I just read a story about an antelope whose best friends were a woodpecker and a turtle. One day a hunter came and set a rope snare, and sure enough the antelope got snared by its back leg. Immediately, his friends sprang into action. The turtle began gnawing at the loop around the antelope's ankle, and the bird flew to the hunter's cottage to delay him from coming to kill the antelope.
The next morning, the hunter came out and immediately the bird flew into his face, flapping its wings. The hunter, thinking this was a bad omen, went inside and went back to bed. Later, he thought, "I'll go out the back door this time." The woodpecker saw him, and again flew into his face, wings flapping. The hunter ran back into his hut, thinking, this bird really doesn't want me to go! Finally, the hunter came out again and just kept walking. So the woodpecker flew very fast, back to his two friends.
The turtle had almost gnawed through the loop - but his beak had broken and he was bloody. As the hunter approached, the antelope leaped, broke the remaining rope, and bounded away. The hunter arrived to find only a beat-up turtle. He picked up the turtle and put it into his bag.
The antelope saw that the turtle had been captured and thought, I must save my friend. So he started to limp and stumble. The hunter saw him, and put the bag down on the ground and started after the antelope. The antelope led the hunter through the woods, far away from the turtle. Then he sneaked away and ran back to the turtle. He picked up the bag on the prongs of his horns and tossed it upward, flinging the turtle out.
The turtle slipped into the river, the woodpecker flew high up in a tree, and the antelope crept silently off into the woods. The hunter returned, to find only an empty bag, some blood on the ground, and a single black feather. He thought, I must hunt again and hope that next time I find prey that does not have so many friends!
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