On the lush banks of the Great River, just at the edge of a tropical forest, once lived a clever crocodile named Olive and a sly fox named Basil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olive was immensely proud of his tough, armoured scales and mighty jaws, but he hated missing a meal. Basil, on the other hand, was quick-witted and light on his feet, always finding ways to outsmart the river dwellers when he was hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One afternoon, Basil stood on a high riverbank, gazing longingly at a grove of ripe, juicy fig trees on the opposite side of the water. The current was far too swift for a fox to swim, and he knew Olive lurked beneath the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fox called out to the river, \u2018Oh, Olive! Mighty ruler of the waters! I come bearing a dilemma that only a creature of your vast wisdom can solve.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crocodile surfaced, his yellow eyes gleaming with pride. \u2018What is it, little fox? Speak quickly, for my appetite grows short.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The forest animals were debating today,\u2019 Basil said, pretending to look troubled. \u2018They claimed that the forest holds far more creatures than the river. I argued that the river is home to a vast army under your command, but they laughed at me. Is it true that you rule over only a handful of river beasts?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olive\u2019s tail whipped the water in anger. \u2018A handful? Nonsense! I command an army of thousands!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I wish I could believe you,\u2019 Basil sighed, shaking his head. \u2018But unless I see them with my own eyes, I shall have to endure their mockery.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I will prove it to you,\u2019 bellowed the proud crocodile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olive roared into the depths, summoning every crocodile, alligator, and water lizard in the river. Within minutes, hundreds of scaled backs emerged, snapping and crowding together until they formed a solid bridge spanning from one bank to the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Look upon my legion!\u2019 Olive boasted. \u2018Count them yourself if you doubt me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I shall count them, great Olive,\u2019 Basil replied gracefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a nimble leap, Basil landed on Olive\u2019s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018One,\u2019 he counted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He jumped to the next crocodile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Two.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the next, and the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Three, four, five,\u2019 pattering swiftly across the living bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before Olive realised what was happening, Basil bounded onto the opposite riverbank, entirely unharmed and well out of reach. He trotted over to the fig trees, plucked a sweet, ripe fruit and turned back to face the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Five hundred and two,\u2019 Basil called out with a bow. \u2018A truly magnificent army, Olive! Thank you for the bridge.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crocodile realised he had been tricked, but his army was already dispersing back into the muddy waters, leaving him alone and embarrassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moral<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Vanity makes the strong easy prey for the clever.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the lush banks of the Great River, just at the edge of a tropical forest, once lived a clever crocodile named Olive and a sly fox named Basil. Olive was immensely proud of his tough, armoured scales and mighty jaws, but he hated missing a meal. Basil, on the other hand, was quick-witted and light on his feet, always finding ways to outsmart the river dwellers when he was hungry. One afternoon, Basil stood on a high riverbank, gazing longingly at a grove of ripe, juicy fig trees on the opposite side of the water. The current was far<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"{\"authors\":[579],\"author_categories\":{\"579\":\"1\"},\"fallback_author_user\":\"2\",\"ppma_author_box_select\":\"\",\"selected_authors\":[{\"id\":579,\"display_name\":\"Dan Costinas\",\"is_guest\":0,\"category_id\":\"1\"}]}"},"categories":[64,188,46,13],"tags":[620,189,312],"ppma_author":[579],"class_list":["post-4646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experimental-prose","category-fable","category-fiction","category-trails","tag-crocodile","tag-fable","tag-fox"],"aioseo_notices":[],"authors":[{"term_id":579,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dan-costinas","display_name":"Dan Costinas","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dc.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dc.jpg"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Dan","last_name":"Costinas","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4648,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions\/4648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}