"You're going to eat me, aren't you?"
"Shh... I'm sleeping."
"I don't want to be eaten. I think. I breath. I love."
"You do not think."
"How so?"
"The more you talk to me, the less I sleep. The less I sleep, the more
I wake. The more I wake, the more I hunger. Think, little
morsel... and let me sleep."
(time passes)
"But you will eat me, won't you?"
"Yes. Yes I will... unless someone brings me a lamb first. Or a
pig... Oh dear."
"Oh dear?"
"You've made me hungry."
"Wait!"
"Yes, my little morsel?"
"I am a great Sultan. My power is vast. I command great armies, and
have great wealth."
"Do you have a pig I could eat in your stead?"
"Er..."
"No. You have yourself. Your advisors have betrayed you, and left you
to my tender mercies. Were I you, I would have eaten them, rather than
have trusted them... but the point is moot. You are here now... with
me."
"How can you eat me, though? I'm sentient. You'll be wiping out a
living breathing soul."
"Are you not filled with tasty meat? Has not the Lord packed your
veins with the most delicious sanguine syrup? Why would a wise and
benevolent god create such a wonderful treat if not for the purposes
of eating, my morsel?"
"Every man faces temptation."
"I know little of the temptations of man, being a tiger."
"Yes, well, every tiger faces temptation. How can we prove our
worthiness to our selves and our God without resisting these
temptations?"
"As a Sultan, you had a harem of 40 women... how often did you resist
temptation? You waged two great campaigns and secured vast land for
yourself... was this resisting temptation? Each night you had a large
feast set before you, of many succulent dishes, including sheep, I
might add... and yet you ask me to resist temptation?"
"Yes... but as a man, a mortal, facing his own demise, my own faults
stand out so clearly. Were I to live from this point on, it would be
without sin."
"I can make sure of that."
"But what of your own soul? How can you blacken it to eat me?"
"How could I blacken it to eat the sheep, or the pig?"
"Are you saying that I, a Sultan, a ruler of a nation, am as a sheep
in your eye?"
"No. The sheep would be far more appetizing. For one thing, they don't
smoke."
"But look at the works of man; philosophy, mathematics, literature,
architecture! Look at the very building that houses you!"
"My cage? What point are you attempting to make here? I would think
you would convince me to take my vengeance as well as sate my hunger
on my captor."
"I am not your captor! I am your fellow inmate!"
"And yet, ironicly, it was your own men that captured me."
"Yet I am now the only being on this planet that would fight for your
liberation. If you eat me you will have no allies."
"Other than my full belly, you mean."
"Yes."
(time passes)
"You have given me pause for thought. Let me think for a while. In the
mean time, it might be best if you employed yourself in scratching my
neck... please, come closer."
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