Ice in the Forest. Short audio story narrated in American English.

The block appeared in the middle of the forest one morning. It was a huge block of ice, as tall as a tree, as big as a hundred elephants. What's more, it was so cold that no one dared to go near. But what intrigued the animals most was the wonderful treasure they could see inside it. The treasure looked so splendid that the lion King himself said that whoever could get it out would be made his successor as King.

As soon as he said this, all the animals lost their dislike of the cold and leapt at the block, furiously trying to secure the treasure. Well, everyone except for the weasel, who stood for a while looking at the block, watching the other animals creating a huge commotion, piled on top of each other.

The elephant was using his trunk as a hammer, and ended up whacking the gorilla. The two later had to go to hospital. The tiger was using his claws like a hammer drill, but they got stuck in the ice, and when he finally managed to pull his paw out the claws broke off. Several gazelles, realising the block was made of cold water, tried to lick the block away. But the extreme cold of the water gave them an upset stomach. The monkeys were determined to destroy the block, and they threw bananas and stones at the rate of machine guns. But they hit so many of the other animals that they had to stop.

And so it went on, all the animals trying to break the block using brute force, the whole day long, and without success. At the pace they were going, and seeing how slow the progress was, they realised that it would take them over a week.

However, just then someone said:

-"Look! Something's moving inside the block!"

And it was true. It was hard to make out, but something was scampering about in the middle of the block, right next to the treasure...

Was the treasure alive? Did the treasure have an owner living with it?

Nothing like it!
It was the weasel, who soon appeared in their midst with some pieces of the treasure. They were all impressed to see how the weasel had gotten to the treasure without breaking the block apart. After congratulating her, they asked her how she'd done it.

The weasel told them that before leaping at the problem she had taken some time to think and observe. She concluded that the block was too big to break it up with force, and it would take too long for the sun to melt it. Then it occurred to her that she could get to the middle of the block from underneath, by digging a tunnel. At the end of her tunnel she built a small fire, which quickly melted a hole in the ice above. So, with little effort the weasel got to the treasure!

And so it was, that the weasel became the Queen of the forest. And she did it by showing everyone that one can achieve more by thinking about problems rather than by immediately jumping into action.