{"id":646,"date":"2021-08-01T11:19:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T05:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=646"},"modified":"2021-08-01T11:20:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T05:50:49","slug":"goose-and-falcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/08\/01\/goose-and-falcon\/","title":{"rendered":"Goose and Falcon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">A goose and her three goslings lived near a vast lake under a thick tree canopy. The goose was protective of her young children as they were unable to take care of themselves. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">She had particularly forbidden them from swimming towards the far end of the lake, where there was a mountain. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">You must never venture near the foothills. That mountain is the home to fierce falcons which you cannot escape or fight,\u201d she told them every time they went together for a swim in the lake. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The goslings always wondered why their mother had forbidden them from going near the mountain. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">This lake is so vast. I want to swim from one end to the other,\u201d wished one of them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_647\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-647\" style=\"width: 1091px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-647\" src=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-300x218.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1091\" height=\"793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-300x218.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-1024x743.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-768x558.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-480x348.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM-689x500.jpeg 689w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2021-08-01-at-9.01.18-AM.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1091px) 100vw, 1091px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">That mountain is so beautiful. I want to go near it,\u201d wished the other. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Why does mother never let us swim to the far corner of the lake?\u201d asked the third gosling. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">One day, they made a plan to swim to the forbidden edge of the lake, thinking their mother was not letting them have all the fun. They thought the presence of the falcons was a scare made up by the goose.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">As the goose went for a nap in the afternoon, the goslings got into the water and swam in a line, slowly at first so as not to wake up their mother. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Soon, they were out of sight. As they reached the middle of the lake, they were elated that they could swim so far alone. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">When they were finally near the edge of the lake, a huge shadow covered the surface of the water. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The goslings looked up to see a large bird hovering over them in the sky. It was a falcon. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The goslings understood that their mother had been right all the time. They knew their lives were in danger. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">As the falcon circled around them, the goslings gave up, waiting for their fate. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The falcon locked his eyes on the target and dived. Just when he was about to reach his prey, the goose appeared from nowhere and saved her children. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The falcon withdrew, knowing the goose was too big for him to fight.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Amiri;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The goslings heaved a sigh of relief. The goose mother helped her children swim back to safety. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A goose and her three goslings lived near a vast lake under a thick tree canopy. The goose was protective of her young children as they were unable to take care of themselves. She had particularly forbidden them from swimming towards the far end of the lake, where there was a mountain. \u201cYou must never&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,13,168,167,169,12,8,170,171],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-children-stories","tag-fairytales","tag-falcon","tag-goose","tag-goslings","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kids-stories","tag-lake","tag-mother","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646"}],"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=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}