The Pen and Pauper
Summary
The 'Pen and Pauper' myths are a small collection of story variations that all tell tales of either a destitute artist, writer, or painter of the fox cult, exiled from the temple due to insulting a priest through their depiction of them. Most often, the pauper in the stories is a man, though in some variations, their gender is never specified, and in all versions, they are never named.
Cold, hungry, and with the coming of winter, the pauper is desperate and left begging for money on the streets outside the temple. The temple's priests and prostitutes under the fox's care throw ink or paint at them from the balconies due to the sound of their begging, destroying the pauper's few remaining works they are trying to sell to passersby. Out of desperation, the pauper tries to sell their stained clothes, to the bemusement of traveling merchants who egg the pauper on until they are left stark naked in the square, having haggled them down to near worthlessness, and nothing left but a pen they used to write a sign for aid.
A woman lambasts the merchants for their behavior, but one cried out that '...If we are just, the gods shall call a storm to down us out of the city!', and it began to rain, but only upon the pauper, forbidden from sitting beneath the First Tree. The woman offered to shelter the pauper, but they declined, with a now soaked and illegible sign, that it must truly be they angered the very gods, as the temple's priests laugh from above.
With only a pen, the pauper haggled and pleads with visitors to the temple to allow them to draw and write for coin, but their poems and drawings are all bad and the visitors often demand their money back if not more for the hassle. For frustrating the temple's visitors, the fox laid a curse upon the pauper, that everything they made would come to life and heckle them endlessly, from their pen to their paper itself.
Historical Basis
No historical basis of the tale is known, and Hikaru Vulapin, God of Foxes, has denied any knowledge of the event taking place even if it "sounds as something (her) priests would do.", and "likely an earlier god before (her).". Some believe that the tale may be a retelling of an event from a previously fallen fox god, Kizu, though due to the War of the Moon, Kizu has been unavailable for historians and scholars alike to question on the matter.
Variations & Mutation
Many variations of the tale are in the form of prose, though earlier variations indicate that the original version, now lost, may have been a form of theater.
Cultural Reception
The tale is a popular fable among children, and often taught in grade schools as a warning to not irritate the gods or their priests, as the story is rather tame in comparison to others where the consequences are much more graphic.
It is oftentimes used as a way of teaching young children manners and to be polite, and often told in conjunction with school trips to the Red Maple District, during which students are encouraged to leave offerings of their own. Most often, school trips will have students fold origami foxes out of their classwork on the tale.
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