A TALE OF TAILS

By

Peter Jessop

This is a tale of tails and takes place long ago in the days before humans owned the lands, when animals were the only inhabitants of the earth.  Like humans after them the beasts and birds also had their hierarchies, their laws, customs, and social classes.  And the king of all the animals was Leo the lion; a good and proud king whose courtiers were lesser creatures that bowed before his wise brow, voice and bone cracking jaw.  From the gold splendour of his jewel encrusted palace, King Leo lived and ruled worthy of his magnificence.

Yet his subjects did not like the jewels that sparkled against his glorious mane or the banquets that graced the tables every night.  The horse, the fox, the bear, the badger, the tiger and all the other four legged animals of all shapes, sizes and horns desired only one thing the king possessed: a tail!

Leo’s tail was supple and elegant, it spoke a language all of its own; at times lashing with rage; while at others curling with pleasure.  It was the dream of every animal to have such a tail.  Suffice to say the king loved his tail and took extra care when grooming it.  But Leo was no fool and when he saw the misery of his subjects, especially on cold winter nights when the icy wind blew into every burrow and no animal could bury its nose into a thick warm tail; or the antelope had no tail to flutter warning when the leopard approached, and the leopard had no tail to twitch in anger when the antelope fled; Leo decided that something must be done – he was going to give every one of his subjects a tail.

Joy spread through the kingdom as Leo summoned his learned scholars and ministers as well as the most powerful wizards in the land.  They all gathered in the great hall to contemplate where on earth tails could be found.  To all, the king posed the same question, everyone had an opinion but no one had an answer.  It was only when the king asked the wisest of the wise, the three wise monkeys, did he get an answer.  Now the wisest of the wise were a chimpanzee, who could not hear; a baboon that could not speak; and an orang-outang who could not see.  The chimpanzee who could not hear, spoke for the baboon who could not speak and the orang-outang who could not see.  While the Baboon who could not speak, saw for the orang-outang who could not see and heard for the chimpanzee who could not hear.  And the orang-outang who could not see spoke for the chimpanzee who could not hear and the baboon who could not speak of course.

The three wise monkeys who were famed throughout the land informed the king of a sacred book that entailed within it pages how to obtain tails.  Leo enquired as to the name of such a book?  ‘The Book of Tails’ of course they said; and as for its location, well only the creator knew, and that was who the king must seek.

So with his bravest knight of the realm, the tiger, Sir Thomas, King Leo set upon the quest to find the creator and the fabled ‘Book of Tails’.  The journey was a long and arduous one filled with many dangers, perils and travails.  The king and his knight faced many challenges and had many a hair raising escape, and along the way the proud and mighty King Leo learnt many a lesson, chief amongst them is humility and that he is no better than an animal without a tail.  After many sunsets and sunrises Leo did return to his kingdom having found the creator – a story for another day - and been given the ‘Book of Tails’, now a much wiser king than when he left.

Word quickly raced throughout the lands commanding all animals who wanted a tail to come to the palace.  The stampede was something to behold, the likes of which had never been seen before and would never be seen again; elk, bull, leopard, tiger, antelope, elephant, fox, badger, rabbit and even mice.  From the largest to the smallest, side by side, they all came to the palace.  A line of animals stretching as far as the eye could see, and for many an animal that was very far indeed; and never had such a gathering been seen before and many a generation would pass before this day was ever forgotten.

The crowd of animals gasped as they saw many chests filled with tails – bushy tails – curly tails – silky tails – bristly tails – long tails – short tails – every shape, size and colour imaginable. One by one King Leo bade his subjects to choose a tail.  It took many days but finally all the animals had a tail; all except the bear that is, who was still sleeping in his cave as the winter was not yet passed.  When he finally heard the news the bear quickly ran to the palace of the king only to find all the tails gone and only scraps left.  Still, a tail is a tail, and unperturbed the bear scrapped up what was left and gave himself a small fluffy tail.  The bear was happy and that is why to this day the bear only has a small tail.

Now truly all the animals in the land were happy with this tale of tails and a celebration did take place that lasted a week and more, and from that day forth King Leo did rule as a better and wiser king whose name became legend and the tale of tails was never forgotten.

Copyright (C) Peter Jessop 2010