The three animals were living happily in their animal kingdom and had a set routine by now. Torty was an early riser, so she would get up early in the morning and do all the morning chores. Pingoo who got up early as well, would help her or he would fish for a while. Willoo who got up very late, was responsible for cooking lunch. Both Willoo and Pingoo went out in the forest to get more food as needed. Dinner was a group effort and the three each had their favorite places to sleep. Torty would curl up in an old basket, Willoo would hug a pillar and go off into dreamland or sleep on a tree in the garden outside. Pingoo would sleep in the pond.
Life was going on as usual and it was on a hot summer day, that Pingoo decided to explore a new side of the forest. Willoo was with him, and he agreed, because he wanted to see if he could find a honeycomb and taste what honey was like. The two of them set off on a path they had never gone on before. They walked and walked and walked and finally in the late afternoon, they saw that the path led to a small field and there was a wide road beyond that.
Willoo was a little disappointed as no beehive or honeycomb was in sight and Pingoo realized that the wide road was the way to where humans lived in cities and villages. So they began to turn around to go back. As they took a few steps, they heard the sound of crying. Both stopped short and looked at each other. Then they began to look around for the source of the sound. It was Willoo who finally found a little girl, who was sitting by the path to the field and crying her heart out.
“Should we go up to her and ask her why she is crying?” he asked Pingoo, his eyes wide at having seen a human girl crying like that.
The friendly penguin nodded his head, and the two of them carefully walked up to the girl. “Hello, why are you crying? Can we help you?” asked Pingoo while Willoo watched a little shyly.
Startled, the little girl looked up and saw a koala bear and a penguin (of all things) looking at her soulfully. She was so surprised she stopped crying.
“Can we help?” asked Pingoo again. “You can talk?????????” exclaimed the girl and pinched herself hard at the same time. “Owww…I am not dreaming, but a penguin cannot talk!”
“I can too!” piped up Willoo. “Good Heavens!” said the girl.
“Welll..we can talk but we never do in front of grown-up humans because we don’t want to. You are a little girl, so we can talk to you…”explained Pingoo. “Oh my..”said the little girl and then said, “I was with my friends, playing in this field, when I fell asleep. When I woke up, they had left and I am crying because I don’t know how to get back to my home!”
Pingoo felt very sorry for the nice little girl and he knew what it was like to be left behind suddenly in the forest. So he shyly patted her hand and said, “We will help you find your way back. But it is almost dark now and it is better if we try tomorrow. Why don’t you spend the night at our house?”
“You have a house too?” exclaimed the girl, whose name was Logan. “Yes, right in the middle of the forest!” said Willoo. He went and hugged the girl and said, “We will keep you safe. Come with us!”
Logan dried her tears and set off on the path with her two new friends. Pingoo and Willoo both walked ahead, while she followed. “We must help her get back or her parents will worry!” whispered Willoo and Pingoo nodded.
After the long walk back, they reached their house, and the sight of it had Logan exclaiming in wonder again. Willoo and Pingoo smiled and they took her inside to introduce her to Torty. When Torty said “Hello” in her soft voice, Logan smiled for the first time. “You are all very kind! Thank you so much!” she said. “My name is Logan…”
“Lolan?” asked Willoo who couldn’t pronounce certain alphabets correctly. “No, L-O-G-A-N” said Logan.
“Lolan” said Willoo again. “Oh forget it, call me Lolo” said Logan. “My granny calls me that, and it is easier to say..”
“Lolo” said Torty, Pingoo, and Willoo together. And so Lolo it was. Torty found Lolo a nice bedroom upstairs where she could sleep and gave her some fish for supper.
“I never knew animals could be so smart!” said Lolo eating her fish and shaking her head in wonder.
All of them went off to bed, after their supper, and as Lolo drifted off, she thanked God for bringing her to these kind animals.
Note: The image has been sourced from Google.