Life in the garden was good. Nin and Sally grew big and healthy, the carrots made their fur soft, and the fence, guarded by the servants, gave them protection from elil.
One day, an elil, a fox, tunneled it's way under the fence and emerged in the turnip row. Sally, who had never actually seen an elil, and wasn't exactly certain what one looked like, was curious. She hopped over to the creature and admired his soft red fur, bushy tail, and small pointy ears.
"He doesn't look dangerous," she thought.
The fox convinced Sally to try the grapes.
Although rabbits have a natural repugnance toward soft food, the elil persuaded her to taste them anyway. The softness was unlike anything she'd ever eaten before-unlike the hard carrots and grasses she usually ate, and tasted like sweet-n-slugs.
Now, rabbits must chew hard food to wear down their teeth as they never stop growing. Nevertheless, the grapes fermented in her stomach and caused Sally great distress. Her metabolic system grew addicted to grapes, and she craved them.
In time, she lost all her wits and convinced Nin to try them too. The diet of grapes (and only grapes) turned their teeth into fangs (Lagomorphism.)
Farmer John recognized their lagomorphic character, and despite what Nin and Sally said, he had no choice but to banish the two rabbits from the garden lest they kill themselves.
As punishment, the rabbits would have to raid gardens at their peril. And to the fox he said,
"Cursed be you above all elil. From this day forward, rabbits will be a delicacy for you, but I will so increase their speed and agility that only by the sweat of your brow will you catch the delight of your tongue!"
And that is why foxes are the chief enemies of rabbits.
2 comments:
This is slightly reminiscent of Watership Down. Ever read it? I would guess you have.
The biblical parallels are certainly clear enough though.
I've just read it again, actually. That's where I got the elil.
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