Lauryn Klopf

final

Mahe and the Giraffe

It all started one day, when Mahe, the creator of the world was making animals in South

Africa. He had made creatures all over the world, and South Africa was the last place. In forests

he had creepy critters’; in the Arctic he made penguins and polar bears. In the oceans there

were fishes, sharks, starfish, coral and turtles. He wanted different animals for South Africa; it

was his favorite place so he wanted to have special animals. Mahe wanted ferocious cats, so he

made lions. He wanted a fast cat, so he made cheetahs. Next, Mahe wanted an animal that was

strong to live on both land and in water. This animal had to have a strong jaw, strong body; he

called this animal a hippopotamus. He noticed that the hippopotamus’s liked to stay more in

the water rather than roam the land like he had wanted them too. So Mahe created a

rhinoceros. This animal had a horn on the top of his nose. The rhinoceros was muscular, strong

and was feared by other animals. Mahe was happy with the rhinoceros. Mahe next created

small animals, but they were important to the region. He made antelopes, desert foxes,

muskrats and more. Mahe had a good reason to create these animals, they were large enough

that the more dominate animals could hunt them. He knew that if he had not created these

smaller animals then the larger ones would over populate and start to die.

Mahe felt like he was missing something. He wanted a kind, gentle animal, an animal

that would stand out from all the others. So Mahe made a giraffe. The giraffe had long legs and

a short body, so they were clumsy. Mahe made them orange with brownish spots. He noticed

that the giraffes did not eat each other animals, but they also could not reach the leaves on

trees. He started to notice that the giraffes could not just eat the grass and that they needed to

be able to reach the leaves on the trees. Mahe thought and thought about what he could do to

fix the giraffes to help them. Then one day he finally got it! He decided to extend their necks.

Now the giraffes had long legs and a long neck. Mahe realized that the giraffe looked right; they

did not look awkward or clumsy. He could tell this is how they were supposed to be. Mahe

finally had all the animals in the world made.