tHe KiNg tHaT pRoTeCtEd A WhALe

This is mostly a funny, somewhat sad story about a king who utilized quite a lot of its resources to protect a whale. So let’s begin with it.

Once there lived a king. He was the king of kings and the lord of lords. In short he was quite a powerful emperor of his time. This king’s name was Predy and he was very fond of hunting. It was also his favourite way to pass his somewhat boring time of the day or night.

It was summer and the breeze was quite cool. So this gave an idea to the king to go hunting. He called all his servants to get ready for hunting and prepare his horse for that. The servants did as they were told. They prepared each and everything for Predy including his horse that was required for hunting. After everything was done Predy and his servants went to the hunting grounds of the forest for Predy to hunt. It took them an hour or so to reach the forest where and when Predy decided that he would hunt a deer today.  And the deer he wanted to hunt would not be just any deer but a special deer that would not be juvenile and would have lots of fat in his body that would give him enough fat for the steak from it that he will barbecue. For doing that he had decided that he would use his one lucky arrow. This lucky arrow was also used by him for other special purposes like to show off in parade, betting etc.

Why that luck arrow was so was because this was the arrow with which he had bullseye shot when he had just started to learn to use bow and arrow. He never left that arrow attached to the hunted animal or on ground. He picked that arrow up always after the hunting has been done and would put it back in his royal quiver . He never missed with that arrow.

Now, he had only walked a kilometre into the hunting grounds of the deep and dense forest along with his servants when he found the perfect deer that he wanted to hunt. He immediately took out his lucky arrow mounted it on the string of his bow and aimed at the deer. After making the aim steady he released the arrow. But to his shock the arrow missed. This was the first time in his trained life that he had missed the shot which he was trying to get from his lucky arrow. It was unbelievable! He lost his heart and felt it sink but in short span he gathered courage again and ran towards, where that arrow had fallen to try to use it again to shoot. That lucky arrow had flown and fallen on the sea shore which was adjoining the forest. So he went towards the sea to search for it. When he came near the sea shore he picked up the arrow but while doing that he saw a huge dead whale lying and its baby trying to swim towards it from the sandy waters on the shore with the water pushing it from behind.

Predy felt very sad seeing that. He felt really horrified and sorry for the baby whale. Since the baby whale was near its mom on the shore with very less water there for the whale to breathe he was worried that the baby whale might loose its breath. By that time his servants also had reached the shore and were standing behind him.

He then immediately ordered his servants to build a small container out of wood and put the baby whale in it, after adding lots of water in the container. His servants did as they were told to do. In about 15 minutes they built a container of the type requested by their king - Predy. His servants were then lifted the baby whale and put it in that container and took it close to its mom. He then let the baby whale be near its mom for a while. After sometime the whale had completely passed away. This caused Predy to cry a lot. He then told his servants to take the baby whale along with them towards his palace.

Now the king had fallen in love with the cute baby whale and had decided that he will take care of it like its father until it grows old enough to take care of itself.

There was a huge lake near the palace and he thought that he would keep the baby whale there but he was worried that big fishes there might not devour it or kill it. So he made a plan. To protect the baby whale he appointed 600 of his fine sharp soldiers. 100 of those sharp soldiers were to stay afloat and 100 of them were to stay underwater in the lake. 100 were to be with the baby whale swimming all the time surrounding it and protecting it at the instant whenever and wherever. Remaining 300 were those who would coordinate with the previous 300 and change shifts of their jobs accordingly. They were all supposed to fill air in bags and breathe through it if and when they were underwater. Those soldiers had vowed to protect the baby whale with their life and they did.

Slowly the baby whale grew up and turned into a mighty whale. All of the men including the king had fulfilled their vows of taking care and protecting the baby whale.

Now, since the baby whale had grown up it was time for it to explore the oceanic world thus it had to leave for the oceans. But the matter was that it had grown and thus was too heavy to carry. Even though Predy was the king of kings and the lord of lords but he could not carry such a huge mighty whale to ocean.

Predy then made a plan. He decided to dig a huge canal from that lake where its baby whale lived to the nearby ocean and then let the whale to go and enter the ocean itself. The plan worked. After they had built a huge canal from the lake to the ocean the baby whale that had now grown up took some time to realize that and then entered the ocean saying good bye to its protected or as I may say “over-protected” life style.

Those 600 soldiers that were assigned to protect the whale took some days off to rest and the king decided to go on hunting once again looking for another venture.