The Tribes of Andaman

A few kids from a village were playing on the beach. While waddling through the water, they
collected some shells for decoration and made crowns out of seaweed. As the water from the sea
withdrew from the shore, it gradually revealed a newly undiscovered patch of land. These
children were now excited because they could now build towering sandcastles with the wet sand
from this newfound area. Besides, this part of the beach was filled with seashells and sea snails
which lay previously hidden.
However, one young boy, Ono, felt it was quite odd that the shoreline had rapidly receded. His
grandfather had once said that if he ever saw the receding shoreline, he must immediately take
high ground as it signaled an incoming tsunami.

https://booksameya.in/a-boy-named-ono/

Ono realized that a tsunami was just around the corner. He needed to take his
friends and village folks to high ground. He repeatedly warned his friends that
they needed to get away from the beach and go up the tall cliff near their
village. However, his friends just would not listen.

Left with no option, Ono gathered a bunch of dry leaves of the coconut trees
around him and made a torch. He then lit up the torch and warned his friends
that he would set the trees on the cliff alight. The children panicked and
hurriedly followed Ono, who had dashed off to set fire to the trees on the cliff.
Seeing the terror-stricken kids running behind Ono, the adults also followed
suit.

Once they had made it to the edge of the cliff, Ono paused and looked behind
to see the gasping children and villagers. The angry village folks began
scolding Ono for his actions. They asked him how he could even think of
setting the trees alight, for they were like parents to the village inhabitants.
Even so, Ono knew that there was no point explaining his actions as nobody
was going to trust him anyway. He was snapped out of his thoughts by one of
the elders, who suddenly started exclaiming while looking at the beach. All the
villagers turned their attention to the beach, only to find huge ocean
waves wolfing down anything that came in its way. The entire village was
devastated in a trice.

That is when everyone understood why Ono had done what he had. Everyone
was all praise for his wit and alertness.