rana

once upon a time, a scorpion - famously of both poison tail and inability to swim - needed to cross the river of stars. the frog, intelligent and cautious, wasn’t sure about this offer. it knew the other famous thing about scorpions, which is that their nature is absolutely immutable. it stings to kill.

but it eventually decided that at the very least if they were stung, that the scorpion would also drown and die, and maybe this would be enough to dissuade it from the inevitable.

And thus with this tenuous agreement, they began to swim. the river of stars is deep, and rapid, and even though the frog is a strong swimmer, he still struggles in the current. with every buffet of the water, the scorpion was nervous the frog might decide that enough is enough, to simply let them drown and be done with it, so they kept their stinger at the ready. as the frog grew more tired in the water, it felt the scorpion shift around, flex its poison stinger.

but, miraculously, they made it to the other side. tired, but alive.

“I almost stung you.”

“And I almost drowned you.”

“But you didn’t. Why take me across in the first place, when you could have simply refused?”

“Maybe we owe each other a chance to prove our own nature. and there’s a duty to try kindness first, to keep your heart as soft as possible in spite of it all. Or it could be that not everything has a point. Sometimes, you just have to do a task.”