Once upon a time, there was a red hen. She had a little cub. The name of this tiny chick was Panchi. When Panchi was able to walk, her mother took her to find food. Red hens teach Panchi how to find food and how to eat food.
One day, the red hen and panchi left their home to find food. Panchi always waited right behind her mother. She followed her mother and learned to pick insects, worms, and seeds from the ground.
While she was learning, a heavy rain started to fall. All of a sudden, a big, muddy water flow came. Panchi climbed onto a rock nearby.
In a while, the rock started to move. Panchi was still on the rock.
The rock moved slowly and arrived at a little house. There were another few small rocks. And those rocks also moved.
Panchi had climbed onto a tortoise mother.
The tortoise mother had come to her house with her children. Panchi was scared and sad. Because her mother was not there. She separated from her mother while it was raining. And the little panchi did not know the rock she climbed onto was a toritoise. So now she is with the tortoise mother and her three cubs.
The little tortoise cubs greeted Panchi and talked to her. But the panchi did not talk. Instead, she started to cry.
The little tortoise cubs gave her a ball of clay to eat. But Panchi did not take it and did not eat it.
Then the tortoise cubs gave Panchi a few leaves of an Undupiyaliya plant. Still, Panchi did not eat it.
Then the tortoise mother said to her cubs, “Panchi will not eat what we eat. She will eat what her mom eats. You, my kids, stay safe here. I will find something for her and come back soon.”
The tortoise mother left the house looking for something for Panchi to eat. Then she came to the paddy field. She carefully cut a florescence of rice and brought it to Panchi.
At first, Panchi hesitated to eat it. But she ate the rice.
Then she became friendly with the little tortoise cubs. They played a lot together. The tortoise mother was letting the kids play and looking out for them from the house.
After a long day, the sun was setting. The Panchi remembered her mother. As the night fell, she missed her mother.
Meanwhile, the Red Hen had been looking for Panchi everywhere. After the rain, Red Hen ran to the house. The Red Hen and her kid, Panchi, lived in a small wooden house in the backyard of a house where the family of a villager lived. A cat and a dog were also there. And both of them were friendly with the Red Hen.
Red Hen told the cat and the dog that her child was missing. Both the cat and the dog joined Red Hen to find Panchi. They looked everywhere all day.
Before sunset, they arrived at the tortoise house. Panchi saw her mother coming. She ran to her mother and hid behind her mother’s wing.
The Tortoise mother told Red Hen what happened. The Red Hen thanked the tortoise mother and her little kids for looking after Panchi.
Then Panchi was about to leave the tortoise house with her mother. The little tortoise cubs felt so sad. They had tears in their eyes.
Panchi was happy to reunite with his mother. But she was also sad to leave the new good friends she made.
Then Red Hen promised the little tortoise cubs that she would often bring Panchi there to play with them. That made everyone happy.
They said, “See you again”, to each other. Red Hen and Panchi left their home with the dog and the cat. Red Hen thanked the cat and the dog for helping her when she needed help. “That’s what fries do,” the cat said.