Tainted: “A Fable”

            Our story begins with a pretty, white, owl living on the outskirts of the snowy Himalayan mountains. She never cared much for politics, so she decided to go rogue and exile herself from the rest of civilization. Except, it was difficult for the other animals there to not notice her flying around and retreating into the highest cliffs. Thus, her grandiose presence manifested negatively into being perceived by the other creatures as a "creature of vanity". It never really helped that our owl only did this at night, not to hunt, instead, to get her daily exercise in. Besides, what most didn't understand about her was that she was mainly a scavenger; to her, this lifestyle was more ethical. With so much free time on her hands, she's become known for her excessive emphasis on her physique. She spreads her wings and soars into the darkness of the night for hours until the night turns into the dawn of the morning when she can finally retreat back into her sweet, but messy, little home between two cliff rocks, that she’s built her "nest-for-one" in. No spouse and no children, she is a true creature of solitude. All she wants is to make the best out of her situation as a bachelorette. 

            Some of the lucky few to live in her kingdom are the goose, leopard, and the miniature-pony. The goose is a Canadian, serious, young fellow, who waddles with significance, and wears a monocle over his left eye. The leopard is a fat, dirty, pawnbroker who, thankfully, only eats gourmet food that he affords with the large amounts of money he makes off his skeptical business, which, for some reason, tends to attract all kinds of exotic animals from all over the globe. And, the pony, a handsome, young, miniature-horse, who’s an eager fellow with an optimistic personality, and no volume control. This gang of three all get along stupendously and often spend most of their time together, passing the days by with excitement. 

            One day, the leopard was hissing at the football game playing on tv, and the goose was sitting on the red couch of the leopard’s lair, reading an issue of Time Magazine, when the incessant horse burst into the cave neighing and cantering in, with the sound of his hooves echoing like unexpected thunder. 

            “You guys, the most amazing thing just happened to me!” He screeched. 

            “What! What! What!” Squawked the goose.

            The leopard turned his head back, slowly peeling his eyes off the tv and into the direction of the horse, “What?” he said.

            “I met this girl, she lives-um, actually I don’t know where she lives, but last night she approached me down at the river and took me along with her to explore the ravine.”

            “Was it the fox?” Said the goose. 

            “Was it the bunny?” Said the leopard. 

            “No, it was the owl.” Said the enamored pony, with stars in his eyes. 

            “Hahahahaha.” Laughed the two animals. 

            “You’re in love with the owl?” Said the leopard. 

            “Well, actually, she’s quite pretty in a foreign sense.” Said the goose. 

            “Majestic is more like it.” Said the horse, upset at his friends’ comments. 

            “She's pretentious, it's not worth it.” Claimed the leopard. 

            “We’ll see about that.” Said the horse. 

            On the other side of the ravine, the owl had just returned to her nest from the night prior, gnawing away at the remains on a skeleton of a rodent that she had picked up on her way back. Her place was littered with dead little animals, some still had fur that was decaying into the rocks, and the rest were just piles of skeletons that took up the majority of her nest. It took her short fuzzy feet giant steps to get over the mess in a somewhat orderly fashion.  “Oh, ah, ow!” She shrieked, as she accidentally stepped on the little pointed parts of the skeletons’ sharp ends. 

            The goose walked the horse over into the kitchen, poured himself a warm cup of coffee, and warned, “She’s a cold-hearted killer.” 

            “She can’t be, she’s gorgeous. Beautiful things aren't scary.”

            “Oh, Sire, I fear your youth and inexperience will lead to much trouble with women.” 

            “That is absurd, if anything my youth is a gift! Look at me, I’m at my prime.” Said the horse smiling, showing off his wide, toothy grin. 

            “Talk about arrogant.” The goose thought to himself, “On second thought, you two may just be perfect for each other after all.” He said to the horse.

            Two days passed, and two nights, until the two finally reunited again at the ravine. 

            “You know, there’s a lot that most don’t know about me.” Said the owl. 

            “What do you mean?” 

            “Like the fact that I’m shy…I hate to kill.” 

           "Then why must you do it?"

           "Because one must fulfill their life's purpose in order to live with purpose."

            “I knew you were beautiful.” 

            The owl smiled sweetly, “You think I’m beautiful?” 

            “Yes.” Responded the horse, “despite what anyone says, I don’t care that you’re a killer, or an outcast, I don’t care about any of that!” He neighed so loudly that it echoed throughout the whole ravine. 

            “This talk is coming from your friends, right?” 

