“You can’t go to an event or party that you weren’t invited to.”
“Really, you’re sure I can’t go?” asked Khalulu. “But I can go if I want to.”
“No way, you definitely can’t go,” contradicted Khamba the tortoise.
“Really, it’s true, you can’t go,” confirmed the tortoise’s wife. “If the antelope wanted you to come, they would’ve invited you. You don’t just go bully yourself in. You can’t take advantage of them when you haven’t been invited.”
“I don’t care, I’m going anyway,” said Khalulu. “At least I’m going to try.” “Hawu! Ahhh!” he shouted, jumping and sniffing the air. The tortoises also sniffed together.
“Fire!” they shouted in unison. “Fire! Run away!” The grass near them crackled as it burned pop pop pop. The leaves of the trees scorched red and withered to ashes as they showered down. In the distance, the cheetah took flight, carrying its cub in its mouth. The other animals followed after it, fleeing as they were followed by the ball of fire. Even the tall trees burned and shrunk away as the flames licked them.
All the animals ran as the fire chased them, driven forward by the wind. Khalulu the rabbit ran and ran. His friends the tortoises hid away in a gorge. Khalulu didn’t know to hide there, so he ran straight for the river. He saw that the reeds were green and wouldn’t burn, so he wanted to hide there. Besides, he was very thirsty and wanted something to drink. Without pausing to rest, he turned to check where the fire was and saw that the wind had changed and was no longer blowing so powerfully. All of a sudden, Khalulu tripped and fell down, bumping his head and muddling his thoughts.
When he got up, he put his hand to his painful head. It felt like something was bursting out of the crown of his head. He was completely confused, not knowing what had happened.
“Oh! Right, the burning fire...I ran away...I tripped over something...” he thought to himself. “What was it?” He searched around for it.
“A-ha! I tripped over some useless antelope horns. What’s the point of these anyway?” he wondered. “Ha! I could really use these if I get some bee’s wax. I need bee’s wax. I’ll go ask Mjuntshi the bee.”
-- -- --
Under a huge tree, the impala stepped as gracefully as cat, coming out into the moonlight where all the other animals who had been invited were.
“Hey Mgankla, it’s good to see that you’ve come,” said the hartebeest. “Yes, you too Nkonka, and it’s good to see that you’re looking well.” They continued to move about greeting all the guests who had come. The hartebeest finished at the main gate where he advised the gatekeeper to watch out for anyone trying to get in who hadn’t been invited.
“We don’t want a lion to come catch us unaware. We just don’t want to be harassed like that. And we don’t want anyone who wasn’t invited to come in for the food, so really don’t let them in.”
Long after the party had started, they were surprised to see a little creature coming straight for the gate. The gatekeeper didn’t recognize this creature. He had soft fur, long ears, and beautiful long horns. He moved close, and the gatekeeper was very surprised having never seen anything like this.
“Oh, do pardon me for coming late,” it said. “It’s because I had to go in a big circle running away from a fire.
“Who are you?” asked the gatekeeper. “What do you want here?”
“You say that you don’t know me? I’m your cousin! I’ve come to the party,” replied the creature.
“You’ve been invited?”
“All the antelope were invited, right?”
“Yes,” said the gatekeeper hesitantly. “But, are you really an antelope?”
“Yes, really, these are the horns of an antelope.”
The gatekeeper shook his head hesitantly, but he let the antelope go in with the other guests.
Most of the antelope didn’t worry themselves about seeing this new arrival. They were busy enjoying everyone who had been invited. But some were surprised. “Hawu! What’s this? We’re not familiar with this antelope.” But because it had horns they believed that it was an antelope. The antelope continued to eat and drink and dance until they were satisfied. They kept celebrating as night fell, and continued until they were warmed by the rising sun. Only the old ones were tired and nodding off to sleep.
The guest who had come later intended to leave before morning, but he was tired because of all the running away from the fire, so he fell asleep, and overslept until the sun was high in the sky.
The bushbuck who had originally examined this problem had decided that this must be a buck because he had his own horns.
But now when the bushbuck came and looked at it closely, he found something surprising. The horns were sliding down to one side. This was really interesting: the horns hadn’t grown in the usual place where they are on other antelope. They had just been stuck on with bee’s wax. And the wax was melting in the hot sun.
“Come have a look at this, Nkolongwane,” shouted the bushbuck, “you’ll see something surprising.”
“What is it?” asked Impala running over.
“Look,” said the bushbuck. Nkolongwane looked closely. Then all of a sudden the horns clattered down to the ground.
“Oh my!” he exclaimed. “I wonder if this isn’t Khalulu the rabbit. He’s beyond arrogant. Hawu! My, how stupid we were not to see that he had come,” laughed the hartebeest.
“Really, this is surprising,” echoed the bushbuck.
“Wow! What are we going to do with him? Let’s do something that he’ll never forget!”
“Definitely!” agreed the antelope looking at Khaulu.
“Let’s throw him in the pond,” said the reedbuck. “That’ll really wake him up.”
“Let’s do it!” shouted the antelope. They soon told Khalulu what they were going to do and threw him splash into the pond.
“No! Please help me,” cried Khalulu hopping. “I will drown. Please help me; you know that I can’t swim.”
“All antelope can swim,” boasted the reedbuck. “Ehe! This will really wake you up. It’s clear that you’re not an antelope. Besides, we thought you’d like to wash the wax off your head.” The bucks burst into laughter when they heard this.
Khalulu did not like to be laughed at, and he did not like the cold water. He was angry about this party and wished he could go back home where it was nice and dry. He floated until he stopped at the bank of the pond and got out of the water. He didn’t want to wait, so he quickly ran off with his ears drooping. Laughter could be heard a long way off because the antelope were so happy to see what had happened.
At sunset, the tortoises appeared, wanting to know how Khalulu had escaped from the fire that had separated them.
The rabbit didn’t respond but just said, “No, I was at the antelopes’ party. It was a great party indeed!”
“We heard,” said the tortoise’s wife coolly. “Nkonka told us that everyone there enjoyed you. He said you made them all laugh to their satisfaction.”
“Nkonka?” Khalulu stared into the eyes of the tortoise’s wife wondering how far Nkonka had gone in telling them the story.
Nothing was written on the tortoises' faces. They looked so much like they didn't know anything that Khalulu thought perhaps Nkonka hadn't told them after all.
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