For my story I used an article from The Independent as inspiration. It was an article reporting that the last male white rhino in a Kenya conservancy had died and now the white rhino species had become biologically extinct. I then came up with the story that the last remaining white rhinos decide to take the fate of their species in to their own hands and plan to escape from the conservancy to find other species of rhinos.
Initially I was unsure about how to start the task and was unsure how to write the story, how I would format it and whether to write it in the style of a newspaper report or like a traditional story. Here is the story:
The golden sun rose over the Kenyan Ol Pejeta Conservancy, just like usual, sending warm rays of sunlight on to the backs of the white rhinos. The northern white rhinos had been in the Kenyan Wild Life Conservancy for years and had grown up in conservation. Although this seemed like a normal day, bad news was on the horizon that would change the lives of Sudan, Najin and Fatu forever.
Elodie Sampere, a ranger at the
conservancy, had just began her usual morning checks making sure the rhinos
were all fine when she was startled to find Suni, one of the male rhinos, lying
on his side and apparently not breathing. She quickly asked the other rangers
to come and check the rhino; “Not breathing?” one of them asked, his eyes wide with
fear, while the others rangers exchanged nervous glances – if Suni died there
would only be one male rhino left, Sudan, who was too old to be used in
breeding programmes and the death would be devastating for the northern white
rhino species.
After around an hour tending to and
looking over Suni, the rangers confirmed that he had died of natural causes.
“At least Suni didn’t fall prey to poachers” Kirui, one of the rangers,
exclaimed sounding quite relieved. “Yeah” another ranger replied, agreeing with
Kirui. Then the rangers fell silent before discussing options on how to save a
species that had just become biologically extinct.
Even though the death of Suni posed a great
sadness and difficulty to the rangers, the other rhinos at the conservancy felt
even worse. As night fell, Sudan, Fatu and Najin met to discuss the day’s
events. “I only spoke to him yesterday!” Najin stated, clearly distressed by
Suni’s death. Sudan and Fatu looked at her then bowed their heads, too sad to
talk. Then after a few minutes had passed, Fatu, the young female rhino spoke.
“We have to escape.” She blurted out.
“What!?”
Najin and Sudan replied, looking utterly perplexed. Fatu took a deep breath
then repeated her sentence; “we need to escape – soon” she added.
“But where
would we go?!” asked Najin who looked extremely nervous and on the brink of
extreme panic. “I’m too old!” Sudan shouted, stomping his hoof on the dusty
ground. Fatu sighed but continued to speak to her friends. “The humans act too
slowly! With Suni gone our species will die out. We need to find the southern
white rhinos if we are to survive!” Najin and Sudan stared at her, shocked by
her drastic proposition. Sudan, the old male rhino, finally spoke up in a quiet
voice, “I am too old to go..” his words were met with much protesting but he
stomped his hoof and Nagin and Fatu became quiet again and he continued “.. but
I agree that you two should at least try to escape. I used to know of a group
of southern white rhinos but it may prove difficult finding them..” he trailed
off. Fatu was happy her plan had been accepted by Sudan, but Najin was
fidgeting and clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “Maybe we should just trust
the humans to save us; they’ll know what to do!” Najin said while looking
eagerly at her friends hoping she could persuade them.
“No. We
trusted the humans and look what happened. I agree it will be dangerous with
the poachers desperate for our horns, but it is a risk we will have to take”.
Fatu looked determined. Nagin looked disappointed but finally agreed somewhat
begrudgingly.
The three rhinos were awake all night
discussing plans of Fatu and Najin’s escape until finally they had a firm plan
in place. “Good luck” Sudan said looking at Fatu and Najin- both of the female
rhinos looked slightly apprehensive about their risky journey, whether or not
they would even be able to find a way out of the conservancy’s boundaries. The
journey would be a long one with the conservancy spanning 90 000 acres. They
had planned to set off the next day, and as uncertain as they were about the
plan, they were certain it was better than putting the fate of their species in
to another’s hands, especially when those hands were responsible for the
eradication of their species.
