How the Deer Got Blunt Teeth Chapter 1

A long time ago, on a cold spring's morning, mottledmottled light was filteringfiltering through the branchesbranches of the forest's ancientancient trees, makemaking pools of sunshinesunshine on the forest floor with its mustymusty smell of rotting leaves. Deer and Rabbit had arrangedarranged to meet in the green meadow, hiddenhidden in the middle of the forest, to challengechallenge each other to a race to see which of them was the fastest.fastest.  

Beaver had generouslygenerously carvedcarved a set of beautifulbeautiful antlersantlers for a prize for the winnerwinner and Bear had chosenchosen the route through a particularlyparticularly dense part of the forest for them to race through.

Deer had long, slenderslender legs, endingending in tough black hooves that could move swiftlyswiftly through well-troddentrodden forest paths. Rabbit, however, had short, musclemuscly legs that were good for movingmoving swiftlyswiftly through thick, tangledtangled undergrowth.undergrowth.  Because Bear's route was through a thick part of the forest, Rabbit was sure he had the advantageadvantage and would win easyeasily. Deer trainedtrained hard for the race, but Rabbit chose not to. What isWhat's      more, he had unwiselyunwisely gobbledgobbled up a large breakfastbreakfast that morning so when the time came, he was feelingfeeling rather full and sleepy.sleepy. He soon became puffedpuffed and his little legs refusedrefused to carrycarry him any further. But he knew a shortcutshortcut through the forest, so he decideddecided to go that way instead.instead. When the other animals found out he had cheated,cheated, they declareddeclared Deer the winner. Rabbit was very angry and jealousjealous of Deer and his new antlers and came up with a plan to get even. 

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