two rats with us and eat them." "What nonsense have you just said, we should eat rats? " all the cats chorused. "Are you completely out of your senses?" Xoxo asked angrily. "Okay, we should do what Hucy suggested, I hope it works, if we shall not spend eternity finding the rats." They all remained lost in thoughts. None seemed to have the inspiration to say anything, until Hucy spoke. "I think Catty is right.” The other five cats nodded in agreement except Xoxo. “ You all know that we cats and the rats are friends, because of lack of food should we now turn them into food, is that not barbaric?" Xoxo asked them. "Even if we just kill those rats and do not eat them, do we treat them as our friends?" Hucy asked Xoxo. "OK, no problem, we should eat them." Xoxo agreed. They brought out the two rats from the cage, these rats begged for mercy. Mercilessly, the cats killed and consumed them. "Wow! this is so delicious, who knew that the rat's meat is so delicious?" Xoxo said and they all laughed. They decided that the next day they will search for all the rats in every part of the animal kingdom, kill them and use them as their food. Lolly and the other rats remained in their hole and fed on the little food they had left. None of them dared to come out because of the cats. Their fear was that the cats wanted to steal their food, unknown to them that the cats had become a worse savage. The cats were determined not to leave any stone unturned in their bid to find the rats.
The next day they set on a journey to hunt for every rat in the animal kingdom. They searched every nook and cranny of the kingdom but the rats couldn't be found. "It seems as if these rats have vanished from the animal kingdom so that they won't be seen." Xoxo said. "There is no place they can escape to, we shall find them and kill all of them." Catty said enthusiastically. "I hope so." replied Hucy. They continued their journey for three fruitless days, they were already exhausted. Food had finished, the rats decided to go out to search for food and returned to the hole quickly, fearing that the cats might see them. Lolly, Dolly and about five mice went out to pluck the wilted weeds. The cats had not given up, they did not want to return back to their habitat empty handed. About a little distance from their hole, the rats went to pluck the wilted weeds which were now small in quantity because many animals in the kingdom were feeding on them. As they were plucking the weeds, Dolly saw Xoxo and the other cats coming afar off. "See, the cats are already here, let us quickly leave this place, they have already known we are here." Dolly shouted. They quickly carried the little weeds they had plucked and ran to their hole. They informed the other rats in the hole that the cats had discovered their hiding place. They all ran out of their hole and fled, heading to a hidden place which the cats would not be able to locate. As they were running, Xoxo sited them and shouted, "Alas! That is the rats running away." They started running after them. One would find it hard to believe that they had trekked for three days without eating, the cats ran with such great strength and agility. The rats too had noticed that the cats were running after them and they increased their speed. The scene of both of them running desperately was very pathetic. The rats were running for their life and the cats running after their food. "We must not let them get away, this is our best chance." Hucy muttered running heavily. There was no safe place for the rats to hide without being seen by the cats. Fortunately for the rats, the cats were relatively far from them no matter how hard the cats ran, they couldn't keep the same pace with the rats. The rats got to a large tree which is drought resistant and still retain the beautiful green canopy formed by its abundant evergreen branches. The rats quickly climbed the tree. These branches obscured the rats from being seen as they climbed the tree. The cats continued to run forward and forward until they passed by the rats without seeing them. The rats extremely rejoiced that the cats passed by the tree without seeing them. The cats continued to run and run and they noticed that they could no longer see the rats. Hucy suddenly stopped and said, "Stop! Where are these rats, have they hidden somewhere?" They stopped and Catty said, "It is true I can't see them again but where do you think they would hide so quickly?” “We should continue running forward to capture these rats, this is our best chance to get them." They quickly resumed to their race after the rats. They ran and ran but couldn't find them till evening. They had become exhausted and decided to sleep, determined that the following day, they will continue their search for the rats. "Oh! It is very terrible that we couldn't capture them," Catty said sadly before sleeping.
At night, the rat
s climbed down from the tree. They held a meeting on what to do next to protect themselves from cats' invasion. They decided to move to a very far distance and they got to a place where they began digging a hole. The hole was very deep, they packed their weeds into this hole and they used part of the weeds and stones to cover the hole. They dressed around the hole in such a way that it is difficult to discern that a hole exists there and they slept in the hole. Very early in the morning, the cats woke up. The cats were determined to get hold of the rats by any means. The rats decided that they will remain in the hole and will only come out in the mid-night when everyone will be asleep. As usual, the cats began their search for their food (rats). They began their journey again throughout the whole kingdom till evening. "What shall we do to solve our problem?" Molly, another cat asked Xoxo. "There is nothing we can do again than to search for them". Xoxo replied wearily. "We shall get them by all means possible," muttered Catty. For many days it was still the same old story. The rats remained in their hole enjoying themselves with the weeds and they all felt despair that the cats would have killed the two rats they had kidnapped. During their journey they got to a place where some weeds were located. "I think we should go back to eating these weeds,” Molly said. "I don't think so." Hucy said sadly. "Never will I eat those wilted weeds. We shall get those rats by all means necessary." Catty said angrily. Molly ignored Catty and she started eating the weeds as she was eating these weeds she noticed that there was a hole under them. She dipped her hands into the hole and she discovered that the hole was deep. She quickly called the attention of others. "Come and see this deep hole I found here," She shouted. They quickly rushed to check the hole. As they tried to check the hole, about six rats rushed out and they immediately ran after them. "So this is where these rats are hiding?" Catty said. The remaining six rats ran out of the hole. Catty and Xoxo were able to catch two rats each while the other six cats couldn’t catch any rat. Lolly was the first to be caught by Xoxo. The other rats ran so fast and they decided to leave them alone and held firm to the four rats they had captured.
