The Story of the Turtle and the Hare

well its storytime children....but this isn't the usual story of the turtle and the hare...you know the one where the turtle is slow, but steady...and that stupid hare is fast and cocky - in the end the turtle wins....anyway...so i go to the gym today and turns out dix took the last treadmill...i have a few choice words for him...but thats another story...so i decide to go back and run in the woods behind my apartment...

so i'm running...its a great day...all of a sudden i see a hare! its scurrying about ahead....of course it hears my thunderous footsteps and scrams into the brush...but that was kinda cool...it was brown and cuddly looking in case the women in the audience want to know...thats also the last you'll hear about the hare in this story....i know its name is in the title...but it was more of a guest appearance...

so i keep running...through fields of daisies and butterflies....i'm serious...its kinda like the discovery channel back there...anyway...on the way back...i decide to go for a run in the abandoned baseball field...as i'm running the perimeter...i see something strange...a moving rock! enough foreshadowing...turns out to be a turtle...about 10 inches long....so i prod it a bit as expected...and it goes into its shell...so as a peace offering i show it some leaves and try and make it eat...yeah...no i wouldn't want to eat either when sensing a predator about...go figure...so i decide to go for another round to see if it will scurry away...it does not...then i wonder...how the heck did this turtle get here in the first place...perhaps the hare left him there to cheat in the race..haha...no...so to ponder this...i make another round....finally i muster up the courage...i pick up the turtle and begin a perilous journey to the river nearby...my quest is to set it free...

i take care to hold it right in the middle....sensing its flight through the air now...it sticks its head out and starts snapping...kinda scary, but i forge onwards....finally we get close to the river and just as i am about to set it on a ledge...it sees the water and sticks out its legs - claws and all and starts snapping ferociously...a bit of spittin' too...this just freaks me out...in my panic i let go...and hear a thud, thud, and ker-plunk as it bounces off of two rocks into the water...i really got scared that it might have cracked its shell...but it swam away...

i hope that turtle knows i was not going to make turtle soup...i was just trying to set it free...