The hippo was tired today. He had spent the whole afternoon walking through thick mud. The drought afflicting the region had been oppressively long, and the lake that had been home to hundreds of hippos and crocodiles was now nothing more than a mud filled pit.

Tensions ran high, not a day went by without some conflict. Luckily, they were all quite minor. No one had the strength left for actual combat. The sun, the heat and the lack of water were slowly cooking everyone alive. If this drought didn't let up soon, they would all die.

Still looking for somewhere to sleep in this crowded place, he kept moving around. Then, in the distance, he spotted it. A huge, dark cloud, billowing into the sky, whipped around by furious winds as though some giant elephant was trumpeting for all its worth.

All at once, the cloud burst, letting out a huge deluge of water. He could see that from afar, with the rain blacking out the horizon. Happily, he settled in to rest. Now it was only a matter of time until that water rushed down the dry riverbeds to the lake he called home.

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Greetings my fellow Earth citizens :)

The freewrite was inspired by a sad scene in the Netflix show "Our Planet" that shows how badly impacted hippos are by the extreme droughts that are afflicting so many parts of the world. If you haven't watched that show, I definitely recommend it. It's got all the charm of Planet Earth, but a lot more focused on climate issues.

Here to offset the sad story is a video of a cute baby hippo.

Hmmm. This video didn't link the picture, so here is one :)

_Source

It's sad that they're so territorial. It'd be cool to be able to interact with them. But their cuddly appearance is very misleading unfortunately. Hippos have killed more people than most other animals. I find it so odd that sharks get such a bad rap for killing people when they are nowhere near the most dangerous animal. I blame Jaws. Haha, there should be a Jaws like movie for hippos. Though, it's not like animals need a worse reputation as it is. It's a sad world we live in that animals whose homes get invaded are somehow the villain.

I’ve found a really easy way to get pictures for some of the more obscure topics that I write about. Instead of going to Unsplash or Pixabay, I just search on Wikipedia, and use the picture there. So far, every one that I have seen is CC of some variety, so it works out awesomely. I highly recommend it.

I am having my FreeWrite’s be an SBI giveaway. This is a way to reward my fellow FreeWriter’s, and hopefully motivate me to do daily freewrite’s again. No promises on that, but I am going to make an attempt.

What you need to do to enter is simply comment on this post with a link to your freewrite. I will then assign you a number, and when I write the next post, I will pick using a random number generator. There’s no need to resteem or upvote, though it would be helpful to allow me to do this contest for longer.

I am also hosting another contest if you would like to enter that as well. Everyone is welcome :)

Looking Back/ Looking Forward SBI Contest

Until next time,

Aloha

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Here are the results from the previous giveaway:

@fitinfun: Entry #1 - https://steemit.com/busy/@fitinfun/freewrite-day-606-nap

@wonderwop: Entry #2 - https://steemit.com/freewrite/@wonderwop/day-606-freewrite-tuesday-nap

@whatisnew: Entry #3 - https://steemit.com/freewrite/@whatisnew/day-606-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-nap

I used Google’s Random Number Generator (if someone has a preferred method let me know) and got 3. So @whatisnew, you are the lucky winner and get 1 SBI.

Thank you all for your entries, I enjoyed reading them, and I look forward to your next one.

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Here are the people who have responded with their own freewrites and entered my contest. You should definitely check out these awesome writers :)

@wonderwop, @fitinfun, @owasco, @carolkean, @creativesoul, @samioli, @mrscwin, @whatisnew, @rokhani

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This is my response to the Freewrite prompt, a daily writing exercise that I am really enjoying doing. Thank you @mariannewest for hosting these.

https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-606-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-hippo

Prompt: “Hippo”

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I am looking for a partner for the we-write contest if anyone is interested. You can find details here.

If you’re interested in writing with me, please send me a message on discord, my username is nmcdougal#1503, or on Telegram.

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Part of being a member of the #ccc community is having this footer on my posts. If you'd like more information about what that is, check out @freedomshift, @team-ccc, or any of the links below.

This is an Invitation to join #ccc for Guaranteed 👍 Daily Income 💵 and Payout 💸 for Newbies (2.0) 🐟 🐜 🐛 in #ccc 👣 and Follow 👣 the Honor Code 🏅 - the Creed (Conditions and Limits Inside)

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the latest update <<< please click to read.

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