Misadventures in the Land of Fables #40

The latest fable was inspired by an illustration of two, well three, tortoises attributed to Hokusai. This is how I saw it:

Two tortoises come face to face. They may have been about to pass each other, but in the instant Hokusai has captured, they seem to have paused. We see the encounter from above and slightly behind. , But for one key detail, the composition is almost symmetrical: One regards the other, while the other twists its head to the side, revealing an eye that would not otherwise be visible, as if trying to catch sight of what we, from our privileged angle, can see quite plainly: a smaller tortoise perched on its back.

What is the cheeky little tortoise doing there? Did the tortoise know it had a passenger? Those are the questions, but to develop a dramatic situation, I left them unspoken, and certainly not answered, until they could no longer be resisted. And then, well… I’ll let the fable speak for itself.

You can read it here: The Tortoises.

Let me know what you think it means. (I have an answer to that.)