            The horse looked shocked, “Well, uh- they may have said one or two things like this…”

            “It's alright, I think I understand their concern. If you’d like you can invite them out with us and we can all talk and clear the air.” 

            “That’s a great idea! I’ll bring them over tomorrow!” 

            “NO.” Said the goose.

            “You couldn’t pay me enough to see her.” Said the leopard, counting his money. 

            “Goose, when you were at your worst who did you confide in? And, leopard, when you first had the idea of becoming a pawnbroker who helped you start up your business?”

              The two animals lowered their heads in defeat, “All right, we’ll come.” Said the leopard.

            And at nightfall, the three animals started away at the ravine.

             “Leave your money at home, leopard. I’ve got this one covered.” Said the horse.  But, the leopard disregarded the horse’s comment and tucked a lump of money behind his ear.             

            Once at the ravine, they walked over to the far side that lit up the bottom of the mountain. There were rows and rows of exquisite restaurants, ranging from french to middle-eastern, all playing different variations of romantic music. When the horse laid eyes on the owl he ran over to her and kissed her. It was a beautiful sight. The night was going marvelously, and the entire time the couple seemed like they were falling more and more in love with each other. At times, the horse’s friends had to look away to stop themselves from spewing at the sight of their newfound romance. The goose asked her questions about what she enjoyed doing in her spare time, and what her hobbies were, and she replied by saying she enjoyed flying and exploring new places. But the leopard wasn’t all that interested in being there. Once his meal was finished and he got tired of waiting for the rest of the animals to finish eating, he excused himself and said he must get back home. The owl excused herself as well but promised she would return. She chased after him, calling out, “Leopard! Leopard!” He stopped, looked back, only to be confounded with a sharp bite at the bottom of his neck, causing him to fall over and fall into a deep trance. She hopped over-top of him and bent down to steal the money hid-away behind his ear, “Such a big brute!” She thought. Then, all of a sudden, she turned around and saw her beloved pony watching her as she had been nipping at the leopard. Tears filled in his eyes, her heart sunk. He turned away and left her behind in the dust. Defeated, the owl placed the money back behind the leopard’s ear and flew far off into the distance. Once again, she was alone.

             Still, the owl continued returning to their spot at the ravine every single night since that day. She waited for him with much haste, until it was no use, and she felt like it was finally time to give up hope.             

The horse dealt with his pain in different ways, he didn’t tell either of his friends what he saw happen that night, nor did he confront the leopard about his suspected, secret, love affair with his owl. The only thing the leopard knew was that she had flown off that night, never to be seen again.

             “Here, this is the phonebook I use in times like these.” The leopard said to the horse.

             “Whose number’s are these?” The horse asked.

             He licked the tip of his paw and started flipping through, “Russians, Dominicans, Vietnamese, Lebanese-“

           Internally, the horse's jaw dropped, “Oh, I get it. Thanks, man…remind me to pay you back for this sometime…”

             The horse started at a trot and then built his way all the way up to a gallop as he exited the lair. He took the book in his mouth and threw it off the mountainside as he stampeded down to the ravine. He ran and ran, neighing and braying like a lunatic. Until, he slowed to a halt and stood up on his hind two legs and let out the loudest, most powerful whine any creature had ever heard.

              On the other side of the ravine the owl dropped her lunch, letting it fall from her mouth, she swooped down and out of her nest, and screeched to match the volume of her counterpart’s bray. His head shot up, and he saw her flying towards him. The sky was slightly grayer than her white plumage, and she flew at him like an angel greeting him with a soft coo, like a dove.

             “I’m sorry, I desperately needed the money to afford a vacuum or a refrigerator for my apartment.” She said as she landed gracefully.

             The horse didn’t say a word, he was glad to see her, but confused by her response.

             “I promise you I didn’t do anything wrong, honest! I even put the money back, behind his ear, where I found it because I knew it was wrong and I-“

             “He’s a dirty scoundrel.”

             “A what?”

           He whispered, “He's a pimp..."

          Here, our story ends like it began, in the outskirts of the snowy, white, Himalayan mountains. The owl and the horse climbed over the final edge of the mountain and took one last glance at the place they had once called home. The owl thought about her messy apartment and how thankful she was that she didn’t have the money to refurbish it and store her food in a proper refrigerator, and the horse thought about his friends: the leopard and the goose. He promised to keep in touch with the goose, so long as he promised to do all he could, in his power, to end the unethical ways of the leopard. The couple looked back at each other and reminisced about the day they met, and smiled; for it was quite a silly story after all.