On Saturn, a planet far, far away lived a large group of Reddenbops that drooled over anything red.
Their chubby cheeks and furry bellies could make anyone laugh and their Red Rock Palace was a breathtaking sight to behold. There lived the King and Queen Reddenbop with all their expensive red objects and glistening red fur. No one was redder than the King and Queen and their palace was heaven to the eyes of all the Reddenbops.
Now deep in the rock quarries, away from the cities, the mining Reddenbops worked very hard. They crushed red-rock to make red-dye, and they chopped red-rock to make buildings and roads. Any rock not red enough was discarded and thought worthless. It was as if they would not rest until all of Saturn was totally red. The truth, however terrible it may seem, was that someday all the red-rock would be totally used up. Oh, how truly dreadful it would be if the Reddenbops had to endure brown or orange or yellow or black! Not to mention the horror of blue or green! They hate blue and green and would never visit Earth for that very reason.
So the simple truth was that one day, (and it was hard to say when) the Reddenbops would run out of red. Back in the palace one glistening red-sunny day, a babe was born to the King and the Queen. Like all Reddenbop babies, the little son was born without fur.
The nurses took red-lotion and massaged his new skin so that one day he would have as red of fur as his mother and father. He would be the heir to Saturn and so they gave him the very special name of RedFire RedSoul Reddenbop. True to his name he was a little spitfire; hard to contain and hard to control.
Only a month after his birth when his fur started to grow, the palace noticed it was curiously brownish. Now this could not be and they could scarcely believe their eyes but as the months passed, the fur grew in more brownish with shades of orange. What's more is that his tail became a bright ugly yellow. Afraid and dismayed, the King and Queen ordered the strongest red-dyes to keep RedFire RedSoul as red as can be.
Time went on and it became a secret, the heir to Saturn was not a rich red but was dyed everyday to keep up the royal red look of the prestigious Red Rock Palace. Soon RedFire RedSoul became a young man and was very well-liked and known for his smarts. Everyone had forgotten his baby-brown fur and looked to him with red in their eyes, thinking he was like his parents; rich red and round.
But RedFire RedSoul was displeased with the charade and grew tired of continually being dyed and pretending to be red. Actually, he started to grow tired of red altogether. He began to question the ways of the Reddenbops and would sneek out of the Great Red City to wander through the rock quarries. There, he noticed with great interest, were more Reddenbops with brownish fur and they toiled in their work day after day. The brownish Reddenbops rarely came into the cities and seemed content enough, although they were thought of as ugly by everybody else. RedFire RedSoul began going out at night after his bath in his natural colors, brownish orange with a bright yellow tail. Only then would the brownish Reddenbops really speak with him, thinking him one of the miners and so he learned a great deal.
Many other Reddenbops dyed their fur everyday and pretended to be red. Redfire Redsoul was far from being the only red pretender and he would often listen to the miners joke about how fake it all was. "I once saw the Queen herself with a yellowish tail," one said with a laugh. "The dyer must have missed dyeing it that day!"
This made RedFire, RedSoul wonder greatly if his mother dyed herself too. He would have never believed it if it wasn't for his own yellow tail. But what made him wonder even more were the depths of the mines and the abandoned rock quarries. Where was all the red rock going? It seemed to be less and less; and my goodness, what would the Reddenbops do without their beloved red?
One night by a very red fire, RedFire RedSoul asked his brownish friends how much more red rock there was to be found.
"Oh quite a bit." they assured. "But we are digging deeper and traveling farther and farther away for it. Us Reddenbops have no worry for a while yet; we will have our red for many more years. But we thinks one day we will have to build with other color rock and our glorious red cities will be just a memory."
This weighed on RedFire Redsoul's mind for many years and he continued to watch and observe the ways of the Reddenbops. Every night he would watch his precious red go down the drain in his nightly bath. "What a waste," he thought, "If only I could be accepted for the color I am; that would save so much red-dye from going down the drain."
RedFire RedSoul worked very hard at the Red Rock Palace and gained the respect of the people. Soon his father, the King, began to tire early and left many duties for RedFire to attend to. But his mind was always heavy on how to change the red-crazed culture of the Reddenbops.
One day, deep in thought, he said to himself, "The very thing we love, we will lose if we keep living in such red-excess. We are so into red that we are now afraid of anything different and we change ourselves to red to be more well-liked by everyone else who changes themselves into red. Well, we are stuck and by my yellow tail, I think I know what I am going to do."
RedFire RedSoul put together a Red-ball at the Red Rock Palace where the Reddenbops could dance and eat and lose themselves in the joy of all things red. All were anxious to hear the speeches of the Red-ball that would be said by RedFire RedSoul, their beloved Red Prince, and his parents. He had even placed a beautiful red fountain in the center of the red court yard with flowing clear water that caught the light of all the red and reflected it perfectly. One could almost think the water was red itself.
The Red-ball was amazing and all were filled with red-joy, the most sought after feeling of all. It came time for speeches so the Queen gave hers and then the King as well. Then RedFire RedSoul began his speech which would change the Reddenbops forever.
"How many of you are actually red?" He asked to the astonishment of the red crowd. "I've been spending time in the mines and in the quarries where many brownish Reddenbops live. They are a hard working people and I like them very much." RedFire RedSoul smiled his red charming smile and the crowd glanced at one another, scarcely believing their red ears.
"Well, it has come to my attention that there is only so much red rock on Saturn, and if we are to keep using it like we are, we will surely run out. If not us, our children, if not our children, our children's children. I tell you, my heart has been heavy for sometime about our future. I love red as we all do but I think that all things don't have to be red, especially if it means wasting it day after day."
"For example,..." and RedFire Redsoul walked to the beautiful red-rock fountain and stepped into its shining red-glimmering clear water. He bathed himself in front of hundreds of shocked Reddenbops. It was like he was naked although Reddenbops aren't really naked. He stood up all wet and chubby and shook himself off. Red-dye just faintly colored the water but it was hard to tell for sure if it was just the reflections. There were gasps all around as people saw that their precious Red Prince was brownish orange with an ugly yellow tail.
"This is my commitment," RedFire, RedSoul boldly continued, "In order to save red for my children and my children's children, I will stop wasting it so excessively on myself." This caused great murmuring in the crowd.
"And what's more, " he continued, "I do not think it is right to pretend we are red when we are not. It has made us full of fear as to what we will think of each other and Red has actually had a strong control over us. Well, my fellow Reddenbops, I love my brownish friends of the mines and the quarries, and we have begun planning a more balanced future. I hope you are with me and do not shun my true colors or my funny yellow tail."
This made everybody laugh. And although they wanted to cheer because most of them were so relieved by hearing RedFire RedSoul's words, they remained quite quiet. But very slowly a few washed themselves off in the fountain and then some started saying, "I am not red either," but it was all done very shyly. Then it was like a wave of freedom washed over the Reddenbops and a tumult started jumping into the fountain washing off their pretend redness. Giggles were heard and shouts too as everyone was truly revealed in their natural color.
The speech of RedFire RedSoul and the humiliating act of washing off the red dye was a changing day for the Reddenbops and Saturn. The King said that his son did what he could not do and he also admitted that he had always secretly loved his wife's yellow tail. He then later admitted he had also been secretly pleased that RedFire RedSoul was born with one too.
By all means, Saturn became a much happier planet as it was no longer being ravaged for the sake of red. It definitely became more balanced and RedFire RedSoul continued to be a great leader. His yellow tail actually became quite famous and silly as it seems a few Reddenbops began dyeing their tails yellow just to be like him. But it never got too out of hand; it just seems that Reddenbops are sort of like that.
THE END
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