The Reluctant Fox

Once a fox allowed a rabbit to outrun him.
But the rabbit, turning round, wanted to know why the fox was letting him go.
The fox, as he caught his breath, explained that all his life he had only loved the beauty of the forest and had only ever wanted to sit and soak his senses in that beauty; all the colours, sights and sounds of life.
But that whenever he had tried to lie upon his back and listen to the birds or smell the flowers he had always heard the sound of the hunters horn and the baying of his hounds and would have to run again because if the hunters ever caught him he would be cruelly torn to pieces.
"I cannot stop the hunter from pursuing me", he said, "But I can, sometimes, spare the lives of those that are my game"