Breviary of Mythical Beasts #2
~Prancy Beasts~
Horrid! Really. There are few ways to express my distaste for this variety of beast, and any of them is hardly written word. Pugh!
Dear friend, let me warn you, now; God's Great and Infinite Mercy be upon you should you cross one of these beasties.
Alligators will rip away your arms and legs. Elephants will trample you. Hippos will crush you to smitherines. Atleast, with the three of these, you get to die at the end.
You have to live with prancy beasts... and look at them all of the time. Believe me, they make sure of it.
At first, they draw you in with their froofy feathers or silky, slick coats.
Then it's "oh, splendid!" this, and "ooh, lovely!", that.
But then, oh ho, then-> they prance.
They prance and prance.
They prance the prance of a thousand prances.
They prance under the sun and the moon. They prance over rivers and streams, and high on mountain tops.
And the rest of nature has to watch.
All of it.
Do you know, reader, what happens then? Do springs break and gush forth? Does the sky bluen? Do eagles soar and lions roar?
No.
The trees sag.
And the flowers pale.
The other animals get fed up and go home....
Because these prancy ones have to be watched.
And they do no watching of their own.
I do not know if you know this, but that is taking and never giving! They are thieves! Rogues! Sparkly and selfish scoundrels, sucking joy from the rest of us!
Why not tell them to stuff their noses into holes? Or, can not a kind and correcting word appeal to reasonable senses?
It can not.
This is how such conversations go...
Other Creature: "Why do you fluff and puff about, so? It is very exhausting to watch you all of the time without the slightest of respites."
Prancy Beast: "Why, yes! My tail does bob above my shoulder level, now that you mention it! I never noticed! I am perky and fanciful!"
That's right! You could look one of these animals clean in the face, speak any of the great unspeakables, and it would only hear an airy compliment about how it keeps its paws so clean and soft or the lovely way that its ears tuck and fold when it yawns. It would probably even thank you.
Very simply put:
All beasts are strokes in the great tapestry of the Mythical World, and it is unfortunate that some strokes will miss the bigger picture. It is a very lovely world.
