The Oracle’s prediction

“All hail the Oracle!” cried the animals. “Hail!”
The fox, swathed in strange green vines sat atop a rock, his eyes half closed, as if in a deep trance. Most animals of the forest and the surrounding lowlands were assembled at the foot of the rock, paying obeisance to him.

Slowly, the fox lifted a hand to his forehead, and let out a moan. “Aaaah!”
A hush fell on the audience. “Danger!” shrieked the fox. “Grave danger!”
“Where, Master, where?” cried the woodpecker, looking around in alarm.
“There!” continued the fox in his high-pitched, hysterical voice. “There, where the water flows from sky to earth!”

The fox often spoke in cryptic sentences like this, and it was up to the animals to figure out what he really meant. “Where the water flows from sky to earth … hmm… the water fall!” cried the weasel.

“Danger… to all of us… rush …now…” muttered the fox, and the big brown bear charged off to the waterfalls. The eagle accompanied him, while the rest of the creatures waited with bated breath.

An hour later, he was back, triumphant, and singing praises of the fox all the way. “Master is all seeing, all knowing”, he shouted. “Hail to our Master, the Oracle!” completed the eagle. “What happened? Tell us!” demanded the other animals.

“We found some humans camping out there by the waterfall”, said the excited eagle. “Brother Bear here was able to scare them away!”“And in time too!” said the Bear. “Just imagine, if they had caught any of us? It’s all thanks to our Master that we are safe today!”

The animals took up their chant again. “All hail the Oracle! All hail the Master! Hail!” The fox smiled to himself. He had found the easiest way to lead his life without doing any hard work at all. It had all started with a small prediction he made, though it had just been a piece of luck.

When a family of white-tailed deer had gone missing, the fox had by chance, seen some poachers shutting them into a cage just outside the forest. Back in animal territory, he declared that he had had a divine vision from the Almighty: of the family of deer being trapped in cages.

The bigger animals immediately rushed to the spot, and to their astonishment, found the deer exactly the way the fox had described. The fox had, in fact, said it only to ensure that most of the animals would be out of the way when he ransacked their homes.

But to his extraordinary good luck, the entire episode turned out in his favour, with the animals believing that he had the divine gift of communicating with God. Since then, he was their ‘Oracle’, who could predict calamities and come up with solutions. The fox, on his part, kept up with his act by snooping around everywhere as best as he could, and coming up with some prediction or the other.

Now the fox slowly opened his eyes and raised his hands in blessing. “I shall always do my best for all of you”, he said in a slow drawl, with an air of importance. “The Supreme Power communicates with me, and I, with all of you. That is all.” He folded his hands. This was the cue for the audience to make their offerings of fruit, meat and drink to him.

The fox acknowledged all the gifts they had brought for him with a small smile. Suddenly his face took on a grave look, and he said, “I think someone has once again forgotten to give his offering.” The other animals looked fearful. “Who is it, Master?” said the hare, trembling.

“It is that star-nosed joker, the Mole, as usual”, said the fox. “He will bring doom upon all of you, if he continues to thwart the Oracle!” muttered the fox darkly. The animals looked around. The Star-nosed Mole was nowhere to be seen. They scurried around to find some extra food, and offered it to the fox.

“Do not be displeased, Master”, they cried. “Take this offering! Do not curse us!” The fox grimly closed his eyes once again. After what seemed an eternity, he spoke up. “The Oracle is pleased”, he said, with a wave of his hand, “You may all disperse.”

Relieved that they had all been saved from a great danger, the creatures went back to their regular routine, a few of them complaining about the Mole’s behaviour. The Bear was greatly annoyed, as he had complete faith in the fox’s divine powers.

He went to the marshes, and called out to the Mole. “Come out this very minute, you silly clown!” he growled. “We’ve had enough of you and your star-shaped nose! We won’t stand your impertinence anymore!”

The Star-nosed Mole was a blind creature who usually did not venture out during the day. He lived underground, had a star shaped nose, with tentacle like projections that gave him a weird look, and this made him the butt of all jokes.

This, of course, was one more reason why he didn’t mix much with others. He especially had no respect for the fox who had always been an arch enemy of his, waiting for a chance to eat him up. He was sure that the fox was just taking everyone on a ride, and refused to bow down. This infuriated the fox no end, as every other animal was now under his thumb.

The bear kept calling, and finally the Mole came out. “You have to be present with an offering at the next meeting, do you understand?” snarled the bear. “Yes, I’ll come”, said the Mole, though he had no intention of doing any such thing. “You’d better”, warned the bear as he swaggered off.

The fox, meanwhile, was quite restless. He desperately wanted to put the Mole in his place, and make him his vassal, just like the others. He could do nothing unless the Mole came to the meeting, which he was sure would never happen.

So when the Mole turned up at the next meeting, he was very surprised. He decided that the Mole must have realised how futile it was to stand against him, and must have given up. He gleefully poked fun at the Mole once the audience had finished with their “Hail the Master” chant.

“So the star-nosed clown has decided to please the Oracle, eh?” the fox said. “Hardly”, said the Mole quite calmly. “I have come to make an announcement regarding a calamity, and this is the only place where everyone assembles.”

The animals perked up their ears in curiosity, despite their disbelief. “There will be an earthquake here, very soon”, said the Mole. “I would advise that all of you be on your guard, and assemble at the open grasslands as soon as possible.”

“What!” snapped the fox, “You dare to come and make a prediction when I, the Oracle am still here?”
“What are you talking about, Mole?” growled the bear. “I’m telling you the truth”, said the Mole. Nothing like that is going to happen!” shrieked the fox, “Do you believe this blind clown here, or me, your Master?”

“Of course, we believe you, Master”, said the creatures fervently. “Go away”, said a few animals curtly to the Mole. “Alright”, said the Mole, turning away. “Suit yourselves.”The Mole hadn’t gone far when the hare stammered nervously, “I … I think the ground is sh- sh- shaking!”

“You’re right!” cried the coyote, as the earth began to move under their feet. “The Mole was right”, cried the eagle, “Run!”The animals lost no time in rushing to the grassland. There was quite a stampede, and they forgot all about the fox who desperately tried to stop them.

The earthquake lasted about five minutes, and when the danger had passed, the Mole signalled to everyone to calm down. “Its fine now”, he said, “You may all go back and continue your meeting.”
But no one wanted to go back! “You are our Oracle now”, said the bear, lying prostrate in front of the Mole.

“Our new Master!” cried the rest. “Definitely not!” said the Mole. “Stop believing that someone can have super powers. Each one of us is blessed with certain capabilities by Nature, and I just happened to use mine. You see my nose that you all make fun of? It’s this nose that lets me sense many things around me, including the vibrations of the earth.

As for the Fox, he has just been fooling you all these days.” The Bear turned to go back now. “I’ll make mincemeat of that rascal!” he roared. But he didn’t need to. The fox had fled for his life.