Courage. Third Draft. 2/26/10

Part Two:
Courage
-Panel One, Page One.
A bright white light is shining directly at us in the middle of the panel.
-Panel Two, Page One
We open on a young adult, male (I’ll leave what he actually looks like to you, just know that it should come through on his look and mannerisms that he is weathered and world-weary). He is smoking a cigarette. The air is cold, you can tell by the way he is dressed, and the occasional fog that will come from his breath. This man’s name is Wil. It’s nighttime.
-Panel Three, Page One
Shot looking at Wil from behind. He is looking out at a small lake (i.e. Celebration Lakefront). Try and make this panel the largest on the page. Basically, I just want a wide-angle shot of a bleak and dramatic moment. Off-panel a familiar voice calls out to him.
Off-Panel Voice: Hey there, stranger.
-Panel Four, Page One
Wil turns around to see the origin of the voice. Panel encompasses both the male, and the origin of the voice (If possible I’d like it if her face was not shown until the next panel). A girl, roughly the same age, stands about 5 feet behind the male. The girl's name is Allison (again I’ll leave the actual look of the character to you, though it should probably go without saying, she is “the girl” to Wil, so stunningly beautiful) and she represents everything to our protagonist. Pain, Hope, Love, the whole spectrum.
Wil: Hey, Ali.
-Panel Five, Page One
We see Allison’s face for the first time in an extreme close-up. She has a slight sarcastic smirk on her face.
Allison: Thought you were quitting.
-Panel One, Page Two
Close-Up of Wil as he looks at his cigarette.
Wil: Yeah…
-Panel Two, Page Two
Close-up of Allison directly across from him, still wearing that same smirk. (Alex: These two panels are technically the same. It should be one horizontal panel across the top of the page with a break in the middle, so that the shot is at the same height but it pans over to her face. Let me know if this is unclear).
-Panel Three, Page Two
This panel will take up the rest of the page. It encompasses both characters head to foot. The tiles will be at the bottom right of the page. If you can, try to add some “dreamy intimacy” to the background. Wil is looking down as he stomps out his cigarette with his shoe. Allison is looking over at him, now with a more serious face.
Wil: It’s good to see you again.
Allison: Yeah- It’s good to see you too.
Titles:
Courage
Words by Mike Donohue
Pictures by Alex Berki
-Panel One, Page Three
Wil and Allison are walking around the small town that surrounds the lake (again I.E. Celebration). Allison has her arm locked in his. The angle is looking at them far away from the other side of the street. A car is just about to block our view.
Allison: So what are you doing down in my neck of the woods?
Wil: I don't know, I come down here some nights, you know, just to think.
Allison: And what do you think about?
-Panel Two, Page Three
Close-up of Wil, looking over at Allison, who is off-panel.
Male: Life, death, the past, all that “stuff”.

-Panel Three, Page Three
Close up of Allison looking forward, smiling.
Allison: Always the drama queen.

