A JOURNEY OF OLA KOALA
Written by: Lolita R.
It turned that Willy Wolf and Kiki Giraffe were friends before Willy Wolf decided to wander and left the colony. After knowing Kiki Giraffe's mission to brought Ola Koala back to her jeep, Willy Wolf asked to join the team, offering his ability to sniff the traces.
"My kind is a close relative to dogs, you know?" He promoted. Ola Koala nodded certainly, the more the merrier, she thought. Kiki Giraffe only shook his head, whatever, he thought.
"Are we there yet?" Ola Koala asked after she woke up from her sleep, still on Kiki Giraffe's back. Kiki Giraffe shook his head while kept his running. Before them, Willy Wolf kept sniffing the ground, tracking the jeep's tires traces.
"Oh, I'll sleep again then." She said.
"You've been sleeping for half of our journey." Kiki Giraffe complained.
"Well, can do nothing about it, it's my nature4." She answered and straightly back to sleep. Kiki Giraffe healed his breath, facing a koala was more tiring than taking care of savanna's baby animals.
"How's the tracking-thing there?" Kiki Giraffe shouted to Willy Wolf.
Willy Wolf stopped and turned his body to him, "I think it's too far already. We'll need a day only to reach the point where the jeep is now. To be concluded, we just won't able to catch it." He answered. "It's just an idea, but I have a friend that could help us definitely."
Kiki Giraffe raised his eyebrows, "Who? Do I know his/her? How could he/she help us?"
"Nope, I met her on my wander. But I have to warn you, she's a bit dangerous, especially to little Ola." He looked to a sleeping koala on Kiki Giraffe's back. "She definitely could help us, because her kind is the fastest runner on earth."
"A hyena?" Kiki Giraffe screamed surprisedly. "No, no, no way. With a hyena on our team, instead of drop her to her jeep, what we do is just drop her to a predator's mouth."
Willy Wolf nodded his head and slightly turned his back, "Well, we'll have to be faster, then. Come on!" He started to run again.
Kiki Giraffe followed him with a faster run too. Day and night, they kept running and running. Acrossed the savanna, passed the lagoon, they agreed not to stop until they had to.
"Ah... I'm really thirsty..." Ola Koala felt her throat like burning which caused her woke up suddenly from her sleep in suffer.
"Have you woken up? Okay, we'll stop at the nearest waterspring, actually we haven't drink too." Kiki Giraffe answered.
Ola Koala shook his head weakly, "No, I don't drink5... I just need my eucalyptus, please..." She said in a painful voice. "I got both food and water supply in one package of eucalyptus..."
She collapsed.
Kiki Giraffe panicky called Willy Wolf who was quite far already. Quickly, Willy Wolf came back and saw collapsed Ola Koala.
"What happened?" He asked in panicky also.
"I don't know, she said she's thirsty, but she couldn't drink water. God, I remember she once said that she could only have one specific diet, either way she'll..." Kiki Giraffe hung his sentence.
"She'll what??" Willy Wolf demanded.
Kiki Giraffe hardly spoke the remaining words, "she'll die..."
Willy Wolf suddenly couldn't speak any words. He felt sorry for the little animal which kind he newly saw today, that he could do nothing now to help her.
"Then, what do we do?" He asked unsurely.
Kiki Giraffe closed his eyes tightly, a bit unsure of what he would say, "Go get your hyena friend. We need her."
***
Didn’t need a long time for Willy to find her hyena friend, Dina. As every night, she was hunting in the large open space near the water spring, where many of her prey were drinking. Dina was a very dangerous predator and she would do anything to get what she wanted, according to Willy Wolf. But looking at her now…
“Are you sure she is dangerous? She looks… girly?” Kiki Giraffe whispered to Willy Wolf ear. He meant, look at her! Long eyelashes, two puppy-eyes (she was a hyena, it was just her eyes were like puppy’s), a good body shape, cute act, she was definitely a beautiful big cat!
“You haven’t known her, for sure. Those are used to trick her prey, and you seem to have been tricked.” Willy Wolf answered. “May I?” he asked for Kiki Giraffe’s permission to move Ola Koala to Dina’s back. Kiki Giraffe nodded.
Dina took Ola using her mouth that placed on the little koala’s neck that looked like she was going to eat her up.
“W-Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?” Kiki Giraffe quickly snatched Ola Koala away from her.
“That’s how cats carry something, Mr. Giraffe.” Dina Hyena defended.
Willy Wolf shook his head, “Good, Kiki. And you Dina, we are watching you, so we know what you would do. Please behave a bit, we have a deal, alright?”
