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The hyena was showing the wolf around his Trophy Room.
“That’s the CEO of a global oil conglomerate,” he said, indicating the head of a startled human male displayed on the wall.
They moved on. “Careful as you step on that rug,” he said, as the wolf nearly tripped over the flayed skin of a former leader of the western world whose lips were twisted into a snarl, wispy ginger hair barely concealing a flakey scalp.
They passed an internet trillionaire in a display cabinet, his stuffed body posed in the act of taking off some virtual reality glasses, revealing an obsessive, glassy stare.
“And of course you ate them before they were displayed?” remarked the wolf conversationally.
“Good god, no,” replied the hyena, dismissing the thought with a wave of his paw, “I have herds of ordinary humans available for meat, and of course there’d be no fun in chasing them, like shooting fish in a barrel.
” No,” he declared with a burst of gleeful laughter, “I just hunt those at the top of the food chain.”
Zenrinji 
Reblogged this on Calmgrove and commented:
A fable for our times, from sister blog Zenrinji.
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Heh, now I have the picture in my mind, of this trophy wall, and a big smile on my face 🙂
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As long as you’re not not also gibbering and slavering like the Hyena at the thought! 😁
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I would like to be that Hyena these days! I can think about so many other trophies to add to that gallery. 😏
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Me too! (Metaphorically speaking, of course…)
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I assume the PETH people are protesting outside the hyena’s residence.
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or perhaps that should be AETP?
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AETP? I can picture the poster on the hoardings: a leopard wearing the blood-splattered pelt of far-right populist dictator.
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Can’t hear from the noise of the Hyena laughing…
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I am a terrible person, because I wish some of this wasn’t a fantasy.
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It’s awful, Laurie, it really feels that most of these people are untouchable, certainly by legimate means. At least by satire and caricature we can chop them down to size, and get some satisfaction from that, and we know most of them hate it.
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You are right. That’s where you writers come in. So, thank you! Not feeling like a terrible person anymore….
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I’m still tingling with quiet delight at your unexpected phrase “you writers” — thanks so much, Laurie!
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This s a wonderful story – and so relevant to our times. It’s a kind of of cautionary tale…
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Thanks, Jane, though these days doesn’t it feel as though the time for caution has passed and that we are witnessing a social, environmental and political dystopia in the making right now!? Wish it wasn’t so…
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Our world leaders are so stupid and self seeking. It’s as if they think they live on a different planet than the one they’re destroying.
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