PETER AND THE ENCHANTED FOREST

Short Story written by: Jahimar

It was Sunday morning and Peter decided to go to the forest to cut down some trees for firewood. He wanted to find the perfect tree for his family fire and walked through the forest searching for it.

Suddenly Peter saw the most beautiful tree and perfect for firewood. It was big and leafy and had enough wood in it for the whole week or more.

When he was about to cut down the tree, something began to move. It was the tree shaking his branches. He started to cut it again, raising his axe and the tree moved again.

Short stories - The day of the tree

Peter couldn’t believe it. He threw his axe to the ground and rubbed his eyes, then he heard a voice coming from somewhere saying: “Why do you want to cut me down?

The kid was shocked. He looked up and down searching for the voice, then he looked at the tree again and saw the branches moving and waving; “Hi, it´s me!” – said the tree.

“What? How can you talk?” – asked Peter still in shock.

“I didn´t want to talk but I have to, otherwise you will cut me down!” – complained the tree.

“But I need firewood to cook on at home, for me and my family. What am I going to do?” – asked Peter.

Another tree started to talk:0 “you have forgotten that nature is very important for the planet, and that lots of animals live in trees, and that every time you cut down a tree you have to plant three.”

After a pregnant silence Peter said: “You are totally right, I shouldn’t cut trees without planting more. I have been so selfish as only in this way can the planet have trees left in the future, and without trees there would be no animals.

Suddenly a colourful butterfly alighted on the branch of one of the trees, Peter looked at her astonished. It was the most beautiful butterfly he had ever seen.

“We always rest on the branches and eat pollen from these flowers.” – said the butterfly.

Then a flower began to talk too: “We will never be alone thanks to the other animals that transport our pollen, but if you cut a tree down it will fall on us.”

Peter paid attention to everything that was being said. “I am really sorry.” – he said.

“It´s ok” – said the butterfly – “You are now learning what matters.

“Just don´t forget that we only have one planet and it is a human’s responsibility to take care of it and to protect nature, plants, trees, flowers, animals, rivers, as they all are necessary for your existence. In actual fact, there´s no oxygen without nature and all the animals have an important function on our planet“. – added a tree

Peter had learnt a lesson. He had learnt how important it is to not destroy the ecosystem. He decided to plant three trees for every tree that he cut down and he told his story to the whole town to teach them the same lesson.

 

THE END

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