Once, Ucal sat by the window, thinking how wonderful it was to have friends like Kamal, Lala, Birdie, and Fluffy!.. They were so different, not alike at all. As he thought, a brilliant idea suddenly came to him.
Pleased with himself, he got down from the windowsill and wrote something on a piece of paper on the table, then made an airplane out of it.
The children were sitting on a bench, wondering what game to play. Suddenly, they saw Ucal's paper airplane land on Niqush's head. The children eagerly opened the paper. Written on it in red ink was: "From today, we are the warrior tribe of the American prairies."
A few minutes later, the warrior tribe was ready. The children decided that first, each warrior must pass a test of wisdom and bravery. The test would take place near Fluffy's den. The den would play the role of a cave. Supposedly, a scary Bison was hiding there.
The lot fell to Ucal first. He put on a headdress made of feathers, armed himself with a bow and arrows, and looked like a real Native American.
— What is your name, my red-skinned brother? — Kamal asked solemnly.
— Everyone calls me Sharp-Eye!
— Sharp-Eye, are you ready for challenges?
— I am ready! — Ucal replied firmly.
All of this no longer felt like a game to him. He felt like a true warrior of the American prairies.
— Then recite a poem, Sharp-Eye. This will be your first test.
Ucal took a deep breath, straightened up, and... realized he couldn't remember anything. His face began to flush. He felt himself slowly turning red from head to toe. Yes, now he truly looked like a real red-skinned warrior.
— So, a poem! — Ucal tried to remember something one last time. Suddenly, an idea came to him: instead of remembering, he would compose a poem himself.
He sighed deeply and composed a short poem:
— No one can escape us!
Sharp-Eye goes to the cave!..
Everyone was frozen in astonishment.
— Oh, you!.. Now that's what I call a poem! — Niqush exclaimed, — I really liked it.
Lala said:
— It seems to be by Abbas Sahhat.
Kamal smiled:
— I think this is Ucal's own, but it doesn't matter. The main thing is that he passed the first test.
The next test was for Niqush. They gave him the task to go into the cave and defeat the scary Bison. Niqush didn't really know who the Bison was, so he plunged into the den. It was warm and cozy inside. He looked around and saw two large, bright eyes staring at him from the darkness with fear. At first, Niqush was scared. He wondered, "Is this really the Bison?!"
The "Bison" behaved strangely: "Help! They're killing me!" — it screamed, rushing out of the cave.
At that moment, everyone, including Niqush himself, saw that the Bison was not a Bison at all. It was Fluffy.
Fluffy screamed in fear:
— A thief has entered my home, help me!.. Call the police!
— What thief? This is a brave warrior, — Kamal corrected him, — You know, this is a game. We are playing the game of American prairie warriors.
Niqush came out of the den. With a chicken bone stuck in his hair, he exclaimed excitedly:
— Oh dear, I was so scared! I thought Fluffy was really the Bison.
Fluffy didn't want to be the Bison; he wanted to be a warrior like everyone else. So he suggested to the children:
— Let's do this. Let me go into the cave and guard my bones, and that way I'll pass the test and become a warrior.
Kamal said:
— No need, you're not playing. We don't take four-legged creatures into our tribe.
Fluffy felt down. Niqush, however, thought it wasn't right to exclude someone from the game just because they were four-legged. But he said nothing.
Lala said:
— Kamal is right, have you ever seen a four-legged warrior?
— And with shaggy fur too, — Ucal added, — there's no such thing as a warrior like that!
— I'm not shaggy at all!
Deep down, Ucal felt that this was not a good thing to do. After all, just this morning he was happy to have such diverse friends. Now it seemed the children didn't want to play with Fluffy because he wasn't like the others, he was completely different.
Fluffy hung his head and walked towards the tree.
Lala, however, said:
— We'll call you when we play another game!
Birdie, who had flown in from somewhere, also said:
— Absolutely, we'll definitely call you!
It turned out that Birdie had heard their last words. That's why he also longed to be a warrior of the American prairies.
Birdie was very smart (at least, he thought so). So, first of all, he assessed his appearance. He thought that he had two legs, not four, and he wasn't shaggy at all. Besides, his feathers were as beautiful as the feathers Ucal wore on his head.
Birdie said:
— Greetings to you, tribe of two-legged red-skinned ones!
— Hello, Birdie!
— Do you see that I also have two legs?
— We see...
— And don't you see that I'm not shaggy?
— We see...
— So, I can be accepted into the game.
— But you don't have hands, only wings!
— So what?
— Sorry, Birdie. Where have you seen a flying warrior? Our tribe is a tribe of two-legged ones, not two-winged ones.
— Is that so? You will regret this, — Birdie fumed, — I swear by my feathers!
Birdie was so offended that it was impossible to describe with words. He was horrified. He wondered to himself why they wouldn't let the most beautiful and smartest bird into the game.
Birdie felt he had stepped on something soft:
— Oh, who is this?
Fluffy said glumly:
— It's me, Fluffy. It's okay, you can walk on me. I'm not needed by anyone anyway.
— Oh, my dear friend, — Birdie began to cry, — it turns out that even a smart and beautiful Birdie like me is not needed by anyone. Can you imagine, they say they won't accept me into the game because I have wings and I can fly.
Fluffy said:
— Don't cry, they didn't take me either. They said I have four legs and I'm shaggy.
Birdie thought for a moment and said:
— Come on, let's play our own "American Jungle" warriors game.
— Let's play, — Fluffy rejoiced, — come on, let's first learn to shoot arrows. Then...
Birdie suggested:
— And then we'll drink hot chocolate; the Native Americans discovered this drink. Let's go to my place. I make good cocoa.
— Let's go! — Fluffy said.
The friends hugged and walked towards the tree next to Birdie's nest.
The Tree was one of life's wisest and oldest inhabitants. The main thing was that it could talk. Even more important was that it could also listen. Because everyone can talk, but listening is not everyone's business.
— What happened? — asked the Tree, — why are you so upset?
Fluffy and Birdie told the Tree the story.
When the children came down to the yard after lunch, they saw Birdie and Fluffy sitting face to face, drinking hot chocolate as if nothing had happened. The air was filled with the scent of cocoa.
— What are you doing there? — the children asked in surprise.
Birdie replied indignantly:
— Can't you see? We're playing the game of American jungle warriors! And you should know that warriors always drank hot chocolate after a battle.
Niqush, who loved cocoa very much, asked:
— Can we play with you too?
Birdie said:
— Of course you can! Oops, I got confused, I mean, of course not! We only accept the beautiful ones into our tribe. For example, those with wings and at least four paws.
— Alright, that's enough, — the Tree joined the conversation, — from what you're saying, it seems no one should play with me. I have no hands, no feet, and no wings. In general, I am green. Understand, everyone should be accepted as they are. Even if their color is different and they don't look like you, even if they are shaggy, have big noses, are striped, and don't think like you.
Fluffy said:
— You're right, I felt how embarrassed and lonely you feel when you're excluded.
— Look, we are all different! — Lala said, delighted with her discovery, — even Ucal and Niqush, though siblings, don't look alike.
Kamal said:
— Birdie doesn't look like Fluffy...
Niqush said:
— Fluffy doesn't look like me...
Ucal said:
— But despite all that, we are friends!
The children laughed. Then someone suggested forming a single tribe and they all sat together in the tree, drinking the hot chocolate Birdie had prepared. As they dispersed to their homes, tired in the evening, they decided that they would definitely continue the game tomorrow.
That evening, when Ucal went to bed, he told his mother:
— From now on, I will treat everyone well. No matter how they look, even if they think differently.
