MyStory

"Arte (factually) Speaking" Story-Writing Competition

1st Prize Winner (Lower Secondary Category)

Contest ID: 6
Name: Li Zhilong
Gender: Male
Age: 15-year-old
NRIC: SXXXX390A
Nationality: Singaporean
School: Raffles Institution

Artefact: View of a Tiger in a Cage

Museum: National Museum of Singapore

Image Courtesy of National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board

Men and Tiger

He was out hunting for food for his family; two human bodies would be enough. They were out hunting for money for their families; one big tiger would be enough.

Distantly, from the cove he was living in, the great tiger could see a weak, twinkling light among the forest and he could smell the scent of tasty humans. His family had been suffering for that entire week without a proper meal. So this time he must succeed, or all of them will be starved to death.

The two men were sitting among the dense trees carrying a flaming torch. They were talking to each other in a polite and calm manner. "This is a new tiger-trapping method I learnt from my friend, he caught more than five of them last month and got enough to live for the entire year without working!" The older man said, "Now don’t you be afraid, the method is a bit risky, but my friend had been using it for more then ten times and he has not been eaten yet!"

The tiger’s footsteps were soundless on the dirt road but his speed was fast. He could see two muscular men sitting in a clearing, one of them carrying a torch. The only thing he wanted to do now was to fill up his own stomach first with one man and drag the other back to his cove to feed his family. Every step he took was leading him nearer to his goal and making his heart beat faster. He was confident that he was finally going to make it this time and starving would become history, as even when he was so near from the men, they were still calmly chatting with each other, not noticing that death was so near from them.

But the two men were much more confident than the tiger. They knew that the tiger was coming and they knew that the tiger did not see all the line and nets cast around them, or he would not be running so fast.

The tiger leaped into the air, aimed and plunged for his prey. But something caught him in the air, pushing him back onto the ground. He did not fall onto the ground, but he fell into somewhere deeper than the ground, something that felt like a drain. Before he could jump out of that dreadful place, wooden bars covered him up on top.

The tiger wished to be released, as he had his family to support. He tried to express his feelings by grunting loudly and jumping up and down in the cage. If the men could understand the tiger’s feelings, they might release him. But how could the humans understand his feelings and what he was trying to say? So he merely got more prodding by the thick stick.

But for the human’s case it was different. The next day when they passed the tiger to the British officers, they got more money by saying "Please, sir, we have our families to support."

All living things have feelings, we should try to understand them like the men should understand the tiger, because all living things have the right to live like us humans.

(536 words)