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The Beavers and the Dam
At the top of the world, on Earth’s tallest mountain range, lived the Great Beaver Warrior civilization. This group of beavers was in charge of the protection of the rest of the species in the Animal Kingdom. The reason as to why they lived high above the mountains was due to Lake Big Momma. If in any case Lake Big Momma flooded the world, everything would perish. And so, the Great Animal Council put the beavers in charge of building and maintaining the greatest dam ever created in order to keep that big lake at bay and prevent Armageddon.
Together, the beavers had worked on the construction and maintenance of the dam, which they called the Great Beaver Warrior Dam, for countless generations. They worked together really hard, day and night, whether it rained, stormed, or snowed. It was a very difficult task, but they enjoyed it most of the time because they felt their hard work was for a greater good. They had to continuously work on the dam because water would tear parts of it all the time.
Great Beaver Joe was the leader of the group. Every generation, a member of the Woody family was given this title, which appointed him as the main director and supervisor of the work the beavers did. Great Beaver Joe was very old and never had any offspring. No one worried too much though because he seemed to be strong and healthy all the time, but one day he went to sleep, and to everyone’s surprise, he didn’t wake up once again. With him gone, one of his 12 brothers had to take his mantle and become the new Great Beaver. However, instead of this being a peaceful process in which everyone agreed on a new leader, the brothers started to fight in abundance because each and every one of them thought they deserved to be the leader of the group. The first one to start the discussion was Beaver John.
“I’m the strongest. So, I should be the new Great Beaver”, said him.
“Being strong doesn’t make you special, John. I should be the next Great Beaver because I’m the smartest of the bunch”, said Beaver Tom.
“You may be the smartest, Tom, but I’m the one who is capable of making the best decisions and taking risks when necessary. I should be Great Beaver”, said Beaver Bob.
The 12 beaver brothers dragged this conversation along for ages and so never agreed on a new leader. Instead, they ended up all angry with one another and with no desire left to keep working on the dam unless everybody else did as they wished. Without any leadership due to these selfish beavers, work on the dam stopped. Cracks started to develop, but still none of the beavers would give in. Before they knew it, the cracks became huge holes that scared all of the beavers to the point where they tried to work on the dam once again, but it was too late. Soon, the whole dam came down and Lake Big Momma flooded the land bringing destruction and death to every living thing out there, all because of a group of selfish beavers who couldn’t leave their pride aside for the greater good of others.
