The Zoo - A Story By Matt Ko.

The king sat on a rock. Towering over the jungles, hanging gardens, and animals. His eyes were devoured by the morning sun, watching all the tigers fight and watching the baby birds be fed. Tigers prefer to attack one another, and birds prefer to live together. As his eyes wandered down to the surface of his beautiful hanging gardens, he noticed the animals that roamed there were not so simple. They didn’t love each other or kill one another. They did both. The king hopped off the rock, his eyes still stinging from the light. Glasses were new to him; he started wearing them a few years ago.

He crawled down to the jungle floors with birdseed in hand. The tigers growled. The birds flocked towards him, and he held his hand away, standing on his tippy toes so they did not eat his treats. The birds started to have fury in their eyes; their beaks seemed as sharp as iron.

The calls of the birds intensified, and the tigers sat like dogs in amusement. The king realized he ought to give the bird seed away before a flock came to him. “Come.” 

The birds flew into his hand, pecking like they had never eaten before.

He came and did this each day.

The birds were well-fed, well-loved, and safe.

As the King thought about what he had seen, he summoned one of his servants to fetch him some meat for the tigers. As the servant fetched a barrel of meat, the tigers waited patiently. They licked their lips, drooling. As the servant made haste to pour out all of the tender meat, the tigers waited patiently. The king was amused by the fear in his servant’s eyes. But he was curious about the tiger's patience. After a few minutes, they were given the meat and ate quietly.

The King walked into his castle, ready to rule for that day, week, and month. But he was still wondering about the difference in behavior between the two animals.

The next day, the king went down to the jungle.

He was wearing a glove on his hand, as the birds' rushed eating had cut his hand up before. The birds weren’t chirping today. The tigers were not fighting. The animals he had seen before in the Hanging Gardens were roaming the jungle, devouring the birds and the tigers.

The king was puzzled.