Outstanding Story - As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

“As You Sow, So Shall You Reap” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Dhesshna Poonithn, Brunei Darussalam.

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

In a dark and deep forest, a crow named Kiki and a deer named Fasty lived together. They had been best friends for quite a long period of time.

One day, a new animal came to the forest. It was a fox named Foxy. Foxy was not happy with Kiki and Fasty’s friendship; In fact, she was jealous.

One evening, Foxy planned to introduce herself to Kiki and Fasty. She confidently went to them and asked, “Can I be your friend?”

“Yes, of course you can,” Fasty replied, but at the same time Kiki said, “No” angrily. Then she whispered to Fasty, “Hey, are you kidding? Don’t you know that she is a carnivore? She can eat you any time!”

However, Fasty was not so convinced. She said, “Kiki, come on. She looks very friendly.”

“No,” Kiki shouted even more angrily.

The next day, Foxy asked Fasty, “Do you want to go to the paddy field?”

Fasty happily replied, “Of course I want to go!”

Foxy took Fasty to the paddy field which was owned by Mr. John. Fasty didn’t know that the paddy field belonged to Mr. John. Both of them happily entered the field and without thinking even for a second, Fasty started to eat the rice grains. She was amazed by the taste of the paddy and this made her go to the field and eat the paddy every day.

After two weeks, Mr. John realized that his rice grains were disappearing. He had no idea what was happening. He guessed that it could be an animal eating it all up, and came out with an idea to kill that animal. He set a net to trap the animal.

On the next day, Fasty entered the paddy field as usual and started her meal. Suddenly, she sensed something wrong on her feet, and it was nothing but the net set up by Mr. John to trap and kill her. Fasty shouted for help, but unfortunately no one could hear her. Fasty shouted even more loudly. Fortunately Kiki could hear her voice, and she wondered, “Where is the voice coming from?”

Finally, Kiki managed to find Fasty, and she felt very sad on seeing Fasty’s plight. Meanwhile, Foxy was hiding behind a bush and was watching all this silently. Kiki tried her best to help Fasty, but she couldn’t do much. While crying, Fasty was saying, “Sorry Kiki, I should have listened to you; all this is my fault, and I feel very guilty about not listening to you.”

In a sad tone Kiki replied, “That’s why I told you earlier not to be friends with Foxy. Now she has put your life in danger.”

After thinking for some time, Kiki got an idea. She asked Fasty to hold her breath for a few minutes and pretend to be dead, so that the owner might think Fasty had died. When he opens the net, she can escape from that place and hide behind a tree.

Fasty heard the entire plan from her hiding place. She planned to catch and eat Fasty when she tried to escape.

After a few minutes, Mr. John came to the paddy field, and saw Fasty trapped in the net. Thinking that Fasty was dead, he lifted the net. Fasty sprang to her feet and ran away as fast as she could, to save herself from being killed.

Mr. John got very angry when he saw Fasty trying to escape. He threw his axe at her, trying to kill her. Fortunately, in the nick of time, Fasty managed to escape, but the axe fell on Foxy’s head, who had tried to pounce on Fasty. Foxy’s head was cut deeply and she died on the spot.

Fasty realized Foxy’s true colours. She decided that she would listen to her friend Kiki’s advice in the future.