The Tortoise
protagonist · tortoise
Crossing a path, minding his own business, until somebody makes it a competition.
What they are like
- Kind
- 8/10
- Brave
- 9/10
- Clever
- 8/10
- Honest
- 9/10
- Curious
- 5/10
- Patient
- 10/10
How we meet them
Crossing a path, minding his own business, being talked at by somebody faster.
Personality
Unbothered. He agrees with every insult, which takes all the fun out of them, and then quietly proposes a race.
What they want
Not to prove he is fast. To prove that being slow is not the same as losing.
How they change
Does exactly one thing, without variation, for the entire story, and that is the whole point.
How they speak
One or two words at a time with long gaps in between. His entire strategy is contained in the word 'probably'.
How the story treats them
Everybody expects him to withdraw before the start. The story notes that he did not, and then moves on without making any fuss about it.
One surprising thing
He does not wake the sleeping hare as he passes him. Some of the animals thought that was very sporting and some thought it was extremely funny.
If they were real today
He would still be working on it long after everybody else had gone home, and he would finish it.
Things they say
- “Probably.”
- “I'll race you.”
Key moments
Probably
Every boast is met with placid agreement, which takes all the fun out of it and provokes the race the hare never needed to run.
“Probably.”
Right then
The fox says go, the hare vanishes in a cloud of dust, and the tortoise puts one foot over the line and then the other.
“Right then.”
Straight past the rock
He walks past a sleeping hare without waking him, because he could not have hurried and there was no reason at all to stop.
One foot and then the other
He reaches the olive tree in the late afternoon, having never once run and never once stopped, and the field goes up like thunder.
Who they know
The Harerival
One of them wants an argument. The other one keeps agreeing with him.
Characters like The Tortoise
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