The Hedgehog and the Snake

Written By: Maham Shahbaz

Out by the fire sits a lonely hedgehog. The fire crackles and shines with its bright colors.

The hedgehog sits staring into it as if it’s  a marvel, a beautiful marvel. Fire is alive, thinks the hedgehog and moves closer. In the cold winter night fire soothed her more than her traitor mind. The hedgehog thinks if she was  fire she would be so happy and loved because now everyone just walks away from her because of her ugly spines. she sat there and thought of the beautiful little snake she saw that day.

The next day she told the snake that’s she secretly watched him daily for a year now and she was helplessly in love with him. she said this with little beady eyes looking down on the ground, not at the snake. The snake was a little shocked that how could a hedgehog love a poisonous snake? Snake is a prey of hedgehog. The snake was so sure it was a trap that it slithered away into its tiny hole. The little hedgehog tried running after it but couldn't. So she waited outside the hole in the ground for the snake to come out. “how will I know that you won’t eat me?” asked the snake. On that the hedgehog realized that she was starving. So the hedgehog replied “wait here I will go eat something so that you can believe me”.

Now a toad was standing in a corner listening to all this and he saw the hedgehog coming to eat him, he tried to hop away but the hedgehog had already caught him. she returned to the snake after satisfying her belly and asked the snake to believe her now.

The snake was again shocked but he slithered out once again and looked at the hedgehog standing in front of her. “well…why do you think you love me?” asked the snake. Now the hedgehog had never thought of that and she had no answer so the snake waited and waited and an hour went away. The snake was about to leave when he heard the hedgehog scream, he saw that the litte hedgehog tore away one of her spines and was now bleeding “you can keep one of my most precious things but please don’t leave” said the hedgehog. A hedgehog’s spine can be very valuable out in the wild for a slithery snake. So the snake took that spine and stayed.

They were happy for days. They brought each other frogs insects and all those sort of things. Then one day the snake didn’t show up. So the hedgehog got really worried, she started to look for him and went to his home. “my dear, are you there? Are you alright?” asked the hedgehog, and out came the snake, “yes I just didn’t feel like meeting you”. the tiny hedgehog was heat broken she had so many things planned for the day so she did what she did before to make him stay and took out another one of her spines and gave it to the snake with a tears in her eyes. The snake stayed.

This went on for a while till the time when hedgehog had no more spines to give but just her claws so she took them off and no matter how much it hurt she just did because, well because love is blind maybe?

“I don’t have anything else that I can give to you, my love” said the hedgehog standing out the snake’s door. she just heard a rattle from in there “please come out I’ve really grown used to you. I don’t know how to manage a day without you” pleaded the little hedgehog. From inside the hole came a voice “if you don’t have anything else to bring me then I can’t see you”, the hedgehog now couldn’t hunt or walk in the forest without any fear so she curled up into a tiny little ball outside the snakes house and cried herself to sleep. In the morning when the snake got out he was surprised that such a vulnerable hedgehog would sleep outside a poisonous snake’s house.

“Are you stupid hedgehog? Any animal can kill you out here and I have no use for you so I am not going to save you” said the snake and went away. Now this snake, he was filled with vengeance, his family had died because of some hedgehogs and now that the hedgehog couldn’t protect without spines and claws he thought why not teach her a lesson?. So at night when the snake came back home and found the starving hedgehog right where he left him he slithered near her “I will kiss you goodnight and then you will leave” with this the snake bit the mushy hedgehog with his poisonous fangs and went home. 

In the morning he found the hedgehog lying there dead and blue. “it’s not my fault” , thought the snake “ she had this coming. What an idiot would trust someone who hurt from the beginning. ”