Week 11 Story: The Thirsty Fox

There once lived a group of animals who all cohabitate together in peace. They were generally happy and self-sufficient, until one day all of the water they had access to dried up. No streams, rivers, springs, or wells. 

Knowing this was an issue, they went out to search for any source of water. They searched for hours and hours until one day they found a spring. The spring was a bit small and wouldn't last long if they began drinking out of it now, so they decided they would dig it deeper so it could sustain them for a while. All of the animals agreed to work hard to dig the spring. All except fox, who hated working and usually tried to convince someone to do it for her.

The other animals got to work digging the spring, they finished soon enough because there were so many of them digging. After they finished digging, they held a meeting and decided that since the fox refused to contribute to digging the spring, she would not be allowed to drink from it. They decided one of the animals that did help should guard the spring and make sure the fox did not drink from it. The first one chosen to guard the spring was the rabbit. 

The next day, all of the animals went to perform their daily duties, and the rabbit was left alone to guard the spring against the fox. The fox approaches the rabbit while he's alone on watch.

"Hello, Mr. Rabbit. How are you doing today?" asked the fox.

"Hello, Fox. Very fine, thank you for asking," the rabbit answered politely. 

The fox begins to chatter with the rabbit, pulling out a piece of honeycomb and nibbling on it.

"What do you have there?" asked the rabbit curiously, eyeing the honeycomb.

"Oh, this is a piece of sweet sweet honeycomb. It's the best in the valley." bragged the rabbit. 

"Would you please let me have a nibble?" asked the rabbit as his eyes went wide. 

"Why sure I would! But first, you must bound your hands and feet so I can pour it in your mouth." said the fox. 

The rabbit did just that, eager for the honeycomb. But, once he was bound, the fox rushed over to the spring and laughed, drinking as much as she pleased. 

The rest of the animals returned that evening, finding the rabbit bound. 

"The fox tricked me! She offered me some honeycomb and bound me up! There was nothing I could do!" hollered the rabbit. 

They were disappointed and knew they needed to find a new animal to guard the spring. They chose the little hare to do the job next.

Once they left the little hare alone with the spring, the fox was able to use the same trick on him. She offered him the honeycomb, telling him to tie himself up in order to get some, and he did just that, allowing the fox to drink freely from the spring once more. 

The animals came back to find the little hare in the same position as the rabbit, shouting the same excuses. They decided they needed a very different animal to guard the spring. "Let it be the tortoise," said the zebra. "The tortoise is so slow! You really think he could catch the fox?" argued the rabbit. "Well you and the hare didn't succeed, so we're going to be changing up our methods." shot back the zebra. And so they did change their methods.

The next day, the tortoise was left alone to guard the spring. The fox approached the tortoise, trying to be charming. 

"How are you Mr. Tortoise?" She said fluttering her eyelashes.

The tortoise did not react, it was almost as if he heard nothing. 

Worried he didn't hear her, she spoke up. "How are you doing today Mr. Tortoise?!" She borderline yelled. He ignored her. 

"I have some delicious honeycomb here. Would you like to try some?" said the fox, putting it under his nose so he could smell it. H

He turned his head away, so he could no longer smell it. The fox began to get frustrated. 

Brainstorming ways she could get a reaction out of the tortoise, she decided she could just nudge the tortoise and make a run for it, there's no way the tortoise could catch her. 

So she ran up and kicked him and made a run for the spring. The tortoise, solid in his stance, was unphased by the kick. He went after her and while she was drinking down the water, he grabbed her leg with his mouth pulling her far from the spring.

"AhhHHAHAHHHHHHAhhhhhhh! My Leg!" howled the fox. "Let go of it! You're going to rip it off!" She cried out. 

The tortoise only tightened his grip, determined to keep her from the spring. They went on like this until the other animals showed up. The fox gave her leg a hard yank, and the tortoise let her go, for he had back up now. She ran off, going slower than usual due to the wound in her leg.

The other animals praised the tortoise. applauding him for his efforts and good work. They were happy they could now peacefully enjoy the fruits of their labor and drink from the spring, without having to worry about the sly fox. 

("Fox" by Jans Canon, Web Source)

Author's note:

The story I did a retelling of is "Jackal and Spring" from the African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books unit. The original story has the exact same plot, except the trickster in the original version is a male jackal. I made the trickster a fox because that's the trickster I am personally the most familiar with due to my exposure to folktales being mainly western, and the substitutions was so seamless. I also made her female because I feel like so often times male characters are the tricksters of every story, and I feel like a girl character could also play the part well, even utilizing some of the flirtation you would expect from a female trickster. It was unnecessary to use with the rabbit and the hare because the honeycomb did the job easy enough, but she tried fluttering her eyelashes for the turtle, but she saw no results due to his determination. Those are the only different aspects of my story though. I hope you enjoyed my retelling!

Bibliography:

"Jackal and Spring"

Story Source:

The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1900).