The Fight
The Mongoose came out of his burrow in the evening in search of food. The jungle was quiet and peaceful. The sky looked colourful with the sun about to set. He scurried under the thick bushes and shrubs, carefully looking for something to eat. Then he saw something moving slowly, not too far from where he was.
“Is that a stick?” thought the Mongoose, for the thing looked like a piece of a broken branch. “But sticks don’t move!” He went a little closer.
The thing slithered a little away from him. Now he was pretty sure that this was some kind of an animal. “Hello,” said the Mongoose trying to make friends, “who are you?”
One end of the stick stood up.
Two angry looking eyes stared at him with a fork-like tongue slipping in and out. It was a Snake. The Mongoose had never seen a Snake before. And the Snake also saw a Mongoose for the first time in his life.
“His eyes look so mean and wicked. He has no legs or fur. He is ugly and I don’t like him!” thought the Mongoose. “What is this ugly animal? He is covered with hair and has teeth like thorns. I hate him!” decided the Snake.
The Mongoose and Snake both hissed at each other. “I hate you!” hissed the Snake, “and I don’t even know why!”
“Well so do I,” snarled back the Mongoose, “you look so stupid and ugly!”
They both started to move around each other, burning in anger.
“You should leave this jungle,” growled the Mongoose. “Jungles are for animals and you’re not even a proper animal. You don’t have legs or any fur!”
The Snake hissed louder. “You are the one who should leave,” he said, his eyes burning with rage, “you are stupid and look like a dried up husk!”
The two animals got closer and tried to attack each other. The Snake tried to bite and knew that the Mongoose would be in trouble if he did so, for he was venomous. The Mongoose carefully avoided the Snake’s attacks but tried to get hold of him and bite him. He too knew that the Snake would be in trouble if he did so. Because the Mongoose had sharp teeth and could easily break the Snake into two pieces.
This fight went on and on for a while. Soon they were both tired, but neither of them wanted to give up. “I will finish you off today,” growled the Mongoose. “No, I will,” hissed back the snake.
But they were both very tired by now and had very little energy left, to go on fighting.
The sun was about to sink in the horizon. A few bats appeared in the evening sky. One bat was hanging on a branch high above where the Mongoose and Snake was fighting. “What’s going on here?” shouted the Bat.
The Mongoose and Snake pulled away from each other and looked up. “How stupid are you? Can’t you see that we are fighting?” asked the Snake sticking out his long tongue in annoyance.
“I can see that, but what are you
two fighting about?” asked the Bat.
Both the Mongoose and Snake paused for a second to remember why they started to fight. “No one fights without a reason. What did one of you do to the other to start a fight?” asked the Bat. “Nothing really,” answered the Mongoose. “Then why are you two fighting?” asked the Bat sounding confused.
“I hate him,” said the Mongoose, “he’s different than me and the moment I saw him, I decided that I don’t like him!”
“Well, I hate him too,” said the Snake, “he looks so stupid. I get annoyed even when I see him!”
“You are both equally stupid! How petty you sound when you say that you don’t like someone, just because you don’t like the way he looks or because he’s different than you! Is it any of your business what another person looks like?” asked the Bat.
“Not really,” said the Mongoose,
“his appearance is none of my business, but I still don’t like how he looks!”
“I also get annoyed when I see him!” said the Snake.
“Well if you don’t like the way someone looks, all you have to do is not look at him. It’s not fair to try to hurt someone just because you dislike their appearance. How stupid is that?” sighed the Bat.
“Most animals don’t like the way I look. I am a mammal but I fly like a bird. Birds dislike me although I fly, because I am not a bird. And animals dislike me because I don’t live on the ground. So I get ridiculed all the time by both animals and birds as well. But I don’t care what others say. Because this is the way I was born. And no one has the right to dislike me just because I am different!” explained the Bat.
“You should never try to attack another person just because they are different than you. That only shows how silly you are!” said the Bat and flew away.
The Snake and the Mongoose both felt very stupid. How silly they were to fight with each other simply because they didn’t like the way the other one looked. They slowly slipped away into opposite directions, feeling ashamed about their behaviour.