-Panel Four, Page Three
Wil, looking up at the sky, same angle as last panel with him in it. His face tells us he is flustered, hoping to get a more serious reaction from Allison to what he just told her.
Wil: Yep that's me.
-Panel Five, Page Three
Two-Shot, Allison is messing up Wil’s hair. Wil is making a face like he is disgusted by what is happening on the top of his head.
Allison: Oh lighten up will ya, I'm just kidding.
Male: alright alright
-Panel One, Page Four
Two-Shot, much like the first panel we see of them walking together, but theyt are obviously further down the road. They are now holding hands.
Allison: So whats on the agenda for tonight’s “Wil’s Epic Brooding Session”
-Panel Two, Page Four
Frontal close-up of Wil, he is flattening the top of his hair. With the hand opposite he is using to hold hers.
Wil: I was just thinking about when I went to school here.
-Panel Three, Page Four
Close-Up Allison, her opposite hand is outstreched off-panel.
Allison: You know, I always forget you went here.
-Panel Four, Page Four
Close-Up Wil, Talking as Allison fixes his hair.
Male: Yeah I guess I never brought it up
a lot. Always made me kind of upset.
-Panel Five, Page Four
Two-shot, Wil is looking up at his hair.
Wil:.. Thanks.
Allison: Why would that make you upset?
-Panel One, Page Five
Far shot the two stand below a fancy city hall. they seem overshadowed by its size. Almost swallowed whole beneath its monolithic appearance. There hands still firmly gripped together.
Male: I wanted to graduate here. In this stupid eiltist town. I wanted to belong here. In seventh grade I had had my whole future planned out. I was going to have the same friends I had then, we would talk about how awesome it was going to be in high school, how great prom would have been, how we wanted to drive, hang out with girls, how we would all go to the same college.
-Panel Two, Page Five
Far shot looking down at Wil and Allison, as if we were on top of the city hall. Maybe throw some scaffolding or a flagpole in the foregorund to further show this. They are both looking up.
Wil: I firmly believed that the people I knew then would be lifelong friends. Like this town was the place where stars aligned.
Allison: But it didn't end up that way…
-Panel One, Page Six
Close up profile of Wil from Allison’s perspective, the angle is slightly tilted up at his face. He is still looking up
Wil: Nope, my mom pulled me out the end of that year. I had been so focused on the stars, I didn't worry about my grades. She couldn't afford to bring me to a school so far away if I wasn't even going to make an effort.
-Panel Two, Page Six
Two-Shot, both look up
Allison: Must have been hard
Wil: -At first. But I got over it, you know, figured it out.

-Panel Three, Page Six
Same as last panel, but Allison looks at Wil
Allison: Figured what out?
-Panel Four, Page Six
Two shot, shows both Wil and Allison from the knees up. Wil is lighting another cigarette. Allison’s hand is outstreched as if his hand was still in hers.
Wil: That the dreams I have are always going to better than real life.
-Panel Five, Page Six
Allison hugs Wil and he is taken aback. The arm with the cigarette is kept outstreched as far away from her as possible. The force of the hug sends ash everywhere.
-Panel Six, Page Six
Same angle as last panel, Wil has settled slightly, Allison is still tightly wound around him.
Wil: What’s this for?
Allison: I need a reason to hug you now?
-Panel Seven, Page Six
Same angle, Wil embraces the.... embrace.

-Panel One, Page One
Close up of Wil's face, still in the embrace.
Wil: You know speaking of dreams, I was thinking about that dream of yours.
-Panel Two, Page Seven
Close up of Allison in hug.
Allison: What dream?

-Panel Three, Page Seven
Two-shot, the embrace is over. Wil points at Allison.
Wil: I knew it!
Allison: What?
Wil: I FUCKING knew it!
-Panel Four, Page Seven
Close-up, Wil. His hands over his head, bewildered.
Mike: I knew you made it up. I wanted to believe it, but I knew there was no way it was real, you were just trying to fucking coddle me. Make me feel better about the whole situation!
-Panel Five, Page Seven
Allison.
Allison: Just because I can't remember some dream I had, doesn't mean I made it up, Wil.
-Panel Six, Page Seven
Will.
Matt: Oh no, you'd remember this one, Allison.
Allison(off panel): Remind me.
-Panel Seven, Page Seven
Two-Shot, Wil has both hands sweeping through his hair, Allison looks at him, waiting for what hes going to say.
Wil: Five or six months ago, right after.. well you know that whole mess with us..you text me and say you've had a dream about me.
-Panel One, Page Eight
Allison close-up, she stares blankly.
Wil (off-panel): You said you had a dream that you found out I was in prison…
-Panel Two, Page Eight
Same as previous panel, Allison realizes, finally, what Wil is talking about.
Allison: I had a dream you were in prison. So in the dream, I went to go visit you. And when I finally saw you, I started to cry.

