When they got there, Rabbit and Jackal stayed behind because they were scared that the strange animal would swallow them too. Leopard and Hippo ran forward to attack the strange animal … but when they saw another hippo and leopard running towards them, they ran away screaming, “A monster! A monster!”

The four animals ran to find Lion and told him the story of the strange animal.

“It swallowed a rabbit, a jackal, a leopard and a hippo,” explained the animals, all talking at the same time.

“It also swallowed the whole veld,” added Rabbit.

“And the animals in its stomach wanted to attack us!” said Hippo.

Lion had never heard of such a thing, so he immediately called his pride of lions together and they rushed off to attack the monster. Rabbit, Jackal, Leopard and Hippo followed closely behind.

On their way, they came across Monkey, who looked like he was searching for something. He jumped in front of Lion.

“Oh Lion, I am so glad to see you,” he said. “Please help me find my mirror. I think someone has stolen it.”

“Out of the way, Monkey. We have something more important to do. We are rushing to attack a monster that has swallowed animals and the veld,” said Lion impatiently.

The monkey moved out of the way but decided to follow the animals because he wanted to see what this monster looked like.

When the animals got near to where the mirror was, the lions, Hippo and Leopard stood still and prepared to attack. Then they ran towards the mirror! But when they saw a group of angry animals running towards them, they all scattered into the long grass. Then some of them lay flat on the ground, some hid behind bossies and some climbed into the trees.

When the monkey realised that what the animals were terrified of was his mirror, he burst out laughing. He ran to it and, looking at himself laughing, said, “I have been looking for you the whole day, my mirror.”

When the other animals saw Monkey in front of the strange animal and how friendly the monster was to him, they crept out from where they were hiding and started asking Monkey questions about the strange animal.

“This is a mirror, it’s not an animal. You look at yourself in it. See, that’s me in the mirror,” explained Monkey, holding up the mirror.

When the animals heard this, they all had a good laugh and spent a long time just looking at themselves in the mirror.