Author Information
Taste of Destruction
A long time ago, the gods created a world where animals lived in harmony; they planted a great number of fruit trees –from berries and cherries to apples and oranges– so that the animals would never lack food and could live in peace.
One day, a lion and a deer were playing in the prairie, they had been friends since childhood. They were having fun until by accident, the lion bit the deer and unintentionally tasted his flesh. The taste was completely new and strangely, extremely satisfying for him. This event changed everything; after that day, the lion stopped enjoying the fruit and craved for meat, even if it meant killing animals in their community. One night, he waited for everyone else to fall asleep and after he made sure no one was awake, he attacked a deer family without leaving anyone alive. The next morning, animals wondered what could have happened to the family, some thought that maybe the gods were trying to give them some kind of warning. Others started suspecting that maybe one of the animals had done it, but the rest of them said that it was impossible because they had always lived in peace since the beginning of the world.
The next week, the lion confessed to the tiger that it had been him who killed the deer family. Just before the tiger could argue about how terrible the lion’s actions were, the lion told him that the flavor of meat was the best he had ever tasted in his life, and the sensation was glorious. After hearing this, the tiger became very curious and wondered if what the lion had told him was true. When he got the chance, the tiger ate a rabbit that had been left behind the rest of the group and confirmed what the lion had told him; the taste of meat was delicious.
After that, everything was chaos. The tiger convinced the wolf to try meat, and then the wolf convinced the crocodile. All of them became addicted to the newly discovered taste. The rest of the animals were outraged at such horrible actions and were filled with fear. The owl, who was the wisest animal in the community, warned the lions, tigers, wolves and crocodiles by telling them that if they continued eating other animals, the gods would get angry and destroy the world. As it was expected, they refused to stop eating meat, for it had filled them with a sense of pleasure they had never experienced before.
One morning, the lion woke up and realized that there was no sun and that the sky instead of being blue, was burning red. The owl came flying and stood next to him, both stared intensely at the horizon. “A red sky…” the owl said, “You know what that means, don’t you?” The lion did not answer, he just stared at the red sky and felt his blood run cold.
