Just so Story - How the Tiger got Black Stripes

Once upon a time there were a group of animals. Now these were not your every day animals. These animals were different. They were hardly ever seen or spotted. These creatures were shy but if you upset them you would be in BIG trouble. One day that all changed...

One early Thursday morning a scientist came to Flicenpogic Forest to study these mysterious creatures. They lived only in this forest (funny that). The very night that he arrived in this forest was the very night everything changed in this secluded forest. He set up a campfire by a tree, with purple and orange spotted leaves and a bright blue trunk, and fell asleep.

Now I know what you may be thinking right about now. I am sure you have never heard of the Flicenpogic Forest or even thought about a tree with spotted leaves and brightly coloured trunks and may not believe me but you have definitely heard of these creatures. You know what they can do and what they like to do. They once actually did live in those types of trees but no one knew that they lived there because there was no one tall enough to see so high and no one bothered even going to this place.

The scientist set up camp in his comfortable tent. Somehow his fire caught light on the trunk of one of these trees. It was a windy night and the sparks went flying. The fire started to make its way up the long trunk.

Meanwhile the scientist realized it was getting extremely hot and it woke him up. He went outside and saw the tree on fire. Then he spotted what he had come here for, what he had been hoping to see. These mysterious creatures were stuck in the trees. By now the fire was spreading to the other trees in the forest. Some of the creatures had big black burn marks on their fur. It made them look scarier than they already were. Right now however they were the ones that were scared.

The scientist screamed for the local village people to come and help put out the fires. The fire was eventually put out. Once it was all over half of the creatures were covered in black marks. These creatures you know as tigers. This is one of the reasons tigers are scared of fires but that’s another story. Animals feared the ones with black marks and so they survived longer than the others. This is how tigers got their black stripes.

By Jorjah (Room 16)