The

Koala

and the

Kangaroo
A Fable of the Great Down Under

By:

The Koala Kids Kid

The Koala

and the

Kangaroo
A Fable of the Great Down Under

By:

The Koala Kids Kid

~ Dedicated to Dad ~

For showing me that the perfect story,

is the one you tell yourself.

















Copyright 2010 by Caleb Kestner.
All Rights Reserved.
























2nd Story Press
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Printed in the United States



Once upon a when, deep in the great down under, there lived a creature, a

creature called Kangaroo. Now Kangaroo was known far and wide for being the

greatest fighter in the land, and prided itself on this reputation. So much so that

while other creatures of the down under crawled, slithered, or ran about on all

fours, Kangaroo swaggered about proudly on his hind legs, nose held high, looking

down on all the other creatures.

One day, while Kangaroo was striding across the brush lands feeling

particularly good about himself, having just taken to count an entire party of

wombats, he came across a single eucalyptus tree, casting its shadow down amidst

the sun seared surrounding, and decided to take a rest. Stepping into the shadow

Kangaroo was just about to make himself comfortable when he noticed a tiny grey

form perched, as if standing, high among the upper branches of the tree. Now

Kangaroo could have let well enough alone, rested and then been along his way. But

as we've already established Kangaroo was a rather prideful creature, and the more

he considered the matter the more he became irked by the idea of a creature, even

such a small one, looking down at him. This cannot stand, Kangaroo thought, as he

approached the tree and bellowed up at the tiny form.

"You there! Creature. How dare you stand so much higher then me?"

Up at the top of the tree the creature, who went by the name Koala, drowsily blinked

down at the towering creature angrily fuming below. Now Koala wasn't standing so

much as clinging to the side of the trunk, but even so he felt no need to explain

himself to the source of his rude awakening.

 "Rather easily it would seem." Koala retorted closing his eyes, hoping the

interruption was at an end.

"Excuse me!" Hollered Kangaroo. "Do you have any idea who I am."

"No," Koala responded wearily, resigning himself to the inevitability of the

conversation, "but I have a sneaking suspicion I'm about to find out."

"I'm the greatest fighter that is." Kangaroo yelled back.

"Really?" Koala said quizzically, turning his full attention on Kangaroo for

the first time "you don't look it."

"I ... wha... you..." Kangaroo sputtered furiously "come down here and I'll

show you how well I look it!"

"Oh I couldn't do that" Koala responded casually.

"Afraid?" Kangaroo asked, with a confidant sneer.

"Oh no, not afraid, I just don't think it would be fair."

"Really?" Kangaroo said, swaggering proudly.

"Absolutely, I'd destroy you, it'd would cruel to let you try and fight me."

Now Kangaroo was livid, he was so mad he actually started hopping up and

down. "Destroy me! I'll destroy you, you little..."

"Oh I doubt that, in fact you probably couldn't even survive the preparation it

would take to live through a fight with me."

"Preparation? I don't need preparation." Kangaroo laughed.

"Well then I guess we won't be able to fight. I won't have your ill prepared

mangling on my hands or my conscience. It's probably for the best, after all if you

cant do something you can't do something."

 "I could prepare." Said Kangaroo, his pride beginning to eclipse even his

anger.

"Well I can see you're not going to let this go anytime soon." sighed Koala

with an exhausted yawn. "Very well, if you can make it through my basic set of

preparation requirements I'll consider letting you try and fight me."

"Done!" Yelled Kangaroo quickly before Koala could retract the offer.

Kangaroo looked up into the tree, smugly elated about this recent victory,

though as he thought about it he wasn't quite sure of what it was exactly that he'd

won.

"Wait a minute" frowned Kangaroo, having a rare instance of insight "how do

I know this so called "preparation" of yours will be fair?"

"A good point, though easy enough to answer. Tell you what, to insure the

veracity of this agreement of ours I will prepare along side you and won't ask you do

to anything that I will not also do."

"Ok." Kangaroo agreed grudgingly, able to find no flaw in the plan. After all

surely anything that little ball of fur could do Kangaroo could a thousand times

better. "Yeah ok, I'll play at your silly little preparations, if thats all it will take for

me to be able to grind you into the dust." Kangaroo said, as his pride once again slid

to the forefront of his mentality.

"Right then, first things first, sleep." Said Koala, already beginning to realign

himself for a slightly more comfortable slumber.

"Sleep?" Blurted out Kangaroo surprised, looking around at the surrounding

land still baking in the afternoon sun. "Its the middle of the day!"
 "No time like the present to begin preparing, and sleep is almost the most

important part of preparation. After all, any sort of creature can be awake, it takes

the mind of a greater fighter to stay asleep."

Kangaroo wanted very much to object to this line of thought but Koala was

already snoring. "Hmmhhh," Kangaroo sniffed to himself "if that dinky little fur ball

can do it so can I!" and promptly settled himself down for a snooze.

Well of course he couldn't, anybody could have told you that, well anybody

except Kangaroo that is. Koala regularly slept for almost 20 hours out of any given

day, waking only to eat and move about a bit. Kangaroo on the other hand was up

and about all the time, usually looking for a fight. Nonetheless Kangaroo, too proud

to consider doing otherwise, vainly struggled to match the sleeping habits of Koala.

While this was going on, a tiny field mouse that had happened upon the tree

around the same time as Kangaroo, and had heard everything, was racing as fast as

he could through the underbrush telling every creature he could find of the show

down happening at the single eucalyptus tree.

