Julian's+Myth

by Julian
If you’ve ever seen a snake, then I’m sure your aware that they don’t have any limbs. It’s one of their most well known characteristics, and it makes plenty of sense. You see a long time ago there was only one snake, and it looked substantially different from the ones we’re accustomed to today. It had legs, and not just any legs but the longest most enticing legs to ever grace an animal. They were thick and strong, scaly and lustrous. If you were to come across a snake today, you would see that it’s only long horizontally, but this snake was long vertically as well. It lumbered seven feet above the ground, moving in great strides. There’s no doubt that the legs were long and beautiful; however, they also constrained the snake. It had trouble balancing itself and would frequently fall.

Despite Snakes challenges he was still the mightiest creature in the forest and definitely wasn’t modest about it either. Snake constantly praised himself, making all the animals envious, especially the mice. They were jealous of Snake’s long legs and tired of his gloating. Their loathing for him slowly accumulated size, until they couldn’t endure it anymore and decided to do something. The mice analyzed snakes daily patterns and observed that every day at sunrise he would return to a large hole in a decaying tree. This would serve as the perfect place for their trap. The next morning while snake was returning to his home, he stepped in a bizarre pile of goo. He didn’t think much of it at first but soon realized his feet where consumed in quick sand. Snake was mortified and began shaking violently. He managed to pry himself free, although his legs remained stuck. The mice had successfully deprived snake of his limbs. He tried to get them back, although the mud hardened and they were embedded like a pole in cement. It was a very somber day for Snake; he lost something he considered vital.

To be optimistic though, the absence of legs wasn’t entirely bad. His problems with clumsiness were gone and Snake became an overall better hunter. He was naturally low on the ground and could slither discretely. Without legs, snake was also harder to distinguish and could use his subtlety easily sneak up on many animals. Well, there you go, I just lucidly explained why snakes are the way they are today. I hope this short anecdote cleared things up for you. And if you have any skepticism about this story, throw it away. After all, why else do snakes especially enjoy eating mice?

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