Animal Fables IV: Zebra
Once upon a time, there lived a confused zebra called Zelda.
Zelda had never got the whole black and white thing. Stripes. She simply didn’t understand stripes. In her opinion, zebras looked quite like horses, so why couldn’t she be the same colour as a horse? A nice unadventurous shade of brown, maybe? Or why not just smudge the black and white together to create a faintly uninspiring shade of grey? She felt that would suit her much better.
So, like any young zebra would do when faced with one of life’s more difficult dilemmas, Zelda went to talk to her mother about it.
Mother zebra was keen to dissuade her daughter against making such an alarming change in her natural colouring. “Don’t forget, dear,” she said, speaking in her most calming parental tone, “Horses are quite unremarkable. And if you look like a horse, you might just get dragged away to the glue factory.”
Neither of them believed the line about the glue factory, of course; that was just an old zebra’s tale.
“But I’ve got a better idea!” said mother. And with that, she produced two tins of body paint - one labelled ‘Brilliant White’ and the other ‘Darkest Black’. She grabbed a small paint brush between her teeth and, instructing her daughter to close her eyes and stand absolutely still, she started painting her all over.
It was so relaxing that Zelda, our confused zebra, drifted off into a gentle snooze. When she awoke and looked down at herself, she was amazed. She had completely changed. All her black stripes were now gleaming white, while her white stripes had turned to deepest black.
“Oh, mother! It’s perfect! It’s so vibrant, striking and … stripey!”
Zelda felt like a brand new zebra. And she was, of course. She was a brand new zebra with a coat of black and white stripes.
Zelda’s mother looked on with a proud smile, and quietly put away her dry, unused paint brush.
The End.