On the banks of the Nile, in the heat of the sun lay a small displaced toothless alligator. The larger crocodiles of the river would always tease him or chase him. But here on the banks in his favorite spot in the sun, Gummy felt good.
In the distance he could hear the sounds of heavy construction. The ponies of the earth had spent years in toil to build large monuments and temples of sand and brick. Every now and again the little alligator would also hear the occasional cry of pain. Prayers made to the sun. Or even the cruel curses from the horned ponies. But that was not his problem. Gummy was an alligator and all an alligator had to worry about was when to go back in the water.
He was napping in the sun one day when he felt the heat from his favorite beam of light fade. He opened an eye and spied his comforting light had moved a little across the river. He furrowed his brow and crossed the line of water to the other side. As he crawled back up the bank to the light he gave a look to the sun that said “stop doing that.” As usual, the sun did not respond. Because it was the sun, and Gummy had never heard it speak.
He laid in the heat once more, a small placid smile on his face before the light faded again. Gummy grunted and raised his head to the sky. Maybe it was not the sun treating him like this but the clouds. Those things could be fickle to be sure. However, the clouds above did not appear to move. Just his favorite beam of light seemed to twist and travel down the Nile. As if urging him to give chase. Gummy was a simple alligator. He did not like to be interrupted from his naps. But he also did not like to nap in the cold so he followed into the water, his tail swishing back and forth behind him as he swam.
After a few hundred hooves or so his light finally seemed to stop by a bunch of reeds. Gummy gave a sigh of relief, finally having caught up with it. He waded towards the reeds but froze as another figure suddenly appeared. Gummy ducked beneath the water popping only his eyes out so he could see. Was it another crocodile come to take his sunshine? No. It was a pony by the looks of it. She wore a ragged cloth around her body with a hood pulled over her face the only thing peeking out was her gray muzzle. In one of her hooves she carried small wicker basket with a white blanket within. Beside her was another pony, this one smaller with a purple mane and ashen gray coat. Her eyes were half lidded giving off an almost thousand yard stare like Gummy tended to do.
A loud sound came from the basket. A sound Gummy had never heard before except when he went close to the palace. It was shrill and short like a cry. He peeked his head up and saw a small pink hoof wave out of the basket. The cloaked pony set her basket down and began to shush the contents. She gently began to rock the basket back and forth on the shore and sang a soft melody. The pony beside her did not watch but instead kept her eyes peeled to the shore. She seemed to be keeping an eye out for something, but Gummy wasn’t sure what.
Gummy went back to waiting for the ponies to leave so he could return to his nap in the sun. His favorite beam had now hit the river in front of these ponies making the water shimmer in with light. The older pony finished her song as a single drop of something fell from her cloak. Gummy could not see the pony’s face so he was not sure what it was. She bent down and placed her face close to the pink thing in the basket before pulling back and pushing the basket off into the tide.
Gummy looked on in slight curiosity. It was an odd thing for a pony to do. The flow of the Nile would drag that basket far beyond her reach, so why would she do it. He gazed back at the ponies on the shore to see cloaked one hold out a hoof toward the river while keeping another clutched to her chest as if she were in pain. The smaller one was now keeping her eyes on the basket. Gummy took a look toward the basket and noticed that his sunbeam was beginning to follow it as well. He gave a short sigh and swam toward it.
He followed the basket for a few hundred meters until the waves pushed it toward the shore. To his relief the sunbeam stopped on the shore as well. Gummy crawled up onto the rocks of the shore and nestled up against the basket, finally able to return to his nap.
Just as he closed his eyes the same sound as before cried out from the basket. Gummy lazily opened one eye and looked up at the woven brim. The crying continued until he was finally annoyed enough to get up and crawl up onto the basket. He put his front legs onto the brim and looked inside. At first all he could see were blankets, until a small pink hoof slipped from between them and moved the sheets aside to reveal small pink foal with a curly poofy mane. She was crying for something though Gummy did not know what. He gazed down at the foal in confusion, not knowing how to calm it down or get it to stop crying. Finally he did the only trick he could think of doing. Gummy stuck his tongue out and slapped it against his eye, still staring at the foal.
