Lea the Snow leopard

Untitled Part 1

In a place in the mountains of Central Asia, lives a snow leopard cub named Lea. Her sleepy eyes are watching over the forest, while she’s resting in her den. Suddenly she hears a small voice crying for help coming from the trees and bushes of mystery. Lea slowly follows the voice. Then the voice unexpectedly stops and it was pure silence for a while. Then she hears the voice again but this time, it sounds more desperate and much louder than before, which makes Lea hurry to see if she could help this poor fella. Lea carefully peeks through some bushes and sees that the small voice is coming from a butterfly that is caught in a spider web.

“Hello.” Lea says. “Oh, little cub. Won’t you help me out of the spiders web?” The butterfly begged. “Of course!” Lea answers and helps the little butterfly out off the web. “Thank you! I have nothing that I can give to you but my gratitude.” Says the butterfly. “That’s alright. I’m glad I could help.” Lea says and waves as the butterfly flutters away. “You’re both kind and helpful. I’ll remember that.” Says the butterfly. On her way home Lea hears another voice struggling with something. This time it came from between the tall trees. She once again carefully follows the sound this time to see a little pika caught in an old trap. “Do you need help?” Lea asks. “Help? Hah! No, no. No thank you. I don’t need help.”

The pika says and tries to get free but sadly can’t. “Alright, I can’t,” the pika sighs in disappointment and adds “but neither can you.” The pika says. “Why don’t you think so?” Lea asks. “Because I’m too high up for you to reach me, cub.” The pika explains. Lea was full of confidence from her last successful rescue which makes her say “Well you’ll be surprised. I’ll show you that I can.” Lea says and tries to reach the pika but realises that she can’t. “You were right.” Lea admits. Suddenly the pikas face brights up. “Actually, you can help me. Could you find my old friend Martin the Marmot?” The pika asks and points which direction Lea can find him in.

“He’s big and wise, so I’m sure he’ll be able to help.” The pika explains. “Sure thing!” Lea says and runs to find Martin the Marmot. “Tell him it’s me, Pika the Pika!” Pika cried before Lea was out of sight. Lea saw an older Marmot walking back and forth, and looking over and under bushes. He was looking rather worried. “Excuse me. Are you Martin the Marmot? An old friend of Pika the Pika?” Lea asks. “Yes, that would be me.” Martin answers without paying much attention to Lea. “Brilliant. Oh, Mr. Martin. Miss Pika is in great danger. She is caught in an old trap. You have to help her!” Lea says and tries to get eye contact with Martin the Marmot. “Me? You save her! You’re young and full of energy.”

Martin says and lifts a rock and analyses what’s under it. “I’ve tried and failed. You have to help her. Aren’t you friends?” Lea asks. Martin the Marmot stopped doing what he was doing and paid attention to Lea. “Even though how much I’d love to help her. I’m afraid that I can’t, because I’m in great danger myself.” Martin said and added, “I’ve been hibernating through the winter. Sleeping for eight months makes you hungry when you wake up, you know. If I don’t eat something soon, then I’ll die. If you bring me food, then I will get my energy back and I will be able to help miss Pika.” Martin explained. Lea’s eyes filled with hope and said “I can do that. I’ll bring you food.” “What do you eat?” Lea asks Martin the Marmot but he was fast asleep.

Lea tries to wake him up but trying to wake up Martin the Marmot is like knocking on a caterpillars pupa and asking him to come out before it’s ready. It’s impossible for anyone. “Then I have to figure it out myself.” Lea said to herself. She was determent that she would save both Miss Pika and Mr. Martin. In the search for food. Lea ran into a strange creature she’d never seen before. It looks like a deer expect it is smaller in size and its front legs are shorter than its back legs, and it has long fangs. It was a musk deer. “Aaaah!” They both screamed. “Don’t eat me!” The musk deer cried. Lea was confused for a minute but answered “Don’t worry. I’ll not eat you. I’m looking for food for Mr. Martin the Marmot, so he’ll get his energy back to help Miss Pika the Pika out of an old trap.” Lea says and is almost out of breath.

The musk deer looks distrustful at Lea “Why are you doing this? Why aren’t you at home playing with your siblings?” The question came as a surprise to Lea. “I haven’t given it much thought. I just care and it feels good to help. But I don’t have any siblings and my mum isn’t at home.” Lea says. “I see.” The musk deer nods understandingly. He went from distrustful to trustful in a second. “However, it happens that I’ve seen what Marmots eat. Come and let me show you where to find it. I’ll help you gather too. My name is Maximillian Dannie, by the way but I prefer to be called Max. What’s your name?” Max asks. “Lea.” She says and smiles knowing that she has made a new friend.

They gather foods like berries and different kinds of grasses and as soon as they think they have enough they go straight to Martin the Marmot and lay the food in front of him. The smell of the food found its way to Martins nose and miraculously woke him up. So after Martin had eaten and gained his energy back. Lea the Snow leopard, Martin the Marmot and Max the Musk Deer on their way to save Pika the Pika. “Oh, you’re back!” Pika’s voice was full of joy. Martin analyses the situation with a worried look on his face. “I can’t think of a way to get you down without getting hurt. I certainly can’t get you down on my own.” Martin says while scratching his neck.

After a couple of long minutes of silence Lea’s face brightens up. “I have an idea! If we jump on each other’s shoulders we’ll be able to reach Pika!” Then Martin the Marmot jumped on Max the Musk Deer’s shoulders, and Lea the Snow Leopard jumped on Martin the Marmots shoulders. This was probably the most rare sight anyone has ever seen in the mountains of south Asia. They stretch and stretch but they just can’t reach poor miss Pika. While they keep stretching. The butterfly, that Lea helped earlier, showed up. It had followed Lea since it saw that Lea went further into the woods instead of going back to the mountains were leopards normally have their den.

“Hello again. Maybe I can help.” Then the butterfly jumped on the branch that the old trap was tied to. She jumped up and down, up and down, up and down, until Lea is able to reach Pika and bite the rope off her. “Hurray! Hurray!” They all cheered. “Thank you for helping us Mrs Butterfly.” Lea says. “It’s the least I can do. If you hadn’t helped me back then, I wouldn’t be able to help you all now.” The butterfly says. “I’m sorry I underestimated you earlier, Lea.” Pika says. “Max the Musk Deer just told me how much trouble you went through to help me.” Says Pika. “It’s alright. You were right about that I couldn’t save you on my own.

Sometimes we need a little help. I’m glad that we could save you by working together as a team. Besides it can be fun working together.” When it started to get late Lea heard her mums roar coming from the mountains, calling her home. So Lea and her new friends agreed to meet again tomorrow. Lea ran home and greeted her mother with a cuddle before they went inside the den. “Mum, I had a really good day today.” Lea gasped and fell asleep.

Diana Mary W. Olsen ©