An attempt to write a fable for a Sureshot piece  I’m working on.

The sun rose in the west and warmed the sands of the desert. All the animals crept from their homes to bask in its warmth. By midday the sun was high and hot, burning all who dared to stare at it. The rabbit ran to its hole, carefully dug out under a cactus, protected from the sun. There, the rabbit found a lizard and a bird shading themselves.

“Why are you in my home?” The rabbit asked of the visitors.

“We were hot and had no place to shade ourselves,” explained the bird. “Can we share your home with you?”

“Sure,” the rabbit agreed, and the three of them sat in the cool of the rabbit’s home and had a conversation while they waited for the heat to pass.

A fox prowled the hot sands and heard the conversation between the three animals. The fox approached and, surprised to find the three in the hole together, he asked, “Why are all three of you in the same hole? I’ve never seen a rabbit, a lizard and a bird share a hole before.”

Scared, the animals looked at each other and wondered how to answer. Finally the rabbit explained, “We were all hot in the sun and I had plenty of room so I decided to share my home.”

“Oh that’s nice,” the fox chuckled. “Nice of you to provide me with a diverse meal that is.”

“Oh no! Please don’t eat us,” the lizard pleaded.

“Why should I spare you? A fox must eat after all,” the fox reasoned.

“Well of course but you don’t need to eat us. In fact, why don’t you join us in this cool home and wait for the sun to pass?” The bird chirped.

“I don’t need your home, I have my own, but I could do with a nice meal,” the fox grinned as he licked his lips.

“Well, if you must eat one of us, why not start with the bird?” the rabbit suggested. “After all, everyone knows birds taste delicious. Plus, he could get away easiest because he can fly, so best to eat him first.”

The fox agreed with the rabbit’s reasoning and in spite of the bird’s protests, the fox ate him first. When he was finished he declared that he was still hungry.

“Well,” the rabbit started, “ you should probably eat the lizard next then. After all, you probably have rabbit all the time but I bet you don’t eat lizard very often.”

The fox agreed and even though the lizard warned him not to, the fox ate the poor lizard up. After finishing the meal, the fox began to feel sick. He couldn’t see straight and he was sweating as he began to get a fever.

The rabbit laughed, “Stupid fox. Desert lizards are poisonous.”

“Why did you do that?” the fox asked as he was dying.

“Because in the desert, there are no friends and no favors. You survive by wit, wile and wisdom.”