The Tortoise Who Wanted to Fly

A Tortoise lived at the bottom of a great mountain and was friends with an Eagle who nested at the very top. The Tortoise grew tired of his slow life on the ground and begged the Eagle to teach him to fly. "This is foolishness, Tortoise," said the Eagle. "You are made for the earth, and I am made for the sky." But the Tortoise persisted every day. Finally, the Eagle grew tired of his pleading and agreed. He gripped the Tortoise's shell in his mighty talons and flew high into the air. The Tortoise was thrilled, the world spread out beneath him like a patterned cloth. "Higher! Higher!" he shouted. As the Eagle soared among the clouds, the Tortoise became arrogant. "You see!" he yelled. "I am the king of both the sky and the earth!" The Eagle, angered by this foolish pride, simply opened his talons. The Tortoise plummeted from the sky and crashed onto the hard rocks of the mountain below, shattering his shell. A medicine man had to piece him back together, which is why the tortoise's shell is a patchwork of repaired pieces. The story is a cautionary tale against ambition that goes against one's nature.