Mr. Crocodile had a problem. Don’t get him wrong, he was an excellent hunter and he could catch fish and whatever animal that was in the water at will. However his pallette was growing terribly bored with it. Nobody wants to eat the same thing every day, but none of the other animals would come close to him. He was proud, of Course, that they saw his awesomeness as a predator, but that also meant that his diet was very limited.
And the other day, he had had the misfortune of watching Mr. Leopard engorge himself with a young, succulent no doubt deeliiicious antelope, and unable to stand the sight, he had ventured to ask him if he would share a portion of it with him, you know, predator to predator, but all had been met with was withering scorn, it had given him sleepless nights since.
“HMPH!!!!” Leopard had snorted at him derisively, clearly incredulous at this development. “Have you lost your mind and pride, as a predator? How can you ask another predator to share with you their hard earned catch? Have you forgotten the law?” leopard raised his voice and stomped his paw. “Survival for the fittest and every beast for himself!! Have you no shame?!? Ahg!!! The gall!!! To think you, always preening away in the water, talking big, would come groveling to me for my sweeeeet, suucccullent antelope…!!! Why it the biggest laugh I’ve ever had…! Wait till lion heard this…!!” with a sneer, he continued, “ Listen here reptile, there is no room in this jungle for worthless predators like you! OK! So if you can’t handle the heat, better go off yourself, or stick to your smelly fish or better yet, since you have become a comedian, start eating grass!!! Otherwise, stop spoiling my appetite and slither back into your filthy muddy lair.
Spurned, Crocodile’s mouth dropped open in disbelief at the disrespect. He fumbled with his words at the ruthless tirade but remained struck completely speechless. Stuuuuupard had then proceeded to pick up that worthless carcass and sauntered off. All crocodile could do was skulk back to his lair like he had been told. It is needless to say that crocodile was mortified. Absolutely humiliated, he hadn’t had an appetite since.
True to his word, Stuuupard had gone off and told everybody in the big five and worse other predators. Elephant, Lion, Buffallo, Rhino, all of whom he had ignored disdainfully as there was nothing he could do to them anyhow, but would never admit this due to his pride, ALL came down to the river just to laugh at him. Cheetah, Jackal and even python that he hardly ever saw came too. And all he could do was take it. All of this who’s who in the jungle took the time out of their days to come have a good laugh at his expense. The worst were hyena and the monkeys. Always congregating snickering and laughing that horrible shrieking laughter of theirs, just out of reach, but in within sight for maximum scorn. Hyena and the Baboons hated each other, but here they were laughing at him together! The icing on the cake was the stupid herbivores that barely have a brain doing the same
If he wasn’t so at home in the water he would have drowned himself. Unable to take it anymore Crocodile quit everything. He was finished with this and with everyone! To think that speaking to leopard that day would be essentially committing social suicide! It was over! But he didn’t have the guts to kill himself, so all that was left was to do some soul-searching find himself spiritually. He needed to find a way forward. He couldn’t go on like this! I wasn’t possible!
He went into his lair and DID NOT come out. He refused to leave, no matter who came to call out to him from outside, no matter what they said. He didn’t even respond. Many days passed without seeing him and the animals all forgot about the saga. Here and there they would ask what happed to him but no one knew. Some wondered if he had really killed himself or moved.
He emerged after a long time, a changed reptile. Hearing this, all the nosy creatures in that part of the woods rushed to see him. He said he was now enlightened. He no longer ate meat, but grass. He also wanted to be friends with everybody. Especially the herbivores with whom he had a long running dispute seeing as he….ah….ate them! He wanted to prove that he had changed by telling them that he would carry them across the river on his back, but they would not believe him. That is, until one day, Rat finally decided to humor him. When he safely landed on the other side of the river and got off, He could not contain himself.
The forest was already buzzing with gossip about how he had been driven mad by hunger after all those days in seclusion, now burst into flames with this new piece of gossip. Everybody was talking about it. A few of the predators, such as lion and his harem went down to see for themselves. When they saw a gazelle, which was preciously on their side of the river get ferried across on crocodile’s back for themselves (the gazelle had thrown caution to the wind at lion’s arrival. It was either take your chances with the possibly reformed crocodile or be lunch for the lion family for sure….it was a no brainer) they were speechless.
