No Tree, No Me

Welcome to the Tribe of Brisbane

Crash! The tree fell to the ground faster than the speed of light. "They're COMING!" yelled Kenny, chief executive of forestry defense. "Quick, into positions". Lenny took the high post, Scott the ground patrol. Robert and Kenny were armed with buckle-nosed acorns and slings made of the best materials in the forest. Yoriel leads the attack, being the bravest koala of them all. Twelve other members of the tribe line up on the treetops and take aim. "FIRE" yells Kenny. The sun was blocked out for a moment because of all the rocks being hurled. Flying through the air, faster than the fastest kangaroo. Only one needed to hit the target: and it did. Boom! With a loud explosion, the whole truck engine exploded. The men inside bolted, dropping their hardhats on the ground as the went.

Cheers boomed through the forest because we had won another fight. Koalas everywhere celebrated with eucalyptus sandwiches and celebratory dances. Where was I in all this?: sleeping. Unfortunately, I had missed the big victory, but all the clamor had waken me up. Even if I was awake, I wouldn't be much help. I am only 3, a young Koala, youngest in my family. My name is Karl, and my family is the largest family in our tribe. I have 2 brothers, Yoriel and Robert, and one sister: Alyssa.

Yoriel is a fighter, one of the strongest in the tribe except my father: Kenny. My father says that Yoriel will assume the throne as the king after he dies because Robert is too lazy. He sleeps 23 hours of the day as opposed to the normal average of 22 among our tribe. Robert is weak, and pretty much good at nothing except for eating. I on the other hand, surprisingly don't sleep that much for a koala: 15 hours which is ironic because I was able to sleep through the battle. I sleep the least, but am the heaviest sleeper of the whole tribe. My father says this won't matter much because I have my brothers to wake me up when the tree cutters come. The nasty people and mortal enemies of our tribe.

The tree cutters have been around for centuries, but had never attacked Brisbane as bad as they do now. They come in their giant, green killing machines with two giant blades intended to kill the trees. Two men usually operate the truck and wield red axes, big enough to kill a koala in one swing. That has fortunately never happened.

The war for the forest is the only thing our tribe worries about. The elders focus their teachings on weapon craft and usage. Slings are made from very thin branches of the eucalyptus tree, the most plentiful resource in the forest. It is common knowledge to all koalas that the tree is cut by a sharp rock called a slicing stone. There is a designated koala in every tribe that creates the slicing stones for everyone to use: in this case, it is Robert, but he told me that once I was five that I would become the next one. Slicing stones is probably the lowliest of jobs in the tribe next to the cleaning koalas whom nobody knows the names of.

This is the daily life in the tribe: sleep, eat, sleep and do our duties, with a rare occurrence of a defense. Life in the tribe is boring. Kid koalas like me don't get any time to play in the grassy fields like the joey kangaroos get to, or dig holes like the wombats. Here in the tribe, koalas are forced from birth to learn how to defend our trees because our homes are always in danger.

During class, the elders and other koalas my age always humiliate me for my lack of abilities to learn. Or maybe it is my uniquely weird black dot on my stomach. I never really fit in with the other kids. They were always good at fighting and sling-making, while I was more focused on adventuring and exploring the outskirts of our land in Brisbane, Australia.

The land that our tribe occupies is quite small now as opposed to 10 years ago, so it is easy to navigate to the outskirts. The forest used to be huge: 1000s of acres of green trees spreading all throughout the outback. It isn't so big anymore though, since the deforesters started their plight. They stop at nothing to destroy our homes, but we don't stop at anything to defend it. Our tribe has been diminished slowly to only 100 trees spanning only 15 acres. Every week, it seems that a new tree falls to the deforesters and it won't be long before we are forced to move like all of the other tribes in the area.

The first tribe to leave was Kuikahi, the eldest of all koala tribes in Australia. They were smart, and headed off to the inner city, where they were captured by humans and placed in a zoo. I hear that they enjoy it there. They get to sleep in peace, and are fed by hand every day. It is a koala legend that the Kuikahi are the smartest and wisest of all koala tribes and possess powers unknown to animals. Sometimes I wish I were at the zoo like them, resting. Not having to learn how to fight against humans. It would be nice....

The ground was moist when I awoke from my fifteen hour nap. Stepping down from my spot on tree #22, high on a branch of the tree, I nearly slipped on the mud. Today it was raining, a common occurrence in which all koala tribes celebrate like a holiday. We do this for two reasons: (1) It means that our trees will be able to grow more eucalyptus leaves and (2) the tree cutters can't enter the forest when it is raining. It is a day of rest and enjoyment for us koalas. In hopes that it would stay this way, I wandered to the outskirts of the tribe to play with my kangaroo friends: leaving the now-peaceful tribe of Brisbane, where spirits were high... and completely unprepared.