The Bunny & the Bear - A Fable

 Hey - welcome back to my blog. I've written a fable for this post, which is a story that teaches a moral problem using animals as the main characters. My class is called Stories, and my last Action Project, (which is a project that brings in all the information we learned beforehand in our unit,) was to write a story about an object. I wrote about a ring. For this project, I wrote about a bunny and a bear, a story based on predator and prey. I won't give away anything about the story, you just gotta read it. 

“Ma, can I go to the market today?” Mavis, the bunny, said on her 4th birthday. She was finally old enough to go by herself. Her mother, Avery, a much older and more wise bunny, was nervous for Mavis’ first time going to the market, considering her past experiences. Predators are known for purposely bullying, or scaring prey.

 “Yes darling, you may go. But please be careful, and don’t speak to any animals that are known to eat us bunnies”, she said. Avery handed Mavis some coins in case she wanted to buy something and sent her on her way.

 Mavis was definitely excited for her first time at the market, but hearing her mother and father’s past stories they were a bit scary. Mavis was on her way. She walked around 2 miles, and still, her excitement didn’t waver. She had finally arrived. 

Before she was able to go inside to where the market area was, she had to get a colored mark on her fur. The animals controlling it told her it would wash out later, but to not wipe it off until she leaves. There were two colors, blue for prey, and red for predator. They marked Mavis with the blue marking. When they were done, she walked past them, into the market.

The market was huge. There were tons of small stations, all kinds of animals that she didn’t recognize, selling everything from trinkets to food. Mavis didn’t know where to start. She decided to go to a necklace shop, where she found a medium-sized brown bear roaming around. “How much is this?” the bear said to the shopkeeper, holding up a beautiful blue necklace. On his paw, there was a blue mark. The shopkeeper who was a deer, noticing the blue mark, still cowered in fear because he was a bear. “J-just take it!” the deer said, hiding behind the counter. The bear looked confused, putting the necklace down. 

“I will give you 50 bucks for it,” he said. The deer peeked up from the counter. “It’s 20,” they said. The bear carefully placed a 20 dollar bill on the counter and slid it towards the deer. The deer took it, said “Thank you,” quietly, and stood up. “Maybe predators are nice,” the deer said under their breath, walking away from the counter. The bear walked out with the necklace, Mavis keeping her eyes on the bear the entire time. Why was the deer so scared of the bear? What did the bear do wrong? 

Carl walked carefully out of the store with the necklace, trying to not gather much attention to himself. A little white bunny was staring at him. He decided to explore the market some more and buy more things. There were a bunch of interesting signs everywhere, but Carl didn’t know exactly where to go first. He decided to go to another little accessory store, ran by an animal classified as “prey.” A little red fox was sneaking around the market. The shopkeeper, an ostrich, was walking around the store, keeping an eye on every animal in the store, because the stuff they’re selling is quite valuable. Carl picked up a small statue of a human, admiring it. Then he looked around for the fox. The fox grabbed a bracelet, shoved it in his mouth, and scurried off. Carl seeing this, yelled out. “Hey!” Every animal in the room jumped, and started hiding behind counters and underneath tables. “Please don’t hurt us,” said the ostrich. Carl put the statue down and started chasing after the fox. “Please excuse me,” he said, pushing through the crowd. The fox was about 50 feet away, slinking his way through the animals.

Mavis had her paws on one of the biggest carrots in the market, said so by the shopkeeper himself. She thought it would be a pretty nice gift for her mom. Mavis bought the carrot and walked out of the small store. A red fox ran past her, knocking her over, sending the carrot flying. A few seconds later, as Mavis was recovering herself from the blow, a bear came to help her up. The bear held out his hand and, naturally, she was scared of the bear, and she tried to crawl away from him. He held out his paw towards her, and she saw the blue mark on his fur. She looked at him quizzically. He said, “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.” The bear picked up the carrot and handed it to her. “I’m assuming this is yours?” he said. Mavis nodded her head. The bear made sure she was okay, and then he started searching for the fox.

 “Breaking news!” There was a small TV hanging from the wall in one of the shops. They both turned their attention towards the little TV. “The red fox, Vicky, strikes again. So far, this fox has stolen things that, in total, are worth over 12 grand.” The bear sighed. Mavis asked, “What's wrong?” The bear looks at her and responds. “I was chasing that fox, I watched him steal a bracelet from someone. He knocked you over while running.” Mavis felt bad that she was the cause of letting the fox getaway. “Anyways,” the bear said. “Nice to meet you, my name is Carl.” 

“My name is Mavis,” the small bunny said. Carl nodded. “Let’s go find this fox together, okay?”

The moral of this story is to not judge a book by its cover.