The new Daily Prompt is incredibly random. So, I love it! It asks us to scribble down the first 10 words that come to mind, then pick 3 of them. Those 3 are to make up our post title. I decided to go completely random and use an online random word generator. That was ballsy. I ended up with the title ‘Sunshiny Pholidota Subking’.
No joke, they were words 7, 8 and 9, in exact order. And they were the only three words that made any of much sense. I think it was meant to work out like this.
Since that is not a particularly usual phrase, I’ll break it down…
‘Sunshiny’ can refer to possessing the quality of cheerfulness or happiness, which is the definition I am running with here.
‘Pholidota’ is the zoological order comprising of the pangolins.
A ‘subking’ is basically what it sounds like. A leader that rules over part of an empire.
So, below is my (decidedly children’s) story of The Sunshiny Pholidota Subking.
Percy was a very happy pangolin. He had everything a pangolin could want.
He ruled over a great Pangolin Kingdom. He had a beautiful pangolin family. He had access to all the insects a pangolin could ever want to eat.
But there was one problem in Percy’s Pangolin Kingdom. That problem was Lara, the leopard.
Lara was a meat-eater. And pangolins are meat!
Percy was the friendliest pangolin. Everybody who ever met Percy thought he was just wonderful. So all the pangolins decided that lovable Percy should try asking Lara very nicely not to eat them.
So one day, Percy Pangolin went to visit Lara Leopard at her favourite tree.
But Lara was not in her tree this day. She was on the ground, looking sadly up at the last bunch of leaves. Her tree was dying.
Percy put on his friendliest voice and asked the leopard, “Lara, why is your tree dying?”
Lara was very surprised that the pangolin would speak to her. Usually pangolins hid from leopards. But she was too sad to chase Percy today. Lara pointed a big paw at her tree and said to Percy, “Termites are eating my tree. Termites eat wood, and my tree is wood!”
Percy thought about this and had an idea. He was a pangolin after all, and pangolins eat termites! In his nicest pangolin voice, Percy said, “Lara, we pangolins eat termites. If I eat all the termites, your tree will be saved.”
Lara thought this was very nice of the pangolin. She thought it was so nice, that she wanted to do something nice for him, too. Lara said, “Mr. Pangolin, if you eat all the termites and save my favourite tree, I will promise not to eat any of your pangolin friends anymore.”
Percy thought this was a fantastic idea. So he agreed. That night, Percy ate all the termites living in Lara’s tree. He was so full he could not eat anymore.
Lara was very grateful to her new pangolin friend. Now the termites were gone, her favourite tree would live for a very long time. She was so grateful that she would never eat another pangolin ever again.
Percy returned back to his pangolin kingdom and told the other pangolins all about how he saved Lara’s tree. All the pangolins were very grateful that Percy had saved them from the leopard. He had brought happiness to all the Pangolin Kingdom.
And Percy would always be known as the friendliest Pangolin King ever.
The End
Whimsical Eclecticist 