Now, while being the greatest fighter in the land may indeed do wonders for

ones ego, it is of very little help in the area of gaining friends. After all the only way

to prove youre the best is to beat up everyone else, whether they were looking for a

fight or not. Consequently, while there were very few creatures interested in seeing

Kangaroo pulverize another opponent, there seemed to be no end of those

interested in seeing if Kangaroo had finally met his match.

Which is why when Kangaroo awoke the afternoon of the third day of

"preparations", after a particularly fitful night of oversleeping, he found himself

surrounded. Not by the usual view of dry, down under, brush, but by a seemingly

endless sea of curious creatures, each eagerly awaiting his next move.

Kangaroo, being ever led by his pride, immediately assumed that this great

gathering was here to support him and watch him trounce Koala. This assumption

gave Kangaroo the boost he needed to do what hed been trying to work up the

gumption to do for almost two days now.

Ok fur ball, I did your sleeping thing, Im prepared now, lets fight!

Kangaroo yelled up at the tree, waking Koala.

You call that sleeping? Koala snapped back grumpily as he woke up. The

wind could do a better job of resting then you could. Koalas comment elicited an

immediate spatter of laughter, and snidely whispered remarks from the crowd of

creatures, and for the first time Kangaroo felt a tiny shiver of doubt begin to trickle

down his spine.

Im rested just fine, lets get on with it. He wasnt actually. In fact Kangaroo

was quite exhausted. Sleeping it turns out can be rather hard work if your not used

to it, plus hed been so caught up trying to match Koalas sleep schedule that he

hadnt had a thing to eat or drink in days. First, if you dont mind, I need to go grab

some food and

No need, no need interrupted Koala thats actually the next part of the

preparation. If you want to be able to try and fight me youll need to be able to eat

like me. Dont worry Ive got plenty of leaves up here for the both of us. Koala

stated with grin, as he grabbed a handful of leaves and began to munch on them.

Yeah? Kangaroo responded warily. And what about water.

 Why would you need water? Koala asked, his grin increasing as he took

another bite of eucalyptus leaves. I dont.

The trickle of doubt running down Kangaroos spine turned to a flood as he

realized that he might not have fully thought this fight through. Exhausted from

two days of fitful oversleeping, dehydrated, and incredible hungry, Kangaroo was at

the weakest hed ever been, but he also had an audience and was far too proud to

turn back now.

You still want to go through with this Koala asked, Youre looking a bit

worse for wear.

Of course I do, and dont need any leaves either. Im ready to take you on

right now.

Very well, if thats what you want. Koala answered calmly. There is of

course the issue of the most important preparation of all.

Wait, I thought you said sleep was the most important. Kangaroo interject

confused and starting to get worried.

Oh no, I said sleep was almost the most important, the most important is the

tree.

The tree? Kangaroo repeated, his worry now full blown.

Of course, real fights dont happen on the ground. Koala said with a dismiss

shake of his head. If you want to fight me youll have to do it in the tree.

Even Kangaroo could see the impossibility of this final requirement, but the

crowd had gone completely silent as it waited to see Kangaroos response, and pride
is vice that will almost always break before it bends. Kangaroo was no exception to

this rule.

Ok fine. Ground, tree, its all the same to me, Ill crush you either way

The silence devolved to cacophony as the crowed absorbed the sudden turn

of events.

Kangaroo, now far past the point of no return, stepped back to gage the tree.

Quickly realizing that there was no way he could climb it, Kangaroo set upon the

only remaining option. Striding back a full dozen paces, the crowed rapidly parting

around him, Kangaroo crouched down, geared up, and bolted for the tree. Right

before reaching the base Kangaroo threw all of his strength down through his legs

and jumped as hard as he could. Kangaroo flew upwards through the leaves, the

branches smashed aside by his mass. Time seemed to slow as Kangaroo reach the

climax of his leap and Koala reached out and softly tapped him on the nose and then

watched as Kangaroo plummeted back down through branches too weak to hold his

body and crashed into the ground, his legs bending beneath him with an audible

twang.

Silence momentarily swept through the crowd as the dust slowly settled

before quickly being eradicated by roaring cheers erupting from the throat of every

animal present, with the exception of Koala, high up in his tree, already settling

down for another nap, and Kangaroo still lying stunned on the ground.

Kangaroo pulled himself up off the ground; his once perfectly straight legs

now bowed beneath him by the force of his impact. Utterly humiliated Kangaroo

took off through the jeering and exuberant crowd. His once proud swagger left
behind in favor of a rapid series of bounds across the great down under as he did his

utmost to get out from beneath the mocking stares of all the creatures that had seen

his tremendous fall.

You can still see Kangaroo roaming the endless vistas of the great down

under, but his prideful swagger is gone. He now moves about bent over, head close

to the ground, legs still bowed beneath him as he bounds from place to place. He is a

humbled figure, and many creatures think, better for it. But you can still see

remnants of that oh so famous pride when the Kangaroo stands up tall and smugly

looks about at all the that lies beneath him. Or in the way the Kangaroo now sleeps

through the entire day, some say because hes still preparing for a rematch with the

Koala, so that he can, one day, reclaim his title as greatest of all fighters. Most think,

however, that it is because he still only dares come out at night, when most of those

who saw his great defeat are sound asleep and unable to look at his crouching form

with their derisively knowing grins.

There is, and long has been, well known adage, that Pride comes before a

fall, I for one am inclined to agree with this assessment. If for some curious reason

you find that you are not of a similar mind? Then please, do yourself a favor, and go

ask The Koala and the Kangaroo.