Tara

32 Justice

1	An Eagle and a Wolf did form a truce that they may live in peace.
2	The Eagle built her nest in the branches of the tallest tree,
3	While the Wolf did find an ample lair by a beautiful stream.
4	Then one day a great drought and famine came to the lands.
5	The Wolf said to Eagle: To provide for my young ones, I must travel far.
6	Whilst I am gone, I entreat you keep watch over my young ones.
7	The Eagle agreed.
8	Yet no sooner had the Wolf departed than the hungry Eagle swooped and snatched a cub.
9	Thus she and her hungry young ones were fed that day.
10	The Wolf upon return was enraged and cried out to the Eagle:
11	I grieve not least for the one unjustly slain, but all shall now die upon your treachery.
12	For your act of perfidy dooms not one generation, but many yet to come in perpetual feud.
13	Wherever the Eagle sought to hunt, the Wolf did disrupt or snatch the prey.
14	Until one day the Eagle spotted a village sacrificing a goat upon an altar.
15	She swooped down and tore some flesh and sticks with her talons,
16	Carrying them back to her nest.
17	But upon arrival, the sticks still smoldering set the nest alight,
18	And her young ones were roasted dead,
19	With the nest and their bodies falling from the tree.
20	There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Wolf and her young gobbled them up.
21	The Eagle in her woe called out:
22	What have I done?
23	By one act of desperation, I have condemned so many to Pyrrhic retribution.