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Hyena and Raven
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Hyena and Raven
Writer: Ann Nduku
Illustration: Wiehan de Jager
© African Storybook Initiative, 2014
Hyena and Raven
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Hyena and Raven were once great friends,

even though they were quite different in some ways.

Raven could fly but Hyena was only able to walk.
Hyena and Raven
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One day Hyena, curious to know something about his friend, asked Raven,

"What is this white thing which is always below your neck?"

Hyena and Raven
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Raven answered, "It is the fatty meat which I usually eat in the sky.

I have been eating it for so long now it is stuck on my neck."

On hearing about meat, saliva started pouring out of Hyena's

mouth for he was greedy and he loved meat very much.

Hyena really wanted to eat that meat. But how could he

reach the meat in the sky if he had no wings to fly?

"Please my friend," he asked Raven, "lend me some feathers so that I

can make myself some wings. I really want to be able to fly like you."

Hyena and Raven
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Raven was not mean, so he gave him some feathers.
Hyena sewed them together into wings.
He fastened them to his body, and

tried to take off into the sky.

But he was far too heavy for the few feathers to carry him.
So he had to think of another plan.
Hyena and Raven
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"Please my friend," he asked Raven, "could I hold

onto your tail as you fly up into the sky?"

"All right," said Raven. "I know how much you

want to fly. Let's do it tomorrow morning."

When day came, Hyena took hold of Raven's tail

and Raven flew up into the sky.

Hyena and Raven
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Raven flew and flew and flew until he was exhausted.

But Hyena said, "Just a little further, my friend!"

He could see the white and fatty meat just above them,

and his mouth was watering.

Hyena and Raven
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When they reached the first piece of fatty meat, Hyena felt a jerk.

One of Raven's tail feathers came off in his hand!

Then there was another jerk, and another.

Raven felt much lighter, and the ache in his tail was going.

He sang: Raven's feathers, unpluck yourselves.

Raven's feathers, unpluck yourselves.

In response, Hyena sang the opposite:
Raven's feathers hold on, don't unpluck yourselves.

Raven's feathers hold on, don't unpluck yourselves.

Hyena and Raven
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Finally, the feathers could not hold Hyena anymore.

He was in the middle of nowhere in the sky.

He jumped onto the fatty meat thinking that as he ate,

the fatty meat would hold him.

But as he tried to hold and eat the 'meat',

all he felt was moist cloud!

Hyena and Raven
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By now he was falling fast. "Help, help!" he shouted.
But no one could hear him. Raven was lost in the clouds.
Hyena and Raven
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Hyena fell on the ground with a crash

and lay silent for some minutes.

He woke up howling in pain, with a broken leg

and dark scars all over his body.

Hyena and Raven
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From that day to now, Hyena limps and he has many scars on his body.
He has never been able to fly.
And he and Raven are no longer friends.
Hyena and Raven
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Hyena and Raven
Writer: Ann Nduku
Illustration: Wiehan de Jager
© African Storybook Initiative, 2014
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
(CC-BY) Version 3.0 Unported Licence
Disclaimer: You are free to download, copy, translate
or adapt this story and use the illustrations as long as you
attribute or credit the original author/s and illustrator/s.