River drying up, P2

There was a river drying up.... and a new king has just taken over (through some ugly unscrupulous means, of course). There was an uproar among the subjects and everyone wondered who did this terrible thing - letting the river dry up. Straightaway, they found a fish at the bottom of the river... and straightaway, the king of the jungle pointed an accusing finger at the fish. "It must be you!!!" "What have you done to the river?!?!"

Look, just like us and everyone else in this jungle, they have to drink and eat also, right? There must have been too many of them now that they have destroyed our river. So, everyone blamed the fish for drying up the river. I don't know the poor fish died of fright or heartbreak.

After a few more days, the water did not return to the river and the surrounding soil around the river was starting to crack and dust filled the air. There were no more fishes to blame. The angry king started to look for the next likely creature.

"You!" He pointed his claw at the flamingoes. "It might have been you! I have seen you waddling in the pool among the fishes before it all happened!" The poor birds were thus banished from the river. This went on and on and soon, nobody dared to go near the river for fear of being blamed. Everyone was afraid of being in the sight of the lion and his royal subjects. The witch-hunt had begun and most others who had thought otherwise, were also ostracised so badly they found that they had better leave too. So, soon after the birds had left, the antelopes and the deers followed. And the beautiful gazelles, the chimps and mousedeers.

A few hundred kilometers up-river, there was a beautiful lake. In it, there were fishes, plants and colourful rocks. There was a dam which had been built by a family of beavers. This dam had trapped the water going down river.There used to be heavier rainfall and the water flew over the dam in good times. But over the last few years, there had been lesser and lesser rainfall. Soon, the little that trickled down the river were very quickly dried up.