Thread by @Joannechocolat

Cup of tea; ten minutes to spare: you know what that means. #Storytime.

New folk, to explain: #Storytime; in which I write a story live and from scratch; some listen, some unfollow. And it always starts like this:

There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve.

Once, in the jungle, there was a Lion known among his folk for being greedy, vain and lazy. All the other Lions laughed at him, as did the rest of the animals. But the Lion was well-connected, so much so that one day he became King. #Storytime

“Now they will stop laughing,” he said, settling down to enjoy his reign of plentiful food and flattery. But soon he found that being King involved more than simply eating his fill and accepting the homage of his peers. #Storytime

A King must have courage and wisdom; intelligence and compassion. But the lazy lion had none of these, preferring to sleep and eat all day, and the other animals laughed at him all the more, now he was King. #Storytime

“More mane than brain!” sang the Woodpecker.
“More fur than wit!” sang the Magpie.
“Where is the King?” said the raucous Crow.
“At dinner! Always at dinner!” sang the tiny Hummingbirds. #Storytime

To the rest of the forest, the song of the birds brought a measure of comfort and laughter, for otherwise the jungle had become a dark and miserable place, filled with lawless predators. #Storytime

The worst of these were the Hyenas, who came to the jungle in search of prey, and who soon realized that the lazy King was all too easily flattered. #Storytime

They would lie around his throne, and laugh uproariously at every word he said.
“What a wit, Your Majesty! What a noble, royal wit!” #Storytime

But in the trees, the laughing birds would echo their words, not flatteringly. “What a noble, royal wit!” chirped the tits and the finches, except that somehow their intonation seemed to the King distinctly unkind, and maybe even satirical. #Storytime

“I am indeed a wit,” he declared to his crowd of braying sycophants.
“Oh yes, oh yes,” said the Hyenas. “The best, the most hilarious King!”
“And yet my people do not appreciate me,” said the King, sadly helping himself to another haunch of antelope. “Why?” #Storytime

"The animals are just foolish,” replied the head Hyena. “They listen to the brainless birds instead of hearing your Majesty.”#Storytime

“Then let the birds be silenced,” said the King with a wave of his paw. “I hereby declare that henceforth, any bird that sings shall be served as meat to my loyal Hyenas.” #Storytime

The Hyenas brayed all the more loudly at that, and set to rounding up and devouring every bird in the forest. No-one attempted to stop them, for fear of being the King’s next target. #Storytime

And soon the forest was silent, except for the braying of the hyenas and the feeble witticisms of the King, who really believed himself to be a comedian of the first order. #Storytime

But still, behind their braying cries, came a whisper from the trees, and from the ants on the forest floor, and in the streams and waterfalls - a whisper of that might have been the sound of hidden laughter. #Storytime

The end.