Animal Dilemmas – Chameleon Lemur
Short Story
The Lemur left relived and uplifted. It put the shell back on its neck and started leaping from tree to tree. It forgot about its troop and dying. It thought that even the worst disasters are fixable. It that enlightened mood it traveled north on the eastern coast of the island. It’s light mind gave its muscles a boost and traveling was easy. It didn’t worry about food and food came easy. Fish jumped out of the water on its path, the beaches were rife with crabs and the Lemur had a wonderful time catching them.
There was no ring-tailed lemurs in the north and that made the Lemur happy. It was at peace detached from its kind. It met other types of lemurs and chameleons. One early morning as it was sunbathing swinging from a branch against the rising sun reflecting on the surface of the ocean a large panther Chameleon walked up on its branch.
‘What are you doing so far from home,’ asked the Chameleon?
‘I don’t have a home any more.’
‘Don’t you ring-tails live in troops and cuddle at night?’
‘We do,’ said the Lemur.
‘But there is no ring-tails here on the north end.’
‘I hope so.’
‘So you don’t like you kind?’
‘I have nothing against them but we don’t get along any more.’
‘I see.’
‘Do you get along with your kind?’
‘No. We chameleons like to live alone, we are not all cuddles.’
‘Why not?’
‘It is our nature.’
‘So even when you were younger you didn’t live in a troop.’
‘No.’
‘Why are you turning orange?’
‘I am enjoying the sun.’
‘So what is your normal color, blue?’
‘No it is green with red and orange. I hate blue.’
‘Why do you hate it.’
‘My cousins from further up north are blue and we don’t get along.’
‘Why not, are you so different?’
‘We only differ by color but every time I meet one of them, they bloat up and turn an dark evil shade of blue.’
‘And what do you do?’
‘I bloat up and turn a dark green and red.’
‘Do you fight after you change color?’
‘Rarely.’
‘Who gets aggressive first?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you try to talk to them?’
‘No that is impossible!’
‘Why?’
‘Because they are blue.’
‘You mean because they are not green?’
‘Yes.’
‘I am not green either and you talk to me.’
‘You are a ring-tail.’
‘So you talk to lemurs but not to your cousins.’
‘I like to talk to strangers, it is the best way to vent your mind.’
‘Why strangers and not your cousins?’
‘Because strangers don’t judge.’
‘Hm, and what do you have to vent about anyway. You are carefree chameleon, free living on its whims.’
‘Nobody is free.’
‘I am free.’
‘We all think we are free at times when we are content but that feeling never lasts. You are used to a troop you will soon start missing it.’
‘Don’t spoil my happy episode. Tell me about your troubles, let’s vent you.’
‘It’s nothing unnatural. You know female chameleons die younger than males because the toll the changes in their bodies take. Usually after five to eight clutches. And most chameleons find a random mate in the mating season. But me and lovely orange female had been together for five clutches and she died after laying fifty eggs.’
‘You need venting because a female died?’
‘Yes, we were close.’
‘You are on a path of evolution, developing feelings. Soon you will start walking standing up and warp your crickets in banana leave before you eat them.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘That there is plenty of females out there at will subdue to you as soon as you turn purple.’
‘I cannot turn purple.’
‘I thought you can turn any color!’
‘Not any color, I have a range. In my case green, red, orange and derivatives.’
‘You are brownish now.’
‘I am enjoying the sun.’
next chapter: Animal Dilemmas – Dragonfish Chameleon
previous chapter: Animal Dilemmas – Lemur Oyster
all chapters: Animal Dilemmas
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photograph by jurra8
