Legends+-+The+Beginnings+of+Rice+Shoots

The humid sticky air, the different creatures chattering about, and the feeling of trees, plants, and water were all that Stephan needed to be happy. “Oh the jungle!” he would say in a jolly tone as he made his way through the Mutalim jungle. “Tis a lovely place!” He's say as he gripped his trusty old bamboo walking stick and moved onward.
 * The Beginning of Rice Shoots **

His old bamboo stick was a very precious walking stick that had been passed down five times by his Lao ancestors, and Stephan treasured it greatly. He had come to Mutalim with a explorer team, but they had decided to split up and then meet up again in a day. This decision had seemed risky in the beginning, but they were all highly experienced explorers, and they knew their survival skills well. On one particular jungle morning stroll, Stephan came across a white seagull with one leg. Its feathers were dirty and matted, and only a stub was left were its leg should have been.

“Oh my goodness gracious meee!” squealed Stephan, for he had //never// seen a seagull in the jungle before. He gripped his bamboo staff tighter and said “M-may I ask what a seabird is doing in the middle of the jungle?! I have seen many unusual things in this jungle, but never have I laid eyes on a seagull before, and especially in the jungle of Mutalim!”

The bird gave a slight jump, and hopped closer. “Well, my family and I have been in this revolting jungle for nine and a half years me sir, and never have we came across the likes of you before….” The seagull hopped closer still. Stephan noticed with a small amount of pity, that the seagull must have had a lot of trouble getting around.

Coming to his senses, Stephan decided to find a better way to approach this new creature of the jungle. “Ahem… forgive me, my kind… bird, may I ask of your name?”

In a very memorizing voice he said, “My name is Dumbwing the III. I have two brothers, Pling, and Praven. I have never been near a beach, and I’ve never eaten a bug…I eat rice.”

"Oh my, ” Stephan thought, “what a very strange birdy, he eats //rice//?!”

The seagull seemed to have read his mind, saying, “The bugs here are too big for me, and rice tastes way better… come, I'll show you my family.” Stephan, seeing that he had nothing else much to do, he grabbed his precious bamboo staff, and followed his new friend. At last, Dumbwing came to a stop at a huge tree, its gnarled branches covered in moss and vines. “Here it is, my home sweet home!” Dumbwing said enthusiastically. With a large hop, Dumbwing flew up the tree into a small opening in the tree.

Once Stephan got into the tree he noticed the //brothers// Dumbwing was referring to were actually not his blood related family members, because he noticed with quite a shock, that they were actually a brown bear and an orange cat. The brown bear sat lazily on the top base of the tree, and seemed to be sniffing a big bug. The orange cat was perched on branch taking a nap and swinging his tail in a hypnotizing manner. He slowly opened one eye and glanced at Stephan. Unsure of what to do, Stephan cleared his throat and said; “I’m Stephan. How do you do?”

The cat gave a slight frown and replied in a bored sort of tone, “ Don’t bother me. If you wish to speak to someone, talk to Pling.” And with one swift movement, Praven the cat jumped to a higher, more suitable branch.

“Don’t mind him,” Dumbwing said, and hoped over to the big brown bear, “this is Pling, the leader and instructor of the family!” As Dumbwing explained with a proud manner in his voice ,the big bear looked up with a snap.

“ Might this be a human I see ?!” Pling gave a mighty grin and stood to his full height, towering over all of them. “ How are the humans these days?” he rumbled.

“Ah, eh, they are doing quite well I might say. I’m Stephan by the way.”

“Well Stephan, why don’t you stay for rice? It’s the best of the jungle!” Praven seemed to see that Stephan was confused an said with a sneer,” We have a rice patty out back…” he gracefully jumped from his perch and settled down by Pling.

Stephan replied in his most polite voice that he could not stay and that his partners were waiting for him by his jeep, but as he jumped from the tree, he saw with great despair that he had lost his way! With some embarrassment, he turned back and asked for directions.

“We will gratefully go with you!” Dumbwing said excitedly, but Stephan noticed that Praven did not look the least bit pleased.

 The plan to leave was well and clear, but when Stephan woke up that morning, he realized that Pling, Praven, and Dumbwing were all missing from their resting spots! Stephan began to panic. //Where had they gone to//?

During the long journey to the jeep, Stephan came to know a lot of things about his new friends. He had learned that they had all escaped from an experimental lab, and were living in hiding. He also learned Dumbwing had lost his leg in his desperate attempt of escape.

After a while though, Stephan became hungrier and hungrier. “My, I am sure hungry.” he moaned, and Pling and Praven agreed in the same amount of pain.

Dumbwing gave a slight look of fake smartness and said, “Not to worry! With my great intelligence, I used my ninja skills and snuck some rice into that old hallow bamboo stick of yours! Mwahaha!”

Praven, Pling, and Stephan all exchanged looks that had the same meaning, //he’s insane//.

Dumbwing flew over an grabbed a stick from the jungle floor and used it to push up the sticky rice inside the bamboo staff. “See? Wasn’t that ingenious?!” And with that he quickly ate some of the rice. After a while, they ignored their fears of uncleanliness and they merrily ate the delicious sticky rice, but soon after, they reached the jeep.

“Well, I guess this where we say goodbye.” The animals could all see that Stephan was pained to leave his dear friends.

“Well,” Dumbwing said slowly,” we all sometimes wonder what our real habitats are and the way to find out is to leave this annoying jungle, right?” he looked over at Praven and Pling and they both gave unwavering nods. “So, if its not to much trouble, we would like to come with you. Would that be alright?” A smile had broken out on Stephan’s face indicating that he wanted them to come along.

And so they all went back to Laos and they all shared their newly invented rice shoots, which had become quite popular might I say.