Chapter I

Once upon a time, in the month of December of a year not so long ago …in a land not so far away, in a swamp dwelling not so small, …there shifted together, four of God’s creatures – A Crab, a Fish, a Goat and a Scorpion.

The Scorpion was not sure as to whether it wanted to remain with its previous mates (with whom it was more familiar), or to come to this new dwelling where the inmates were of species different from itself. The Crab and the Goat (who knew each other from a long long time ago persuaded the Scorpion to shift with them. The Fish was entirely new to the environment, but was ready to adjust.

The Crab was a hyperactive creature with poisonous fangs. The clever thing about those fangs was that they never came out when one met the Crab initially. So no one got to know the true nature of the Crab until later. Also, it liked to be the centre of attention everywhere and behaved as if it was an egg or larva.

The Fish was a happy-go-lucky creature with an extra gland which secreted water at the merest surge of particular emotions. Anger was one of those unfortunate emotions. The Fish did not mind doing work, so long as nobody screamed at it. The Goat was a gloomy creature with a cheerful front. It did not delve into too much emotional bonding as it was incapable of expressing its feelings.

The Scorpion was like a mirror image of the Crab, except it was a smaller version. It worshipped the Crab and never doubted its actions.

The decorated their swamp dwelling very nicely, bartering all kinds of things with trader species so that they could get those nice moss carpets for their swamp floor, and the baby sponges to give them backrests, and the sea shells with which they could cook their food. Since they were all new to this swamp, they did not know how to cook many dishes. So they used eel runners to get their queries to their respective parents. The only thing that was easy to cook was mushrooms as they were found in abundance in the swamp and always tasted good no matter how they were cooked. Slowly slowly they learnt cooking new dishes like Chilli Fern, Mushroom weeds, Larvae fry, (the easiest non-vegetarian dish that could be cooked) and other exotic things.

About a month after this blissful way of life, the parents of the Goat came to visit. It went away to another sea side area to spend time with them and enjoy the salty breezy atmosphere of the coastal lands. When it came back, some disagreement seemed to have risen in its absence. The Crab had begun thinking that the Goat gave more importance to the Scorpion than itself and since their (Goat and Crab’s) friendship was of older kind, it (the Crab) did not like this new development and confronted the surprised Goat with the accusation. The Goat said that it did not give special attention to anyone and the Crab was making too much out of too little.
Things soured after this. The Crab removed its sleeping moss bag out of the cave that it and the Goat shared. The Goat did not know how to deal with the situation but nevertheless, very selfishly enjoyed the comfort of a single cave alone.

~End of Chapter I