Ulminka By Olivia

A thousand years ago, out in the endless country, there was a very strange animal called Ulminka. She had strong deer antlers, her back legs had zebra stripes, she had a horse's soft mane and a giraffe's delicate tail. She also had a camel hump and thick front legs like an elephant.

One sunny day after Ulminka had eaten her breakfast of grass, Horse came trotting over.

"What an ugly animal you are" Horse exclaimed. "I've got a beautiful blonde coat, a dark brown mane and a beautiful tail. But you are a big mixture of animals! Yuck!" And he trotted away with his head held high in the air.

Ulminka was very sad indeed.

Next Leopard strutted towards her. He told Ulminka she was the most disgusting creature in all the land. Remember that in this time, long ago, all the lands were joined together so all of the land was a very, very long way.

Now Ulminka was really upset. So upset, that she wanted to run all the way up 'The Great Hills of Sunshine'. That was the name of the hills she had seen in the distance. She hurtled towards them at great speed!

Before she knew it, it was nightfall and she was only about half way up the hills. They were huge! She decided to sleep under a big shady tree for the night. In the morning when the sun was still rising she continued on her way. By midday she made it up to the top and she felt exhausted!

"AT LAST" she puffed and let out a great big sigh. "Now I have escaped those silly teasing animals." She nibbled on tasty Kauri tree leaves that only grew at the top of the hill. After that she had a well deserved nap.

By the time Ulminka woke up it was all dark and it must have been somewhere near the middle of the night. She wondered what had woken her up. There was a little squeaking sound behind her. She turned around and squinted into the darkness. Ulminka could see a little creature scurrying through the grass.

"Who are you?" Ulminka asked a little bit frightened because the tiny creature was heading towards her. Slowly Ulminka backed away but the squeaking creature kept following her.

"What are you?" Ulminka shouted quite terrified.

"I'm a mouse" squeaked the creature.

Ulminka was relieved. She was so glad that it was just a pocket-sized mouse, but the mouse kept following her wherever she went.

"Why are you following me?" she wanted to know.

"I am so cold" said the mouse sadly "and I'm a plain old mouse with nothing to keep me warm. Could I please cuddle up to you? You've have got a beautiful stripy, spotty and warm coat. I love it. It is much better than my plain old grey coat."

Ulminka answered immediately. "Of course you can cuddle up to me." Now she knew that even though other animals may laugh at her different body, she was special. They were so plain and ordinary but she was unique and remarkably beautiful.

"Tomorrow I can carry you down The Great Hills of Sunshine if you would like" Ulminka said, feeling like the happiest animal in all the land (and that was a very, very long way indeed!)

"Thank you!" squeaked Mavolo, the mouse.

"But for now go to sleep" Ulminka told him.

That night Ulminka had really happy dreams and her happy mood continued the next morning. In fact she was so happy that she got all the way down 'The Great Hills of Sunshine' with Marvolo holding on tightly to her back in one day.

"I remember this down here" Marvolo sighed, once they were down. "Thank you very much. I love it where it is all grassy."

"You're welcome" smiled Ulminka. She then noticed Horse trotting towards her with Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Bear.

"There's the strange animal" Horse said with a little bit of a wicked smile.

"She's disgusting and silly. She's horrible" Leopard agreed, frowning.

"Stripes and spots look outrageous together" Elephant exclaimed.

"Look at that silly lump on your back" giggled Rhino.
"And she looks so pleased with herself" added Bear, and they all started laughing loudly.

Normally, Ulminka would start crying but now she announced "Yes but all of you are so plain and ordinary and you can barely tell the difference between two of the same kind of animals when they are the same colour. But you know I am me because I am different. I am more special than any of you. Yes, even you Horse" (because Horse had started scowling at her).

"Come on" Horse growled to the others. "Let's go somewhere better than here."

So all the animals stalked away, never to be seen again.

Ulminka grew to be the happiest and most wise animal in all the land and that was a very, very, very long way indeed.