Zuri the little zebra loves her bright, colourful forest — until one morning, she wakes to find every flower, tree, butterfly, and river turned grey. With only her black-and-white stripes unchanged, Zuri must find a way to bring smiles back to the forest.
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High in a beautiful forest lived a cheerful little zebra named Zuri.
Every morning, Zuri loved running through the colourful forest.
She smiled at the bright green trees, sniffed the red flowers, watched the blue birds fly, and waved to all her animal friends.
One sunny morning, Zuri skipped outside with a smile.
She stopped. Something was wrong.
The trees, flowers, butterflies, and river were all grey.
The whole forest had turned black and white.
Zuri blinked her eyes.
She looked down at herself.
"My stripes still look the same!" she whispered.
Zuri wanted to help.
She looked at her black-and-white stripes.
Then she had a wonderful idea.
"If the colours are hiding," she said with a smile, "let's have fun anyway!"
First, Zuri made a stripe game.
She walked in funny zigzags, and all the animals carefully followed her stripe path through the forest.
Then they found smooth grey stones and made long stripe patterns on the ground.
Next, they stood in a long line—Zebra, Elephant, Bunny, Monkey, Giraffe, Deer and Bear—and pretended they were one giant stripy animal.
Everyone giggled.
Then they danced.
They jumped over dark shadows.
They tiptoed around light patches.
They laughed louder and louder.
Soon nobody was thinking about the missing colours anymore.
Just then...
A tiny golden sunbeam slipped through the clouds.
A little flower slowly turned bright yellow.
"Oh!" gasped Bunny.
A butterfly became orange.
The trees turned green again.
The river sparkled blue.
One by one, all the beautiful colours came back to the forest.
The animals clapped and cheered.
"The colours came back!" shouted Monkey.
Gia Giraffe smiled.
“Perhaps the forest remembered how happy friendship feels.”
Everyone hugged Zuri.
That evening, the colourful forest looked brighter than ever.
Whenever they felt gloomy, they remembered Zuri’s stripe games and what they had learned.
Sometimes, the brightest colours begin with a happy heart.
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