highfather came to me in the night

Highfather came to me in the night. "Boy!" he said. "You are to have a servant. Choose between the cunning tiger and the mighty polar bear."

"Thank you, Highfather," I said. "Which shall I choose?"

"It shall be as you will it," came his reply.

"The tiger is agile and beautiful, lion-fierce and cheetah-swift," I said. "But the polar bear is a juggernaut, a titan of the arctic. Highfather, you ask too much! I cannot choose!"

"Then you will have neither," he said, and disappeared into the night.

"So be it," I said, choking bitter tears.