Once upon a time, in a very vast forest, so vast in fact that even the old Tortoise never saw the end of it, there lived a Snail, young and lissome, like all the little Snails in the forest. He played with all kinds of other animals, lots of different games, hide and seek, tag, he was running and jumping here and there, swimming in the lake with his pals the Lions and was having a whale of a time. When he got tired, he sat down to rest like all little tired Snails do. And then he got up and climbed up on the trees and did all sort of mischief. He had a pretty certain future laid out for him. His father had big dreams for him and his mother even bigger. The little Snail though grew up and started getting into bad company, that is to say the Squirrel.
The Squirrel was very shady, had a very suspiciously bushy tail, moved in a shady way, and all day he sat on tree branches and collected hazelnuts and walnuts. Some animals said that he had dealings with the gangs of the other side of the forest. The little Snail was impressed with the bushy tail of the Squirrel and immediately made friends with him. He too wanted a bushy tail like the Squirrel’s and although he begged and begged his parents to get him one this just couldn’t happen. This led to the big fight with his parents and him leaving home. His father couldn’t bear the pain of his only son leaving home and died. Some say it was because he ate a whole walnut, others – who know – say that he died of a broken heart. The little Snail’s mother started consorting with other animals and took care of them and caressed them at nights for some food crumbs they gave her if she did her job correctly. The little Snail was now happy or at least he thought he was, with his friend the Squirrel. The Squirrel gave him one of his nuts to nibble.
That day the little Snail cried. A lot. In one moment the little Snail had grown up. He remembered then, how happy he was in his old home where he played and sang innocently and joyfully. There was no turning back now. Innocence seemed to be a washed-out memory, he would enjoy from then on, only in his dreams. Shortly after, he began to serve the Squirrel and do odd jobs for him, but the little Snail still thought of him as his dear friend. One dark night, his dear friend the Squirrel, sent the little Snail to do some business with the jackals at the other side of the forest. He betrayed him though and the jackals awaited the little Snail with very cruel and very violent intentions. The poor little Snail, not knowing the danger he was in or knowing that the Squirrel had betrayed him, went to the place where all shady business of the forest was conducted. All the animals of the forest knew what happened there at night, or rather they didn’t want to know and so none of them dared to even come close. There were no witnesses in that place. Not live ones, at least.
The poor little Snail remembered his wise old father who always said to him, “The jackals usually hide behind the trees, my precious little Snail!” and so he approached the meeting place with caution, as quietly as he could. There was no one there — at first glance. He took a closer look though and saw tails jutting out the trees and immediately became suspicious.
“These must be jackals!” he thought and set out to leave as un-noticed as he came.
The Owl, however, who sat on a branch of the tall oak tree, cried, “Good morning, Snail!”
That was the signal. The jackals that were hiding behind the trees sprang out and started to run after him. The chase was remorseless and ceaseless. The poor little Snail running before the jackals came across an Ant who went there to be alone with his thoughts. He saw the Snail and the howling jackals and stepped aside.
“Good morning, Ant!” That was all the Snail had time to whisper gasping for breath.
“Good morning, Snail!” replied the Ant, but before he got the chance to finish his “Good morning,” the Snail was already miles away.
The jackals, who were running after him trying desperately to catch up, saw the Ant stopped and stood over him very threateningly. Τhe Ant was petrified. He just shut his eyes tightly, and took a short breath. You could only hear the jackals, who licked their lips, trying to catch their breath.
The poor Ant knew what horrible fate awaited him. He opened his eyes, gathered up all the courage he had left and said, “Omerta!”
After a few moments of nightmarish silence the jackals said, “Omerta!”
The deal was sealed. It was the law of silence. The poor Ant would be spared and no one would ever ever know what happened.
“What happens in the forest stays in the forest, Ant!” said one jackal.
“We said already, Omerta!” replied the Ant.
The jackals laughed hard and continued to run after the Snail who by now had gotten almost too far away. The poor Snail in a state of absolute panic was desperately looking for some place to hide. He looked around and rushed into a dark cave and because the night had already fallen and he was very tired and scared, he found somewhere warm and cozy to rest on and sleep. He heard from outside the jackals hurling and looking furiously for him. There in his warm extemporaneous shelter he dreamt of his parents who had so many high hopes for him. And now he was resting in a strange, cold and dump cave, lost in the forest, far away from the pond where he played and swam too happy to care about anything. Far far away. He cried himself to sleep.
When the dawn came, the Snail woke up and realized that the soft warm and cosy place he slept was in fact a Bear who was sleeping carefree. The Snail got very scared. He carefully got up, got dressed and tried to leave without making the slightest noise. As his bad luck would have it though, he stepped on a twig. A hardly audible “Crack” was heard and the Bear, who we all know is a very light sleeper, woke up and yawned. The Snail thought for a moment to run for his life, but his second thought was that this would be a simple suicide because the Bear would catch up to him and gulp him down or worse, she would tell the jackals that she saw him. So he ran straight back to her arms, he looked at her playfully and said, “You were wonderful.”
The Bear was very startled. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, “I don’t remember! We were together yesterday?”
“Didn’t you notice?” replied the Snail looking a bit worried.
“No! No! I didn’t mean it like that!” she said reassuringly.
And the Snail showed that he was very upset. Inside, however, he was thinking, “Cool… I got away with it!”
“I must have eaten a lot of honey yesterday! I always get dizzy afterwards and can’t remember a thing!” said the Bear.
“Do you love me?” asked the Snail with teary eyes.
“Yes of course! Of course I do! Naturally,” she replied to the Snail and gave him a friendly pat on the back.
“I know that it is rather soon but it does not cost us anything to give it a try!” said the Snail passionately.
“Yes! Yes… Why not? It’s just… If only I could remember what happened yesterday,” replied the Bear, scratching her head.
“Hush!” The Snail closed the Bear’s mouth, touching her on the lips. “It’s not important now!” he added, and nestled up to her.
And thus, they stayed together and lived happily ever after.
If you liked this story, there are many, many others in the book “Not Like Aesop’s Fables“.
