{"id":577,"date":"2021-03-21T14:19:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T08:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=577"},"modified":"2021-03-21T14:19:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T08:49:58","slug":"the-island-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/03\/21\/the-island-king\/","title":{"rendered":"The Island King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, there was a small island in the Pacific Ocean. It was ruled by a kind king. His subjects, who were less in number, loved him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The people of the island had never known fighting. They cared for each other and lived in harmony.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The island was beautiful, its air refreshing. The sea surrounding it was as clean as glass. It was like a paradise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One day, a king of a mighty nation passed by the island with his fleet of armed ships. When he saw the island, he could not resist laying his hand on it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis island shall be mine from this day. Take all your men and capture it,\u201d he told the chief of his army.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The chief commanded his army of thousands to surround the island and then sent an ambassador to the island king to ask him to surrender.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur king wants this island. You shall give up this place and leave with all your subjects immediately,\u201d the ambassador told the island king.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As the ambassador left, the island king called his courtiers for counsel. They suggested him to surrender and leave the place for everyone\u2019s safety.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have a big army. We only have 200 soldiers. They cannot defend us against the mighty enemy if we choose to fight,\u201d said the oldest among the courtiers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the courtiers were talking, a young soldier guarding the king\u2019s court interrupted. \u201cWe cannot give up our home like that,\u201d he shouted, speaking out of turn.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone, including the king, turned their heads to see who it was.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCome forward and explain yourself,\u201d the king ordered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWinning doesn\u2019t need an army, it takes courage. If we give up so easily, we might never find a home anywhere,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut how do we fight this mighty enemy?\u201d asked the king.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will fight with courage and strategy.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The king had no idea about what his guard was planning, but he wanted to save his home, his subjects.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou lead our soldiers and defeat the enemy,\u201d the king told the guard.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The guard ordered all the soldiers to gather with their swords, axes, bows and arrows. He led them to the caves on the island.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMake war cries as loud as you can,\u201d ordered the guard commander. The soldiers did as ordered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The echo from the walls amplified the war cries and the noise coming out of the caves suggested that there were thousands of soldiers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the enemy heard it, it got scared. It thought it was up against a bigger force. Not wanting to lose, the enemy force quickly retreated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The chief of the enemy force returned to its king. \u201cThis island has an army bigger than ours. It is best that we do not wage a war against them. We shall look for some other island to conquer,\u201d he told the king.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The king did not even give it a second thought. He went by his army chief\u2019s decision. Thus, a war was terminated before it could start.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, there was a small island in the Pacific Ocean. It was ruled by a kind king. His subjects, who were less in number, loved him. The people of the island had never known fighting. They cared for each other and lived in harmony. The island was beautiful, its air refreshing. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,35,13,99,8,100,56],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-amusing","tag-courage","tag-fairytales","tag-island-king","tag-kids-stories","tag-war","tag-wisdom","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}