by Rick Badman

Created on: April 11, 2009

THE FLYING GROTNEY AND THE RUNNING FABRINO

Once upon a time in the land of Suren there was an argument between the Flying Grotney and the Running Fabrino. For a week it had been raining and the river was rising. The two creatures knew that only if the river could be blocked somehow that the region would be flooded.

The Fabrino claimed, "I will block the river from flooding by carrying stones to create a dam to hold back the water. I will be able to hold the river back and save the region from flooding."

The Grotney came back with, "I too can block the river from flooding by carrying stones to create a dam to hold back the water."

The Fabrino laughed and asked, "How can you carry enough stones in time to create a dam while I can carry many more stones than you can?"

The Grotney said, "I may not be able to carry more stones than you can. But I can carry them to a better spot to place them than you can."

"I don't believe you will be able to finish your dam before I finish mine," said the Fabrino. "I can drag bag after bag full of stones to where I will build my dam. How many can you carry at a time?"

"One or two," the Grotney admitted.

The Fabrino laughed even harder. He told the Grotney, "I'll make you a wager. If you finish your dam before I do and can hold back the flood waters, I will harvest enough seeds and grain to feed you for the winter. But if I can finish my dam first and hold back the flood waters, you will hunt game for me enough to feed me for the winter. Do you agree to the terms of the wager?"

"Agreed."

The Fabrino found a bag a human had discarded and began filling it with stones he would drag down to the river bank to begin building his dam. The Grotney, on the other hand, flew high into the sky toward the mountains where the river began. The flight took about 15 minutes. But when the creature spotted a good place to construct his dam, he flew back to the pile of stones and grabbed a couple stones and headed back upstream toward the mountains.

The place the Grotney placed the stones was near a lake that was nearly full in the mountains which was the source of the river. But it knew that if it kept raining, the lake would overflow and cause even more flooding. So the creature flew around the lake until it spotted a place that was holding the water back from flowing out at the opposite end of the river's source. He bagan carrying rocks from there to the other side of the lake to dam up the lake and also release water from the far end. He also pecked and clawed

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