Creature with two
Mlungisi Madlala
Jesse Breytenbach
The Izinzawu family was a happy family. The two girls learned cooking and gardening from their mother. The two boys went out with their father to hunt.
At dinner time every day, they talked about what they had done that day.
The father usually warned the children not to go deep into the forest. He told the family about a strange creature that lived in the forest. "This creature is like two of us put together!"
One day, the girls were playing at the river. Suddenly, from behind a tree, there was a strange creature! The creature had two eyes, two ears, two arms, and two legs.
Shaking with fear, they ran to tell their brothers about what they had seen. But the boys didn't believe them, "The girls are being silly!" they said.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of the boys. They followed the girls to the river to see this strange creature for themselves.
They searched and searched but all they could see was the tall grass and trees.
Suddenly, they heard a noise, and looked up.
Up on a tree swung the strangest creature they had ever seen. It had two arms, two hands, two legs and two feet. Instead of only one each, like them.
The frightened children ran home to call their parents. Soon the whole family was at the river to see this creature.
"Don't hurt me!" the creature said, as it hid behind the tree. Now the family could only see the creature's one foot, one leg, one hand, one arm and one eye.
"I am just like you," continued the creature. "The only difference is that I was made with two of almost everything."
So this was how the Izinzawu family discovered that it was not a creature to be scared of. It was simply a different form of them.
You are free to download, copy, translate or adapt this story and use the illustrations as long as you attribute in the following way:
Creature with two
Author - Mlungisi Madlala and Ntombikayise Ngidi
Illustration - Jesse Breytenbach
Language - English
Level - First paragraphs
© African Storybook Initiative 2016
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Source www.africanstorybook.org
