Week 7 Story - King Chameleon

I didn’t stand a chance in the race to be King. Hare and Cheetah were way too fast for me, but that didn’t stop me. 

“I’ll figure something out,” I thought to myself as I slowly made my way to the starting line. To my right was Hare. I didn’t know him too well; I was always in the trees while he was always running around on the ground. There was one thing I knew for sure; Hare was fast. All the animals had finally found their spots and the race to the stool was about to begin. The King will soon be decided. 

“Good luck,” Hare smirked at me. I rolled my eyes at him. He knew I didn’t stand a chance. I closed my eyes and thought, “What am I going to do? How can I win this?” 

Howler Monkey was the referee. He didn’t care much for power and had the loudest voice of all of us, so when he heard about the race, he volunteered faster than Hare could run from one tree to another. 

“On your mark… get set…” his voice carried throughout the forest. 

I looked around nervously and saw Hare ready to spring forward. His tail wiggled in anticipation. “That’s it!” I thought, “I can grab onto Hare’s tail and he can bring me to the stool!” 

I looked around to make sure no eyes were focused on me, especially Hare’s. 

“...GO!” Howler Monkey’s voice boomed. 

As Hare was about to make his first stride, I grabbed onto his tail and changed my color to a sandy brown to match his fur. He didn’t even notice! He was way too focused on winning this race. 

I had never moved this fast before. Hare zoomed past the trees so fast that all I could make out were blurs. I hung on for my life. If I fell off, surely the other animals would trample me. I heard Elephant behind us trumpet in excitement and shuttered at the thought of being squished by him. 

Just like that, we had made it to the stool. I knew Hare would be the first one to make it. While Cheetah is faster, Hare is smaller and can maneuver through the trees much easier. All I needed to do was sit on the stump before Hare could. We were far ahead of the other animals, so Hare’s guard was down. He slowly made his way to the stump. 

“I’m going to be King!” He proclaimed to empty ears… or so he thought. 

Hare made it to the stump and began to turn around to sit on his new throne. While he did this, I get go of his tail and jumped onto the stool. I was King! 

I had never seen Hare jump as high as he did when he felt me underneath him. He turned around and stared at me, bewildered. 

“Take care, Mr. Hare, take care. I was here first.” Now it was I who was smirking.

King Chameleon in all of his glory - Source

Original Story

I decided to go from a narrative form to a first person account of the story. This way I could give characters more depth and personality. Instead of talking about the events leading up the race, I wanted to talk about the race only. I added a few new characters and dialogue but kept only the phrase the chameleon said to the hare at the end. In the future I would like to add to this story and explain how the chameleons reign on the animals turns out.