Page 123 - The Grotesque Children's Book

whatever that is, however you find it (for Luther, bleatifying the nannies came as
near to Purpose as anything else). But to sacrifice yourself to someone else's
gods and beliefs, ones you don't share and never could? That didn't seem right.
He was glad he'd saved the doe, but he was not glad to find himself on the pyre
on the Day of the Feast of the Glorification of Dionysus or Whoever they were all
hooting about. So, so, slowly now, without anyone looking, and without
alarming the rope, c-can I lift my hoof out of the loop?

His hoof was the problem, of course, it being larger than his ankle. His
hoof was wider than the loop of the rope. He was a captive. He was going to
burn.

Un.less. If he tipped his hoof...if, it, is...if he angled his hoof, tipping it,
slowly, would it at an angle be thinner than the loop in the rope?

It was thinner. The rope fell to the ground. Shhh...don't make a sound,
Luther! he thought, slyly standing on the rope instead of in it.

He was once more back in his control of his destiny. He could bolt, and
send their little ritual into a frenzy which would be talked about for years. Or,
he could stand there after all, and allow the fire to consume him, giving them
their meaning and taking his own place in a pantheon of Goats Who'd Gone in
Dignity.

In any scenario he could conceive, he was probably done with nannies. If
he burned, clearly he would not see nannies again. If he bolted, the humans
would probably catch him and slaughter him right away for insubordination
(they wouldn't reward him with a Return to Pasture, count on that!), or if he
succeeded in bolting and running away, he would not be able to return to the
nannies as he would need to flee the country completely. Go north to another
land. A promised land; switzer land. Without ladies, his life here had no more
meaning. They'd taken his life from him, either right now on this pyre, or if he

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