Gabriel's+Tale

 It looked like a massacre, literally like lambs lead to the slaughter. There were feathers everywhere, and blood streaked the dirt. This scene that stood before Jonah explained why his chicken coops were empty and his yard was silent. Jonah realized too late that pressuring the hens made them desperate, and he knew that sometimes when you pressure people and they are desperate they run to the very thing that they should stay away from. Nonetheless, Jonah still wondered how things had gotten to this point.
 *  When the need is strong, people will believe anything **

In a small town, about 100 miles outside of nowhere sat Gunther. The town of Gunther had a population of about 357 people, with one main road that led in or out of town, one stop light, a gas station and a diner by the name of Mabels’ Kitchen. Amongst these 357 people were about 3 farms, but there is only one farm of any interest, and that is Jonahs’ farm. Jonah had the best chickens for nearly 2 counties; they laid the biggest, prettiest, and best tasting eggs anyone had ever had. It wasn’t just the towns’ people who knew this. There was one big, sly fox that was the color of red clay with a mean streak of white down his back and the prettiest white paws you had ever seen, but don’t be deceived by his beautiful looks because that is exactly what he wanted. His name was Sylvester, but he often went by sly.

Lately, around the farm egg production had been low, but none of the hens could figure out why. Girdie, the head hen was by far the smartest, prettiest hen anyone had ever seen, hence why she was head hen. The rest of the hens were beginning to worry because they knew that there was only a matter of time before the farmer would come around to see about those eggs. So Girdie, went on to have a meeting right before sundown in her coop, when all the hens had gathered she said “fellow hens, we have a problem, as you all know egg production has been down and just this morning I heard the farmer tell his wife that if we didn’t start making more eggs he was going to send us to the chopping block. Now, I suspect that someone is stealing our eggs, because we have done nothing different from our regular routine. We must find out who is stealing our eggs and we must do it quickly.” Gilda, Girdies right hand hen was almost as beautiful, but not very smart. She always chimed in at the wrong time and quite frankly nobody really liked her. On this particular tonight Gilda said “ Oh you guys, you guys, I have a suggestion, I have been talking to this fox named sly and he told me that he too had been hearing about what has been happening to our eggs and he’s really quite a nice fella, I think he can help! He has a great nose, I’m sure he can track down who is stealing our eggs. He has even offered to help free of charge.” Then chimed in Prudence; Prudence was one of the less well known hens, she didn’t speak much, and she was hardly what you would call beautiful. It surprised nearly everyone that she decided to speak at all, they all just assumed she was dumb. So when Prudence said “Umm you guys I just don’t think that hiring a fox to help us is a good idea, I mean, historically we have been told to stay away from foxes, what if this is all a trick?” But Prudence’s statement was quickly ignored when Gilda said “But what if this fox really can help us? We wouldn’t want to give up an opportunity to like that, would you rather risk being sent to the chopping block, all because of a simpleton like her?”

The next day the fox came to help, and everyday after that. He would ask one of the hens to come with him into the woods to help search for the eggs, but none of the hens that left with him ever came back. Soon Girdie wanted to know where her hens were disappearing to and when she asked sly the fox he said “ well we split up while were looking for the hens, and I think they may have gotten lost” Girdie said “ oh well we should probably send 2 hens with you tomorrow to help you search for the eggs and the other hens.” Sly the fox had no problem agreeing to this plan, and the very next day 2 hens left with him, but none came back. That night Girdie held another meeting and said “ Hens, I think there is something wrong, none of the hens that have gone with the fox have come back. I think that there is something out there harming them.” Prudence raised her hand and said “ No, I think it is the fox that is stealing our eggs and eating those hens! We should not go with anymore, he will surely kill us all!” Gilda said “ Shut up Prudence, you don’t know what you are talking about, in fact tomorrow I think that all of us should go with the sly tomorrow to help, at least what is left of us, we can cover more ground that way, and besides if we don’t find these hens that have gone missing, the farmer will most definitely have our heads then!” Prudence said “ I won’t go, you’re walking into a trap, just because the farmer is pressuring us to lay more eggs doesn’t mean we should run to our very enemy for help, there may be a strong need for us to lay more eggs, but I will not believe just anything that a fox says!”

The next day, all of the hens left, except one very smart hen by the name of Prudence,to go with sly the fox after he promised that he wasn’t the culprit and that there was no way that he would consider eating them, but his name was not sly the fox for no reason. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next.