Shade's deepest impression of people turning into animals in fairy tales was actually the story of the Frog Prince. But he knew that neither Dorothy nor Leisha liked frogs, so he did not mention it.
The story of The Blood-Red Deception was not long. In Dorothy and Leisha's understanding, it could be divided into two parts: the "animal part" and the "human part."
Although the human part only appeared during the final twist, even when extracted on its own and turned into "bandits forcing a traveler to help divide their treasure, only for the clever traveler to trick them into killing one another before leaving with the treasure," it was still quite a good story.
As for the animal part, its layers were equally rich.
All four animals believed they deserved the pinecone more than the others and abandoned humility and Unity. The owl's suggestion of "one divides, three choose" embodied Wisdom and balance.
The fox using its fur as pinecones was a sign of lost honesty. Later, the other three animals flew into a rage and plucked every hair from the fox's body, proving that playing clever little tricks came at a price.
This was a local fairy tale from this world. Though it did not carry especially profound meaning, Shade felt it was more suitable than most stories as an introductory tale for children learning about the world.
Of course, that was only if the fox had used fox fur to impersonate pinecones, rather than its Flesh.
Things had been somewhat rushed today, so Dorothy merely demonstrated her Transformation Spell before discussing the story with Shade from the perspective of literary creation.
She and Leisha intended to begin next week, guiding Shade through an in-depth study of this fairy tale—tracing its origins, analyzing its versions, until Shade turned