-Panel Three, Page Eight
Wil.
Allison(off-panel): And you held me.
-Panel Three, Page Eight
Allison.
Allison: And then we kissed. and you told me-
-Panel Four, Page Eight
Wil.
Wil: -And I told you that, “everything is going to be all right.”
-Panel Five, Page Eight
Allison. Her hand over her face.
Allison: -Yeah.
-Panel Six, Page Eight
Two-Shot, they look at each other.
Wil: Was it true?
Allison: Of course it was true! You think I would, or even could make something like that up?
Wil: I'm sorry, its just…
-Panel One, Page Nine
Wil goes to sit down on a bench nearby
Wil: It meant a lot to me.
-Panel Two, Page Nine
Allison goes to sit with Wil on the bench.
Allison: Well it meant a lot to me too. Thus why I told you.
-Panel Three, Page Nine
Two-shot. Wil and Allison stare at each other.
Wil: Yeah, but probably not in the same way.
-Panel Four, Page Nine
Same panel as before, Wil has his hands between his knees, looking at the ground.
Wil: Sorry.
Allison: for what?
-Panel Five, Page Nine
Wil.
Wil: For making every time we talk, a revisiting of how badly I fucked up with you and how sorry I am.
-Panel Six, Page Nine
Allison.
Allison: You didn't fuck up, and you've never had to apologize. it meant a lot to me.
Allison: It meant a lot to me too.
Wil: No, I meant it.
Allison: Then you have nothing to apologize for.
-Panel Six, Page Nine
Profile two-shot. Wil in the foreground.
Wil: But I so do, it wasn't fair, you had a boyfriend, and it wasn't right for me to put you in that position, trying to have you all to myself.
Allison: I never asked you to stop texting me. But if you knew it was unfair, why would you put me through that?
-Panel One, Page Ten
Wil, further back, his arms around the back of the bench, looks over at an off-panel Allison
-Panel Two, Page Ten
Wil, same angle. Looking up at the sky.
Wil: Because, at the time… I wished I was dead.
-Panel Three, Page Ten
Side profile Wil, still looking up.
Matt: The same night I found out we weren't getting back together, I tried to kill myself. Obviously, it didn't work, but after that I had made plans to go take care of my grandma so I put my suicide attempts on hold, at least until I got back into town.
-Panel Four, Page Ten
Two-shot, from above, looking down. Allison is nestled in Wil’s and arm they are both looking up.
Allison: I remember one of the messages you sent me on the plane going up there:
-Panel Five, Page Ten
A sea of homes at night, as if viewed from the window of an aircraft. The dialogue is in a caption.
"I'm seeing all these bright lights. but they all feel so dim. Looking down from this high up, I see all these thousands of homes, millions of people. and i don't even care-“

-Panel Six, Page Ten
Same panel as before, but all the lights are gone save for one house.
“The only light that I can see worth living for-“

-Panel One, Page Ten
Close-up of Wil’s face looking out an aircraft window.
Wil:- Is you.
-Panel Two, Page Ten
We are back to Earth, this panel is a close-up of Allison.
Allison: Jesus, Matt, I knew you were depressed, but really?
-Panel Three, Page Ten
Two-shot. Wil Stands up and talks down to Allison still sitting down on the bench
Wil: I had every intention of killing myself, and not letting anyone know. But it was important to me that you knew how I felt before I was gone.

-Panel One, Page Eleven
Allison now standing up.
Allison: So what changed, I mean, what happened so that we’re able to have this conversation?
-Panel Two, Page Eleven
Wil.
Wil: Dunno
-Panel Three, Page Eleven
Wil.
Wil: I guess I decided to give myself another chance.
-Panel Four, Page Eleven
Allison.
Allison: Bullshit.


