The Golden Scorpion

In a warm, sandy desert, a little scorpion carries a shell of bright, smooth gold that catches the sunlight. Even so, he feels uneasy, since every creature around him is sandy brown like the desert itself. He watches the fennec fox run in circles, the tiny desert mouse scurry after him, and the beetle walk steadily along, and he longs to blend in and join their play. Instead he stays shy and apart, sighing that his golden shell is too bright and too different.

One day the fennec fox greets him by a cactus and tells him that different can be special, while the mouse and the beetle each point out that they are different in their own ways too. The scorpion listens, yet his heart still feels heavy. Then a sandstorm rises, whipping the sky into a dusty orange and making it impossible to see. This gentle tale by Yavuz DEMİRKIRAN follows what happens when the animals cannot find their way home, and it can be read on Online Masal. The clear, simple storytelling and desert setting suit children in the early primary years, whether read aloud at bedtime or enjoyed alone.