Many, many years ago
all the animals in Australia were very, very big. Especially tall was
the kangaroo. It was as tall as the tallest trees which were very tall
then. It was beautiful and powerful. It's silky fur shone under the sun.
However the wombat was even taller. It was taller than the tallest tree
and its fur was even more beautiful than the fur of the kangaroo. It was
long and light and always shiny. It was the most beautiful and the most
powerful animal in the whole world.
All the animals lived
in peace. They often got together by the creek to drink some cold and
clean water and have a chat. They talked about the latest news, the weather
and their children. They let their little ones out of the pouch to play
together. The joey's best friend was the baby platypus and the little
bilby liked to play with the little wombat.
"What is it?" asked the other animals. "The sun", answered the wombat. "But it is far and it is not interested in our land."
So the animals chose the wombat as their leader. The wombat was a bad leader of the nation. He became lazy and all other animals had to bring him food every day. The wombat was big so he ate lots of food and soon the animals got tired of him. They decided to ask the sun for help.
When the sun learnt that the wombat thought he was bigger than the sun, it became very angry and came down to the earth just over the wombat's house. The sun was very hot and the wombat had to run. He had to dig a burrow to hide from the sun but his fine fur was burnt and it was not beautiful any more. The wombat couldn't leave the burrow while the sun was shining so since then it can only go out at night and nobody thinks any more that the wombat is the strongest and the most powerful animal in the world.