The Animal Fable

Geoffrey the Raffe was a short stubby little creature, who was always mean to people around him. He never said please or thank you, and found joy in picking on the younger raffes. Geoffrey was also a greedy raffe. In the meadow where all the raffes went to graze, there were only patches of the sweet green grass that raffes liked to eat. When the younger animals would go together to graze, Geoffrey would run to the meadow first and eat all of the sweet green grass, and leave the yellow grass and gross tree leaves for the rest of the raffes. Geoffrey was not well liked with the other animals, but didn’t care. He thought they all were stupid and ugly.

One day, the younger animals decided to go grazing without Geoffrey. They left early in the morning, when the leaves were still wet with dew, and quietly made their way down to the grazing area. When Geoffrey woke up later on, he realized that there was no one to walk him down to the meadow. Sad, hungry and angry, he made his way to the watering hole and saw a little squirrel. “Hey, ugly furry thing. What’s that you’re doing?” Geoffrey asked. The little squirrel was planting seeds around the watering hole, to provide shade for the other animals while they drank and cooled off. “Oh, you’re not very nice. But since, I am nice, I will tell you. I’m planting seeds over here so that animals can stay cool during the hot season”, replied the squirrel. “You should give me some to eat”, Geoffrey said harshly. “Oh no”, replied the squirrel, “these aren’t eating seeds; they’re planting seeds, which reminds me I should get more. Will you mind watching them for me?” Geoffrey smiled as sweetly as he could, and agreed to watch over the seeds. The second the squirrel was out of site, the greedy raffe ran to the hole and picked up a seed with his long purple tongue. Geoffrey was so amazed at their unique taste that he ate as many of the seeds as he could, dirt and all. After a while, Geoffrey began to feel sick from all of the dirt he was eating. He walked over to the water, and began to drink gigantic gulps until he couldn’t drink anymore. Feeling full and happy, the content raffe went to lay down in the sun. Combined with the warmth and feeling of satisfaction, Geoffrey fell asleep, and stayed asleep for days. As Geoffrey was sleeping, the seeds in his stomach began to sprout. He didn’t know it, but he had eaten were really palm tree seeds, and mixed with the dirt, water and sun, they began to grow, so much in fact that Geoffrey’s neck stretched out!

The mean raffe woke up the next morning, feeling strange and dizzy. His head felt a lot heavier than it should have, and he felt taller. As he stood up, he realized that he towered over everyone around him. At first he thought it was great, but once he realized how hard it was to eat, he began to dislike his immense size. When he bent