The Peaceful Tortoise

The old, slow tortoise walked steadily through the veld, down to the river, to drink his daily water. He paced himself with slow and steady strides, and he took his time about it, as he did with all things. At this rate it would take him a bit of time before he got to the water’s edge to drink. He was still ambling along gently among the shrubs, the yellow grass, and the rocks, when he felt the vibration of many hooves through the ground – and they were headed his way! He was in imminent danger of being overrun and trodden underfoot by the stampede of antelope! He sensed the danger immediately, and resorted to his only self-defence tactic; retracting his head and limbs back into his shell, and lying quite still without moving an inch. The antelope appeared at full gallop and would have stepped on him, if only he didn’t look like any other rock among the yellow grass of the veld. All they saw was a rock lying in their path, and if they stepped on it, they would fall and injure themselves severely. So the whole herd jumped and skipped over him in quick succession out of instinct, as they fled their pursuers. After them came the lions that were chasing the buck, and they too mistook the old fellow for a harmless rock lying about, only to be avoided for fear of falling over it. They jumped over him one-by-one and were soon gone, still chasing their elusive prey down the valley. After a while, when he saw that it was all clear, the old tortoise peered out of his shell, and then resumed walking casually down to the river to get his drink. It was all in a day’s work for old fellow like him.