-Panel Five, Page Eleven
Wil
Wil: What? Not bullshit, I'm standing right here aren't I?
-Panel Six, Page Eleven
Allison.
Allison: In a matter of speaking, yeah, but I'm not stupid Wil. Someone who is so depressed and apparently suicidal, as you were, does not just snap out of it.
-Panel One, Page Twelve
Allison.
Allison: We may not see each other a much anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don't know what you've been up to.
Matt (off-panel): Oh what you keep tabs on me?
Allison: No, but I ask about you.
-Panel Two, Page Twelve
Two-Shot. Allison pointing at Matt.
Allison: I know all about how your not working. How you do nothing with your days. You just sit there and do jack shit.
Wil: Allison-
Allison: And sometimes. Sometimes I hear, you don't even have the fucking COURAGE to get out of bed. You just lay there all day.
-Panel Three, Page Twelve
Allison.
Allison: You may not be trying to kill yourself anymore. But you sure as hell not any better.
-Panel Four, Page Twelve
Wil.
Wil: You know what fuck you, you don't know what’s going on. It's not like your ever the first one to call anymore, every time we talk its larger distances in between until we talk again, what the fuck do you know?
-Panel Five, Page Twelve
Allison, enraged, about to cry.
Allison: Do you not even see it? The only thing thats changed-
-Panel Six, Page Twelve
Wil.
Allison(off-panel): Is the method your using to destroy your life.
-Panel Seven, Page Twelve
Allison. It hits her and shes unable to hold back the tears.
Allison: And I'm the one that did this to you.
Wil (off-panel): No you're not.
-Panel Eight, Page Twelve
Two-Shot Matt and Allison are close. Allison Still crying



Allison: Yes I am.
Wil: Look what happened between us was just a last straw. Things weren't going well for me for a long time. I didn't like who I was becoming, or how much time I had wasted. I got hope back when you came back into my life. If anything I should thank you.
-Panel One, Page Thirteen
Wil.
Wil: Yeah you were the final push, but you weren't the cause, and like I said in those texts, you were in a lot of ways what kept me going. What made me brave enough to face another day, give this shit another chance.
-Panel Two, Page Thirteen
Wil.
Wil: I don't know, maybe your right about how I've been lately, maybe I'm just lying to myself about being a hundred percent, but it doesn't mean I've given up. I'm not going to do that.
-Panel Three, Page Thirteen
Allison.
Allison: You better not, I can't keep worrying over you.
-Panel Four, Page Thirteen
Wil.
Wil: Being a prisoner to my own emotions was for some reason a sentence I gave myself. I don't want to feel like I'm trapped anymore.
-Panel Five, Page Thirteen
Two-Shot. Allison wiping the tears from her eyes.
Allison: I'm glad we talked face to face. It's been too long.
Wil: Yeah, it really is a shame
-Panel Six, Page Thirteen
Wide Shot of characters and the town around them

Wil: - Too bad this isn’t real.
-Panel One, Page Fourteen
Allison, smiling
Allison: When did you figure it out?
-Panel Two, Page Fourteen
Wil.
Wil: Haven't you been listening? 7th grade. My dreams will always be better than real life. This conversation could never have happened when I'm awake. I'd never be able to carry it this far with you and you would never be able to be this honest to me.
-Panel Three, Page Fourteen
Allison, still smiling
Allison: Give me a little credit.
-Panel Four, Page Fourteen
Wil.
Wil: Yeah you’re right. I would be the one to keep it to small talk.
-Panel Five, Page Fourteen
Allison, listening
Wil: (off panel): You know when I was younger I would be really awkward and it would be hard for me to even look a girl in the face. So if i had a crush on a girl in class, I would choose a seat as far away from her as possible. So I could look at her all I wanted without it being really hard for me.
Allison: Why are you telling me this?
-Panel Six, Page Fourteen
Two-Shot, they are close.
Wil: Because technically what 80, 90 miles away from here in real life?
Allison: like a hundred something I think..
Wil: Right well you’re like really far from where I'm standing right now-
-Panel One, Page Fifteen
Two-Shot, they are face to face
Wil: And its still hard for me to look at you.
-Panel Two, Page Fifteen
Wil kisses Allison on her nose
-Panel Three, Page Fifteen
Then her forehead
-Panel Four, Page Fifteen
Same as panel one
Allison: You're still the only boy whose ever done that.
-Panel Five, Page Fifteen
Close-up, Wil.
Wil: So you have this dream that I'm in prison...
-Panel Six, Page Fifteen
An extreme close up of Allison smiling.
-Panel One, Page Sixteen
Same face and angle as panel five on last page except behind him is a bed.
-Panel Two, Page Sixteen
Side shot of Wil, with legs on floor over bed.
Wil: And I tell you that everything’s going to be ok.
-Panel Three, Page Sixteen
Same angle, but just a shot of the bed. In the lower right hand corner reads: Courage

