The Ant and the Dove

An ant, having slipped from a riverbank into the water while searching for a drink, struggled desperately against the current, certain she would drown within moments. A dove resting in a nearby tree noticed her plight and quickly plucked a leaf, dropping it into the water right beside her. The ant climbed aboard gratefully and floated safely to shore, saved from certain death.

Some time later, the ant happened to notice a hunter creeping quietly through the underbrush, raising his bow and taking careful aim directly at the very dove who had saved her life, entirely unaware of the danger approaching from below. With no time to warn the dove by any other means, the ant rushed forward and bit the hunter sharply on the ankle.

Startled by the sudden, sharp pain, the hunter cried out and jerked his bow aside just as he released the arrow, sending it wide of its mark. The dove, alerted by the commotion, took flight immediately and escaped unharmed, never even learning how close she had come to death or who exactly had saved her this time. The ant, satisfied simply to have repaid an old debt without needing thanks or recognition for it, returned quietly to her business — proof that no act of kindness is ever too small to be repaid in kind, sometimes by the very creature you'd least expect to be capable of it.