Curiosity almost kills Moni

 One day Mini and Moni were playing hide and seek among the tall grasses on the ocean bed. Suddenly they felt the water rise up and down all around them. They saw spools of fishes of all shapes, sizes and colors swim past them. Even the turtles and tortoises beat their flippers and swam as fast as they could.

“What are all of them swimming away from” Mini asked Moni

“Let’s find out” replied Moni

“What if it is something dangerous? Shouldn’t we join the rest of the sea folks and escape while there is still time?” said Mini.

“Don’t tell me you are scared!!” exclaimed Moni

“A little bit” confessed Mini. “Aren’t you”?

“No, I am not” said Moni pulling up her chin proudly. “We don’t even know what it is. Let us first find out what it is and then decide if it is something we need to be scared of”.

“Ummm. I don’t know if we should. The other folks seemed pretty scared” said Mini

“Scaredy Waredy Mini” teased Moni. “I am going to find out what it is” she said as she swam up swiftly.

Mini waited a second not knowing what to do and then shouted ‘Wait. I’ll come with you’. 

She swam behind Moni as fast as she could. “Oh, my small fins!!! How will I ever catch up with her” she thought to herself. 
Indeed, Moni was swimming very fast in her eagerness to find out what was it that caused all the sea folks to run away in such fear.

Mini soon lost sight of Moni.

As Moni reached the top, she found out what was causing the disturbance in the water. A big trawler was chugging its way through the water. 

“Oh no”!! “Fishermen”!  She said to herself. 

She had heard terrible stories of fishes getting caught in a net the fishermen threw in the waters. Nobody had ever returned alive from the net.

Before she could swim back, she realized to her horror that she along with hundreds of other fishes, crabs, tortoises, turtles and various other sea folks was trapped in the net.

“What shall I do? How will I ever get out of this alive?” thought Moni in despair.

Meanwhile Mini finally reached the top. She gasped in surprise as she saw a huge net with lot of sea folks trapped inside. 

“Oh Dear” She cried “I don’t see Moni anywhere. Is she trapped inside the net?”

Mini swam round and round the net and called out to Moni.

“Moni…Moni. Are you trapped inside”?

She didn’t hear any response but she could see a bright yellow fish suddenly appearing and then disappearing among the bigger fishes. She knew for sure that was her friend and that she somehow had to rescue her.

Mini swam round and round the net thinking of a way to save Moni. 

Suddenly she saw a tiny tear in the net through some of the very small fishes were escaping. Mini went near the tear in the net and called out to Moni who was overjoyed to see her friend. Mini asked Moni to come close to the tear. Then with her brave heart thumping inside her, she pushed her plump body little by little into the tear to make it big enough for Moni to escape.                       


Slowly the net gave way and the tear was big enough for Moni to slip out.      

“Hurray” cried Moni as she hugged Mini. 

“Hurray” cried the other sea-folks as they too found their way out of the net.

Mini and Moni swam back quickly into the safety of the ocean bed. 

Moni did not hesitate to accept her mistake and apologize for it.

She said to Mini “I am sorry, Mini. My curiosity today could have cost us our lives. I promise to be very careful henceforth”.

Mini was just glad she had got back her friend alive. She put her fin around Mini and said “It’s all right. All’s well that ends well. I too learnt a good lesson today.”

Moni knew she had learnt a good lesson that she should not be so curious that she puts her life in danger. But what was the lesson that Mini had learnt??

Well, the lesson that Mini had learnt was being plump and having small fins is not a very bad thing. For, if she hadn’t been plump and if she didn’t have small fins, she wouldn’t have been able to push her way into the tear without hurting herself and make it big enough for Moni to escape. 

From that day on, Moni tried to keep her curiosity in check and Mini stopped envying Moni for her slender body and large fins.

Did Moni ever stop envying Mini her golden color?? Well, that’s another story to be told another day.


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