Don't you ever underestimate the talents of Your friends.
Once upon a time, in the woods in the northern area of Pakistan, there lived many different kinds of animals. This area is famous for high mountains and very dense forests, and for hundreds of years these animals lived side by side as friends and helped one another in times of need and difficulty.

Sometimes the big bear liked to dance, and all of the animals would get together to see his magnificent performance. The Langoors (long tailed monkeys) would hang upside-down from the branches by their long tails. The elephants would use their long trunks to pick apples and peaches and apricots from the trees and share them among their friends. The snakes, with their beautifully patterned skin, would wrap themselves around the trunks and branches of the trees like brightly coloured banners. And the birds would sing beautiful songs while the hare used the shell of the tortoise to beat out a rhythm on his drum.

Often, by popular request, the proud peacock would display his colourful tail feathers behind him in the shape of a huge fan and begin a graceful dance that would last for many hours. All of the animals would clap and cheer at this impressive display.

One day, after just such a performance by the bear and the peacock, the young hare became jealous that he was not being praised in such a way. He wanted to show all of the animals that he too could do something impressive. The fact that he was being ignored made the hare quite ill tempered. He even began teasing the tortoise. ‘How slow and almost dead you are,’ said the hare. ‘The only thing that you are useful for is as a stick for my drum.’

The tortoise did not like being teased in this way and said, ‘You are not being fair. I can do things too!’

‘What things?’ replied the hare. ‘You are simply too slow to do anything. If there was a fire you would even be too slow to escape and so you would perish in the flames.’

The tortoise, always so patient and kind, did not like being ridiculed by the hare and was tired of his friend always bragging about how fast he could run. ‘I can escape from danger just as well as you,’ said the old tortoise. ‘I could even compete with you in a race,’ he announced.

The hare was astonished at such a challenge. ‘You!’ he exclaimed. ‘You would like to race with me?  Ha, Ha, Ha!’ The hare laughed so much that he fell off the rock that he was sitting on and collapsed onto the ground.

When the hare finally dragged himself up from the ground, he looked at the tortoise once more with a smug grin on his face. ‘And I suppose you would win this race?’ he asked. ‘Are you sure you are not dreaming?’ And with that, he began laughing some more.

The tortoise was very annoyed with the conceited hare. ‘Who are you to make assumptions and doubt my determination?’ he asked.

‘Ok, Ok,’ conceded the hare. ‘We will have a race!’

All of the animals had been listening to the tortoise and the hare and they all agreed that the race would take place the following morning at sunrise.

The following morning arrived and the tortoise made his way to the clearing in the forest where the race would begin.

The finish line was at the foot of the nearest hills where the wise owl sat watching over the racetrack with his yellow flag. He was the referee and his decision would be final. The chattering parrot was given the duty of announcing the start of the race, and the hare suggested that whoever lost the race would invite all of the animals to a tasty dinner. The tortoise agreed reluctantly. Now that he was actually going to have to race, he was not at all sure that he would be able to win against the speedy hare.

Both the hare and the tortoise stood at the start line with the other animals standing here and there along the sides of the racetrack. The parrot called out in his shrill voice: ‘On your marks, get ready, steady… one, two, three, go!’

The hare immediately skipped and hopped from the start line and in seconds reached a tree several metres away. He sat beneath the tree and looked back at the tortoise who had only managed to move a couple of inches from the starting line. ‘Oh, I can’t stand this pitiful sight,’ the hare said to himself. ‘I think I will go and pull out some carrots from the field and have my breakfast while I am waiting for the old tortoise to catch up. Continue..... https://oluwatobipeter.com/2019/10/16/a-tortoise-and-hare-in-a-race/.