The Tiny Hero

Baby quail. Image source: EastValleyWildlife.

Once upon a time, there lived a family of quails. Their nest sat nestled into the highest branch of the biggest tree in the forest where it stood.

Momma quail, Daddy quail, and seven baby quails. They lived happily and peacefully.

At the time, the baby quails were only three weeks old. Their mother was still flying to find food for them, and bringing it back for them to eat. Every day, Momma would bring back insects and worms to make her babies strong, but one baby would never eat them. He only ate seeds and nuts. Momma quail knew this would affect her baby later down the road, but continued to feed him seeds to keep him alive and growing.

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One day, the family of quails heard a ruckus across the forest; animals crying out, trees falling, and a horrible smell they were not familiar with.

In the distance, Momma and Daddy spotted them… And they knew exactly what was happening. Huge, black clouds of smoke rising from fiery, vicious, red flames. It was a forest fire.

As the flames grew closer and closer, the quails knew what they had to do. All at once, Momma, Daddy, and the six baby quails jumped from the nest and began to fly away. As they flapped their wings as fast as they could, they had no time to look back-- no time to see that the 7th baby had been left and couldn’t fly away with them. His wings were not strong enough. The seventh baby quail did not panic though.

Instead of being afraid and accepting defeat to the flames that were engulfing the nest, the baby quail was brave. He stood tall in his nest, took a deep breath, and began to speak to the flames.

“Mighty flames, you see that I am small. You see that I am alone. Why do you come here? Go back, flames! This is my home. You cannot take it from me,” exclaimed the baby quail to the fire.

The flames froze. It was as if they were thinking, processing what the quail had said to them.

“Go on! Go,” yelled the baby quail once more.

And with his quiet and tiny, but powerful words, the flames disappeared into the night and away from the nest. The black smoke rose into the sky, and there was not a red flame in sight. In what felt like half of a second, there was peace in the forest again.

All the animals of the forest began to come out from their safe places, and smiled as they saw the forest come back to life. The baby quail felt triumphant as he lay down for sleep in his nest, but also lonely as he didn’t know where his family had gone.

The next morning, he awoke to his mother and father and all six of his brothers and sisters surrounding him showering him with love. The family of quails lived happily ever after in their nest.

Who knew a tiny, defenseless baby quail could be such a hero?

Author's Note

This is a children’s tale from Twenty Jataka Tales. The original was called The Forest Fire. Basically, what I did with my version of the story is I just added a lot more details and changed the ending. I provided more back story at the beginning about where the family lived and how they lived. In the original, the story escalated quickly. It started with the mother feeding the babies, then the fire coming. I also expanded on the moment where the flames are by the nest and the baby quail speaks to them. I made that part a little bit more personal. These children’s tales are usually short and sweet, so it’s fun to expand on them even more and add your own little twist. At the end in the original, after the baby quail saves the forest, it just says they he lived happily ever after in his nest. I thought it was sad that he was living without his whole family, so I made them fly back for him. Then they all lived happily ever after! I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did! Let me know what I can do to make it even better!

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Noor Inayat.