Leviathan

The ship rests now, and forever on, at the bottom of the atlantic. Along with the bodies claimed in the attack. Taken down into its domain, never to be reclaimed. The day had started as a foreshadowing of the events to come. Bleak, rainy, the horizon hardly visible through the thick fog. When the beat first surfaced, we heard only the sound it made. A terrible moan that caused the windows and portholes to shatter. Next we felt the wake, bashing against our iron shell. Amidst the confusion of trying to figure out what was upon us, the fog began to clear. It was as if the terrible leviathan wanted us, my shipmates and me, to see what had come from the blackness below. It stood fifty, maybe one hundred feet above the waves. Its mouth alone the size of our vessel. As it came down upon the ship, its first large bite took out most of our starboard side. A terrible smell filled the air. That of gasoline mixing with blood and the salt water that was swallowing the ship almost as quickly as the creature itself. I swear just before it came down for its second bite, its eyes gazed directly into mine. But as I gazed into the fiery red pupils of the sea monster, I saw nothing. A bottomless pit, of blackness. A close resemblance to the place he was sending us. It let loose a hellish snarl that cracked what was left of the ship in half, and then bit down into the deck. Taking most of our survivng crew, and the dear captain, there was but a few of us still unfortunate enough to be alive. In the fever of the moment, I lit the boat aflame, hoping to dissuade the mammoth from finishing us off. With the spread of the oil from our engines it did not take longg for the flames to finish what was left of the structure. As it began to sink, I tried desperately to stay above the waters. Unwilling to die down in the murky darkness from which it had submerged only seconds earlier. With little to hold on my body slowly sunk into the depths, first my feet, then my legs, and slowly up to my chest. The sea was swallowing me slowly, taking its time. Unsure if it should be the one to finish me off, or to allow its pet to do the job. Either way, my demise was assured. Yet as the icy ocean finally had my body in its grasp, there was a silence. I realized that I was but the only one left alive. Alone with the Leviathan, as giant as any there was a living thing. And to this day it haunts me why I was not finished off, but for some strange reason it turned to leave. Perhaps considering I was not even worth the effort to be eaten. It wrapped its tail around the wreckage of the ship, and dove down with it. Perhaps to serve as a trophy of the day's festivities. I waded there for a while, unsure how best to proceed. How does one go on living, when it had already stared the devil in the face?
Time passed, and a passing fishing boat gave me refuge. If there is such a thing on these oceans. It drove me to shore, and on shore I stay, never willing to leave earthen land again.

John Henry

John Henry was a steel-driving man....

Or so the old folks tell me.

