The High Emperor

In reading a lot of adventure books, I find there is usually one thing in common: the spider scene is the crazy, evil scene. 

There will be none of that in my books. Again, referencing the last blog posting, I will do my best to never write anything that could potentially cause nightmares for anyone. Instead, I wanted to incorporate my favourite animal into this book: the hippo.

Perhaps there is some side of me that identifies with the hippo:

1. I like to lay around, and particularly like to just sit in large pools of water. 

2. I am clearly not a skinny, tall giraffe, if you catch my drift.

3. I have a big mouth that gets me in trouble sometimes. 

4. I can be comical and "adorable" so that people will connect with me, like a cartoon hippo.

5. Underneath my pleasant exterior lies a dangerous predator that wants to attack! (I have tamed it to only come out in sarcasm.)

This brings me back to a time in my youth, many, many years ago, when I stumbled across a program on National Geographic called "The Dark Side of Hippos." I have always been a fan of hippos. They're fat and hilarious and just blobs that bring joy...in a zoo. But in nature, hippos are the deadliest large land mammal on the planet. In fact, it is estimated that hippo attacks kill 500 people each year in Africa. Hippos can kill a large crocodile with a single bite. On the show, they interviewed a man who had survived a hippo attack. He had fallen out of his boat and was eaten, head first, by a hippo. The hippo chomped him so hard it bit off his legs! But then it spit him out and his friends dragged him to shore and he somehow survived...sans legs. 

But that's not the point of this story. After watching "The Dark Side of Hippos" at the very late hours of the night on a Saturday, I went to church the next morning (to ask for forgiveness for watching the dark side of anything...) There I saw a friend and, from across the room, we yelled to each other, "Guess what I saw last night?!" Turns out we had both stumbled across this program late at night and decided to stay up to watch. It was amazing! Here I was thinking no one would ever watch such a ridiculous program, and she, too, had been watching! I love when things like that happen.

Years later I tried to contact National Geographic to get a copy of "The Dark Side of Hippos," but they never got back to me. Sad. I'd have liked to see it again.