The Loss of Friends

The longest and most famous book. A merchant's abandoned bull, Lively, grows strong by a river and terrifies the lion king Rusty with his bellowing. Two jackal courtiers, Victor and Cheek, watch the lion and the bull become inseparable friends — until the ambitious Victor, resenting his lost influence, sets out to poison that friendship with whispers. His slander works, and the friendship is torn apart, and the book anatomizes exactly how a schemer breaks apart those who should stand together.