The Lost Cub

Written by: Adekunbi Karunwi

Once there lived a cub; his name was Andrew. Andrew lived with his dad the leader of lions named Trion and his mom and his sister, Zoe.

One day, Andrew and his sister went out to play near the border, where all the hunters capture cubs and lions. They were playing near the border not knowing a hunter was coming. The hunter snuck up on the cubs and captured Andrew but Zoe was lucky to escape from the clutches of the hunter.

Andrew was put in a cage and bundled into the trunk of a car. Andrew was really scared because the hunters had captured him and he didn’t know what they were going to do with him. Suddenly, Andrew heard the car stop. He was wondering what they were going to do with him. Sometime after that, the trunk opened and as the trunk opened, Andrew saw a sign saying the zoo.

Andrew was confused because he had never heard the word ‘zoo’ before and did not know what the place was for. The hunters then brought Andrew out and took him to a place with poles and cages everywhere. Andrew was so confused. It was already evening time, and he was very tired, so Andrew fell asleep.

It was the next day. Andrew heard a strange voice. It sounded like an animal; he looked around wondering where the sound came from and saw another animal. He recognized the animal. It was another cub. He approached the cub and asked what her name was. She said that her name was Renee. She said that she had been in the zoo for five months and she had been taken away captive from her. Andrew was surprised that she had been there for such a long time.

Suddenly, Andrew heard a loud ring. Andrew then asked Renée what that sound was. Renée said it was time. Andrew was confused by what Renée meant by time. He finally knew what she meant by time. He saw a group of different people surrounding the hole. He saw that they all came to watch both himself and Renee. He felt the wave of a feeling of importance from the attention. He knew he would like to stay there but then he wanted to be with his family as well.

It was finally night time and all he was thinking of was how he was going to get out of the zoo and go home. He decided to sleep and deal with the matter the next day.

He woke up with a smile the next day. He had finally figured out what he was going to do. He was going to jump on one of the hunters’ car during the evening time when they come to watch them again. He wondered how he would do that in the full glare of everyone but he just knew he had to do something to get out. He trudged over to Renee and asked her if she wanted to get out of the zoo. She nodded, excitedly.  They waited till evening and then it was time to go. The whole world was watching but he did not care. He was going to jump over them all on to the car parked. After all, he was a lion, the king of the jungle. He was sure everyone would run away from a leaping lion.

He looked at his back, and finding Renee right behind him, he took the step to jump. And splash! He found himself in a puddle of mud. Right beside his den. He had been dreaming! He looked around foolishly at his sister who was playing around him. He was happy he was with her and not some other place like the zoo. He joined his sister at play and they played all day long.

‘The Lost Cub’ is Adekunbi Karunwi’s submission for the Jordan Hill Writing Challenge for March with a focus on narrative prose fiction. Adekunbi is an eleven-year-old student of Greensprings School, Lekki, Lagos.