In January 2021, Fighting Words opened the “What Lives In Your Imagination” project and invited young writers aged 7-12 to send us stories about animals, real or imagined!
The response was fantastic. We only had space to include one of the 126 stories here, but please take the time to read all of the stories and poems on our website.
Tadhg Takes the Train
Tadhg is a tiger. He has lived in the zoo all his life. Early one morning he was walking in his enclosure, when he realised that the gate was open, so he ran out.
“I have been trying to get out of here for so long,” said Tadhg. So he left his enclosure to take a walk around. He saw a sign saying Fota Wildlife Park. He saw lots of different animals. He even saw Max the monkey playing with the other monkeys. Tadhg often spoken to Max through their enclosures.
When Max saw Tadhg he climbed across. Max and Tadhg wandered around the park until they arrived at the train station. Max told Tadhg that behind a train door was a secret stash of fresh meat.
“I will show it to you, but it is in a magic door that you will have to go through to get the meat. Are you ready for an adventure?”
“Yes, I am ready.” Tadhg got in and the door shut behind him.
To Tadhg’s horror the train started to move and even worse there was no juicy meat, only a bunch of screaming people. This frightened Tadhg and he hid in a corner of one of the train carriages. He had never seen so many people this close before without his glass screen. He waited till the train stopped and all the people ran out. Tadhg crept out through the magic door. He stepped out on to the busy platform and hid behind a big box. Even though Tadhg was brave in his enclosure, he did not feel brave now.
After a while Tadhg saw some friendly faces. The keepers from Fota came to rescue him and to bring him home. Tadhg did not know that Max the monkey was such a joker.