The foal stopped crying for a moment as she looked up at the alligator. A large smile graced her face and she began to giggle. Gummy was surprised to see that like him she did not have any teeth either. The baby waved its hooves playfully toward him as it laughed. Gummy held out his leg to the foal as well but her hoof merely brushed past him and smacked him in the eye. Gummy didn’t mind however. In fact, he took it as a term of endearment. The foal giggled all the harder at his lack of reaction.
Gummy continued to play with the foal back and forth for a good while until he felt his sunbeam move once more. He looked around to see that the beam had moved slightly further downstream. The baby alligator pushed off of the basket and began to wade back into the water. But he stopped as the sound of the infant’s crying returned. He looked back to see her flailing her hooves out as if crying for something, perhaps him?
“Over there!” he heard a loud voice yell from the land. He glanced past the shore to see a large group of ponies in pure white sheets holding sickles and whips prowl the shore. “I think I heard something!”
Right now the baby and he were protected from sight by the reeds but in a matter of moments those tough looking ponies would be upon them. Gummy looked back at the foal who continued to cry before making a snap decision. He grabbed a loose weave from the basket and wrapped it around his mouth. With all his strength Gummy pulled the basket back into the water and began to swim towards his sunbeam once more. Thankfully he didn’t need to do much work as the flow pushed him and the foal along at a steady pace. After a few moments Gummy looked back to see the armed ponies searching the area they had previously been. He let out a sigh of relief and continued to follow the beam of light downstream.
The baby’s cries soon died out as Gummy was pretty sure she had fallen asleep. He still towed the basket down the river late into the afternoon as his sunbeam continued to move along the shore, constantly eluding his grasp.
After a while Gummy became aware of a pair of eyes following him. He glanced toward the shore and saw the same shorter mare from before, the one with the gray coat and thousand yard stare. She followed them from the reeds keeping a close eye on the basket and its contents. She didn’t seem to notice Gummy though as he was mostly submerged in the water.
Gummy was paying attention to the mare as he saw her start at something ahead of them. He glanced back to the river and saw the reason for her surprise. A group of crocodiles had convened along the bend in the river, their eyes and long snouts poking out of the water. Subtly and slowly Gummy ducked a little deeper beneath the water and moved the basket a little bit further away. For a moment it seemed like none of the crocodiles would notice, until his passenger began to make noise again.
The foal in the basket began to cry once more which alerted the attention of the crocs. They turned toward the floating basket with narrowed eyes and began to swim toward it. Gummy gulped and began to swim as fast as he could.
The crocodiles seemed confused at the new speed of their quarry but that didn’t stop them from following and catching up. Gummy’s small stubby tail no match for their long powerful ones. Gummy swam as hard and fast as he could until he heard a snap behind him and the weave slackened. He dropped the cord in his mouth and looked back to see the basket begin to drift lazily, the crocodiles coming ever closer.
Gummy had to make a snap decision once more, but all that rang through his brain was the cry of the baby. He gulped and swam in front of the basket placing himself between the crocs and the foal. He poked his head out of the water and let out a hiss to the larger lizards.
The crocs merely hissed back in return, some even getting a chuckle out of the little alligator’s brave attempt. One at the head snapped its jaws at Gummy and he dodged before swatting its snout with his tail. The croc reared back in anger and glared at him, the rest beginning to circle around him. Gummy could feel the pressure of their gaze and he began to shake. Then another croc lunged at him with open jaws. Gummy shut his eyes tight expecting to feel the pain of hundreds of sharp teeth, but nothing came. He opened his eyes to see most of the crocs swimming away. The one that had tried to bite him was now getting prodded in the head by a long oar.
“Shoo! Get out!” He looked up to the source of the oar and saw a pony standing atop a boat. He glared down at the crocodile while it hissed at him before prodding it once more with his oar. The croc finally relented swimming away and sending a glare back at Gummy. Whatever this pony was doing he wanted to thank them.
But Gummy’s relief was short lived as he quickly realized that he lost track of the basket. He glanced around frantically before noticing a large mass of fish rising out of the water by the boat. They were wrapped in a net that was being raised by some ponies aboard. As he looked up at it he spied the basket atop the mass of fish.
