You bring about your own demise
There once was a fox who thought she was quite cunning. She was nearing the end of her experimental youth, and thus was in prime shape for choosing a mate. She had her sights set on a high ranking male, but after a brief tryst he decided she wasn't right for him. This fox however, had other plans. She wanted this male to herself, without regard for his own will.
The fox came up with a cunning plan. She went to the male of her desires and told him she was with pups, carrying his litter. The male was happy, for children are a blessing, but not all was well. The fox told the male that if he would not choose her as a mate, she would take the children and run away with them, so that he may never know them. Hanging this bait over the male's head, he conceded to taking her as a mate, even though his heart was not in it.
The fox was pleased, she got exactly what she wanted. Now that the male was hers, it would not be hard to turn the fictional litter she had promised into a reality. However, the days passed, and no matter what they tried, the fox did not conceive. It would have been wise for her to confess and tell the truth at this point, but lies have a way of growing that only lies can. And so, when her mate came home from hunting one day, the fox met him with tears, saying that she had lost their litter. The male was upset, but comforted his mate as best he could. They were still young, and could try again.
A year and a day passed and the couple still could not conceive. Troubled by this, the male called upon a shaman to visit his mate to see if there was something that could be done. When the shaman arrived, the fox was angry and frightened — with good reason — because a shaman would be able to see through her web of lies. She refused to let the shaman see her.
But a shaman has other ways to see the truth, and so she told the pair she would return in three days time. She would consult the spirits and get to the bottom of their fertility problems. The shaman went away into solitude, and prepared herself for the journey she would need to take to find the truth.
True to her word, the shaman returned in three days. She gathered the whole pack and told them what the fox had truly done, that she had lied to obtain a mate who did not want her. Worse yet, she had lied about the death of innocent pups. For this grievance, the spirits had stricken her barren. The fox called the shaman a charlatan and accused her of lying, but her mate understood what the shaman had said. He had committed to a union his heart did not support and so he had committed an offense unto himself and his people. But the fox's grievance was far worse. She had lied to her whole community, manipulated the will of another, and created and destroyed the hope of children in everyone's hearts.
The spirits had seen fit to punish the fox, but her punishment did not end there. Stricken by the severity of her depravity, her whole pack wordlessly turned their backs to her. No one could find the words to speak to her, and no one acknowledged her presence. It was if she didn't exist. She had become the first ghost. Not able to accept that her pack had abandoned her, she threw herself from a cliff, ending her life.
It is said that to this day, her spirit resides on that cliff top to guide other ghosts to the next world. It is also said that when she hears pups telling lies, you can hear her wailing from the cliff, because she does not want to see them become ghosts. She learned the hard way that attempting to manipulate others with deceit will only cause your own demise.
