The wolf and the fox were wandering about in the old forest. Suddenly a crow falls from a tree, right at their feet. Something was obviously wrong with her, she could barely speak and her eyes were milky, she was altogether pale (as pale as a crow gets, that is). The wolf and the fox hurry to jump to her aid:
“Are you hurt?” asks the fox, and then to the wolf: “She doesn’t seem to be wounded.”
They realize that the crow was dying. The wolf says to the fox:
“I know her. She’s the youngster you made fun of at the last forest gathering. The one who swore revenge.”
With her last strength, the crow manages to articulate:
“Revenge… will… be… mine…” and then departs this life.
“It’s a pity,” says the fox, “she misinterpreted my words. I meant no offence, it was nothing personal. Her lack of experience prevailed upon her. She was too young, her parents shouldn’t have let her take part in the counsel.”
“Aye,” confirms the wolf, “youngsters easily and needlessly get hot blood. Let us meditate for a moment that her spirit finds peace.”
After meditation, the fox says:
“Well, we must now take her body to the Fleshing Meadow for the fleshing ritual, to feast on her flesh as tradition requires.”
After a while, the wolf seems to have a revelation and suddenly protests:
“No! We must bury this youngster. She will be denied tradition.”
“On what grounds? For what reason is the fleshing ritual in the Fleshing Meadow to be denied to her? Tradition says we must feast on her flesh, to show our friendship and approval.”
And now the riddle: why did the wolf insist on burying her? What did he realize?
Note: Official riddle answer: Friends of the Forest: To the Faithful Together
4 comments ↓
The crow’s last words were- “Revenge… will… be… mine…”
The crow might have consumed some toxic substance so as to die n then getting a fleshing ritual after which the fox and wolf would also die.
Perhaps, the wolf had guessed this…
Yep, I’ll bet she had the bird flu and knew she could pass it on as revenge! The wolf recognized the symptoms..
she had swine flu, not bird flu
Well Imran you seem to have nailed it, good job.
As for the flu folks, well, animals cannot get the flu, it’s just some imaginary stuff invented by bad people with money. They sit and brainstorm:
“Well, pharmaceutical sales are down with all those naturists, homeopats and whatnot, what should we do folks?”
“Hmm… let’s make up some new disease…”
“Bird flu worked a couple of years ago…”
“Yeah let’s continue down this path, let’s make… errr… mmmm… swine flu ha ha ha ha ha”
“Swine flu lolz ha ha ha”