The Okapi's Forest Friend

Olive the okapi lives quietly beside a mossy stream in the forest, but she is troubled by the creamy white stripes on her legs. She sees them as a mark of difference and wishes she could be plain like the other animals. When she tries to join a game of tag near the clearing, the bushbuck and others stare and whisper about her funny stripes, and Olive walks away believing she may not belong anywhere at all.

Under a wide fig tree, a small tear rolls down her long brown nose until a rustle in the ferns brings Didi, the tiniest antelope Olive has ever seen. Didi does not laugh; instead, she calls Olive's stripes sunlight and shadow playing together and offers a simple, brave kindness: stay close to me. Didi leads Olive through the ferns to a hidden clearing where animals gather around a flat stone to share stories, and there Olive discovers what it feels like to be welcomed, listened to, and clapped for. This gentle tale by Aysel Banu YAVUZAL can be read on Masal İzle.