A Sage Turtle Knows Who To Prank

Left to their own devices the Elk and the Fox were certain to get into some mischief. The exact type of mischief didn’t much matter to them at all. Any type of mischief was good mischief. Pranks, hijinx, film flams, all of it, you think it, they’d do it.

One day they were both sitting outside next to a lake. Neither one had any type of planned mischief they wanted to get into but they had their ears open their noses trained, and their sight honed... really all their senses were fully firing just waiting for the right opportunity to do some mischief to appear to them.

"Let's prank the Turtle," the Elk said to the Fox.

The Fox was taken aback. The Turtle was considered by most in the forest to be the oldest and sagest of them all. Which meant he was off limits when it came to hijinx and mischief.

"You've got to be kidding me," the Fox replied, "If we prank the Turtle we'll be thrown out, excommunicated, we'll be pariahs!"

"I know," the Elk continued, "I've thought about it, and here's how we can get around that. We have to prank the Turtle so absolutely undeniably well, that even he has to say it was a good prank."

The Fox was skeptical. A prank that was so good it was undeniable to even the prankee? That seemed like a far-fetched dream. Something that could only be cooked up by the best pranksters in the world... or two pranksters that would want to be considered the best pranksters in the world...

"Hmm," the Fox replied, "Do you have something in mind?"

"Not a clue," the Elk replied, "You?"

"Me?" the Fox exclaimed, "You mean you want to prank Turtle and you don't even have an idea of what the prank should be? That's ridiculous! We're dead in the water before we even start!"

The Turtle was returning home from a long day of grocery shopping when he noticed the Fox and the Elk sitting on a bench by the pond.

"Oh boy," thought the Turtle, "There go the two mischievous ones, wonder what they got up their sleeves for today."

The Turtle made his way to the bench and put his guard up in the process. He knew the Fox and the Elk were always up to something or the other and he did not want to get caught up in one of their elaborate pranks.

Meanwhile:

"You know what, how about a little help from you?" said the Elk, incredulous, "Why do I have to come up with everything here!"

"You don't have to come up with everything but if you plan to try and prank the Turtle then you better have something pretty freakin good!" the Fox shot back.

The Turtle stopped his slow and safe approach towards the two. He was, as he suspected, today's target. Wonderful. He was one step ahead of the two pranksters. Now to find a way to reverse their potential prank back onto them.

"Here's an idea, why don't you go jump in the lake!" the Elk yelled at the Fox, "You think you're so smart well... well... you're not!"

"You're not either!" The Fox responded, admittedly, one of his weaker retorts.

The Turtle felt bad about the two friends fighting over pranking him. Despite their reputation as mischief makers the Fox and the Elk were two good-hearted kids and their mischief was never malicious. In fact, it always served to brighten the forest when the two came up with something good. A prank on the Turtle seemed like it was threatening to tear their friendship apart and that was absolutely not something the Turtle wanted on his conscience.

"Hi, Elk! Hi Fox!" The Turtle yelled to the two friends as he was walking towards them, "Nice day today isn't it!"

The Elk and the Fox whispered at each other to shut up. They both knew, now that the Turtle had seen them, pranking him was really out of the question.

"Hi, Turtle! Nice to see you!" The Fox replied.

"Yes, hi Turtle! Lovely day we're having isn't it?" The Elk added.

The Turtle nodded at the two and made his way to the lake.

"Now you two better not be thinking of any pranks to do on me! I know you boys are always up to some sort of mischief or hijinx!" Turtle began, "And then I... Whoaaaa!"

The Turtle tripped over an imaginary rock and went tumbling into the lake, his groceries were scattered all over the place. The Elk and the Fox were frightened. They rushed to help the Turtle out of the lake and pick up all the scattered groceries.

"You boys and your pranks!" The Turtle yelled, knowing!

"We didn't do anything, honest!" The Elk replied as he helped the Turtle out of the Lake.

"Really Turtle, we were going to prank you but we didn't because we knew we had to think of a really good one for a man of your stature and we just couldn't think of one!" The Fox added.

"You don't say," said the Turtle as he got out of the Lake. "Well, thanks for helping me out of the Lake, we could either keep this between us, or you're welcome to tell the whole world you pranked me and you pranked me really good. I'll even play around."

The Fox and the Elk looked at each other. This was as good as a real prank. All the glory, none of the work.

"Deal!" They both said and shook the Turtles hand.

"Deal it is," said the Turtle.

The Elk and the Fox helped the Turtle get his groceries and take them back to his house. They even offered to go to the store and pick up some of the items that became so water-logged they were unusable.

The Turtle thanked them and once again said he was fine with the two boys saying that they had pranked the Turtle all over town. This way, the Turtle never had to worry about actually being pranked by the boys and the two were able to get some of their swagger back.

Another win-win, for the sage Turtle.