The Lion and The Farmer's Daughter

We find ourselves the next day at the jungle beauty parlor with a very unexpected guest. Now usually, the jungle beauty parlor is only visited by the jungle's animal inhabitants. But this day, the beauty parlor was visited by none other than the farmer's daughter! The moment she walked in, all eyes turned directly towards her, and you could hear the dull murmur shift towards a dull roar. She looked extremely upset, so the bear, of course, went up to comfort her and ask her what was bothering her.

"Dear child, why are you so upset?" questioned the bear.

Who would have thought that you would be reading about an upset girl being consoled by a big group of animals in a beauty parlor in the jungle?

"Oh, bear," exclaimed the farmer's daughter, "I have just been through the worst experience ever. I just lost the love of my life, the lion, who I know was the right match for me and who I know would have loved me forever and forever."

"I am so sorry for your loss, poor girl! How in the world did this happen to the strong and fearless lion?" said the bear.

"Well," she went on to say, "it is actually all my mean father's fault. This morning, after much deliberation between the two of us as to whether he should actually go through with it or not, the lion decided to approach my old and strict father about taking my hand in marriage. It was all that the lion and I had ever wanted or dreamed of, or even imagined. So, he went to my father and proceeded to ask him to bless our marriage. Of course, my father was extremely hesitant because he knew the reputation of the lion's behavior. It even took him a few minutes to answer. You see, my father was never exactly too keen on the idea of me falling in love with the big, bad, powerful lion. He had always wanted me to fall in love and to marry a nice young human fellow. I have always been different than most girls, though... Oh no, sorry I'm going off on tangents. Back to where I left off. So after the lion had patiently been awaiting my father's answer to his request, my father finally answered my love.

'Well, lion,' said my father, 'you know that I have never really been too fond of the idea of my daughter and you being in love, but I can tell that you really love her and wish to be married to her. If you truly love her, you will do what I say. After you do this, you may receive my blessing and permission to marry my beautiful daughter. This is what you will do. You will leave her immediately and have your teeth and claws taken out. This way, I will know and be reassured that you will never hurt her. She is way too important to me for me to be worried all the time about you hurting her since you are so large and beastly.'

"Of course being the gentleman that he was, the lion went out immediately and followed through with my father's request that he remove his teeth and claws. Every single one of them he had removed! After that, my love went back to my father to prove to him that he really loved me and would do anything for me. My father, surprised that the lion went through with the request, just stared at him for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, my father pulled out a club and clubbed the poor lion to death! I could not believe what had just happened. Afterwards, crying hysterically, I went up to my father and asked him why he did this after the lion had obeyed every single wish he had commanded of him. All my father could mumble was something about how he was just trying to protect me and that it was for the better and, this way, we would know that I would never be hurt. What he didn't know was that he had just hurt me the most I have ever been hurt and will ever be hurt.

Almost in tears, the dramatic bear said, "I am so sorry! That is just awful. Your father is one mean man. If there is anything that we, here, at the jungle beauty parlor can do to help you, we are always here."

"Thanks so much, bear," replied the farmer's daughter.

Then the father's daughter walked out of the jungle beauty parlor with her head down, still so very sad.

Author's Note: For my fourth and final story, I opted to take a different route than I had in the other four stories. I decided to show a more vulnerable side of the lion, one that we do not really see that often. In this story, the lion will do absolutely anything for the blessing of marriage to his one and true love, the farmer's daughter. And in the end, he gets absolutely nothing-except death! It is a very sad fable, actually. I liked the idea of having the farmer's daughter actually telling the story. This is the only time we see a human entering the beauty parlor and telling the story. I thought this would be a nice and unexpected change to the storybook. I also thought it would be a good view point to hear the story from. Hearing the story from the farmer's daughter's perspective enables the readers to feel the pain that she is having to endure and really feel very sorry for her loss of her love, the lion. I decided to tell the story of The Lion and The Farmer's Daughter last in my storybook because, since the lion ends up actually dying in the end, I felt like it chronologically fit best at the end of the storybook.

Bibliography: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002. Websource: Aesopica.

Image Information:
The Lion in Love. Websource: MythFolklore.

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