Gummy’s eyes widened and he jumped up at the net catching hold of the knotted rope at the bottom. He swung back and forth with the rhythm of the ship as he could feel the knot slowly becoming loose in his mouth. Suddenly it slipped and he fell to the river with a splash. He quickly got back out only to be slammed by the large mass of fish. The net had completely come undone and all of the catch had slipped free falling on top of him.
Gummy shook his head under water as the fish fled the scene. He swam back to the surface and glanced around, nervously looking for the basket. Luckily enough he saw it floating just a few hooves downstream. With another sigh of relief he swam toward it.
The baby was still crying and Gummy did not know what to do. The river still swept the two along as they headed toward the largest and most lush bank of the Nile where the palace was. Gummy looked ahead to see his sunbeam still moving, seemingly heading toward the bank. The foal’s cry became louder and the little alligator tried to think of something. He climbed up on the side, he was small and light so the basket did not sway too hard, and gazed down at the infant once more.
The pink foal stopped crying as it saw him, another toothless smile crossing her face. Gummy tilted his head back and forth in an attempt to make the baby laugh again and it seemed to do the trick. Until the foal stuck her hoof in his eye again. She giggled happily at his lack of reaction once more and even Gummy felt something warm inside him make him want to laugh. Instead he just let out a friendly hiss and showed off his own toothless mouth. The baby giggled again waved her hooves in the air.
At that moment Gummy felt something soft brush against his back. He looked up to see that he and the basket had just passed through the thin curtains that he saw by the palace banks. He never dared to go through them before as he heard that crocodiles would be caught or killed if they did. He glanced around to see a beautiful white marble deck jutting out of the palace and into the bank. Ponies with gold and jewels draped around their necks and horns bathed and worked in the bank washing clothes. At the head of the bank sat a mare of exquisite beauty, or at least what Gummy surmised to be beautiful for ponies. She too was decked in treasures but for some reason most of the ponies around her seemed to defer to her. A small foal with a white coat and brilliantly violet mane bathed in the banks beside her happily.
Gummy was so taken with the mare that he almost didn’t hide in time. He ducked off of the basket and plunged into the water sticking his head out only enough to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly the foal in the basket began to cry once more as he left getting the attention of all the ponies there. The beautiful mare stood up with a shocked expression as she waded past her foal and into the water. Gummy watched as she glanced down into the basket. He could not see the foal’s reaction but her crying seemed to stop. She reached out a pink hoof towards the mare who’s face seemed to melt into an expression of joy and love. She reached a hoof into the basket and pulled the foal out earning her a small laugh from the baby. The beautiful mare laughed as well and brought the baby to the shore. Her own foal by the bank looked up at her as she passed, her arms raised as she wanted to be held too. The mother did not do so though as a servant picked up the other foal and they all entered the palace.
Gummy sat in the water silently for a good long moment, unsure of what to do next. He heard some mumbles from the nearby reeds and looked back to see the short gray mare from before kneeling in the tall grass. Gummy swam a little closer and saw that she had her eyes closed as she muttered some words he’d never heard before. Then as she opened them again she muttered something he did understand. “Deliver us.” Then with a turn the mare was gone again.
Gummy waded into the grass where the mare had been. It did not take him long to see a small flat rock set above the reeds and to his delight a familiar sight awaited him there. He climbed the rock and laid in his favorite sunbeam. As the warm light flooded him he began to drift off once more but just before he could he looked up to see the beautiful mare and the foal exit onto a balcony in the palace. From his rock he could see them perfectly and even hear the laughter of the pink foal. The sunbeam seemed to brighten or something within him changed because Gummy had never felt so warm. He liked this spot. Perhaps he would stay for a while. At least until he could meet that foal once more. He closed his eyes and with a smile began to dream. A dream warmth. A dream of happiness. A dream of hope.
Author's Note
Happy Easter everybody! And that goes for anyone out there who doesn't celebrate it either. Like Christmas, this is a time to honor people. Honor the little people in your life. The ones that make the smallest of sacrifices. Because every good deed adds up in the long run!
