The sun was beginning to dip below the hills, making everything look long and a little bit orange. A wolf, let's call him Wally, was trotting home after a day of sniffing around. As he walked, he saw his shadow stretching out on the path in front of him.

"My goodness!" Wally thought, stopping to stare. Because the sun was so low, his shadow was incredibly long and looked very, very tall. "Just look at me! I must be the biggest, most powerful wolf in the entire forest! My shadow is enormous!"

Wally puffed out his chest. He felt very grand. "With a shadow this huge," he said to a nearby bush, "I bet I'm even bigger than a bear! Yes! And if I'm bigger than a bear, I must be stronger than a lion!"

He started to strut, admiring his magnificent, long shadow. "A lion?" he chuckled. "Pah! If a lion saw a creature as mighty as my shadow, he'd run away with his tail between his legs! I am truly a king among animals!"

Just as Wally was thinking about how easily he could scare off any lion, a deep ROAR echoed from behind a large rock. A real, actual lion, with a shaggy mane and very sharp-looking teeth, stepped out. The lion wasn't looking at Wally's shadow at all. The lion was looking right at Wally.

Wally gulped. Suddenly, his long shadow didn't seem to matter very much. The real lion looked much, much scarier than any shadow. Before Wally could even think about running, the lion pounced!

Poor Wally quickly discovered that having a big shadow and being truly big and strong enough to face a lion were two very different things.

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