Changing Colors

Cleo thought it the perfect morning to do some sun bathing.  She climbed down her tree and found a nice sunny spot on the ground, away from the shady trees.  She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth of the sun.  What bliss!  After a while, she dozed off.

 A sixth sense woke her from her nap.  She sensed danger and opened her droopy eyes to see a hawk with talons extended, hurtling through the air towards her.  Her heart was in her mouth.  She was completely exposed, out in the open with no cover and realized that her yellow color was making her standout against the red soil.  Spotting Billy Bison grazing at the edge of the forest she sprinted towards him.  The hawk too turned in mid-air chasing after her. Cleo had never run so fast in her life.  She crawled between Billy Bison’s legs and hid there panting, “Help me, please”.

 “Don’t worry”, said Billy calmly chewing his cud.  The hawk had to break his attacking dive as Billy stood between him and his prey.  He landed next to Billy and said, “Step away”.  Billy, who was a vegetarian, stood his ground and said, “No”, firmly.  The hawk tried to reach Cleo under Billy’s legs but Billy let fly a kick in his direction saying, “This chameleon is under my protection”.  The hawk realized he couldn’t challenge Billy and gave up chasing Cleo as a lost cause.  

He took to the air, circled Billy and Cleo once saying, “I’ll be back another day” and flew away.

 Cleo heaved a sigh of relief.  She felt very grateful to Billy and thanked him for saving her life.  “I am in your debt. I owe you my life.  I hope I can repay your kindness some day”, she said and then scurried back to the safety of her home in the trees.

 Some months later, while Cleo was foraging for food amongst the branches and leaves of her tree she spied a hunter with a gun standing below.  The gun was raised to his shoulders and he was taking aim. O, no!  She saw that his target was Billy Bison.  “I must do something fast to save him”, she thought.  

 She hurried down to the lowest branches and then leapt off the tree and landed directly on the hunter’s back.  She entered his shirt through his collar.  “Ugh”, said the hunter feeling something rough crawling down his back.  He was startled and his gun went off.  

On hearing the gun shot, Billy dashed into the forest for cover, while Cleo continued to crawl down the hunter’s back into his trousers.  The hunter shuddered and wriggled and shook his leg trying to get her off him.  He appeared to be doing some grotesque dance clutching at his clothes.  Cleo quickly changed colors to red so that the hunter could barely see her running across the ground back up her tree.

He tried to shoot at her but missed.  Once she was amongst the leafy branches of the tree Cleo quickly turned green and hid in the leaves.  The hunter was straining his eyes searching for a red chameleon in the tree.  

There was no way he could spot Cleo who was green now.  Frustrated, he gave up, and went on his way, muttering about his bad luck that the bison got away.
Thus Cleo was able to repay Billy for saving her life by saving his.  They became the best of friends, always looking out for one another.