Dealing with Fear

Once upon a time, there was a tortoise who lived on a ship.  One day the ship sank. After swimming for a long time, the tortoise reached a deserted land surrounded by water on all three sides. The landward side led up to a big, steep, craggy mountain. 

The tortoise was started and tired from the long swimming and there was nothing in that land for the tortoise to eat.  To avoid starving to death, the tortoise decided to climb to the top of the mountain, hoping that on the other side of the mountain he would find something to eat.

When he got to the snow-covered summit of the mountain, he was freezing cold.  Suddenly a snow storm started. He struggled hard and managed to make out a small pathway leading towards the other side of the mountain. 

But the path was guarded by a big monster.  They were making lots of noise.

The tortoise got terrified to death hearing that noise.  He wanted to hide his head inside his shell, but he controlled his fear and looked around him.  He saw that many other animals were lying dead.  The tortoise understood that those animals had died because of unbearable cold. So the tortoise didn't go into his shell for he understood that he too would die if he did not find a way to escape from that place.

He collected his courage and started his long journey towards the otherside, which meant he had to cross the monsters.  As the tortoise started towards the monsters,  the the monsters changed their shapes.  The tortoise came very close to the monster.  Suddenly, the tortoise realised that it was actually a large pile of rocks and not monsters at all.  The rocks were actually formed in the shape like monsters. As for the, the tortoise realised this was just the sound of the wind blowing through a small cave.

The tortoise felt confident and carried on with journey, and eventually descended into a beautiful valley.  The valley was filled with woods, and plenty of food. 

The tortoise lived in that valley very happily, and became known to the others in the valley as the Brave Little Tortoise.

The only way to success is to deal with the fear with bravery.