the animal story

[tamlin_kitsune]

So - I have these dreams.  Most nights in fact.  It's a sign of how my writing is or isn't coming along and it's pathetic to say but I haven't been dreaming lately.  Anyway, they're long, wonderful, detailed dreams.  A couple of months ago I had this one and wrote it down.  Good luck with it. 
 

In my dream, I was worried that I hadn’t been writing lately and so in order to hopefully jump start myself I thought I should read some, thinking it would be the kick to get my brain headed off in the right direction.  So I went to the library to pick up a book.  I didn’t want to get bogged down in some deep thick novel however so I ended up in the kid’s section and ended up with a thick collection of children’s stories.  I skimmed it until I came across an interesting looking story.

In the story the small animals of the farm had gotten together late at night to sit on the hill overlooking the valley and talk as they were wont to do.  The long legged spider from the waterspout was there as well as her cousin from down the lane who lived in between the fence slates.  The old gray goose was there with his wife and so was the field mouse family with Papa Mouse, Mama Mouse, Baby Mouse, Baby Mouse and Very Baby Mouse.  The old toad that lived under the compost heap was there as well and for a change Mr. Fox had wandered in out of the woods to sit with them as well. 

Evening was falling and talk turned to deep things as it so often did at the end of the day when all the work was done and at some point someone suggested the question of the night.  Tonight’s question was: ‘If you could be anything else in the world, who would you be and why?’.  It was a very interesting question and for a while the chat was just about the question itself and the implications but eventually everyone settled down and answered in earnest.

I’ll admit, in my dream, I skimmed the answers a bit.  After all, I was in the library and was deciding if I wanted to take the book home or not.  I do remember that the spider in the lane wanted to be a star because they were beautiful and that the toad wanted to be a continent because then he would make an impression.  What really caught my attention was the little pencil drawing of a gnome at the bottom of the page, just as stereotypical a gnome as you can get and above it was the fox, saying he would want to come back as the gnome.

Well, I didn’t remember a gnome being mentioned before to be ‘the’ gnome and so I was curious as to whether he was talking about an actually character we’d meet later on in the story or if there was a stone garden gnome or what and the fox never did say why he wanted to be the gnome, just that he did and that’s where the chapter ended.  Well, heck, now I was curious so of course I kept reading.  The spider on the lane went home to his web and sat there all night long thinking about being a star, so shiny and sparkly and beautiful and bright.  When the morning sun started to come up, he noticed that the dew trapped in the webbing of his net caught the light and sparkled.  Usually he would complain because the dew made a mess of his web and every morning he had to clean it off but this morning, for the first time he realized how beautiful it was.  At first he was content to watch and enjoy how much his web sparkled but then it got him thinking about his wish from the night before and he came up with a brilliant idea.  Careful to only take little pieces of the dew drops because they were so much bigger than him he settled one of the globes of water on one of his spiky tuffs of fur on his body and lo and behold! It stayed in that perfect little globe and it caught the light and sparkled.  HE sparkled!  Soon the little spider was covered in tiny globes of water and dancing across his web.  He wasn’t a star, only a little spider, but he still sparkled and shone and was absolutely beautiful.

Meanwhile earlier that night, the toad had sat in his tunnel under the compost mound in the garden and wished he could be important enough for people to notice him.  All alone and sad under the stars, he had puffed out his throat and given a little croak.  What he hadn’t thought of though was that his tunnel was built just right and that little croak sounded much louder when it echoed off the walls of his home.  It startled him but it was such a rich, rolling sound that he tried it again, just a little bit louder this time.  The sound of that croak filled the whole den he was in and ran down the little tunnels that lead off of it.  The little toad was delighted.  It was such a big, impressive sound!  So again, he croaked and he croaked as loud as his tiny chest could.  The whole compost heap resounded with the noise and even the family of mice living behind the water barrel heard it.  It was a beautiful sound, rich and deep and chest thrumming warm and all night long the delighted little toad sat in his den under compost heap and croaked.  He was very loud and very noticeable and even though he was only a little toad and not a grand continent, the very next day all of his friends came to see him to tell him just how beautiful his singing had been the night before.
 

And then I woke up.

Needless to say, I was very frustrated.  I wanted to know what had happened to the fox!  Why had he wanted to be the gnome?  And how had he gotten his wish without getting his wish?  It bothered me all day and finally, as I was telling the dream to my sister I realized how the dream, and the story, must have ended.  It ends like this:
 

So the very next night everyone gathered together on their little hill, oh so pleased with themselves and each other.  Each one told the story of how their real desire had come true without them having to change into someone else at all and everyone was very impressed and pleased with how clever everyone else had been.  The talk went on for much longer than usual and the stars were out for quite some time before everyone saw a shape moving across the tall grass toward them.  In the dark it was a very odd shape, all long on one side and tall, so tall above the tall grass.  It was red and cone shaped and when the grass finally parted, they saw it was none other than Mr. Fox.  On his head was a funnel of red flannel that coned at the top.  It looked ever so funny in it but he looked ever so pleased as well and was, in fact, on his way to show his other foxy friends once he talked to his friends from the farm.  All of the farm animals gathered around him to look in surprise and awe at what he was wearing perched so staunchly between his black pointed ears.  Finally Mama Mouse said:

“You wanted to be the gnome, Mr. Fox and it looks as if you’ve gotten your wish but not gotten your wish just the same way we did.  So, Mr. Fox, why did you want to be the gnome in the first place?”

Ever so wise, with his slanted eyes, Mr. Fox, shrugged his lean shoulders.

"Oh," he answered.  "I just wanted to wear the hat."

 

Comments

[fenikkusuken.livejournal.com]

Very entertaining, and Much Fun! Great twist - hee!

[kitsune13-tam.livejournal.com]

it was one of those random dreams that still made semi-sense once I woke up - lol

[knit-lace.livejournal.com]

Thank you Tam for this wonderful story. I just came back from a long abscent and already you made me realize how much I miss your posts.

PS. I hope all is well!

[kitsune13-tam.livejournal.com]

all's well. And I hope the same goes for you too. Welcome back! I haven't been writing anywhere near what I should but this was silly and simple and had already written itself so it actually made it onto screen.