Story about fear: The mysterious case of the PLOP

There was once a group of rabbits that were friends from when they were little. All five of them lived in a forest near a lake where all the animals knew each other and lived in harmony. The five rabbits were known as fearless explorers, and there was no corner of the forest that they hadn’t explored or an animal that they didn’t know. That is why almost all of the animals were counting on them to get the latest news about what was happening in the forest, and who was doing what and where. Life in the forest was pretty easygoing and not much was happening. That was until one day when the rabbits were resting by the lake under a fruit tree when they suddenly heard an unknown sound, “PLOP”. One of the rabbits immediately started looking around to see what made that mysterious sound, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then a second “PLOP” came out of nowhere, and now all the rabbits were alarmed. This time all five of them searched the area but couldn’t find anything that caused that mysterious sound. One of the rabbits looked at the fruit that was next to him and pointed out that, maybe the fruit makes that sound when it falls from the tree and hits the ground. But right as the group was discussing if that was the case, another fruit fell from the tree right next to them making a “thunk” sound. The rabbits agreed that it was not the fruit falling from the tree and were getting scared. Every minute they didn’t have an answer to what was making that mysterious sound their imagination was running more and more wild. Suddenly there was a third “PLOP” and now they got really scared. They started talking about all the scary stories they heard from other animals about the monsters that supposedly live in the forest but unfortunately, they didn’t know anyone who saw the monsters and survived to tell them. Everything they heard were just stories, but they seemed more and more real with every minute passing.

Their “scary story time” was cut short by another “PLOP” and this time they started running, not wanting to be eaten by any of the monsters they heard about. They didn’t get far when they ran into the fox. The fox was surprised at how scared the rabbits were, she never saw them like that before. So she asked them, “What is wrong? Why do you look so scared?” The rabbits started shouting over each other, “The PLOP is coming! The PLOP almost got us! The PLOP came to get us all! Ruuun!” And without even giving the fox a chance to ask any more questions they started running. This scared the fox and she also started running following the rabbits. Not far away from where the rabbits saw the fox they ran past the monkey, but this time when the monkey tried to talk to them they wouldn’t stop. Luckily for the monkey, the fox did and told the monkey that the “PLOP” was coming and that they need to run away. The monkey tried to ask the fox another question, but the fox started running after the rabbits. The monkey seeing the fearless rabbits and the fox running in fear decided not to take any chances and also started running. As they were running through the forest all of them yelled “Watch out the PLOP is coming! Run for your lives!” It didn’t take long before other animals started running in panic. After the fox and the monkey joined the rabbits, so did the deer, the pig, the buffalo, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the brown bear, the leopard, the tiger, and the young lion. The more animals joined running in panic, the less any other animal asked questions or wondered why they were running in the first place.

When the animals arrived at the foot of the hill almost at the edge of the forest they came across an elderly long-haired lion who lived there. The elderly lion couldn’t make sense of what was going on and when he finally saw the younger lion running in fear he stopped him and asked what was going on. The young lion responded, “PLOP is coming! We need to get away, we need to run to safety!” The elderly lion had more questions, “Who is that? Where did you see him? What did it do that scared you? It must have been something unimaginable to scare you, as nothing in this jungle had ever scared any lion before.” The young lion looked down and answered, “Actually I don’t know anything more than that the PLOP is coming. I haven’t seen him, I don’t know what he did or can do but I’m not waiting to find out. Just look around, everyone is running and panicking, it must be dangerous.” The elderly lion got angry, “All this riot for nothing. Who told you about the PLOP?” The young lion told the elderly lion that he heard it from the tiger. The elderly lion went to find the tiger and asked him the same questions, but the tiger had the same answers as the young lion. He didn’t see anything with his own eyes, he just heard it from the others. The elderly lion investigated further and found out that the leopard told the tiger about the PLOP. So he went to find the leopard and asked him the same questions he did the tiger, and again the leopard had the same answers as the tiger. So the lion went to the next “witness” which was the bear, again the lion got the same answers. And so on it went with everyone he sought out, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the buffalo, the pig, the deer, the monkey, the fox, and finally the elderly lion got to the rabbits.

The rabbits were still a mess and were shouting and yelling over each other what the PLOP is. Of course, they were describing everything they heard in the scary stories from the rest of the animals a long time ago. The elderly lion recognized some of the descriptions as characters in stories he himself used to tell to young forest animals to scare them. Since he didn’t get any straight answers from the rabbits he roared really loud at which point the rabbits stopped shouting and yelling. The lion calmly asked which of the rabbits had seen this PLOP monster with their own eyes. All the rabbits told him the same answer, none of them saw the monster. They all just heard the sound the monster makes and that sound is “PLOP”. The lion told the rabbits that they must take him to the place where they first heard this mysterious sound. The rabbits reluctantly agreed as they were scared of the monster, but at the same time, they felt safe with the lion being with them. When they arrived at the tree by the lake where they first heard the mysterious sound they all described what they were doing at the time they first heard it. The lion looked around and didn’t see any signs of a monster ever being there. His patience was slowly starting to wear thin when he suddenly heard a “PLOP” coming from behind the tree. The rabbits also heard it and were screaming in fear that the monster is going to eat them. But the lion was brave and didn’t feel any fear, it only wanted to attack. So he did and ran right around the tree and jumped on his prey. But once in the air, the lion noticed that nothing but the lake was in front of him and now he is going to land in it. When the lion landed in the lake he made a bigger and louder “PLOP” sound than the rabbits heard before. The rabbits were sure that the monster ate the lion and started crying and yelling that the PLOP ate the lion and that they were next to be eaten. The lion finally understood what was going on and called the rabbits to come to him. The rabbits were surprised, but happy that the lion was alive. When they came to the other side of the tree they saw the lion in the lake, and it didn’t take long for another fruit to fall from the tree into the lake and it made the mysterious sound “PLOP”. The lion explained what happened and soon all the animals in the forest learned that next time before they start panicking they should make sure there is any real reason to do so.