In a quiet village nestled between two hills, there lived two boys, Eli and Tomas, who were as different as summer and winter. Eli loved books and quiet walks. Tomas loved running and climbing trees. Though they lived on opposite sides of a stream that split the village, their paths crossed one day when Tomas got stuck on a tree limb above the water.
Eli had been sitting nearby, reading. Without hesitation, he dropped his book and waded in to help. Together, they figured out how to get Tomas down safely. From that day, a friendship bloomed.
They met each afternoon by the stream. Eli would bring stories, and Tomas would bring adventure. Sometimes they argued—Eli got annoyed when Tomas talked over his reading, and Tomas rolled his eyes when Eli didn’t want to climb. But they always made up. Slowly, they built a small wooden bridge together—no one asked them to, they just did. It became their meeting place, their shared project, a symbol of something greater than themselves.
Years later, after they’d grown and gone their separate ways, the villagers still used that little bridge. And whenever anyone asked who built it, the answer was always the same: “Two boys who proved that friendship is stronger than difference.”