Hey there, and welcome back to a new story of mine. Remember when I did a novelization of The Lion King from two years ago? That story was a hybrid of the original 1994 movie and the 2019 remake, as well as adding extra stuff from the lore of The Lion King (like The Lion Guard and the Broadway musical). Well, I decided to try the same with a classic that has been around for nearly eighty years: Animal Farm. Both sides of the political aisle - whether you're conservative or liberal, left-wing or right-wing - can agree about the lessons learned from this cautionary tale of unchecked power and how one can abuse it. So I'll try and make my own here: a combination of the book, 1954 animated film, 1999 live-action film, and even a bit of the 2020 mobile app game.
But this is definitely not going to replace George Orwell's classic novel, not in the slightest; I don't even own the movies or the 2020 mobile app game. This story here is for entertainment, and we all need some fun and hope in these dark times. It will have original stuff added along with the plot from the book, as well as a few original characters.
Let me know what you think of the story as it goes on. Also, let me know if I've got anything wrong like grammar, and I'll be sure to fix it. Constructive criticism is always welcome as long as everyone's being civil.
Publishing Date: October 20, 2021
Enjoy!
Prologue
Fall had arrived again in the mountains of West Virginia. The leaves on the trees were starting to turn to beautifully different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The air had gone from warm and mildly humid to cool and crisp. And this story first took place on a farm, a farm that rested between a valley to the east and a rising forested mountain to the west.
On this farm, an old dog watched the daily lives of animals pass by from the comfort of the front porch. People would describe him as a "Benji" dog: small, sandy-brown with curly fur, a fuzzy muzzle, and black-tipped ears. He had lived a long time, and some dogs like him were lucky to live past twenty. He had lived on this farm for ten years, having already been near his old age when he came back to this country. For the rest of his days, he would talk to those he was close to, sleep, or enjoy the mountainous countryside.
He was watching some of the younger animals at play, with other adults - a cow, a mother sow, and a mule - watching not far away. A half-grown Leghorn rooster was riding on top of a Chester White piglet, flapping his wings to keep his balance. A brown colt and a little black kitten were racing to keep up with their friends. When their game was near the finishing line that they had made, the rooster jumped down from the piglet's back and crossed the line first.
"I win! I win!" cheered the rooster, flapping his wings and jumping up and down.
"No fair," the piglet grumbled, and she sat down. "You were waiting until that, weren't you?"
The colt caught up with them and smiled in spite of the loss. "Well, he's got a good jumping spot," he said, though he chuckled nervously when the piglet glared at him. "He was pretty quick about that."
"No way," scoffed the piglet while she pawed the ground with her trotter. "Everyone knows that animals on two legs can't run as fast as those on four legs. Four legs are good, and two legs are bad."
"Watch it," the old dog suddenly snapped from the porch, standing up and glaring at them. "Don't make me hear that again."
The young animals at play had stopped their game when the old dog scolded them. It was the most activity they had seen him do in recent days. It also unnerved them, for the old dog had been a usually quiet dog who often liked being alone except when he chose to interact with the others now and then. But right now, some wanted to march up to the old dog and scold him for being mean to the children like that.
However, there was no need. Even the old dog seemed to realize that he was going too far. "I'm sorry, kids. I didn't mean to snap like that," he apologized, sitting back down. "But that just brings back some bad memories. There were some animals in England who thought the same thing...and it later brought them misery."
The young animals shared concerned looks, as did the adults. For the adults, they knew that the old dog had had a long and rather rough life during his earlier years. He would remark about it every now and then, and here was the closest the animals could ever get to hear about it.
"So you've been outside the country?" asked the brown colt. On his back, the mute black kitten perked up, green eyes bright with curiosity.
"Yep," said the old dog. "The first time I visited a foreign country, I was just five months old."
"What were you doing over there?" asked the rooster.
The old dog sighed. "It's been a long time, but my owners thought that a broken-down farm could use an extra mouse-catcher. So they lent me to a farmer called Jones. It was only going to be for a short time, but things happened and thus took me a lot longer to come back to them."
"Would you visit again if you had the chance?" asked the rooster.
To their surprise, the old dog shook his head. "Oh no. No, after all that happened, I wouldn't set paw anywhere near there for the rest of my life."
"England can't be that bad," said the piglet.
"Oh, you're right about that. England's not a bad country," said the old-timer. "Its climate is good, and the soil is fertile, good for farming. But things happened there, things I would not want for any animal to repeat. All animals there were equal, but over time, we became equal in misery."
One of the adults stepped forward, a young female mule. "Can you tell us, sir?" she asked. "Everyone's dying to know."
With a few nods, the old dog relented. "Okay," he said, sitting up the best he could. "It's going to take me a while to tell this story. The story I plan to tell you will span months, even years, but let's hope that it'll take just several days. And maybe you can learn something from this, I don't know."
The other animals had their interest piqued now. Both children and adults sat around the porch, eager to hear what he had to say. Right now, the farmer wouldn't be back from the county fair until sundown, soon to bring back his prized Shire horse. That left them plenty of time to hear the old dog's story until he came back.
"Now it began on a cool spring afternoon, all the way in England..."
To be continued...
