Frederick, the elephant toddler

Frederick, the elephant toddler 
was left home alone for the first time ever. 
He lived with his parents 
in the Elephants' Forest. 
Frederic was a very nosy young elephant. 
He opened the door s’owly,  
and a bit hesitatingly, 
he went out the door.  
Proudly carrying his trunk, 
he went on a walk through the Elephants' Forest. 
At every step he would meet other elephants 
who went for a walk in the forest.
"Good day, Frederick," he was greeted by the elephants 
he would meet.
"Good day," answered Frederick raising his trunk.
"Are you going for a little walk?" asked his uncle.

"Yes, I am," answered Frederick.
"Are you well, Frederick?" asked one of his aunties.
"Yes, auntie, I am very well, indeed!" answered Frederick.
Frederick went further and further away  
from his house. He hasn't even realized 
that he was already past the Elephants' Forest  
and that he has reached an unfamiliar forest. 
There, in this forest, he met a lion.

Frederick has never seen a lion before.
"Good day," said Frederick, "my name is Frederick. And, who are you ?"
The Lion did not answer. 
He just started roaring as loud as he could. 
His roar was so loud  that the trees started to shake.
" Whatls going on here?" asked a startled Frederick. 
"Can't you talk?" Surprised, the Lion asked: 
"Have you no fear of me at all?" 
"Fear? What is fear?" asked Frederick.
"Fear is a feeling that comes when one sees a lion, 
and starts to tremble," the Lion replied.
"I only tremble when I am cold," said Frederick.
"You are very  brave," the Lion said.
"Brave? What does brave mean?" asked Frederick.
"Brave means not to tremble when we see a lion," 
the Lion said. "Until now, all those

who saw me were scared and ran away. 
You, Frederick, were the only one who was not frightened."
"This is not so good for you", said Frederick. 
"It means that you are always alone." 
The Lion agreed. Frederick was absolutely right. 
Indeed, he felt that he was very, very lonely.
"Come with me," said Frederic.

There, in the middle of the forest, 
they met a magician who was wearing a huge hat. 
The magician was sitting under a 
tree doing magic tricks. He was turning flowers 
into baloons, and baloons into flowers.
He was smiling, very content with himself. 
One could tell that doing magic was much fun for him.
 "Why is he doing this?" Frederick asked himself.
Almost one hundred baloons were gently 
floating above the forest. Every baloon 
was bigger than a tree, and had 
unbelievably beautiful colours. 
The baloons looked like a dancing rainbow.
The magician saw that Frederick 
was staring at him and asked:
"Donlt you like my baloons?"
"Oh yes, yes, I must admit that I do," said Frederick.
All of a sudden, the Lion emerged 
from behind a tree and started to roar 
the way he always did. The Lion roared so loudly 
that one of the baloons blew up.

The magician started to shake and tremble with fear.
"Donlt be afraid," said Frederick. 
"The Lion is my friend and 
he will not harm you or anyone else."
But the magician continued to tremble.  
"Could you please also tell him that you donlt harm anyone?" 
Frederick asked the Lion. "Frederick is right," the Lion said, 
"I just roar for my own pleasure."
"I like to roar just as you like to do magic," 
the Lion told the magician, "and I was very lonely until I met Frederick."   

Thereafter, the magician did not fear the Lion anymore.
"I would like to be your friend," the magician told the Lion.
"Anyone who is the Lion's friend is also my friend," said Frederick.
The three friends started walking. And walking in a threesome was more fun 
than walking as a pair. And so they walked into the forest, 
and they went deeper and deeper...
Frederick was walking in front, followed by the Lion, 
and the magician was the last in their line.
At some stage the magician took off his hat,  
and… he pulled a few rabbits out of it. The Lion was very surprised. 
He was so surprised that he started roaring. 
This time he roared so hard that the rabbits 
were startled, they jumped out of the hat and ran into the forest.
"My friend," said Frederick, "can't you control yourself a little bit?"
"Yes I can, Frederick," said the Lion. "Look, I am done roaring."
The next time, when the magician pulled a rabbit out of the hat, 
the Lion needed much self-control not to start roaring. 
He was as quiet as a mouse.

He was so quiet, that the rabbit was not afraid of him at all. 
And the one that does not know fear, has no reason to run away.
"Again?" "Okay, Okay, Frederick, I am sorry," said the Lion.
And the Lion promised to be quiet, 
so as not to scare his friends. 
And thus these friends were walking and walking 
through the unknown forest... "Where are we headed?"
the Little Rabbit wanted to know.
"That's a very good question," 
said the magician, and he asked the Lion. 
In turn, the Lion asked Frederick:

The Rabbit was also happily 
jumping behind his three friends. 
Now they were four and walking in a foursome was even 
more fun than in a threesome. 
"Hey, Long Ears, now you are also our friend," 
said the other three friends. 
"You don't have to be afraid of 
the Lion when he's roaring. He's only doing it for fun," 
said the magician. "That's very true," said the Lion. 
"That's me, it's my nature." And to convince the rabbit  
that it was true, he was going to roar 
then and there, but Frederick noticed it in time, 
and when the Lion was about to open his mouth, he admonished him:
"Frederick, where are we headed?" And Frederick also didn't quite know 
the answer to this question. 
But since he was at the head of their line 
and he had to decide, he said to his friends:

"Let's go back to the Elephants' Forest. 
I know that forest, that's my home, 
and I invite you all to my place."
This idea wasn't half bad, because  his 
Mom and Dad were already worried about him. 
After Frederick and his friends walked a long, long time, they 
finally got back to the Elephants' Forest. 
His Mom and Dad were very happy to see  
that Frederick was back home.

 "Where have you been?" 
they asked Frederick. "I've been very far away," 
answered Frederick, "and look, here are my new friends."
In the afternoon they had a very big party, 
to which all the elephants from 
the Elephants' Forest were invited. 
Frederick's father played the accordion, 
while the Lion was blowing the bass tuba, 
the Rabbit was pinching the strings of the contrabass, 
Frederick was hitting the drums and 
all the other guests were dancing to the music.

The only one who wasn't dancing 
was the magician. He was standing in the middle 
of the dancing crowd and was busy 
doing his magic tricks and letting  
thousands of baloons out of his enormous hat.
The ballons were very beautiful 
and the party was all the merrier with them.