He felt a gentle breeze slowly parting his long fur. He gazed upon the vast lagoon connecting the two villages. Then he turned around to stare at his herd. They hadn’t eaten for days, the small calves shivered as the breeze went by. Up from the top of the great rock where many other great leaders had stood, the herd leader looked into the water seeing his reflection. A great decision had to be made that would determine if the herd was going to last another winter. As he thought deeply another gust went by combing his beautiful ombre fur. He knew the chance of survival on the other side of the lagoon was much greater, but was the herd up to the task? Many other groups had tried, but alligators roamed the waters like wolves waiting patiently for the right moment to attack. The great leader of the oxen knew all wouldn’t make it through, but not trying at all would surely not be a solution. He made its mind up, he snorted and nodded his head slightly signaling to the right were the muddy waters met land.
One by one the oxen slowly stepped into the water, not knowing if they were going to make it to the other side. The leader got in and inhaled. He started to paddle as the rest followed his lead. With each breath he got stronger, with each paddle he got more hopeful that they were going to survive. Then he hit a rock skinning his knee; the scent of blood flooded the muddy waters. The alligators knew that scent and they were ready to attack. One by one black piggy eyes started to pop out of the water. The whole herd froze for a millisecond, then they all started to swim, frantically kicking and squirming through the water. But then just like that the small black eyes disappeared into the muddy waters. All of a sudden an alligator bounded out of the water capturing one of the calves by the neck, it squealed but soon the squealing was no more and the alligator turned back and drifted away with the poor animal limp in its firm grip. The leader knew that this was going to happen and grunted, continuing to paddle, and soon the rest followed. He twitched his ears hearing huffing and puffing from behind him, everyone was exhausted. His eyelids started to feel heavy and each stroke took up an enormous amount of energy. Almost not having any energy left, he kicked his leg forward, he felt dirt under his hoof, land!