The Lesson
Long ago in the country of Norway, there lived a hunter named Arve. He lived with his wife and three children in the snowier regions of the country. Hunting was the only way they could survive, and Arve performed his duties diligently. Every day they feasted on the meat of squirrels, foxes, bears, and everything else that their patriarch managed to capture. This was how their life went for many years. Then, one day, Arve came across a family of wolves in the forest, two mates, and their three adolescent children. Before the wolves knew it, Arve had shot the female in the head, splattering her brains all over the forest floor. He shot the three children in quick succession. The father wolf managed to run away before Arve could finish him off. Arve began to drag the four corpses back to the house, but then he looked up and saw the wolf staring at him from afar. The wolf stared at him for one minute before walking way with its tail tucked between its legs. When Arve finally arrived home, he opened the door and walked in. What he saw next horrified him. His wife and three children lay in front of him in a pile with blood and stab wounds covering their bodies. Standing above them was a man with a devilish grin on his face holding a bloody hunting knife. The madman rushed at Arve, but he was quickly killed with a single shot between the eyes. Arve fell to his knees and repetitively looked back and forth between the four dead wolves and the four dead members of his family. He finally realized what he had done. Then, he began to laugh maniacally, his laughter reverberating through the snow-covered forest.