Deer and Tiger
The mountains were splendid. But Wu Tang didn't care a whit for scenery. He and
his son spent a lot of time hunting in these mountains. Wu Tang was a dead shot
with his bow and arrow. He never missed. He was such a good shot that he barely
had to aim. He just picked a target, pulled his bow, and shot it down. No animal
was quick enough or agile enough to escape his arrows. Look, over there, a little
fawn! A little fawn must be one of the most adorable animals in nature, but Wu
Tang wasn't in the mountains to admire nature. As soon as he spotted it, he whipped
an arrow out of his quiver and zoom! The fawn fell over dead. Then Wu noticed
its mother a few feet away in the grass. He couldn't get a good shot at her from
his angle, so he waited. She was terribly sad about her little baby! She let out
a cry as she started licking her baby's wounds. Just as she was concentrating
on that, Wu pulled off a quick shot and the mother deer died on the spot.
But that wasn't enough for Wu. He thought there might be more deer in the area,
because he heard something rustling around in the grass. There was at least one
more in there, maybe two. "Three deer is better than two," he thought,
as he prepared. Then he located the source of the sound and shot at a shadow in
the grass. He was proud to hear the sound of another dead body falling to the
ground, but his pride turned to anguish when he heard a groan! Deer don't groan
like that! That was a human voice! Wu rushed over and saw that his third shot
had killed not a deer, but his own son, who had come out hunting with him!
Wu was stupefied. He seemed to hear a voice telling him, "Wu Tang! Now do
you now what it is like to see your baby shot to death with an arrow? Animals
love their young as much as you do. How much anguish have you caused animal parents!"
Wu stood there, numb, too heartbroken to pay attention to a sound that came from
the side. Then in a flash he realized that the other animal he had heard in the
grass was not a deer, but a tiger! But he was too late ...
Quoted from The Love of Life in Thus Have I Heard edited by Minh Thanh and
P.D. Leigh.
