A Fable for Today: Hippo’s Missing Time

One night, a terrified young pygmy hippopotamus dashed out of the forest and jumped deep into the swamp’s mud, trembling with fear.
Two wise elderly hippos saw this, and approach him.
“What’s the matter? What happened to you?” they asked.
“You will never believe when I tell you!” he anxiously replies.
“Don’t be afraid. Tell us.”
The youngster reluctantly starts.
“I was foraging for ferns and dicotyledons deep in the jungle, when I heard something. I thought it was a leopard and turned around, and I saw it: a light, a strange light was there, two beams of powerful lights coming from the trees straight at me! I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life! I was so scared! I tried to run away, but I couldn’t escape the beams. Suddenly I felt dizzy and fell.”
“Never heard of such a thing. What happened then?” one of the experienced hippo asked.
“I had the strangest dream. Or was it a dream? I think I saw several pale perpendicular bipedals, of those we hear stories about, you know, the tales you tell us when we’re just little calves. The lights became brighter, and I couldn’t move. Then came a strange noise, and they were all around, touching me and whispering in the night. After that, I see nothing. I know I felt pain. They pierced my skin with something sharp, like a porcupine spine. All of a sudden, the next thing I know, I am up, awake, wondering about at the same spot. I looked up at the moon, it was like half of the night was missing! And the forest was creepily quiet, as if all the creatures fled. I ran.”
“Have you by any chance eaten some of those cactus flowers?” the older hippos asked.
“I haven’t! It happened! And there is more – I think I have an implant in my butt!”
“OK, stay calm. You should rest. The lights were just a moon.”
“A moon!? With two beams?”
“Yes, a moon.”
“I’m nocturnal, remember? I know a moon when I see one.”
“Not after you eat a cactus flower. Haven’t our grandfathers told us not to eat them?”
“I didn’t! I’m a perfectly sane animal!”
“Pale perpendicular bipedals do not exist.”
“But so many of us saw them!”
“They saw something, but there’s no evidence that it’s what they saw. It’s all chimps and gorillas and a couple of bad meals. Even if pale perpendicular bipedals do exist somewhere out of these forests, how on earth do you think they have crossed the desert? Or are you suggesting they came across the ocean?” the older hippos gently smiled.
“I don’t care how! Look at my butt – there’s an implant! I feel it!”
“Kid, you’re way out of line now!” the pair of elders were getting angry.
“Please look at my butt!” There it is, I feel it! If it was YOUR BUTT, then you'd know it's not the moon, then you'd understand! Look at it!”
“Back to the mud, you wacko!”
Having said that, they moved away with repulsion.
“You stupid old pigs!” yelled the youngster. “They will find you! They will come to you! To all of us! We’re doomed!”