The Monkey and the Mastodon

Once upon a time, in a coconut grove, lived a monkey. The monkey was a 
prankster and always went to the top of the tree and tried to hit 
people with coconuts. So far, the monkey was unsuccessful in all its 
attempts, although it had managed to scare a few fellow critters into fits 
of running and shrieking. Nobody in the coconut grove knew of the 
monkey's antics. They all believed that the monkey went to chase toucans 
with the others. One day, as an old mastodon was plodding under the 
trees, our monkey aimed a coconut at it. The coconut whirred down toward 
the mastodon. Alarmed, the mastodon slowly turned its head towards the 
sound of the charging coconut. The coconut collided into the 
mastodon's tusk, pulverizing it. As the tusk was being pulverized, the mastodon was wailing and inhaling the particles. This left the mastodon in a frenzy of coughs and sneezes, and it rammed into a tree, getting its 
other tusk embedded in the tree. The mastodon pulled and tugged, until it 
was finally free, but tuskless. Yes, the tusk remained in the tree. 
The mastodon looked at the coconut in rage. It charged towards the 
coconut, lifted it in its trunk and drop kicked it. The coconut ricocheted 
off a tree and hit the side of the mastodon's head. This was war. The 
mastodon once again kicked the coconut, but yet again, it boomeranged 
back after hitting a petrified tree trunk. The mastodon ran, trying to 
avoid the flying coconut. Unfortunately, it ran forcefully into its own 
tusk jutting out of the tree, which impaled the old mastodon. 
Meanwhile, the monkey looked down in horrification. It had never meant to 
kill. And, the mastodon was thought to be an extinct animal. The old 
impaled mastodon was the last of the species. Now it was the monkey's 
fault that the species truly was extinct. The monkey felt a strong 
compunction and was brought to tears. It took a large coconut, made a hole in 
it, and put it over its head. It would wear this mask for eternity, 
for it could no longer face its fellow creatures. After a month, the 
inside of the coconut began to emit a strong odor and the monkey's face 
began to itch. Soon, flies gathered and the monkey's face decayed. It 
took off the coconut mask, and all that was remaining was its skull with 
random patches of rotting flesh and fur. The monkey went to the spot 
where the mastodon's bones lay. It crawled into the ribcage of the 
mastodon and lay there. It wished death, but never died. Today, one can 
still see the miserable monkey sitting in the middle of the remains of 
the mastodon.


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