That hyena just grinned, showing her sharp teeth in a ridiculous way because of her intention to make the little fury animal her prey was caught by her wolf friend and his giraffe friend. Willy Wolf then put Ola Koala on Dina’s back again, and asked her to run as fast as she can toward the city to find the jeep, while he and Kiki Giraffe were gonna be following her with their fastest run too.
It was just the two of Dina Hyena and Ola Koala now, leaving the other two far away behind. As for Dina, it was hard to resist the smell of unique dish on her back now, especially when it was powerless like the one she carried. What if she just eats her now? Concerning her friends are long way behind… that thought came across Dina Hyena’s mind suddenly.
She then stopped, realizing that was a good idea. Who cares about a deal for three common antelopes when you have a one-of-a-kind food right before your eyes? Dina then took Ola Koala from her back to the ground. But slowly, the koala’s small eyes suddenly opened.
“Miss Hyena?” she called weakly. Dina stopped and stared. No one ever called her so politely like this, because all that everybody knew was she was a cruel, wild predator.
“You aren’t scare of me?” Dina Hyena asked her back.
Ola Koala shook her head slowly, “How could I scare of a very good animal which helps me? Miss Hyena… thank you.” She smiled weakly.
Suddenly, Dina Hyena felt there was a peaceful feeling in her heart. Good animal? Thank you? She straightly felt embarrassed of what she was going to do just a couple of minutes ago. How could she eat the only animal which thinks she is very good?
“Hold on tight, little missy, we’ll have a full speed journey.” She said while put Ola Koala back to her back. The little koala smiled before she fainted again on the hyena’s back.
***
It was almost dawn when Dina Hyena saw the jeep just few meters more away from them. A hyena’s run was indeed saved time, proven with just by the night, she could already find the jeep. She got closer to it, thank God it was stopped, might be the hunters were resting for the night.
“Ola, Ola.” She tried to wake Ola Koala up. No response. “Hey, Ola, don’t scare me!” she shouted, afraid of her little new friend’s pale face.
“Eng…” Ola Koala gave response weakly. Dina healed her breathe of relieve.
“Hey, wake up. Is it the jeep?” she pointed to the jeep in front of her. Ola Koala nodded weakly, pointing a small cage attached behind the jeep. Dina put Ola back to her open cage, wondering if the hunters even realized that their koala have missing for almost two days.
Dina stared at the little koala which straightly consumed her bamboo-like food, and slowly regain health. Sun hadn’t fully risen when Dina Hyena saw the hunters were ready to leave. Ola Koala seemed to realize that too, panicky she asked for her two other friends’ absence.
“I don’t know,“ Dina answered. “I’ll go get them for you, okay, just a while.” She ran back to the savanna, and found Kiki Giraffe and Willy Wolf apparently not far from where the jeep was.
“Where have you been? Quick, quick, she’ll be leaving in moments!” Dina Hyena shouted to them. Kiki Giraffe and Willy Wolf faster their run.
“Kiki, Willy!” Ola Koala shouted from the moving jeep.
“We’re too late.” Willy Wolf said sadly, stopping his run slowly.
“No, no!” Kiki Giraffe shouted. He kept run, and finally could make it near enough to the jeep. Ola tried to reach him, but she afraid of fell from her unlocked cage again.
“Ola, Ola, I’m so sorry for not treating you well for the last 2 days… but I do concern of you! Take care, little Miss Koala, we’ll miss…” the jeep went further Kiki couldn’t chase it anymore. “…you.” Kiki stopped and knelt. Everything was over now…
BRUKK!!
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice of something dropped to the ground. He raised his chin, and…
“OLA??” he shouted, looking to a little koala which sat on the ground, about a couple of meters in front of him.
Ola Koala showed her teeth, grinning.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE??” Kiki Giraffe yelled loudly. Dina Hyena and Willy Wolf came closer hearing those words.
“Hehehe, Dina can chase the jeep again for me... Can’t you, Miss Dina?” she referred to the hyena beside Kiki Giraffe.
Willy Wolf rolled on the ground laughing, while Kiki Giraffe covered his face, didn’t know what to say. Really, took care of a koala was way harder than of animal babies.
“Kiki, Willy, and Dina, I’ll really miss you…” she hugged them tightly. For sure, she would never ever forget this journey, in her very lifetime. Guaranteed.
END
5The word Koala means ‘no drink' from an ancient aboriginal term because as we can read in the story, Koalas get the water content they need from the Eucalyptus leaves on which they feed
4Koalas sleep for nearly 20 hours a day. They sleep a lot to conserve energy as their diet requires a lot of energy to digest
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