A JOURNEY OF OLA KOALA
Written by: Lolita R.
Once upon a time, in an African savanna, there lived a young male giraffe named Kiki. Although he was still young, Kiki Giraffe was known as one of the leader of the savanna. He took good care of the animals in it, especially the kiddos. He loved kids, all kinds of kid; elephant, lion, deer, hyena, chimpanzee… every animal kiddos he met in the colony. He often played with them, put them on his back, and took them along for the giraffe-back-riding. Sometimes he would love to put any of the animal kiddo on his head, if it wanted to see the whole savanna from the height of a giraffe. He would also love to put the kids in line on his long neck, or even used it as a slide for the kiddos to play. All the kids always had some fun after they came to play with Kiki the giraffe. Therefore, many animal moms liked Kiki too, and they were willing to have Kiki Giraffe as the perfect spouse for their young daughter. Although they also knew that it was impossible since they were different kind of animals, anyways, they always prayed for him to get a good female giraffe as his spouse…
Unfortunately, Kiki Giraffe was the only giraffe in the colony. His last member of a kind, his little giraffe brother, had been taken away by some hunters a year ago. Hunters were often come to their savanna indeed. They trapped and took the trapped animal to the city for circus or zoo. Kiki Giraffe’s loss was the reason why he loved kiddos so much. He was alone, but he never felt lonely because of them.
One day, King Lion heard a sound of hunters’ jeep. He then asked Kiki Giraffe to immediately take the kiddos to a save place. He himself, together with Minister Elephant, would tell the other colony members to quickly hide. The jeep seemed to be closer as the sound became noisier. Seemed like they were pretty close to where Kiki and the kiddos hid. Kiki Giraffe kept calming the kids that there was nothing could happen to them, and he also prayed for the same.
Suddenly, they heard a sound of something dropped to the soil above the cave where they hid. Kiki Giraffe tighten his embrace of the kids, thought that it was a hunter who get off of the jeep. But he never heard the jeep stopped sound before that, in fact, the jeep sound was getting farther and farther, so it must not be a sound of a hunter. He then braved himself to see outside the cave. Slowly, he longer his neck out from the cave, pretend to be fearless, and closed his eyes when his head was outside. Nothing happened. He slowly opened one of his eyes, and there he saw… a koala. Yes, a very koala in the middle of this African savanna.
***
“Are you… by any chance, an… animal?” Kiki Giraffe asked hesitantly. Truthfully, he never met one like this before in the colony. He should have met all kinds of animal and plant here in the savanna, but none ever looked like this one.
The koala gave him a confused look, “You don’t know me, Mr. Giraffe? Isn’t there ever a koala here in this zoo?” it paused after, then took a look around several times. “Wait, this IS a zoo, isn’t it?”
Kiki Giraffe had nothing to say. He was still in trance after seeing a brand new creature which was very unfamiliar to him. Seemed like there were still many animals out there he should meet and greet.
Meanwhile, the animal kiddos who hadn’t heard a thing from Kiki Giraffe since he took a look outside were so curious that they came out of the cave where they hid. The koala noticed the kids’ appearance. Seeing many kinds of freely lived animal, it then relieved soon after, “Ah, I get it. Instead of zoo, I was put in a safari park, then, huh? Well, hello kiddies, Ola Koala here. I’m female, by the way.” She referred to the little moose and elephant who were debating about her sex. “Seems like no one ever meets a koala, eh? Wish I was wrong, but still, nice meeting you all.” She continued with such a big smile for her super-tiny posture (even compared to the savanna’s animal kiddos).
“This ain’t no zoo nor safari, little miss Koala.” Kiki Giraffe suddenly raise his voice. The kiddos who seemed to like Ola Koala soon after she introduced herself, took some back steps. “This is an African savanna, the real wild life. Seems like you were dropped off of the jeep that passed before. Come, I’ll help you chase it.” Kiki Giraffe knelt down, offered his back to Ola Koala.
Ola Koala stared at him with a strange-look, “Are you kidding? I’ve never been in the real wild life before! Do you think I’d be willing to throw away my good luck and back to the zoo cage? Hell no!” she then turned to the kiddies, “Hear? I’d be your new colony member. We’ll have lots of time to play together!”
The kids cheered and straightly went after Ola Koala. Kiki Giraffe could only heal his breath and quietly followed them. Looked like his kiddos daycare just got a new member…
Ola Koala played happily with the kids; she even got introduced to the animal moms. Every colony members seemed to like her. There was only one problem…
“Ah, I’m so hungry! Is there any eucalyptus1 here?” she asked after all the kids went home. Now there was only her and Kiki Giraffe. They both sat on the ground, Ola Koala leaned his small body on Kiki’s stomach.
Silence.
“There… isn’t?” she added anxiously. “Kiki, answer me! We will chase the jeep if there isn’t eucalyptus here. I can only consume it, I may die if I don’t eat it… please answer!”
“I don’t even know what eucalyptus—or whatever is that—is! Two hours ago, I even just knew that your kind—koala—is exist!” Kiki Giraffe burst his anger. “It was YOU who prefer to stay here, so please stop nagging!” Kiki stood up and let Ola Koala sat alone.
She started to cry. Kiki heard her and soon he began to feel guilty. Was it because her kid-like appearance? He didn’t know.
He turned back and knelt in front of her, “Are you sure you’re not a kid? Get on. We’ll try our best to chase the jeep. Hope it isn’t too far yet.”
1Evergreen tree with strong-smelling leaves. It is Australia’s local tree and koalas’ only diet. One of its kinds is Malaleuca leucadendron, which produces the cajuput oil.
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