The Stag and His Reflection

Once upon a time, there was a big, strong stag living in the forest. He was the most beautiful creature in the forest and when he strode through the pastures, all of the other animals came to admire him.

One day, when the stag came to take a drink from the clear lake, he saw his reflection in the water. He watched his big, branching antlers, which rose from his head like a king’s crown of ivory. He himself couldn’t take his eyes off of his own beauty. “This is me!” he thought with pride.

“My antlers are really pretty,” he thought to himself, and shook his head a bit to admire. But when he came even closer to the bank of the lake, he also saw his legs in the reflection. They seemed weak and scrawny and thin to him.

They didn’t go with the rest of his body at all, let alone those large crown-like antlers. He kicked a stone into the water angrily, so that he didn’t have to see his ugly legs any longer.

“Oh, what a shame that my legs aren’t also strong and beautiful! They are too thin and too weak,” the stag sighed. “Why can’t they be like the rest of my wonderful figure?”

He watched himself in the lake surface for a while, trying to find an angle from which his legs would seem mightier. He was so absorbed that he didn’t notice a crafty lion was watching him. The lion was feeling hungry.

When he saw that the stag wasn’t paying any attention, he slowly crept to him. He was just about to leap when the stag noticed and started running away. He ran into the flat, open pastures, where he lost the lion quickly thanks…