Quills and spines are absolutely fine!

“Spike! Get up! It’s late!” Spike the baby porcupine was still huddled into a small prickly ball, his small quills all pointing outwards.
Spike heard his mother, but refused to budge. It was too cold outside, and Spike was in no mood to get up.

He lay there quietly, warm and comfortable. “Spike, you won’t get any acorns today if you don’t get up”, warned his mother. “Everyone else is going to finish it off before you come.”

No acorns! His favourite food! His older brothers and sisters must be stuffing themselves with his share too, he thought. Selfish creatures! Reluctantly, Spike stretched himself, and got up to join his extended family which was enjoying a meal.

“Ah, the sun has finally risen for Spike”, joked his father. Spike was still drowsy, and mumbled something in reply. The only thing that had dragged him out of bed had been the mention of the acorns, and now he looked around for them. But among all the leaves and the bark strewn in front of him, there were only two acorns left!“Just two?” said a stunned Spike.

“Sorry Spike”, said his sister. “We were hungry, and the acorns were so good that we finished the whole lot. But we kept two for you.”
His siblings laughed, and the other porcupine families feeding in the area looked at him with sheepish smiles.

Spike was terribly annoyed. Why had he bothered to wake up if there were no acorns? He considered whether he should simply not eat anything at all, and thus make his displeasure apparent. But his stomach rumbled with hunger, and Spike couldn’t help grabbing the two remaining acorns and chomping on some bark and leaves too.

Once the meal was done, Spike moved back to the shade of the tree, hoping to curl back and go to sleep. But no sooner had he done so when his mother came and nudged him awake. “Get up and move around, Spike”, she scolded him. “How can you be so lazy and sleep the whole day?”

“Well, what do I do awake?” he demanded. “All my brothers think I am too small and silly to find food with them, and all my sisters think I am too cute and treat me like a baby. And as for the rest of the world, it thinks I am too dangerous to be made friends with. Why should I get up?”

Spike’s mother sighed. Spike was her youngest baby, and the other kids were much older to him. No matter how hard she tried to get him to be a part of his siblings, poor Spike was always left out. It wasn’t his fault, but she didn’t want him to become lazy either. Sadly, none of the other animals wanted to make friends with Spike either.

“You could try again, dear”, she said patiently to her stubborn kid. “Keep trying, and I am sure you will make friends. They’ll understand someday that you are a good little porcupine who doesn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Spike got up. “Alright, alright, I’ll try”, he grumbled, and went out.

Being a porcupine, Spike had a coat of needle-like quills on his back, to warn away any enemies who tried to harm him. Unfortunately, this scared off not just his enemies, but also possible friends! Being a small porcupine, Spike didn’t seem as formidable as his own parents, who were full-grown, huge porcupines with very long spines. Spike had shorter spines that were still growing, and were just about enough for self-defence.

As Spike wandered down his usual path, he knew what he would face, and the things the other animals would say to him. Little Miss Bunny would look at him with those large, liquid-like eyes of hers, and scurry back to her burrow in fear.

Tiny Squirrel would look at him warily before scampering away at top speed towards the nearest tree. Chirpy Robin Junior who sat on a small branch just below his nest, would pull faces at him and sing rude songs behind his back.

“Here comes the Prickly Pig”, Robin Junior would announce, before breaking out into song. “He’s going to shoot his quills at everyone here! Run for your life!”“I DO NOT shoot my quills at anyone”, Spike would retort indignantly.

“That’s just a rumour someone made up about porcupines!”But the Robin would carry on with his song as though he hadn’t heard Spike. “Oh beware of the Prickly Pig, he’s come to poke you with those needles of his; You’d better, like me, sit on a twig; if you want to give his quills a miss!”Spike’s eyes almost filled with tears at the thought of facing it all again, but he kept going.

As he reached the tree that housed Robin Junior, he braced himself for the bird’s rude songs. But surprisingly none came. When he looked up, he saw the little bird and Tiny squirrel huddled together in fear, both looking frightened out of their wits.

Spike didn’t really like the Robin since he was so rude and unkind, but seeing the state he was in, Spike couldn’t help asking what had happened. “What’s wrong? Why are you both trembling with fear?”

The Robin seemed to be in too much of a shock to reply. The squirrel finally stammered an answer. “It’s .. it’s the Coyote”, she said. “It came here to hunt. We escaped, but … it was chasing Bunny. The Coyote may have caught her by now.”

The Coyote was a bigger, dog-like animal, a bit smaller than the wolf, but a terror to smaller animals like the rabbits, squirrels and birds all the same.

Spike was horrified. “Which way did they go?” he asked. “May be I can help!”“The Coyote is a horrible creature”, said Tiny, still trembling. “You might end up becoming its meal as well!”

Spike wondered what he could do. He was still small, and probably wouldn’t be able to scare the Coyote away. There was no time to call his parents either. Then he thought, “Well, anyway everyone is scared of me. I don’t have any friends.

I might end up as a meal in the Coyote’s stomach, but no one’s going to miss me. And Miss Bunny would be saved.”He bravely ran forward hoping to find the Coyote in time before it caught the rabbit.

At last he came to a clearing, and saw that the Coyote had cornered Bunny. The poor Rabbit, was tired out from the chase and was waiting for death, her eyes wide with fear and her heart beating wildly. The Coyote towered over her, blocking her escape.

“Hey, you! Leave the rabbit alone! Come and catch me if you can!” shouted Spike. But the Coyote ignored him and lunged at the rabbit. Spike quills rose up erect and defence, and he charged forward.

He lodged himself between the Coyote and the rabbit, his back to the Coyote’s face. His small, but sharp spines pierced the Coyote’s face.

“Ow!” cried out the Coyote in pain. It backed away slowly, whimpering, and then, without even turning to look at the rabbit, ran away into the jungle.

Spike helped Miss Bunny to her feet. “You saved my life!” she cried.I did, thought Spike in wonder. He hadn’t ended up as a meal in the Coyote’s stomach either.

“And all this while, I stupidly believed that silly Robin and his songs!” she said ruefully. “I’m so sorry Spike.”“Would you be friends with us?” came two more timid voices. The squirrel and the Robin! The Robin looked very much ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry I was so rude to you”, he said.

“I would love to be friends with all of you”, said Spike, overjoyed. “But… you all wouldn’t mind my spines, would you?”
The other three hugged him and said, “We don’t mind at all. Quills and spines are absolutely fine!”

- Sneha Verghese is a research scholar in Journalism at Osmania University, Hyderabad. Also a post-graduate in biotechnology, she loves teaching and writing stories for kids to explain scientific concepts.