The hen and the bush

A hen was walking calmly in the forest, the smile on the beak for who knew how to look, when a bush called her :
"Hey little hen, what are you doing so far from home ? It's so rare for your kind to come here.
_ I had to flee because the fox wanted to eat me, bush. He came by a hole in the wire netting, but I laughed at him and went out by the same hole before running in the forest. He couldn't leave back, that's the funniest.
_ Really ? You must be really skillful to have fooled the fox.
_Yes bush : we hens are more intelligent than the foxes. Sometimes they eat us but it's because they are fast; else we wouldn't need the iron protections humans put around us.
_ Are all hens so clever ?
_ Yes : since the first of our familly, when the world was created. It's because of us that the fox has his funny colours.
_ I beg you, hen, please tell me that story. My ears are dieing to hear it.
_ Gladly bush : you're very friendly.

"This story takes place at the beginning of ages, before humans were created. At that time our creator had given us a single colour. Hen, the first of our family was white, and Goupil the first fox was totally red, like fire : he was extremly proud of his colour and was strutting almost constantly. At that time already, Goupil wanted to eat Hen and he kept chasing her as soon as he was seeing her.

One day however, Hen could come near Goupil without being harmed, because Goupil was watching something in the sky. Crow, of a beautiful turquoise colour back then, was watching the same thing as Goupil : the Moon, newly created.
Goupil and Crow were wondering what it was, so Hen, to make fun of them, told them it was a gigantic cheese, for Hen knew both loved that food a lot. Goupil and Crow exclaimed in wonder, and they started plans to catch that cheese hooked in the black of the night. Hen chuckled : if Goupil was trying to catch the Moon, he would leave her in peace.

Crow who had wings tried to fly to the Moon. He failed and fell in the darkness which stuck to his feathers, not long ago so colorful. Now entirely black and sullen, Crow managed to fly back to Earth and forgot about the Moon.
Goupil didn't have wings, but solid legs and swift paws. He started to jump, trying to go higher and higher in order to reach that so big cheese that seemed to taunt him. He jumped and jumped, so much that one day, he jumped out of the world and fell too in the darkness. Goupil found himself the paws stuck in the dark and began to yelp in fear while trying to struggle; he threw away parts of darkness and put some on his ears in his panic.
Alerted by the frenzied  yappings, the creator of the world searched for what was happening and saw the scared Goupil. To avoid being bitten by the terrorized animal, the creator caught the first fox by putting his arm under his belly, which became white due to the contact with the divine. The tip of Goupil's tail, which had touched the arm of creator, had become white as well. His paws and ears, on the contrary, had become black due to the dark.

Goupil was brought back to the earth, sad and ashamed : sad to have failed reaching the cheese moon, ashamed to have lost his purity, having now three colours and not only one."

"Such is the story, bush : hens have made fun of foxes since the beginning of ages.
_ Really fascinating : your folks are really clever and wise; wait, what's that noise?
_ What ? what noise ?
_ Can't you hear ? It looks like the fox running.
_ OOoh ! I need to flee, he's going to catch me !
_ Don't worry, come in my branches.
_ Really ?
_ Yes, come : the fox won't be able to catch you inside.
_ OOh, thank  you my friend, you are really a very gentle bush."

The hen worked her way as she could inside the the narrow branches of the bush, before going out, in the jaws of the fox leaving the vegetation. The hen was right : her ancestor had fooled Goupil; however, foxes had since then sworn to be the most cunning. A lesson the hen had learnt at her expense, and which was worth a meal as a payment...