"THE MYSTIC STREAM"

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It was too late. The damage was already done. Bobby Zebra was dead and was lying motionless in the black, murky stream from which he drank from not too long ago. It was only early spring and already the hot, cruel African sun was showing no mercy for those who inhabited the safari. This was especially true for the somewhat small zebra tribe that was living in the area. The temperature was so hot, that all of the popular and, better yet, clean drinking spots had long since evaporated, leaving the zebra's with no source of water at all. No source of water, that is, except for the dark, murky stream that loomed in the distance. The zebras never dared to drink from it, as they considered it to be cursed. However, on this one exceptionally hot day, they couldn't take avoiding it any longer.

Bobby, their tribe leader, raced into the forbidden waters and drank to his heart's content. His fellow tribe members watched in horror as their leader fulfilled his need to rehydrate. Finally, after several disgusting gulps of black sludge later, Bobby fell into the black waters beneath him with a loud splash. He was almost entirely motionless. It was over. Their leader was gone.

The zebra parents shielded their offspring's eyes with their tails and then, they all proceeded to walk away with their heads hung low. All of them, that is, except for one. Terrence Zebra, one of Bobby's closest friends, stayed put, not willing to leave his best friend so easily.

Why, he thought to himself, why did this have to happen to Bobby...? He was... By far, my closest friend...

The young zebra took several steps towards the stream, eventually stopping when he had reached the lifeless body of his best friend, still lying dead in the horribly unsanitary water. Terrence then started to cry. He mourned for what seemed like hours, just not being able to let go the fact that Bobby was gone and that he was never coming back. The sadness that he felt was almost immeasurable.

In time, his legs ultimately gave out on him, causing Terrence to fall into the darkest waters you could ever imagine. The water splashed over him like a waterfall, covering his whole body in the thick, black ooze. Some of it even managed to make it into his mouth, in which he then absent-mindedly swallowed. Not long after that, Terrence saw a spark of electricity that seemed to be coming from his own body. However, he ultimately dismissed it as nothing, allowing the sad memories of his lost friend to re-enter his mind.

"Ugh," Terrence sighed, "I can't believe Bobby is really gone..."

At that very moment, Terrence quickly sat up, completely shocked at what had just come out of his mouth.

Did I just talk?! No... I couldn't have... That's impossible... But, I know what I heard... Maybe I should try it again.

"Hello." Terrence spoke again. With that, he knew that it was true. He had just spoken, and all of a sudden, he knew what he had to do.

Terrence got himself up and out of the sludge he was laying in and raced to the nearest area that had a population of humans. With his new spoken language, Terrence convinced the humans to replenish the safari's water supply so that the zebra tribe would never have to face this horrible fate again.

In the name of his dearly departed friend, Bobby, he also had the humans cleanse the safari's water supply too, completely eradicating that horrid polluted stream of death once and for all. However, Terrence had always suspected in the back of his mind that the stream itself had allowed him to speak in the first place. He assumed it to be what he called "Bobby's Gift", a gift that would allow the zebra tribe to live in peace and harmony for the remainder of its existence.

"And who," Terrence said to himself, "could argue with that?"

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Explanation: Okay, so this is my first work from my sophomore year in high school. I wrote this for my Creative Writing class, and the assignment was a Hodge-Podge Story. I know it's a bit of a childish story, but it has some darker undertones that I think you guys might appreciate.

For those of you that don't know, a Hodge-Podge is a story that you create from a few preset topics or events. For example, my story had to include the following four things:

1. A Talking Zebra: This ended up being Terrence Zebra, of course.

2. In Early Spring: I mentioned that it was early spring in the first paragraph of this story. This provided a small part of the setting, too.

3. A Polluted Stream: This ended up being that river full of sludge that I mentioned like twenty times. Lol.

4. Someone Has Just Died: This ended up being Bobby Zebra.

Well. There you have it. The rest of the story was my playground. In other words, all of the other ideas came from me, myself, and I. Also, I had to utilize blue text to indicate Terrence's thoughts. We really need to get an italics BB code created as soon as possible...

But, anyways, this certainly wasn't my best work because I had to rush the ending and stuff. I didn't realize that my teacher was going to want it done by a certain time, so I had to speed the storyline up if I wanted a good grade. But, all the same, I hope you liked this, as I nearly killed myself trying to write it in the first place. Haha. Thank god I had some details to go on. Lol.

THANKS FOR READING!!