A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

“Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you.”

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. “Mice are garbage. They’re worthless. They bring gang violence and disease to the forest.” Rather than release the Mouse, the Lion paid to have her shipped to another forest where she had never lived before.

The Lion, seeing himself as King of the Jungle, began to conspire to rid the forest of Mice entirely. He spoke of them at length as threats to all animals’ kits and cubs, as criminals bringing drugs into the forest, and that these Mice are eating the cats and eating the dogs. Long tired of the stodginess of the elephant and the empty braying of the donkey, the denizens of the forest flocked to this new kind of ruler.

The forest crumbled quickly under the decisions of the Lion. Rodents who had supported the Lion were aghast that they were being targeted under this regime, believing themselves to be different because they weren’t Mice! Even the larger mammals began to question the state of things as food became more and more scarce as the Lion tore down more and more trees, arguing their necessity to the forest is a derangement induced by the woke mind-virus. Only the Snakes were happy, profiting as they were on the boiling-over disdain for Mice that they had always kept simmering.

Some time later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter’s net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. Looking around, the Lion saw several tiny figures emerge silently out from under the brush.

“You laughed when I said I would repay you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can take down a Lion.”