It was many, many years ago. The woods were full of beautiful bright yellow and red flowers and the birds lacked some color. They were grey and faded between all the pretty colors of the woods. Gunter, the little greedy snake, was also pale.
Little Blackeye, a boy who lived in the woods, was the animals' best friend. He chatted to the birds daily and loved to smell the beautiful flowers. The animals loved him because of his kindness and he was always spotted walking around with a butterfly sitting on his finger.
One day as Little Blackeye was walking to the river, he found Gunter laying under a big green leave where he was crying all alone.
"What's the matter little Gunter?" Little Blackeye asked.
Gunter sobbed as he replied. "I am hungry, and I'm ugly. Nobody ever likes me!"
After listening to his story, Little Blackeye felt very sorry for Gunter. "Hush now, don't cry little snake. Look at this big round apple that I have here. You are welcome to have a piece if you'd like. It's all I have but I'll share a bite with you." Little Blackeye held the apple up but before he knew it, Gunter had swallowed the whole apple and without saying even thanking Little Blackeye, he sailed away.
One big apple wasn't enough for this little snake. Gunter was still very hungry. The apple only caused his appetite to grow so he sailed around, looking for something else to eat.
Before long, he found three fat grasshoppers sitting on some bright green leaves. That looks yummy! Gunter thought to himself and before you could count to three, he had eaten all the grasshoppers together with the green leaves too.
One big apple, three grasshoppers and a couple of leaves wasn't enough for this little snake. It only made him even more greedier.
"Hi there, butterflies!" Gunter licked his lips as he greeted a couple of beautiful butterflies flying in his direction. They didn't know what hit them. Within seconds, they were on their way to his tummy.
But one big apple, three grasshoppers, a couple of leaves and a few butterflies wasn't enough for this little snake. He wanted more and couldn't believe his luck when he found 7 ladybugs sitting under a tree.
"Well aren't you guys pretty!" Gunter said as he snatched them up in one bite. "Mmmm, that was delicious!"
But one big apple, three grasshoppers, a couple of leaves, a few butterflies and seven ladybugs wasn't enough for this little snake.
"I think it's time for a swim" Gunter decided when he saw the river right ahead. He could not believe his luck when he saw all the beautiful fishes under the water. Gulp, gulp, gulp was the only sound he could hear as he swallowed one fish after the other while swimming with his mouth open. Pink ones, blue ones and yellow ones too.
Finally, Gunter's tummy was full. There wasn't even space for a mouse, so he sailed passed the mouse and found a place to sleep between the reeds.
The next morning when Gunter woke up, he felt very thirsty. As he sailed closer to the river, he saw his reflection in the water.
"Wow!!!! Is that me?" Gunter was surprised to see that his the first half of his body was nice and colorful. He realized that the colors was showing everything he at the day before in sequence. "That's super cool!" He liked what he saw so he kept turning in circles to see his beautiful body over and over again.
Gunter became very clever! Every day, he would eat food of different colors to be the most colorful snake in the world. It wasn't long before his whole body was covered in all of the colors in the rainbow. Beautiful!
But deep in woods, the pale birds still sat on pale trees with bare branches. They were sad because Gunter stole all the colors of the woods.
"Gunter ate all of our food!" complained the sad, pale birds to Little Blackeye. "We also want to be beautiful and colorful!"
"Gunter, you should be ashamed of yourself! Since you've swallowed my whole apple, you never stopped eating. Now look what you've done. There are no more colorful animals left and the woods aren't beautiful any more. The birds are sad and hungry" Little Blackeye scolded Gunter.
Gunter was so shy at what he has done that he immediately sailed right out of his colorful skin. "I'm so sorry. That wasn't very nice of me. Please give this skin to the birds, Little Blackeye. I will never be greedy and selfish again."
The birds could not believe it. They never had anything as pretty as that skin ever before. Each one took a piece to hang over their necks and then the most amazing thing happened. Each time they did it, their feathers turned the same color as the skin they had on. All they wanted was to fly over the river to see what they looked like and they loved every second of it!
Little Blackeye thanked Gunter for his selfish deed and permitted him to choose any color he wanted to be. Gunter chose orange as it was his favorite color and they all lived happily ever after.