Its hard to believe there ever was such a time when these old men were in their prime, building the railroads alongside John Henry. The sweat on their brow, a prideful stain of a day well worked. A colored man's back baking in the high sun, turning to strike down upon a metal stake; the only revolution they ever need be bothered with. They say they never forgot where they were the day John Henry died. That every time they hear thunder, its him somewhere off in the distance, that the screech of a train as it grinds against the tracks, is the song they used to sing when they worked those long days together. "Noble, humble, and full of righteous power he was; and still is". Once, when I was younger, I tried to argue that John Henry had proved nothing. That he died defeating a machine and it inspired nothing but a fleeting thought that this country was moving too fast. "This world is full of men who think like you", they told me, "a man who dies with hammer still in hand, is a man who deserves to be talked about for ages. Thats a commitment one does not often take, to put his work before his life. He knew he would die that day, we all knew but sometimes a man has to fight for something bigger than himself. He put his race before his pace, and inspired us all young black men, showed us what we had inside us. Told us; that when we commit ourselves, when we put our actions before ourselves, the sky will echo with thunder for years past our time." And so they tell me still to this day, when lightning rolls across the sky, or a train comes into station; John Henry was a steel-driving man.

The Pirate Women

Once upon a time, there sailed a ship crewed only by women. Born from the bosom of the waves, raised by the burning sea, they yearned only for the horizon. Never aided by a plan for present or future, they lived by the day, taking what they pleased, allowing only the wind in their sails to tell them where to go. The Pirate Women fought, pillaged, and burned with all the ferocity of any man, and more. They called the waters their kingdom, and left the petty power struggles of the dull dry land to the man.
Aboard their ship, there was one uncontested leader, captain of the Pirate Women, Queen of the seas. It was said she was once wed to Neptune himself, god of the seas. That he was very much in love, and gave his queen the powers to control the oceans themselves. However, the captain, unwilling to share the seas, struck down Neptune, and with pieces of his trident, the source of his power, built a ship in which to survey her now vast kingdom.
As man became bored with their limited and ugly lands, they attempted to strech their rule into the sea as well. Unfortanately, over time man proved to be too numerous for the one ship of pirate women. The overwhelming wave of greed, corruption, and vulgarity was not one that Poseidon had taught the Captain to control. And like all things with the onset of time and the dependability of man's desire for more power, the women fell. Returned to the ocean, forever to be a part of the greater of the two kingdoms. Sleeping forever in the depths of their great territory.

Death of Blackbeard

It is said that none but the devil know where Blackbeard’s treasure lies. That if the devil is not known to the treasure hunter personally, he will surely know him intimately by the time the search is over. There is no map to where the treasure rests. No piece or parchment which offers clues. To search for the chest, you must follow the scent of the burning hair upon Blackbeard’s chin. The gunpowder loaded into his pistols. The Rum that fueled his long voyages. You must listen for the sound of the splintering wood the cannons ripped from his ship during his final stand. The sound of gunfire ripping into Blackbeard’s crew as they fell one by one. You must look for the blood red sky, stained permanently by the pirate king’s fury and malice. You must sail upon the tough seas, made strong by carrying the weight of his dark and evil soul. None, yet, save for Blackbeard himself, have followed this trail. Where all your senses are plagued by the life of a man long since past. And none may ever follow it. The treasure that belongs now to the devil himself, desires only to be found by those as dark and terrible as deserves the respect of Blackbeard himself

