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The Sloth and the Fox
The Sloth and the Fox
Once upon a time in a forest there was sloth. The sloth as always was hanging from a tree sleeping and dreaming. Suddenly, a loud noise interrupted his dreams. He woke up and fell to the ground. When he finally recovered from the fall, he looked around and saw a fox. He was so surprised and scared to see him standing there. He thought of climbing back to his tree, but his feet didn’t respond because of the fear.
Then the fox said “Hi there, what were you doing up there?”
The sloth didn’t respond.
“Hey, are you okay?” the fox asked.
Finally, the sloth gathered some courage and said “Yes” and tried to get to the nearest tree. The fox quickly approach the sloth, but the sloth thought he was being attack and he climbed the tree that was next to him.
After this the fox seem really surprised. But he was also confused; he didn’t understand why the sloth had run away and he asked “Why are you running?” The sloth, who was still scared, answered “I’m going to go back to sleep”. Then he hung from a branch and pretended to sleep, hoping the fox to get bored and leave. But this didn’t happen and when the sloth opened his eyes to see if the fox was still in there, he found the fox right in the same place just staring at him.
“What’s the matter?” the sloth said.
“Nothing” the fox said, “But your attitude kind of depresses me”.
The sloth didn’t understand what was he referring to, and closed his eyes again and tried to sleep. The fox, climbed the tree and yell at his ear. The sloth was getting pretty annoyed by the fox, and asked him what was he looking at. The fox answered, “I am looking at an animal wasting his life, instead of running around these precious forests and swim in those gorgeous lakes. I really don’t understand why if nature is beautiful and life so awesome, you are just hanging in there sleeping”.
The sloth got understood what the fox had said, but he just stood up and moved to another tree. The fox threw at him rocks until he got up and really angry asked him what his deal was. The fox said, “When you get old, you are going to regret you lost your youth and strength”. The sloth didn’t care and went back to sleep.
One day when he was with his wife sloth and many little sloths, he realized he had not enjoyed his life, for he was always sleeping. Then he remembered what the fox told years ago and realized he was right. Then he tried to run to prove himself that he could still enjoy life, but soon he run out of breath and his legs began to ache. He sat down under a tree wishing he could recover all the time that he had lost.
Mauricio Figueroa
Luis Horacio López
