Leo's Adventure

• William McDonald, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2016

Leo, Lucy and Jack were young leopards that lived on a beautiful mountain happily with their families. One day they were going to Leo’s cave jumping over small creeks and bounding through a travelling herd of goats until they reached his lair. Leo’s mum entered the room bringing a freshly killed deer and they sat down to eat.
“What were you up to today children?” she asked in a sweet voice.
“Chasing a squirrel,” answered Jack.
“But we got tired so we decided to come here,” said Leo. Soon Jack and Lucy left with their mum as the sun set behind the mountains in the distance.
They next day they arose to a cold and misty day, not like the bright, sunny day they had yesterday. Some wild pigs had moved into the mountain overnight and the hogs were hogging everything. The three friends set out to have a drink from the river as usual, but a nasty looking wild boar stopped them. “Hey! You think you spotty little cats can steal our water?”
“I am NOT a little cat and that water actually belongs to US!” screeched Leo.
“This is all ours and little kitties are NOT allowed,” the wild boar said with a shrug. At that moment, Leo felt like bringing out his lethal claws and striking the pig’s throat, but his friends stopped him.
At lunch time they told their parents about the situation. “Well we will try to talk to them,” came the reply. So the next day Leo’s dad set off to the pig’s lair but a pig with a sharp stick said, “Stop, no one can visit the king without an appointment!”
“But…”
“Go away!” So he left, helplessly and returned to the two families.
“No luck,” he said.
“Maybe we could fight them off,” said Jack, jumping onto Leo and starting a wrestle on the ground.
“Sorry there’s too many,” dad said with a sigh.
Lucy never really talked at dinner time but now she had an idea. “But there are lots of mountain goats who could help us.” All of a sudden they fell silent, as they thought about Lucy’s idea.
“Actually...” started Lucy’s dad in deep thought, “You’ve got a great idea!” No one ever thought about joining forces with the mountain goats but to stop those selfish pigs it sounded perfect!
So the next day dawned and they told the goats about their plan and they agreed because they, too had suffered from the situation. So that night Leo’s dad and Lucy and Jack’s dad stalked around the ‘pig’s palace’ finding as much information as they could. The next day they stood at the mountain top waiting for the signal given by Leo’s mum while the mountain goats stood further down the mountain. When the signal was given the leopards thundered down the valley soon joined by goats and as the pigs saw this, they fled in terror and they never came back.