Befriending the Yeti

Upon the highest cliff of Mt. Everest, there lived a lama. Upon this cliff the lama was able to see all of the world, from the north pole to the south. He spent his days upon the high cliff, praying for the many people who lived below him, praying for their peace and salvation. He was a generous and compassionate lama, whose prayers were wrought with kind words, and hopeful optimism for the human race. On one particularly moonlit night, as the lama was praying, he was visited by the Yeti who also lived upon the mountain. The Yeti, whose intention had been to kill and eat the lama, was taken aback by the naievete of the holy man.
“I’m not sure that you’re kind is worth praying for.”, said the Yeti. “For all the years I have lived upon this mountain, and believe me lama, I have lived here a great deal of years, all I have witnessed is the hate and devastation that your people impart upon each other.”
“I do not doubt your ageful wisdom, yeti”, replied the lama, “but for all your years of observing our kind, tasting our flesh between your teeth, have you ever stopped long enough to get to know a human?”
The Yeti thought long and hard, but eventually shook his head.
“Then may I offer you insights upon which you may make a more informed opinion of us, beast?”, the lama asked confidently.
“If that is truly the way you wish to spend your last moments on the mountain and on this earth than the least I could do is listen.” the Yeti said as he licked his lips.
As the lama began to speak of the human condition, the Yeti’s appetite for the man began to fade. As the lama spoke of faith and hope, the Yeti became a friend, and as days passed, and the lama spoke of love, the Yeti had absolved himself of all past opinions of mankind.
“How foolish I was”, the Yeti said to the lama, “to judge only with my eyes.”
As the years went on, the Yeti continued to visit the lama, and speak and pray together. As the lama got older, the Yeti brought him food and drink, and carried out the tasks which the brittle bones of the holy man could no longer perform. One day there was a terrible avalanche, and the Yeti did not come to visit the weathered lama. Days passed, and the lama began to worry for his friend. Wit the onset of starvation and the fear that something terrible had happened to the beast, the lama set out to look for him. Traveling down to the base of the mountain, the lama came upon the end of the snow shook loose by the avalanche. Sitting atop it was the skull of his friend, the Yeti. The lama took the skull and carried it all the way back up to his home atop the highest point on the mountain. There, he rested the skull of his fallen friend, so that he may forever watch over and protect the people of the world he had grown to love so much.

The Tiger finds a Teacher

The Tiger Finds a Teacher

Once upon a time, deep inside a forest, there lived a tiger. This tiger was the strongest and largest beast on four legs. However, his enormous size made him clumsy and heavy on his feet. This made catching food extremely difficult and he could hardly sustain his appetite. One day, as the enormous tiger left his home to hunt for food, he came across a small and quick cat, leaping from tree to tree. The tiger became extremely envious.
“If only I was that nimble, I would never go hungry again!” , the tiger exclaimed jealously. So the tiger called up to the cat, hoping to persuade it to teach him.
“Swiftest of cats, will you teach me to be as nimble as you?”
Both intimidated by the size of the tiger, and the knowledge that tigers were wicked at heart, the cat had no intention of doing any such thing.
“I’d better not, large tiger, if I taught you to be as fast as me, what would stop you from making me your dinner?”
The tiger acted hurt by the allegations.
“Honored Cat, I am a beast of my word. Were you to humble me with your teachings, I would never betray you, but more than that I shall protect you from any who you are not able to retreat from.”
Tricked by the flattery in the tiger’s words, the cat replied, “Very well, if you promise to never ever eat me, I will show you how to move as I do.”
And from dawn to dusk for days and days, as the cat taught the tiger, the tiger stayed true to his word. Very soon, the cat had taught the tiger all of his tricks, save for one. The tiger not knowing this, was very pleased with himself and confident that he was now just as clever and swift as the cat. So the tiger, feeling particularly hungry one day decided to make the cat his lunch. As the tiger’s mouth began to water, the cat knew precisely what the he was up to. The tiger, wanting nothing to get in the way of his meal, asked his lunch a question.
“Teacher cat, are you sure you have taught me everything you know?”
“Why yes gifted pupil”, the cat lied, “you have learned everything you will ever need, no animal will ever be able to escape your grasp again.”
With that, the Tiger pounced at the cat, eager to feel it between his teeth. Already wise to the plan, the cat leapt into a high tree.
“How truly dense you are, noble tiger”, the cat teased, “that for all that I have taught you, you did not realize I never taught you to climb a tree.”
The tiger overcome with rage, threw himself at the trunk.
“You live in a forest, most intelligent of all tigers” the cat continued, “did it never occur to you that this might come in handy?”
With all his might the tiger tried to wrestle the tree to the ground. He clawed and clawed and clawed but the trunk of the tree was too firm, and he was unable to bring it to the ground. Finally the cat, becoming bored with the Tiger’s frustration, leapt away and vanished into the dense forest. And the tiger was alone, once again with an empty stomach.