Hello, world, Stefan Croker here. I have been given a cheap web site and domain and am looking to use it for things. The thing I will use it for is to post my short stories. Here is the first, copied from an ancient wap site I had, and from memory.
The Fox and the Crane
A story of a cunning Fox, and a wise Crane. It comes to pass that they come to pass each other.
“Ho, Crane!” calls Fox “You must find it difficult lifting things and building buildings all day. We should do lunch some time.” Fox is the kind of beast that finds that kind of joke terribly droll.
The Crane thinks about Fox’s reputation as a bit of a cadger, and replies “I am not really ready to accept a guest at the moment, perhaps we can eat at yours?”
“Sure,” says Fox, “You can host me next time we meet.”
“Fair enough, where and when?”
“Drop by my den tomorrow at noon.”
Tomorrow comes and Fox has pulled a mean trick, lunch is soup, and Fox put it in a shallow dish. Crane naturally has a bit of trouble. Fox helps out his buddy by finishing both soups. Fox then gets a million hits on youtube posting “Crane trying to eat soup” video.
“See you next week” says Fox
“Fair enough” says Crane, thinking to himself that he will get his own back.
Next week comes and lo it is soup again, but somehow Crane got a couple of amphorae off ebay and the soup is in them. Fox can’t get his muzzle in deep enough to eat but Crane’s beak fits fine.
“Let me help you with that” says Crane, and sticks his beak in Fox’s amphora.
“Sure thing” says Fox, and as soon as Crane’s beak is in the amphora Fox grabs him by the throat. With the heavy amphora trapping his beak the fight is fairly one sided.
“Mmmph!!! Gurgle!!” Cries Crane!
Fox waits a few minutes after the gurgling subsides before replying… “Thanks for lunch.”
Aesop usually put a moral at the end of a story, I will go with: “Trying to trick a trickster who has every reason to expect you to trick them may not end as well for you as it does in the movies.” Pithy, right? Sometimes morals can be more nuanced than a soundbite, though.
This is from a series I wrote called “A Sop’s Fibbles”. I chose Aesop stories to redo because they are famous and because they are well out of copyright. If someone else has had similar ideas then I am not very surprised, if someone steals this idea then please quote source.
If you have any comments or questions about this story… I have no clue what you can do about that, as I am not going to be on this site a lot.
Have Fun
Stefan Croker