A Football Match

It was a fine morning in the jungle; a very beautiful morning. The sun was gently streaming through the leaves of the tall trees.
 

 Little droplets of dew were shining like little pearls on the green leaves. Birds were flying about crying kee-kee, koo-koo and kaw-kaw. 

Jumbo elephant was making his way to the river to take his daily morning bath. He enjoyed this time of the day. He swayed from side to side humming a song. He was in a really good mood.

Timbu the tiger was resting under a tree. Now Jumbo and Timbu did not get along well with each other at all. Each of them thought he was the stronger of the two. Timbu eyed Jumbo suspiciously and Jumbo pretended not to see Timbu at all. 

Just then Jumbo's eyes fell upon a big bunch of bananas. The bananas were ripe and yellow and looked so tasty. Jumbo's mouth watered and he rushed to eat them. 

Timbu saw Jumbo rush towards the bananas. Suddenly he wanted the bananas too. Now tigers don't really eat bananas or other fruits but Timbu wanted it only so that Jumbo wouldn't be able to have it. He jumped up and stood in front of the plantain tree.

"Where do you think you are going?" Timbu asked Jumbo.
"I am going to eat the bananas. Move out of my way" said Jumbo.
"They are my bananas. I saw them first" said Timbu.
"Since when do tigers eat bananas?" Jumbo asked.

"Oh, we eat them all the time. In fact, they are our favorite fruit" lied Timbu.

"I don't think so. I think you are too weak to hunt other animals. That is why you eat fruits" said Jumbo and laughed loudly.


Monkeys on the trees giggled. Parrots snickered. Rabbits hiding in the bushes whispered the joke to each other and sniggered. Nobody liked Timbu very much as he was often showing off his strength and troubling animals weaker than him.

Timbu was very angry. He said "You think I am weak? All right, let us have a challenge between the two of us and whoever wins the challenge gets to eat the bananas".
"Sure, shall we have a wrestling match" asked Jumbo.
Timbu was afraid to get into a wrestling match with the mighty elephant. So he said "A wrestling match is very old fashioned. Let us have a football match".
"Ok" agreed Jumbo.

Word spread around the jungle and all animals and birds, big and small gathered together to watch the football match.
Timbu and Jumbo used a coconut as the football.  
They kicked the ball from this side to that side. They chased it hard as it rolled from one end of the field to another.
Both Timbu and Jumbo wanted to prove themselves stronger. The game continued for such a long time but neither of the two opponents wanted to give up.
Timbu was starting to get tired. He ran behind Jumbo panting for breath with his tongue hanging out. He realized he was falling behind. He wanted to win the game hook or by crook. So he did something very wrong. 

He stuck his paw out as Jumbo was running behind the ball. Jumbo tripped and fell with a mighty thud. Timbu felt the air go whoosh outside his lungs. 

Did you ask why the air went out of Timbu's lungs when it was Jumbo who tripped and fell? Well, because Timbu was too slow to jump out of Jumbo's way and Jumbo fell down on Timbu. The parrots and the monkeys who were perched on trees and had a good view of the game saw that Timbu had tripped Jumbo and so they screeched "Nicely Want", "Serves you right" and the like. 

Jumbo was declared the winner and was given the bunch of bananas. And for Timbu, he had to be dragged to his den and could not move for many days.