Week 7 Story: How the Thunder and Lightning Came to Be

 

Dark Night Sky. Source: Pixabay.

    Once upon a time, there was an old lion named Thunder that resided in a savannah near the village of Mfalme. Thunder had a nephew named Lightning, who was a cheetah cub. Lightning was one of the fastest cubs near the village. The village of Mfalme had a king who was a lion named Kiongozi. Kiongozi was not only the leader of the pack but the strongest lion as well.

    Lightning wasn't very well behaved and would get angry very easily. He would burn down houses in the village as well as turn trees into ashes. He damaged the property of other animals also.

    As the guardian of Lightning, Thunder would always yell at him whenever he was up to no good. When Thunder would yell in a loud roar, his roar could be heard for miles and miles. However, Lightning was not a good listener and would often time just continue on anyway. Eventually, the other animals in the village just couldn't take it anymore. They decided to turn matters over to Kiongozi and tell the king everything that had been happening.

    Kiongozi had thought about what to do that entire evening. It was not an easy situation to deal with. Thunder and Kiongozi had grown up in the village of Mfalme ever since they were little cubs. They were best of friends growing up, and he often went to Thunder for advice or help with many different situations. However, Kiongozi knew his pack and village of animals were most important. What kind of king would allow such a nuisance to continue on?

    The next day, Kiongozi went up to Thunder and told him that it was time for him and Lightning to leave the village. Other animals were at risk, so the two needed to move far away to the nearby savannah.

    However, after moving away, Lightning still continued to cause damage and wreak havoc. He continued to cause fires and burn down much of the nearby landscape.

    Kiongozi had enough. The safety of animals was at risk, so Kiongozi paid Lightning and Thunder another visit. This time he used his special powers, which were given to him when he became king, to banish Lightning and Thunder to live in the sky. Kiongozi knew that his powers were only to be used in order to maintain peace and order between the animals, and he thought it had to be done.

    To this day, Lightning can still be seen in the sky attempting to cause damage and ignite the things on earth. You can hear Thunder as well trying to get Lightning to stop with his loud roar that echoes throughout the sky.

Author's Note:

    I kept the structure of the story pretty much the same as the original. There is the same number of main characters, but I changed what animals they were. In the original, Lightning was a ram and he had a mother that was a sheep named Thunder. She looked after him, and Lightning had a very bad temper. In both versions, Lightning would burn things and cause a lot of damage. I decided to make Lightning a cheetah cub and Thunder a lion. A lion's roar reminded me a lot of thunder, and I think of lightning as being very sporadic and fast like a cheetah. In the original, they lived in a town. In my story, I had them live in a village named Mfalme, which means "king" in Swahili. Swahili is the most common language in Africa. Both stories have a king as well. I named the king in my story Kiongozi, which means "leader" in Swahili. The plot in each is roughly the same. I added some extra details on how the king and Thunder had grown up together to make the decision of them leaving the village seem even harder. In the original, the king banished them to live in "the far bush" and then eventually the sky. I had them banished to a nearby savannah and then the sky. The original just says that the king made them live in the sky, but I thought it'd be fun to give a reason on how the king was able to do that. In my story, the king was given special powers when he became king that were only to be used in order to maintain order and peace among his animals. He was able to use his abilities to banish them to the sky.

Source: "The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder." Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).