Running for Your Life

"You forget," replied the Hound, "that it is one thing to be running for your dinner, and another for your life."

This was words to live by, literally. The hound had heard these words his entire life. He knew this is what he had to do to survive. There is, and has always been, a hierarchy in the world with these things. The hare will run, and run, and run. The hound will chase. The hare, often times, will get away. The hound, now, he will sometimes reign successful. The hound will catch his prey and he will start again the next day. This is the cycle, the way that it has always been. There is an order to these things in the world, and when the order is broken, there is no balance.

What about in a world where the hare is the predator for once? What if the hound lived in fear of the hare?

There once was a hound, a weak and squeamish hound. The runt of his litter. Too scared, too small to chase even the smallest of hares. He sat back and watched as the other farm dogs chased the hares away. He cowered around the elder hounds as they tended to their duties. He hid away in the brush until someone noticed his absence. The hares teased him. They noticed his inability to "be a dog". He was just a pup, and always would be. He fell outside of the normal order of things, he was not the type of dog to "chase or be chased," this pup was chased. This was his natural order. This was his life. The pup lived a good life, do not mistake that, but it was not until he befriended one small, equally as weak hare that his life turned for the better. One day, he got the courage to chase a baby bunny, this poor thing could not have been more than a year. He was the smallest of his litter. He was weak, not developed like his brothers and sister. The hound had a good sniff of his prey, and began his chase. The two were a good match for each other, they were. The hound, noticing his prey's physical state began to feel bad.

The hound slowed down and the hare got away. The other farm animals laughed. They could not understand how this weak runt of a bunny could have escaped the hound.

The other animals taunted the hound for the rabbit being able to escape. Finally, the hound spoke up "you forget," asserted the Hound, "that it is one thing to be running for your dinner, and another for your life."

The hound replied the same as the original story only this time was different.

The hound knew that the hare was running for his life. He himself, was chasing a meal. The hound understood life. He understood that the hare had a value no matter how small and weak he was. He was worth more than just the hound's meal.

It is one thing to be running for your dinner, and another for your life.

Authors Note:

Honestly, I had an extremely difficult time writing this story. My source material is incredibly short, there was not much for me to build off of. The entire story is a fable of course, so there is practically a short paragraph with the impact of a full length story. I had little creative direction with this story, all I could imagine was a "roles reversed" situation. I was worried about not having enough dialogue or drama in this story, I wanted to pose a question. I wanted to provoke a theoretical thought that people could ponder. I fell in love with the final line of the story, "You forget," replied the Hound to the Goatherd, "that it is one thing to be running for your dinner, and another for your life", to me, there is so much weight to this statement. There is so much implied meaning and various implications behind it, it can be applicable to any situation you set it to. I liked this line especially with the roles reversed, where the hound lives in fear of everything until he gets the courage to chase the hare, then the phrase develops a whole new meaning. Feel free to leave any suggestions on my comment wall, I hope you all can enjoy the story, and I look forward to your potential revisions and suggestions.