Nice poetry Sky... or translated poetry or whatever.
I'm feeling frustrated with computer issues right now, so I'm thinking about blowing off some steam on writing something that I came up with while lying awake in bed last night (I have a lot of ideas that come to me while suffering insomnia).
So pull up a chair, or since you're probably sitting in a chair already make yourself comfortable or whatever.
So Fox was chasing a butterfly.
Well, really he was trying to make the butterfly think it was being chased, if he really wanted to he could have caught it any time, but he was wonderfully enjoying his game of leaping after the butterfly and giving it such a scare so that it fluttered further and further into the forest.
So Fox kept leaping after the butterfly, always coming up a little short, or a little to the right, or a little below it, then he would land back on the forest floor and sometimes for effect he would say something like "Damn, I missed, best try again then!" (he didn't think the butterfly could really understand him, he did it all the same though because he prided himself on keeping up appearances). However at about the twentieth time he was about to say that sentence, it came out more like "Damn, I- whooa!" because the ground had caved out from under him.
It took Fox a few moments to get his wits together and take in what had happened to him, "My goodness," he said to himself, "Someone has dug a big hole in the ground and then covered it up with branches and leaves, that's very inconsiderate of them, I could have been hurt!"
Fox shook the leaves and twigs off his coat, then started looking how to escape. This proved to be pretty difficult, in the fall he'd landed on one of his back legs and hurt it badly, and while he was a very good jumper, but he couldn't jump very well with his leg hurt, so instead he tried climbing the walls of the pit. This went alright at first, but half way up the dirt wall crumbled away, and he fell down again, landing on his bad leg and hurt himself in a tumble of dust. "Owww," he said to himself.
He looked up at the top of the pit, and saw the butterfly flitting around above him. "I suppose you think this is funny," he said to it. In actuality, it didn't, but this is because butterflies had very short memories, and it had already forgotten all about him and was thinking about finding something to pollinate, which it promptly left to do a few moments later.
Fox sat alone in the bottom of the pit for a while longer thinking what to do, he was about to give climbing out another try when he heard a voice from outside the pit.
"Hey! Has something fallen into that pit!"
After a moment a little girl poked her head over the lip of the pit and said, "Hey! It's a fox!"
"Yes," said Fox, "It's me, and I'd very much like to get out of this pit."
"Hey!" said the girl, "It's a talking fox! My name's Lily, what's yours?"
Now the fact that this fox was talking to her might have seemed very remarkable to most people, but Lily was still very young and was still learning all kinds of things about the world. The fact that there was such a thing as talking foxes was just another new thing amongst all the other new things she was learning. Just recently she had learnt that plants drank in water, and that in fact there were plants that lived in water itself, and somehow these things drank in sunlight to her that seemed really weird, talking foxes just seemed normal.
It's amazing what can seem normal and strange to you before you learn what to be surprised at.
"I'm Fox", said Fox.
"That's not your name, that's what you are!" Lily replied.
"It is," conceded Fox, "but it's also my name, your name can be Owl, while you're also an Owl, you see?"
Lily didn't say anything to this, she didn't really know what an owl was, or who an Owl, might be. And she was trying to figure out this business of names which didn't seem quite right to here when Fox broke her train of thought by saying, "So do you think you could do a fox a favour and let me out of here? It's very dull down here."
"Ermmm, maybe..." She thought about it, there was a rope in the shed behind her house which was not very far away. "Do I get a wish if I let you out?"
"A wish?" Cried Fox, "I'm a fox, foxes don't grant wishes!"
"That's how it always goes in the stories." said Lily matter-of-factly, "The animals grant wishes or turn into princes. Though I think it might only be fish that grant wishes, you should do something." Somewhere in Lily's head it had occurred to her that what was happening here might not be something that happens every day, and that part of her had solemnly concluded she should get something out of it.
"Well, a prince I think I can do, if that's what you want." Fox said.
There's a certain knack you can get which lets you change into something else's form, Fox knew one or two of them, and he used one of them to change himself into a man.
Lily watched with curiosity as Fox changed into a man, there aren't many that can say they've met a talking fox, there are even fewer that can say they've seen such a fox turn into a man, Lily was pretty much the only one of them that was unimpressed by it though (remember she'd just learnt all about plants).
"You're a very small prince," she said.
"Well," huffed Fox, "I am a pretty small fox, it's tough to make yourself bigger. But a prince is a prince, will you let me out now?"
"Are you really a prince?" Lily asked.
"A prince is just another kind of human right? If I say I'm a prince, then I'm a prince." Fox said.
"I don't think it works that way," Lily said thoughtfully, "I think you need a kingdom to be a prince. That's how it always goes in the stories, the prince marries the girl and they go off to be a king and queen."
"Well, I don't have a kingdom, although I might be able to find one," Fox said (because he didn't know what a kingdom was), "but if you'd like, I can marry you." (he also didn't know what marriage was, but he'd never been the sort of fox to let that stop him agreeing to something)
"I don't think I'm allowed to marry just yet, I have to get older first." Lily replied (Lily wasn't exactly sure what marriage was either, but she had some idea it was something people much older than her did).
"Well then, what would you like me to do?" Fox said, and he was starting to get a bit annoyed with the conversation now.
"Well," Lily said, "I've always wanted a pet dog, but I suppose if I can't have a dog, a pet fox would do just as well."
"And what does being a pet entail?" Fox said.
Lily had to thought long and hard before she gave her answer, partly because she didn't know what to say, but also because she had some trouble figuring out what "entail" meant.
"It means you're mine, and you have to do everything I tell you to." Lily said, feeling satisfied that her answer should cover all the bases.
"Absolutely not," said Fox as he turned he returned to his normal form in a huff, "there's no way I'm agreeing to that, it sounds far too boring."
Lily was somewhat offended by this, in that way that children of her age tend to be personally offended by being refused anything. "Well I suppose you'll just have to wait here for the trapper to come and get you then."
"Maybe he'll be nicer than you've been to me." Fox said spitefully.
"He'll probably skin you and eat you, that's what he does with foxes." Lily said.
"He'll do what?!" Fox was genuinely surprised. He knew that humans laid out traps to catch animals so they could eat them (though he didn't understand why they didn't just use their teeth, he supposed it was just because they were lazy), but he had never thought that they might try to eat him, in his rather self-centred world view, this idea was a bit of a shock, and didn't sit well with him.
"Yup, he's got a big knife for it and everything." Lily said, feeling rather pleased at the effect her words were having on Fox.
Fox whined... Then after a pause said, "How long would I have to be your pet for anyway?"
"For the rest of my life." Lily said promptly.
"Oh," Fox said, and after thinking about it a little "Well I suppose that's alright then, as long as you get me out of this hole."
"Really? You promise?" Lily asked.
"I promise, let me out and I'll be your pet for the rest of your life, and if I shouldn't, then may all my hair turn pink and fall out." Fox said solemnly.
This was good enough for Lilly, she rushed off to the shed, and fifteen minutes later she was back with a big rope wrapped around her awkwardly. She then tied the rope around a tree, and then there was an awkward situation when Fox had to climb up the rope (it turned out he wasn't very good at climbing ropes, but he managed eventually).
"So," said Fox to whom a thought was just occuring, "How long do humans live for anyway?"
"Well, my Gran-Gran is the oldest person I know, and she says she's nearly a hundred." Lily said.
"A hundred! Oh dear." Fox wasn't happy to think he might be her pet for that long.
And that is the story of how Fox and Lily met.
I've got a hazy idea of some continuation, but that's really all I can be asked to write tonight.
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Topic: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___ (Read 301291 times)