The Other Side

There once was a goat, a sheep, and a bunny. They were close friends, but the goat grew tired of the same old day to day grazing when the goat asked the sheep ‘do you think the grass is greener on the other side?’ ‘The bunny says it is softer but doesn’t taste as sweet,’ the sheep replied. ‘There are also snakes under every bush’ the bunny interrupted. ‘Ah, but I don’t believe it doesn’t taste better than the measly grass and weeds we have here,’ the goat replied. ‘Suit yourself,’ said the bunny. ‘You will be in for a surprise when the snake has bitten you.’

Although the bunny had warned him not to go the goat decided he was going to cross the river and satisfy his curiosity. Worried for her companion the bunny decided she would accompany the goat to the other side. ‘You have already been there,’ the goat chided. ‘Why are you following me?’ ‘I am worried for your safety, my friend.’ The bunny replied. ‘Bah! The goat exclaimed. You must not have been to the other side then! You didn’t want to go alone, so you lied to peak my curiosity.’ ‘I did not!’ The bunny replied deeply offended by her friend. ‘I’ll bet there aren’t even any snakes in the bushes either,’ the goat declared. ‘I shall go on alone, you are clearly too scared.’ The bunny was hurt by his words and finally the sheep chimed in. ‘Now, Goat, that’s going too far. I know Bunny has been to the other side. I saw her hop across the rocks of the river. She had gone there when you weren’t feeling well, she wanted to bring you ginger.’ ‘We have ginger here, why would she cross the river?’ The goat asked his anger rising with frustration. ‘Ah, it doesn’t matter. Neither of you can stop me from crossing that river!’ ‘Please don’t, you don’t know what is over there.’ The bunny pleaded. ‘Yes, I do, much better friends I suspect,’ the goat said angrily, and stomped off towards the river’s edge.

With three quick leaps from rock to rock the goat was across the river. ‘Ha! It is not too difficult for me,’ the goat bleated. Then, as quickly as he had bound across the river he yelled and stomped, something on the ground had moved, and in his panic, the goat stomped and stomped until it lay still on the bank of the river. ‘What was that!’ The goat exclaimed, out of breath. ‘Why, it’s a snake!’ He whispered to himself. Not wanting to look foolish he buried the carcass and turned to his friends on the opposite bank, ‘see no snakes here!’ He called. ‘Please be careful!’ The bunny called back. The goat bleated in return and walked further from the river and began munching on the rich green grass at his hooves.

Soon, he had taken more than his fill when he decided he had had enough of the food and wanted to rest in his home with his friends. The goat turned to the river he had crossed, but he could no longer see his friends, and the opposite riverbed looked unfamiliar. ‘Bunny!’ He called out. ‘Sheep!’ There was no reply. Panicked once again, the goat raced to the water’s edge determined to cross it and return home at any cost, but quickly discovered that he must have traveled downstream and was standing on top of a cliff overlooking raging rapids that led to a waterfall. The goat stood overlooking the river, weighing his options. ‘My stomach is too full for this’ the goat thought. ‘I will rest here and think about what I should do. Soon he had fallen fast asleep.

When he awoke, the sky was littered with the glowing specks that visited each night, he truly enjoyed watching them pass across the sky throughout the night with his friends, the sheep, and the bunny. He looked up at them longing to hear his friend’s strange tales and above all their laughter. He stood on his hooves and more determined than before he tried to make his way in the dark back up the river to where his friends must be waiting for him. After a short walk he felt his stomach grumble. All the delicious grass that was within reach made him hungrier than he had been before crossing the river.

Before he could stop himself, the goat was once again gorging himself on the luscious pasture and paying no mind to his surroundings. He slept off the second feast and awoke feeling sluggish. ‘Where have bunny, and sheep run off to?’ The goat said to himself lazily. ‘No matter, they will know how to find me.’ He reassured himself and started gnawing on the meadow once again. ‘This does not taste so sweet; I wonder what is on the other side.’ The Goat said to himself. ‘I bet bunny would know. She is both curious and wise. I should find her.’

The goat stumbled towards the river, drunk on the rich vegetation this side of the river had to offer. The goat found himself at the edge of the cliff high above the rapids once again. ‘Why would my friends be here?’ He asked himself when he spotted something moving near his hooves. Panic struck his groggy clouded mind, and he struck out at the movement, again. ‘Die snake!’ He yelled. A sound unlike a snake came from beneath his hooves and he saw it was his dear friend the bunny. The goat did not want to believe his eyes, his friend a bloodied mess beneath his hooves, and he stomped once more at the ground angrily shouting, ‘this is not real! You have tricked me greenest grass I have ever seen, this is not my friend but another snake, how dare you trick me!’

He stomped again and again, until the ground beneath them at the cliffs edge could not take anymore, and together they tumbled down into the raging rapids below. The poor bunny was quickly swept away first lifelessly tumbling through the tendrils of foamy water, but the goat tried as he might to hop the falling rocks back to no avail. He stumbled and sputtered angry and clumsy, until he too was swept away under the rapids, and around the rocks, mercilessly battering him, just as he had done unknowingly to his greatest friend the bunny. Even to his last breath of river water, he yelled, ‘you tricked me!’

The sheep watched from the safety of their home shore, Their goat friend stomping angrily at poor bunny, who only wished to help. Tears fell from the eyes of the remainder of their trio. Poor sheep now lived with the regret of not following poor bunny across the river to help their friend, for he was bigger, and the goat would not have mistaken him for a snake. The sheep blamed himself for many days, and his eyes were never dry for the remorse of his friends. The sheep found himself at the very cliff he watched his friends perish, and he watched entranced by the rushing of the river, as it called to him. His friends called him. The sheep smiled with happy tears, hearing his friends one last time call out to him, he gladly jumped to them. Engulfed by their love he went happily to his end, to see his friends once again.