Ulangi Tales
Brother Frog and the Tar Mantis

Well, as you know, Brother Hork and Brother Frog have never been the
dearest of friends. Indeed, Brother Hork tended to eye Brother Frog
around dinner-time, and Brother Frog was more than a little fond of
pranks now and again.

Well, one day, Brother Hork had an idea. He went into the swamp, and dug
up the deepest, vilest, stickiest mud and tar he could find. He shaped
that tar into a likeness of himself, dressed it in his clothes, and left
it to sit by the path to Brother Frog's house.

Brother Hork then hid himself to watch, and soon enough Brother Frog
came down the path, and noticed the tar mantis. In the dim light, he
mistook it for Brother Hork, and took it into his head to tease his old
rival. "What's the matter?" asked he, "can't catch dinner again
tonight?" The tar mantis made no reply.

Brother Frog was clever, true, but he also tended to be proud, and a
little vain. He couldn't abide being ignored. When the tar mantis didn't
speak, he came closer, and raised his voice. "I said," he repeated,
"didn't you catch dinner tonight?" Still the tar mantis was silent.

Finally, Brother Frog decided he'd get Brother Hork's attention by
knocking off his hat, and went to do so. When he tried, though, his hand
was caught by the tar. He kicked at the tar mantis, and struck at it,
trying to get free, but the more he struggled, the more tightly he was
bound.

With a triumphant cry, Brother Hork leaped from his hiding place,
laughing at Brother Frog. "Ha!" chortled Hork, "you're caught now,
Brother Frog, and tonight you'll be my dinner!"

Brother Frog realized he'd been duped, and as you may imagine had no
desire to be anyone's dinner, but he knew he couldn't pull himself free.
Spying the nearby ocean, he had an idea. "I guess you will," Brother
Frog told Brother Hork, "for I surely cannot get free. At least I'll be
going quickly, in your oven. It couldn't be nearly as bad as being
thrown into the ocean!"

Brother Hork, being even angrier at Brother Frog than he was hungry,
took the bait. "The ocean is worse than my oven?" he asked, to which
Brother Frog nodded fervently. "Oh, much worse! There's salt, and
sharks, and stuck like this I would surely drown!"

Brother Hork grinned, and began carrying Brother Frog down to the beach.
Said he, "Brother Frog, you will not be my dinner. I think I will throw
you into the ocean."

Brother Frog struggled, though he knew it futile, and whined, "oh,
PLEASE, don't throw me into the deep, dark ocean!" But his pleas only
set Brother Hork's resolve, who pitched Brother Frog from a high rock
thrust out over the water.

Well, the salt water of the sea washed away the tar, and Brother Frog
swam away swift, with a laugh. Brother Hork knew he'd been tricked, but
there would be other days.

The end.

Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Scarlatan, in the year 374 AF.