“Listen babes” lion turned to his harem to say “Don’t ever let that happen to me. We have just now seen for ourselves what happens when you starve. You start making friends with food…” He said. The lionesses just looked at each other and burst into laughter. They were the ones who got the food usually, preferring him to stay out of it as they had their own style and he just didn’t get it.
“Don’t laugh! I’m serious!” He said, genuinely spooked at what he had just seen. The furor did not die down even as they went into the rainy season and the river flooded its banks. Everybody had finally seen it for themselves and decided it was the grass he was eating (he had demonstrated this to all the carnivore’s horror). It had finally made him as dumb as the herbivores they ate. It shrunk his brain. And all the cries of derision turned to pity. Who knew that that first time he asked leopard to share was the first crack in the dam that was his mind.
Crocodile however, behind the scenes, was burning. Burning! Not with shame… but with the need for vengeance. He was playing the long game. He would pretend in front of everybody, but eat fish in his den. He didn’t touch the land creatures, but nobody would miss the fish. He was biding his time, and once the river flooded its banks, he got ready.
Everybody had slowly grown accustomed to the new him and the dumb herbivores would use him regularly. He didn’t touch them. The Carnivores not to be outdone by grass eaters began to exploit him too. They got their laugh off it, but decided they enjoyed it so much they were going to monopolize him. So soon, only they were allowed to use him, and that was what he wanted. When the rains were at their heaviest and the river was out of control he got his chance. He was in his element. The first to go was cheetah. As he crossed the raging river he pretended to be struggling against the current, all the while slowly diving deeper. Nobody had been around to see it and cheetahs were solitary so nothing happened.
That day, he didn’t eat fish. Next were python, then a baboon, then a gazelle, then a lone male lion. Initially nobody noticed they were missing. However as the disappearances started being noticed, crocodile controlled himself, but didn’t stop. Instead he changed tact. On a rainy day, it was absolutely pouring, when elephant tried to cross with her new calf, she realized the current was too strong for it and the visibility was bad in the rain, so she got crocodile to help. When they got to the middle of the river, elephant was a competent swimmer but she was out of her element in the deepest part of the river where the current was strongest. She wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Knowing this, crocodile tilted to the side and dumped the brat in the water. He then pretended to cry out in horror saying that the youngster had been shifting around restlessly on his back and had fallen off in the current. The panicked mother turned around to look for her child and saw it struggling to stay afloat. Crocodile pretended to dive under the calf as if to buoy it up on his back but instead grabbed the leg and pulled down briefly, then let go. He didn’t this repeatedly, all the while coming up out of the water to rile the mother up by saying things like.
“I’m trying to help, but he keeps kicking me away.” The mother was losing her mind and the current began to over whelm her. She could have gotten to the other side safely, but she was unwilling to leave her calf. They both drowned. Everybody was in an uproar. They blamed her for risking it on such a bad day. It was her fault. Nobody looked at crocodile because he said he was as surprised as they were and he had only found the bodies afterwards. To make his lie believable, he didn’t eat any part of them, so their bodies were intact when everyone came to see.
Finally the one he wanted came. Leopard, who had realized crossing the river even for a competent land creature was dangerous, decided to use everybody’s favorite mule, crocodile. And as they approached the middle deepest part, crocodile began to speak.
“Haha…do you remember how all this started?” He said. Leopard, confused at the sudden question looked at him in bothered confusion, obviously thinking ‘this idiot’.
“Do I remember how what started?” He asked his irritation very apparent. He was on edge after the whole elephant saga. Crocodile scoffed, his satisfaction growing. He wanted leopard to know why this was happening before he got him.
“Have you already forgotten how you humiliated me?” He said, his tone growing menacing as he stopped swimming to the other side and began circling the middle of the river. Leopard immediately broke into a cold sweat. He realized he was in very deep water, bot h literally and physically.
“Haha!!… Crocodile!” He laughed nervously “It’s all in the past! We are friends now right?” He said in a fake cheery tone as he slowly grasped his predicament. Good a swimmer as he was, Crocodile was still better as the water was his element. He had no chance if it came down to it. But as he panicked and looked around to find a way out, crocodile threw him in the water. The current was strong and dragging him under and as he began swimming frantically for the nearest bank, he felt a sharp grip on his back leg…
With leopard safely I his stomach, crocodile burped in satisfaction and quickly went back to his former self. Only… he didn’t tell anyone. By the time everybody understood what had happened, nobody was laughing.