Lions, Tigers and Bears is an excerpt from King Isiah, A Frog's Tale. It is narrated by Redwing Blackbird, one of King Isiah's friends.
There was a circus that came through these parts every now and then. It wasn’t Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey or nothing like that, but they did have a few animals, lions, a couple of elephants, a bear, some monkeys, two camels and a few other critters that were far from being native to this very small part of the world. The circus animals were transported from place to place by train for the most part. One time, when the train was very near to here, some of the cars derailed and some of the
animals escaped. To say the least, most folks around here weren’t used to having lions,tigers and bears wandering around the neightborhod. This being a very rural area most of the animals just took to the woods and began to make
themselves at home and started enjoying their new found freedom. I was flying around that day and spotted the train
wreckage and then saw some of the animals wandering away.
One of the them, that I saw, was a huge old elephant named Zeus. I found out later, that Zeus had lived in captivity all his life, but he had talked to some of the animals that had lived in the wild, for a while, and had always dreamed of being free to roam as he seen fit. When I spotted old Zeus, he was on a line headed straight toward Isiah’s pond. I think he smelled the water and
headed that way. Isiah was doing what Isiah does best, that being, lazying around and doing nothing. Before I could get
to the pond to warn him about Zeus and the other animals that had escaped, Zeus came crashing out of the woods
right at the pond. Isiah thought he was dreaming. He’d never seen an animal as big as old Zeus or any kind of
animal that had a tail on both ends and he had no earthly idea what kind of critter this was. When Zeus spotted the water he ambled toward it and waded right in. Isiah retreated up toward the shallow end a ways and got up on a stump and
watched in amazement, at the sight before his eyes. About that time, I arrived and flew near Isiah and alit on a cattail plant that had blown over and was just barely out of the water.
“Redwing, ?” Isiah said.
“Yea it’s me, King Frog. are you in retreat again ?” I answered.
“Retreat ? No. Just trying to get a better view of whatever that critter is,” Isiah said. “What kind of animal is that,
Redwing ?”
“Your the King around here Isiah. I thought that you knew everything. I guess I was mistaken though,” I said.
“Do you know what that thing is or not, bird brain?” Isiah was getting irritated.
“Don’t get short tempered with me, your royal frogness. Yeah, I know what that is. That’s an elephant. Why don’t
you go over and introduce yourself ?” I said.
“You think I should go talk to that huge critter?” Isiah asked. About that time Zeus let out a loud trumpeting bellow that
resounded all through the woods and echoed off the mountain sides in the distance. Then he blew water high
into the air above his head.
“ Your the King, your royal frogness,” I said. “What’s wrong? I always heard that elephants are pretty mild
natured critters. Go over and welcome him to the neighborhood.”
Isiah regained his composure, somewhat, and slid into the water and swam toward Zeus. He made it to his usual resting spot on the old log. The elephant spotted him, but only stared with his surprisingly tiny eyes. Isiah thought to himself. “This critter
probably has the intelligence of a lily pad. I wish he would speak, so I could tell if I can speak his language or not.”
“Mr. Elephant,” Isiah said. “Welcome to my pond sir. I’m King Isiah.” Zeus just continued to stare. Isiah was afraid that he
would bellow out again and jar him from the log. He wondered if elephants could even talk, he’d never heard of
them until a few minutes ago. Right then, a Zebra came out of the woods, and came down to the edge of the pond. Isiah
was at a loss for words now, first a giant animal called an elephant and now a striped horse. I had been watching and
decided I better explain about the circus and the train derailment to Isiah. I flew over to his side, on the log and
told him all about the train wreck and about the animals escaping. Just as I finished, the zebra, who was named Zadro, spoke
to the elephant. Isiah seemed to understand some of what they said to each other. Isiah then told me that the zebra and
elephant were debating what they should do. They were enjoying their new found freedom but didn’t know if they
could live here or not, for very long.
“ I told them that they were welcome here, at the pond, as long as they wanted to stay, but that I was sure that some one from the circus would be coming looking for them.” Isiah said.
“Yeah, they’re looking already,” I said. “I’ll be back shortly Isiah, I’m gonnna fly around and see what’s going on. " I lifted off and was airborne again. I flew to where the train had derailed and saw that all the animals had been caught except for Zeus and Zadro. I also saw a party of men walking in the direction of the pond. One of them was carrying what looked like an electric prod and another one was armed with a high powered rifle. I figured that they were going after the zebra and the elephant, to try to recapture them, but if they couldn’t, or if the animals endangered anyone, then they would be killed. I flew as fast
as I could back to the pond and found Isiah still sitting on his log talking to Zeus and Zadro.
“You better tell them to return to the circus Isiah,” I said. “Men are coming this way and are carrying a rifle.”
Isiah then spoke to the two circus animals in some kind of language, that sounded like a horse braying to me. Funniest
thing I ever heard, A frog imitating a horse.
“Thank you for letting us stay here a little while,” Zeus said.
“ Yes, thank you very much, Mr. King Frog,” Zadro said “I suppose that we best head back to the train though. I already miss all the other animals anyway.” Just as they were heading out, to go back to the circus train, several men came out of the woods. The man with the rifle raised his gun, as if to fire. I came at him as fast as I could fly and flew right into the side of his head. He
staggered back, at the same time he pulled the trigger and fired the rifle into the air.
“ Hold your fire you idiot,” A man, who looked like he was in charge said. “We want them alive. Give me the gun
before you hurt yourself with it.”
“Something hit me in the side of the head boss.”
“Yeah right, did you see anything Bill ?” the man in charge asked a third man.
“I didn’t see anything, boss” Bill answered. “John, have
you been drinking again? ”
By that time, Zeus and Zadro had walked right up to and past the men, as they headed back to the circus train. I flew overhead just in case the man with the rifle now got any crazy ideas. Nothing happened though and Zeus and Zadro were loaded back into their rail cars which had been uprighted. I watched a little later, as the train chugged away. I then returned to the pond and found Isiah. I was curious as to what Isiah, Zeus and Zadro had talked about while I had left them alone at the
pond.
“So Mr. King Frog, What did you and the circus animals talk about while I was away.” I asked.
“We discussed the usual things, Mr. Bird,” he answered.
“You know, the weather, baseball, the stock market, politics, religion, so and so forth.”
“Ok, Mr King Frog, I said. “If you don’t want to tell me just keep it to yourself .” I took wings and left before he could answer. I’d come back later, after he got down off his high horse, and find out what they had talked about .
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