Folktale
Why the Tortoise Has a Cracked Shell (Version 1)
Chapter 6: The Cracked Conclusion
Tortoise flapped his stubby little legs in frantic circles as the ground rushed up to meet him. Thinking quickly, he caught sight of a falcon sailing nearby.
“You there, noble bird of prey!” Tortoise cried out in desperation. “I beseech you, send word to my sweet, dearest wife to prepare a soft landing cushion for my imminent arrival!”
He had hoped the raptor would take pity on his dire situation, especially after his trickery had turned the other birds against him. To his surprise, the predatory falcon responded:
“So be it, conniving reptile!” The swift bird then banked hard, riding the wind back toward Tortoise’s humble dwelling.
Yet when the falcon arrived, it bore false instructions to Tortoise’s unsuspecting wife:
“Your gluttonous husband bids you gather all the hardest objects in your home! He wishes to land upon an unyielding, rock surface!”
Tortoise’s poor spouse was only too happy to follow her husband’s “wishes.” She carried every pot, pan, mortar, and brick out into the withered yard, assembling a jagged, unforgiving pile.
Chapter 7: A Cracked Shell’s Lesson
From the heavens, Tortoise squinted at the arrangement laid out by his wife far below. His vision was too poor to make out the individual objects, but he assumed it must be the soft cushion he requested.
“Here goes nothing!” Tortoise shouted into the whisking winds as he went into a nose dive. “Prepare yourselves for my triumphant return!”
Those were his last boastful words before…
KRASSSHHHHHH!!!
Tortoise’s rotund body slammed into the jagged, unforgiving pile of cookware and bricks at maximum velocity. His once beautiful polished shell explosively shattered into hundreds of fractured, spiraling pieces.
The treacherous tortoise lay stunned and unmoving, shards of his carapace strewn all about him. It was his wife’s pitiful wails that finally roused the village healer.
For long days and nights, the aged healer painstakingly worked, recovering every splinter of tortoise shell she could find. Using the stickiest tree sap as an adhesive, she slowly reconstructed his broken casing piece by piece.
But try as she might, the healer could not restore Tortoise’s formerly smooth, unblemished shelter. The cracks, gaps, and asymmetries all remained permanent scars from his plummet of arrogance and greed.
And so, from that day forward, the tortoise has carried the mark of his folly – a rough, ramshackle patchwork of a shell that will never again know perfection. A constant reminder that honesty, humility, and selflessness shelter us far better than any ill-gotten feast.
For you see, when trickery cracks your shell, the shards can never be put back quite the same…
The End!
