A Compendium of Carrolls

D2 - Serpentine Neck

"Let's ask Kipling, he's bound to know."

Kipling sat on his usual barstool, strategically placed with his back to the wall, his arm resting on the bar, and his eyes resting on the door. Very little escaped those dark blue eyes. He inevitably wore a light suit, and a colourful cravat, set off with a pin, of which Kipling seemed to have a great many of various designs.

What he did for a living, if indeed he did anything at all, as he always seemed to be in the bar, was much mooted by his fellow drinkers. He was rumoured to have friends in high places, and this was in fact true, though which friends exactly would vary depending upon who was telling you the tale. But, in point of fact it was far more likely that it would be Kipling who was story telling, for he was renowned for it.

"What am I bound to know?" He enquired.

"How did the giraffe get such a long neck?"

"Oh that's easy," said Kipling, "It's because moving stepladders about is such a bore."

"Stepladders?"

"Giraffes love to eat the choicest leaves, which, as everyone knows, are to be found at the top of trees.

Now because these are very hard to reach, giraffes were in the habit of carrying around stepladders about the plains, so that they could climb up and reach the tender leaves. Of course they'd soon devour the leaves within reach, and have to climb down and move the ladder before continuing with their feast.

The giraffes found this extremely tedious, and were prone to stretch as far as they could before having to climb down."

"And that's how they got long necks then, stretching?"

"No no. Not in the way you think. One of the giraffes was particularly unwilling to interrupt his eating every few minutes to move his stepladders. So he would stretch as far as he could, and it was inevitable that one day he stretched too far, and overbalanced. His stepladders fell away beneath him and he would have fallen, had not his neck been caught in the fork of a branch.

He hung there for many a while before someone came along and saw him. It was a lioness, and she found he looked quite funny hanging there. She tried to pull him down, and he gasped and wheezed as his neck stretched and stretched, until suddenly he found his feet were on the ground, though his head was still in the treetops."

The questioner and his friends left, laughing as they went.

The barman slid over.

"You tell some tall stories Kipling. I expect you need a drink."

"Yes please." Said Kipling, stroking his neck, which had lengthened quite a lot as a result of his tale.

"It helps me to unwind."

A couple of drinks later and he could feel his neck relaxing, and shrinking back to its normal height.

WORD COUNT & PROMPT ▼

Word Count: 489 Words.

2. "Serpentine Neck" – We know Pinocchio's nose grows longer when he lies, but what happens when our neck elongates like Alice's when we tell a fib? Tell us a tale about such a character and how their problem is resolved. Eating mushrooms optional. (<500 words)