A Random Fable?

For some reason I ended up writing flash fiction today...I already decided what this story means to me, but it's up to interpretation. I'm calling it either "The Snake Who Loved a Bird" or "Under Your Skin."

This is the snake, not the bird.

This is how the story goes. There was a snake who fell in love with a bird. But when the snake confessed his love the bird laughed and said, “I could never marry someone as ugly as you.” The snake considered these words and went home, where he spent the rest of the day laboriously shedding his own skin, exposing the soft belly underneath. The next day he returned new and shiny to present himself to the bird once more. The bird raised an eyebrow, cocked its head to one side, and remarked, “You really don’t get it, do you? You’re uglier now than before, for no matter how many times you shed your outer skin there will still be a snake underneath. And that is exactly what offends me.”

            The snake considered the bird’s statement, cocked his head to one side, and swallowed the bird in one gulp. He exclaimed, “Now I will be truly beautiful, for I have a beautiful creature inside of me!” The rest of the birds looked on in horror.

            To this day, birds and snakes are sworn enemies. Snakes live in constant fear that birds will laugh at them, and birds live in fear that they will be eaten whether they laugh or no. You may decide which punishment is worse.

picture credits
www.natgeocreative.com (google search)