"Let me tell you the fact, if it is because of the food that is with us, we have finished eating it and you can't get any food from us." Lolly told them. "Oh! you still believe that it is because of your food that is why we are searching for you, it is even worse." Xoxo told Lolly. "What is worse? What have you done to the rats with you and what are you going to do with us?” Lolly asked Xoxo. Xoxo and the other cats busted into a wicked laughter. "Ah! You want to kill us all?" Lolly and the three other rats chorused. They returned to their habitat and they tied the rats tightly with a rope so that they won't escape. Xoxo brought out the bones of the rats they had killed and displayed them to the rats. He said to them, " These are the bones of the rats that we captured, we shall kill you and eat all of you now. "What! You want to kill us and eat us?" Lolly asked astonishingly. "You cats are malevolent," said the other three rats. “We shall kill all of you now. ” Hucy said. Catty called out other cats to a corner to discuss with them. "Let us be prudent, it is not wise for us to kill all these rats and eat them today, we should kill only one of them for today and tomorrow we will kill another and by that we shall be able to get something to eat for four days." When they returned they discovered that the rats had loose themselves. It was a wonder how the rats were able to loose themselves from the tight ropes. They were tied in a row with a rope attached to two long sticks. The rats had been watching how the cats tied them with the rope to the two sticks, the rope was tied into a knot at the middle, the rat at the middle used his teeth to untie the knot and they were set free. This infuriated the cats. They blamed themselves for all moving away from the vicinity of the rats. They could see the rats running afar off. They embarked on another race after these rats, running with great strength and agility. The rats were surprised to see the cats running very close to them. The cats did not waste their golden opportunity. The rat closest to them was caught. This made the other three rats to increase their pace, luck smiled on them as they were able to escape from the brutality of the cats. In short, the cats were able to get back only one rat out of the four rats they had captured. They blamed themselves for leaving the rats behind. “Maybe we should not have followed Catty, we should all have stayed here.” Xoxo complained. “You cannot blame me for what happened. I was trying to give a good suggestion so that we can have enough to eat.” Catty retorted. “In the process of you suggesting to us, you made us lose three whole rats.” Molly said furiously. “What! It is your fault, if you, Xoxo and Hucy had tied them properly they won’t be able to loose themselves and escape.” Catty replied angrily. “What! You can’t defend yourself at all, we all know that those rats are very mischievous and they need to be watched over to prevent them from escaping, but you moved us away from this place for a fruitless discussion.” Liam replied Catty. They all continue to argue, the argument proceeded into a fight when Hucy slapped Catty. They all started beating each other, with all blames on Catty. Xoxo knew that their fight will never earn them anything, it will only worsen their situation. He decided to play the role of a peacemaker. ‘’Okay, this has happened and I think that we should not quarrel over it, anyway we have one rat with us and we shall share that and tomorrow morning we shall search for them.” The fighting stopped spontaneously, the cats returned back to their senses realizing that their fight will never put any food into their stomach. “Searching for these rats is a totally fruitless journey, tomorrow morning we shall start another strenuous journey of searching after those rats, after they have been set free because of Catty.” Hucy told Xoxo. “But we have no other choice than that,” Xoxo replied Hucy. Dolly begged them to spare him but they heeded not to his plead and they performed the role of an executioner on him, shared his body among themselves and slept till another morning to begin another hunting journey for rats. They had determined that if they capture the rats again they will kill them instantly.
In the night Lolly and the other three rats that escaped from the cat’s death trap finally found their way to the place where the remaining rats were hiding. The rats were very happy to see that they had escaped from captivity but felt sad that Dolly was taken away by the cats. They went to a part of the animal kingdom which was probably the most isolated place in the kingdom. Only few animals were found there. They dug a very deep hole in which they would live. They camouflaged the top of the hole and near it with wilted weeds. The purpose of the weeds was to camouflage their hole from the cats if they possibly found them and the weeds also serve as food for them although they had packed some wilted weeds into their hole. Very early the cats set out to hunt for rats and they continued their journey for about a week, regretting how they carelessly let the rats escape. All the animals in the kingdom had almost died of hunger. All the wilted weeds had been nearly exhausted. Pomana, Danny, Aris and Hopsy in their quest for the weeds went to the isolated part of the animal kingdom and they found the weeds the rats used to camouflage their hole. These animals started to feed on these weeds, the activities of these animals frightened the rats inside the hole and they thought that it was the cats that had found them. As the animals were gulping up all the weeds the spirits of these rats had almost flown out of them, they knew that if the cats got hold of them again, there won’t be a chance of escape, the cats will kill them all. They started shivering with fear. The animals later discovered the hole and they saw rats inside it. “What are these rats doing here?” Pomana asked rhetorically. The overwhelming fear in the rats immediately vanished when they discovered that it was not the cats that were at their hole. Lolly and three other rats came out of the hole and they explained to these animals the main reason why they hid inside the hole and the wicked act of the cats toward them. The animals were very surprised. “I don’t know that the cats were so wicked, they feed on you rats because you are smaller and weaker than them.” Pomana said in surprise. The rats pleaded with these animals to conceal their habitat and they promised the rats that they will not reveal th
eir home to the cats. The cats were still searching for the rats all over. The friendship between the cats and rats was broken forever. They had now become the archenemy of one another.