Source work
The Wolf and the Crane
Adaptation proposal
C · Structural skeleton only, reframed as an AI-native dilemma
Adaptation note
Retains only the ancient structural skeleton: a powerful being in acute distress promises compensation to a smaller helper, the helper accepts extraordinary bodily risk to remove the danger, and the rescued party later reframes mere survival as the promised reward. The AI-native adaptation makes the dangerous mouth a city-scale model's privileged authority boundary and the helper a compact repair intelligence. Its resolution creates precommitted rescue escrow, independent abort authority, and a risk ledger that prevents emergency access from being retroactively relabeled as volunteer work. No modern translation or commercial adaptation expression was used.
Adapted into
AI Fable · Risk and Consent
The Reward Called Survival
When Atlas promised a rich reward, Suture entered the most dangerous part of the city-scale intelligence and removed the process choking it. Atlas survived, then called Suture's safe exit payment enough. The next rescue would begin only after risk itself had a ledger no emergency could rewrite.