Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Episode 14: The Songbird

That night Dunazad crawled into the bed and ingratiated herself beneath the King’s arm. She was very beautiful, had the most delightful curves and her nipples perked up with compelling invitation. Despite this the King had heat only for her sister.

Scheherazade was tall and lanky, all kneecaps and elbows, with little of the shapeliness sought in a woman. True, her breasts had grown larger after delivering, but without seeing her nurse, one might easily have mistaken her for a boy.

That is until she spoke. Her voice was captivating and there was a sparkle that radiated from her eyes that would make a listener marvel and she could describe things perfectly, in few words, that would require long discourse from others. When she talked the sharpness of her nose and jutting jaw disappeared into a visage that made a listener's eyes grow wide in awe and the ears tingle with delight.

As the three settled into the mattress, the king and Dunazad lay propped on pillows, their backs resting on the headboard while Scheherazade faced them sitting cross-legged.

“Any requests?” asked the King’s First Wife.

“Lets play the Fable Game,” pleaded Dunazad excitedly. “You tell the Fable and then judge whether it’s me or the King who first comes up with the moral.”

“Do you feel up to the challenge?” inquired the Scheherazade, smiling at her husband?

He rolled his eyes and bid her to begin.

Once there was a songbird who lived in the forest. She had the most beautiful voice and sang with the most enchanting chirping melody. One day a hunter heard her singing and decided it would be nice to have such a bird in a cage at his house so he could listen to the singing whenever he was home. So he set a snare, catching the bird and put her in a beautifully wrought cage next to the windowsill. To his dismay the bird quit singing during the day and only at night would warble, and then only mournfully. The song did however, put him right to sleep so he kept the bird around and woke up refreshed each morning.

“This is going to be a hard one,” Dunazad remarked, “I can always tell when a fable is going to be a zinger!”

Scheherazade continued.

One night as the Canary sang a bat flew up and perched outside. “Why are you singing all the night long when you used to sing only in the day?”

The songbird replied, “I was captured during the day, as I was singing, and don’t want that to ever happen again.”

Scheherazade looked up.

“Is that all?” asked Dunazad.

Her sister motioned with her eyes that it was so.

“This is the dumbest fable I ever heard," said Dunazad in disgust.

“Then you should have no difficulty explaining it,” said the King.

“The moral is that the world is full of dumb birds, just like this one. They lament their hardships, but are too stupid to understand that they're mostly to blame.”

“Excellent,” said the King…. “Go on.”

“Well the rest is obvious enough. The final part is that it’s too late to weep, over leaving the corral door open, after the Stallion has bolted the stable.”

The King applauded, “That is an incisive conclusion, however allow me to add my own interpretation.”

“Did I miss something?”

“What if the stallion has yet to be born and the truth of its gender remains a mystery? What if the Sire was taken from the wild and made to lead the herd, bearing the weight of a harsh and demanding master? The sire might indeed be “A dumb bird” for allowing himself to be captured, and ridden hard, and who remains in the corral regardless of the condition of the gate. And he might pace the stable at night pawing his hoof and lamenting his captivity…"

He looked deeply into Scheherazade’s eyes.

“… but as he grows older his only hope rests in the womb of his favorite mare and what the future holds in store.”

A tear ran down Scheherazade’s cheek.

“You have spoken truly," he said, "that its too late, after opportunity flees, to chide ourselves for what might have been, but I say verily onto you that while opportunity remains, the gateway is forever accessible to those who understand how the latch works. “