The Friends of the Lynx Club will deliver the Iberian lynx drawing and stories awards next week

A drawing entitled 'Linceextremo', by Carla Haba, and the short story 'Reino de cenizas', by Isabel María Mañas, are this edition’s contest winners

Next week, the Friends of the Lynx Club will deliver the awards for the Iberian lynx stories and drawings contest opened last April. Carla Haba Gutiérrez, who participated in the children's drawing category for children under the age of 16, and Isabel María Mañas Sánchez, a university student from Jáen, who won the first prize in the micro-story category for those over the age of 16, are the winners of this arts contest, in which participants had the Iberian lynx as source of inspiration.

The drawing by Carla Haba, a 10-year-old student at the Fernando Alvarado school in Valencia de la Torres, is entitled 'Linceextremo', and the story presented by Isabel María, which can be read in full below, is entitled 'Kingdom of Ashes'.

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Kingdom of Ashes

Many years ago, in the kingdom of Lusis, the lynx were considered gods, their gold-like smooth fur was admired, and for that reason its streets were filled with altars, statues and drawings in their honor. Lusis was a prosperous and peaceful kingdom where the Sun always shone. One day a stranger arrived, who called himself Han-muo; nobody knew his origin but his outlandish clothes and his charlatanism caught the attention of all the inhabitants. The newcomer regarded the immense forests, the fertile lands and the rivers’ crystal clear water, and then pulled out a cloth bag full of shiny gold and bright diamonds. With a fake smile he stated:

"I shall buy these lands and everything that inhabits them"

The villagers laughed and ignored him. Han-muo repeated his proposal several times but was met with the same indifference. Finally, angry and offended, he took out another cloth bag and emptied its contents, sending black seeds flying all over the place. The stranger left among insults, vowing to return one day.
The villagers continued their peaceful, unrushed lives and quickly forgot about that strange visit. Years passed and those seeds grew into dark and twisted roots that spread throughout the kingdom, poisoning everything they touched. Neither the sharpest sword nor the strongest axe were capable of damaging them. Little by little, the environment changed: the land was no longer fertile, the rivers became dark and the animals vanished. Including the adored lynxes, of which only memory remained. The villagers, in their desperation, exclaimed:

"The gods have abandoned us"

Han-muo returned with the same offering. Famine and desperation forced the kingdom’s inhabitants to accept, and Han-muo was proclaimed king. With the riches of the new monarch, the kingdom was able to purchase food. Thus, their stomachs were full although their hearts were still filled with sadness because the birds no longer sang and the sky was painted grey.
Iber, a small daughter of trackers, went out one night in search of the lynxes. She ventured into the thick forest tracking footprints and white faeces, and finally, after an arduous task, she found the lynxess1 Fábula in a meadow, preening herself. The girl explained the problem and asked for help. Fábula did not answer; she merely observed the small girl with her huge yellow eyes, and then disappeared among brooms and bushes. Iber returned home, sadly, and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning the kingdom awoke to alarm bells; the lynxes had returned and were destroying the black roots with their powerful claws. Every time they removed one, some of their lustrous fur was tinted with poison from the roots, and numerous spots appeared on their legs, back and even their face.
Han-muo ordered the lynxes to be trapped in exchange for riches, and some villagers whose hearts had been touched by the poison complied without a second thought, carrying their bows and arrows with them. Faced with this threat, the lynxes fled; all except Fábula, who was surrounded by archers in the town square. Once they were ready to shoot, Iber appeared with her hands up and placed herself next to the lynxess.
"Stop. Do you not remember the song of the goldfinches? The clean air and the fresh water? Now, our kingdom is grey and nothing grows in it, it looks like a kingdom made of ash. If you shoot your arrows they will fly for a few seconds, but the consequences will last forever. "
Silence took hold of the square, the villagers remembered their old life and longed for the light and warmth that pure nature offered them; and, moved by that same feeling, they slowly turned their arrows, this time aiming them at Han-muo. He was expelled from the kingdom and never returned.
Without the black roots, the atmosphere became clean and cheerful again. The villagers took great care of the lynxes, driven by the fear that the roots would sprout again. In the centre of the square they built a statue in honor of Fábula and Iber, with an inscription that read:

"As long as there are lynx in these lands, no poison shall stop us."

N. do T.
1 Translated from the made-up word “lincesa”, according to the principle of “princesa”-“princess”, and the context in which it’s applied.