A Stroll in the Zoo

The day was not glimmering nor shining bright.

All jail birds, tossing around in the yard, were so curious that even the reality itself couldn't have satisfied. Speculations, therefore, were tiptoeing on the minds of the elephants.

Though it may sound alike or familiar in some kind, the stories to be told on these pages were way more different than those in well-known fables of Æsop; no talking animals included, no morales imposed. Yet, should people intend to get one, that would be "don't eavesdrop everything or your ears could be ones dropping".

Where were we?

Ah, the elephants... there must have been a reason why they were so called, indeed were there rumors more than just one; one of which was because they didn't forget anything or any person having done them good or bad; a second one was that because they ate too much and drank. Among many similar yet often-pronounced reasons, a third one made much more sense: they were criminals, the crimes of whom required less muscle yet more brains. Unlike hyenas, elephants got rich gradually as they had committed everything meticulously, and never had they done anything small. Even at the beginnings of their notorious careers.

As for hyenas, they'd always started with petty theft, incessantly leading them to greedy will for wealth and "comfort and joy" of this material world. While the elephants remained as colossal monuments in the world of outlaw, hyenas flared up, yet vanished like snowflakes, ending up in jail. Quick money, for them, was not low; not only did they cheer but also they hailed. Although they were caught they got big boys having them shielded with hired dogs barking in the field.

Reader should not worry as hyenas will be mentioned later again. There weren't only elephants and hyenas wandering around. Bats were the third species combing the ground. So sinister were they that everybody saw them at night not day. Though they were not seen in the thin air, everything there they did hear.

Among those creatures lived the cats and dogs, which brought this script before you. They were Hermes', the messengers rarely told, and formerly had roamed among us, too. Not liking one another, always did they fight and on one another they consumed recklessly all their might. Neither were they petty thieves nor had any notoriety, they were simply the mistakes of this poor society. Killing for their pride; kidnapping the future bride; sometimes giving a quick bribe; or on a silly bean they did fight. None of them were their faults actually. Nobody was there to prevent or tell or educate them, even to teach them how to write. Those poor cats and dogs received lots of letters, yet, they could not even read a single letter. From remote villages they were, most of them did not know any better. Sometimes they were enemies but mostly they'd been together. And Noah was one of them, one of the dogs, illiterate but not ignorant, illegitimate by birth but not a bastard.

Abraham the elephant had told him to do a favor. In need of money, he reluctantly accepted. All he had to do was to borrow a small box belonging to a hyena, and no complication expected.

Jack the bat sensed something cooking. Despite being a bat, he was Noah's sibling. Though in their veins different bloods were flowing, it would make no difference. He'd seen some elephant's cat crawling behind his brother's back. And a box hidden here and there and some hyenas exchanging. He let Noah know what he saw had been happening for quite a long time, then. Noah found it odd but not exclusively surprising.

Hyenas liked playing with people, sometimes for fun but not idle. Cats and dogs were, of course, relatively little, that's why they always happened to be in the middle. Never longing to know what in the box was hidden, Noah warned Jack not to be such a kitten.

The yard was dark and gloomy at night, it was strange to see all conflicts untied. Noah was determined and fixed his eyes on the box he was supposed to fetch. The warden, poor warden, suspected that sight. Overhearing what had been cooking, some news he did catch. The night was young, dead silence thus roamed and Noah was ready to apply the plan already hatched, but the warden, poor warden...

A hyena delivered the box so wondered, Noah emptied it and the content was abandoned into the dump. While everyone was sleeping, Noah, quite tall and a bit plump, held his knife, picked up his jaw, having put his arm around the box.

Entered the elephants' den, no sound was heard by a single soul, Noah drew his knife and holding the elephant's trunk he beheaded Abraham, who thought he was to be served by a dog, in fact was served but onto a plate to hyena by Noah the dog.

Beheaded corpse would long be waiting while Noah was putting it into the box, which happened to be found in hyenas' cell the following day.

Found in hyenas' hole, the head of Abraham's, who'd ceased to be, made the elephants so angry. Elephants avenged their lost fellow, ending hyenas and having themselves ended.

Noah the dog, illiterate but not ignorant, had thus finalized the era of the hyena and the elephant. Yet, the warden, poor warden, who'd seen it all, could not take it when justice was on hold. Trying to do the right thing, he hurried to declare. However, his way was cut off by Jack the bat that had been waiting.

Jack drew his knife and stabbed the warden, poor warden.

Among all those animals, he'd forgotten, only he was human.