Why the lizard has a flat body - A silly story
Have you ever watched a lizard? It has a flat body and it can run very fast. It can also sit still in the sun for hours, but it can not sit up on it's behind like a dog or a cat and do not have legs underneath its body, only to the sides.
But why is that and why does a lizard have such a flat body? Let me tell you what happened long ago.
A long time ago Frog and Lizard were very good friends. Some people even thought they were brothers, because they almost looked the same with their fat round bodies.
They would spend the day playing around, sitting on the rocks and catching insects.
One day frog said, "I am tired of this swamp we live in. I am sure there must be a lot of other beautiful places which we have not seen yet."
They sat around for a while longer and then suddenly Lizard got an idea. "Why do we not go and find another place where we can live?"
Frog thought this was an exciting idea and before you could say 'we are going to look for another place to stay' he and Lizard set off on their adventure.
They walked and walked and saw a lot of interesting things. They saw beautiful trees, long grass and a lot of animals. They climbed through a fence and kept on walking.
Before long they met up with King Lion. He wanted to know where they were off to and they told him that they were searching for a better place to live.
King Lion said "That is all good and well, but remember, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence."
Frog and Lizard had no idea what that meant so they just carried on walking.
They met up with Owl. He was old and very clever and when they asked him what it meant what Lion said, Owl explained.
"It means that sometimes we are not happy with what we have, and we think another place or something else will make us happy, but it does not mean because it looks better it will make us happier."
Frog and Lizard did not really listen to Owl and just kept walking.
Not far from there they saw a herd of elephants. The elephants were standing close to the water and pulling out plants and small trees and lifting up rocks and throwing them to one side.
"I wonder what they are doing", Frog said, "lets go ask them."
They quickly set off towards the elephants and when they got close to the biggest elephant, holding a huge rock in his trunk, Lizard shouted, "Hey elephant, what are you doing?"
The elephant got such a fright that he dropped the rock..... right on top of Lizard.
Frog managed to hop to the side, but he was screaming and crying about his poor friend that was underneath the rock.
The elephant felt very bad and he slowly lifted the rock up. Do you know what they saw?
There was Lizard, still alive, but his round body was now flat and his four legs stuck out on the side of his body. He looked totally different than what he use to and he also could not sit up straight any more. He just quickly ran away and hid between the rocks.
And that is the reason why up to this day lizards has flat bodies and they will always run away as fast as they can if you get to close to them, because they are scared that another rock will land on them, and this time they will be as flat as a pancake....
Lizard and Frog went back to their own swamp and every night when they stared at the moon they would say "The grass is really not always greener on the other side of the fence..."
