A Messy Array of Stories, AUs, Covers and Many More

A Dumpster Fable

Once upon a time, there was a crow and a cat. They lived together in a dumpster, and every day they would fight over the food. They needed to live, after all, and they had to fight to stay alive. Sometimes the cat would win. Sometimes the crow would win. It was a sad life they lived, really.

However, that all changed when one day, they found a new dumpster with so much food, near a supermarket. So excited the two were, they refused to let the other have it.

"Clearly I should have it! There is plenty of meat here!" argued the cat.

"No, I should have it! You ate my morsel yesterday!" complained the crow.

They argued day and night, their loud voices annoying the other inhabitants.

"We must send them away! This racket is making my little ones cry!" insisted Mama Mouse while her babies wailed. "They are so noisy!!"

"But how!?" asked Mister Dog. "They will always fight and fight and fight! How will we stop them?!"

Now, as it was, the city they lived in was close to the ocean. The inhabitants knew that there would be a lot of food for the two to hunt down once they got there, so one night they picked up the sleeping animals and sent them away, hoping for peace to come into their community.

When the two woke up, though, it was on the sandy beach, and upon realising that they were not home, they panicked and began to argue.

"It's your fault they decided to send us here!" accused the cat.

"Me?! You're the one always complaining!" argued the crow. "You're the reason we're here in the first place!"

Nearby, a small shelf mushroom watched them from its tree.

"Wow, they are really stupid," said the mushroom. "It's both their faults and yet they're acting as if only the other is."

Unfortunately, the two animals heard the mushroom and took offense.

"I did not do that! The cat did!" yelled the crow.

"No, YOU did!" protested the cat.

And they returned to arguing as the mushroom gave a deep sigh. "Man, they're noisy..." Sometimes the mushroom wished it could move away, but here it was, stuck to this tree...

They continued arguing day and night. It was so loud that a wise manta ray overheard as they moved to the ocean in order to get more food. Curious, the manta ray swam up to them and asked, "Why, hello there! What is the problem, if I may ask?"

"STAY OUT OF THIS!!" Both yelled at it. "This is not your fight!"

"Surely you want a third opinion?" It reasoned.

"Why would we?! Everyone knows the cat is wrong!"

"I could say the same to you!"

"Your truths are very fundamentally different," spoke the manta ray. "Because neither of you sees your way as wrong, your arguments are never ending and you end up being blinded to other things."

"What do you mean, blind!? I can see perfectly well!" said the crow. 

"Yeah! You're the blind one!" accused the cat. 

The manta ray then said, "Fools are blind to their own ignorance."

It sank into the water again, and the two resumed their argument.

In the end, neither got what they wanted. So intense were their arguments that they forgot to eat and drink, and they eventually... They passed on.

Seeing this, the manta ray cried out, "Oh, silly cat, oh, silly crow! Had you not been so foolish, you would have opened your eyes to the beauty of the world!"

Then it too died, sad and heartbroken over their deaths.