The Result Of Wickedness +-The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #152
Once upon a Time in the animal kingdom, the animals suffered greatly because there was no food anywhere. Since there was no rainfall, all the grass and crops dried up.
Despite the lack of food, the birds were looking so healthy because they had wings to fly up to the heavens where there was so much to eat and drink.
Tortoise got to know that the birds had enough to eat and drink in heavens, so the tortoise decided and determined to beg the birds to give him some of their feathers so that he too could fly to heavens to eat and take some food back to his wife, children and other family members.
Tortoise asks, “birds please help me with some of your feathers so that I could fly like you”.
Birds laughed amusingly at the tortoise.
Tortoise pleaded,”please, please! and promised them no harm”.
Birds confided among themselves and agreed, “ it's fine”, and gave the tortoise some feathers so that he could fly with them.
They all flew to the heavens to eat. When they got there, the angels prepared a very delicious meal, pounded yam and egusi soup, yam porridge, beans, porridge plantain and rice with plenty of meat and fish.
The tortoise bowed down seven times and got up and ate greedily to his fill. When it was time for the birds and tortoise to leave, the angels gave them lots of tubers of yam, baskets of dried fish and several other foodstuffs.
The tortoise, in his usual tricky ways, told all the birds that, “ he would carry all the foodstuffs alone since he is bigger than all of them”.
The birds however didn't like the way he warmed up to the angels, and how he grabbed all the foodstuffs at the least opportunity he had said, "it's fine”.
The birds without telling the tortoise agreed to send one of their own a message to tortoise wife, “ lay on the ground for your husband's hard work, rocks and gravels, so that when he is coming down from the sky, the meat and foodstuffs he is bringing down with him wouldn't touch the sand”.
Mrs Tortoise happily did that, knowing full well that she and her children would have a feast.
Meanwhile, the birds begged the tortoise to give them some of the foodstuffs the angel gave them. But the tortoise refused and so the birds collected all their feathers from the tortoise and asked him to jump.
The tortoise was so happy that at least all the food he collected would be enough for him and his household.
As the tortoise jumped from the sky, his shell broke into pieces because he landed on the gravels, rocks and hardwood his wife placed on the ground for him.
Immediately his wife saw what happened, she screamed for help.
The birds were sighting from somewhere to see what would happen to the tortoise. When they saw what happened to the tortoise they were happy and at the same time were afraid of what would be the outcome, they decided to fly away to an unknown area for safety, unfortunately to the birds, they flew and got lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
❤️🥰
Hello, @amocha
A fantastic fable that delivers a moral message that exposes that deception can affect equally those who use it against others. In that sense, acting with honesty bears better fruits. I hope the birds learn this on their pilgrimage through the Bermuda Triangle, and hopefully, the turtle has survived and will not try in the future to exploit the benevolence bestowed upon him.
I liked your story.
Greetings.
Thank you very much for publishing your story in TIW, @amocha. The characteristics of your text, mainly the presence of the moral, indicate that you have worked on a fable like the ones that abound in oral literature. We would like to ask you to review the rules for the publication of stories in our community. We mainly ask for originality. This means that although we find legends, fables and mythical texts beautiful, we give preference to stories created by the users themselves. Be sure to read and apply our rules to what you submit to the community to get better rewards.
This is quite a touchy story with some moral touch. Both the birds and even the tortoise paid for their craftiness.