Fables: Part 4
The Shadows and The Light
Every night a father would light a candle and place it on his daughter's bedstand. “This will keep away the darkness,” he promised, “and it will keep you safe while I am gone.”
As the girl's father left the room, she would watch the wax slip slowly down the candle. The light would flicker, bravely holding back the cold darkness that leered in the corners of her room. The shadows would flit across her walls and dance behind the curtains, but they could never creep near her while the candle was lit.
As the minutes turned into hours, the girl felt comforted by the presence of the light and would fall asleep. Yet every morning, she would awaken to an extinguished candle. Some mornings the wax was low in the candle's base, but other mornings it was as tall as her eyeline when she rested her chin upon the bedstand. She did not understand why the light disappeared, and one day, she asked her father: “Do you blow out the light before I awake?”
“No,” the father promised. “I light it to protect you, and I would not betray that trust.”
The girl believed her father and investigated her room for an answer. She searched for cracks in the floors and the windows that might let in a breeze, but all seams were sealed shut. That night, she tossed and turned in her bed to see if it jostled her bedstand, but the candle stood steady and lit.
The girl sat upon her bed and watched the shadows. They loomed over her with every shift she made. “Do you extinguish the light?” She whispered in fear.
The shadows did not answer.
She crawled deeper under the covers, so only her eyes peeked out, and watched the candle, never falling asleep that night. Her candle stayed lit, and when the sun rose, the girl stood by her shadowless window and called out tired to the sun. “Oh, Sun, I thought for sure you must be the reason my candle goes unlit; For your bright light must overpower its flicker, yet here it stands, lit with what wax it has left to hold it.”
The sun shined warmly upon the girl and spoke to her as it crested the hills. “The light stays for as long as you need it, little girl.”
“I was never as scared as when I feared the darkness might get me in my sleep,” the girl admitted. “Perhaps you do not know this fear because you are made of light.”
“But so are you, little girl,” the sun said. “When you rise with me for the day, you are brave and warm and bright, but now you have wasted your precious rest to live in fear.”
That night the girl wondered if she could sleep without the candle burning on her bedstand. She watched it and the shadows that skirted its protective sphere. She thought maybe she would blow it out, but the shadows followed her as she leaned out of bed. She closed her eyes, exhausted from getting no rest the night before, and fell asleep. When she awoke, the candle was out.
The Hole in the Bucket
One day, a man went to get water for his horses from the well. He thought himself so kind and caring to provide the horses water, but when he raised the bucket from the well, he found a hole in its bottom. The water spilled onto his boots and left none for his horses who were waiting by their trough. He tried to fill it faster, but the water still spilled onto his boots. With wet feet, the man developed an idea: instead of trying to fill the bucket once more, he pulled off his boots and lowered them into the well. When he pulled them back up, they were both full of water and did not spill when he crossed the field.
Proud of his cleverness, the man returned to his horses and filled their troughs with water. The horses huffed at their trough and turned away. They did not want water; they wanted feed.
The Squirrel and The Lynx
High in the mountains lived a squirrel. It looked like most squirrels with a bushy, gray tail and cheeks full of seeds, but it was smarter than its kin. When the hungry Lynx came to prowl the mountain, the squirrel hid while the others were caught. Eventually, there were no other squirrels left, and the Lynx knew this. It set its eyes on this last, clever squirrel to fill its stomach.
The lynx had focused eyes, keen ears, and a trusty nose that would assuredly find the squirrel if it did not come up with a plan. The clever squirrel thought long and hard about what it would do before coming up with an idea. First, it visited the crow, and said to it: “Friendly crow, if I were to be eaten by the lynx, who then would it eat before you? Help me kill the lynx. Fly down and blind its eyes before it can see me.” The crow agreed to this plan and together they visited the hare.
“Friendly hare,” said the squirrel. “If I and crow were to be eaten by the lynx, who then would it eat before you? Help us kill the lynx. Confuse its ears with your loud thumping feet before it hears me.” The hare agreed to this plan and the three of them went to visit the skunk. “Friendly skunk,” said the squirrel. “If I and crow and hare were to be eaten by the lynx, who then would it eat before you? Help us kill the lynx. Stifle its sense of smell before it can smell me.” The skunk agreed to this plan and the four animals laid in wait for the lynx to emerge from its nest in pursuit of the squirrel.
When the time was right, the crow swooped down and blinded the lynx, then the hare began to thump its foot loudly on the ground as the skunk sprayed its scent upon the lynx's nose. When the other three had played their part, the squirrel leapt onto the lynx's back and hit the beast with a sharp rock. Together, the four animals lived the rest of their lives on the mountain, unafraid of a lynx, who might hunt them down.