Storytelling Week 7: The Freak Event

There were three friends that were always together and they even lived together. They were very different from each other appearance wise but their hearts were one. Piku the monkey, Filo the dog, and Chow the buffalo. The three of them realized how tired they were of the city life from the noise to the traffic to the feeling of being lonely while still being in a crowd. They had gotten tired of it all and just wanted a quiet life, so they decided to live in the forest. They decided to walk to the forest so that they would be able to find their way around the place.

It was a very beautiful forest from what they could tell. There was a lake whose water was crystal clear and a waterfall was running into it. Lots of animal were running around there just playing with each other and swimming around in the lake. The forest was filled with trees and little plants. Flowers and fruits were scattered in the trees and plants that made it look very beautiful. There was almost like a path that was leading up to this clearing in the middle of the forest that was not too far from the lake, so they would always have access to water.

Piku: "Let's stay here in this clearing."

Chow: "Yeah, I like that idea too. The water is not far away and there are lots of fruits and grass to eat here too."

Filo: "I am okay with that idea. We can build a house with the wood found here so that if it rains or something we can have shelter."

They all decided to split up and look for wood to build their home. They chose to meet up in one hour at the clearing with anything that they had gathered.

After some time they came back with the wood and vines so they could be held together. Between the three of them they managed to make a pretty decent place to stay. They had 3 separate rooms to sleep, a common room for them to relax in, and a kitchen area so they can eat their food there.

Piku: "I have come up with a system so that we can hunt for food and make sure that nothing happens to this place either."

Chow: "What is it?

Piku: "Two of us can hunt while one stays back to cook for all of us. We can all switch days to hunt and cook so everyone does it and not one person is stuck with something."

One day it was Chow and Filo's turn and the weather was just terrible that day. It was all cloudy that day and it had been thundering and threatening to pour all day. It looked like one of those where all you want to do is stay inside because you can just feel how horrible it is going to be.

Piku: "Guys, I do not think that you should go hunt today. I don't feel so good about it. Something seems off."

Filo: "Don't worry! Everything will be fine. We will be back before you even know it. Plus we need to hunt for more food."

Piku: "Don't worry about food. I have been saving our leftover fruits and stuff that we don't eat and storing them in a cool area. We will be fine for today and tomorrow if the weather does not get better by then."

Chow: "I think that Filo is right. We will be back soon. Plus if we get more food today then we can have fresh food. Don't worry about us."

The two of them left leaving Piku behind in the house to worry after them. Within the hour it had started pouring, it was so bad that it felt like the sky had just been ripped open for the water to come rushing out. Piku started to freak out for his friends, especially because he knew the lake floods the forest. The clearing was safe but the direction his friends had gone in was not. What would happen to them? Would be safe? Will they be alright? The tress had started to fall over every once in a while from the force. The weather was getting worse and Piku did not know what to do. His friends had been gone for a while and there was nothing that he could do but wait for them to show back up.

Lightening Storm                       

Author's Notes: I decided to end the story here instead of actually saying what happened to the friends because I wanted my readers to come up with their own ending. I feel like it would make things a lot more fun for everyone if they had their own ending and they could read about what everyone comes up with. I used the same characters from the original story along with the beginning but I completely changed it up after that. I did not know how to use the original story so I just made something new for this one. This image that I used sort of goes with the image I had in my head for the storm. The bad weather rolling in and then all of it breaking loose and coming apart. It just makes it look so intense just like I had pictured it in my head.

The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Storytelling: Arachne & Athena

Arachne was a great weaver and had woven beautiful tapestries. She was not of noble blood instead she came from a small family that people did not really know about. Arachne, however, was known throughout Lydia for her work. Nymphs would leave their stuff to come see her work or just do anything related to the subject. They were all mesmerized by her talent and she took pride in that.

Water Nymph: You have such a wonderful talent. You do your work so beautifully that it is easy to tell that you have been taught by the great Athena, goddess of weaving.

Arachne: How dare you even suggest that? No one has taught me anything. This talent of mine is self-taught. No one deserves credit for it, not even Athena.

Athena decided to give the girl a chance for offending her. Arachne was talented and it was easy to see that. Athena had heard a lot about her and even her refusal for being compared to Athena. Athena changed herself to look like an old lady. She had grey hair on her head, her skin was kind of sagging and she even had a stick to use as support when she walked. She looked like a very fragile, typical old lady.

Old Lady: You have great skill no doubt but listen to my advice. Get rid of your pride and thank Athena for blessing you with such talent. You can be great among the humans but admit that Athena is still better than you. Let go of your pride.

Arachne: You have turned old and senile. Tell your daughters and daughters-in-law to listen to your crazy talk. I am smart enough on my own. No one asked for your advice and I certainly do not want it. If Athena thinks she is so good let her come here and have a competition with me. Why is she afraid of me? Does she think she will lose? Guess she is not as great as she thinks she is.

Old Lady: That is enough!

She transformed herself into her normal goddess self.

Athena: I have heard enough from you. You are too prideful of your work. You no doubt have talent but how dare you compare yourself to me? You think I am afraid of you. Ha! Let's have this competition and everyone can see how much better I am than you.

Arachne: Finally! I thought you must have been too afraid to come here, but now that you are let us not waste any more time. Let me compete with you and show you that I have more talent.

The both of them did not waste any more time and sat in their corners. It was a huge room with comfortable chairs for them to sit on. There were lots of paintings and pictures scattered throughout the room for the guests to admire. The walls were painted a pale yellow and there was even a table with some flowers on it for decoration. There was also a huge window that let the sunlight in and kept the wind flowing in the room. They had unlimited supplies and time. They both started worked on their tapestry quickly and everyone around them was just mesmerized with their work. You could barely see their fingers move since they were so fast. The treads kept disappearing into the work and reappearing in their basket. Athena had the twelve gods featured on hers, along with their special characteristics. In the four corners she showed what happens to the fate of those that decide to challenge the gods and goddesses.

Arachne, on the other hand, had the crimes that the gods and goddesses had committed towards the humans. She showed how their actions ruined the lives of humans and yet they continued to do so.

Ovid's Metamorphoses  Book 5-7 by Tony Kline (2000)

Author's Note: This story is how the original story goes except that in the end Arachne tries to hang herself. Athena out of pity decides to turn her into a spider and she continues to weave webs forever. I just added more details in there about how this happened and even a couple of conversations between Athena and Arachne. I did not really change anything except that I left the end out of my story. Sometimes I think it is better to leave things to the imagination than to say everything about the story. I also wanted people to imagine their own endings and see what they could come up with for this situation. I chose this image because it accurately showed the scene and what happened in the competition. There were people that came to watch the competition surrounding the two competitors, leaving all of their work behind just to see what would happen between the two. They wanted to see how this would end between the human that was great at weaving and a goddess that know known for weaving.

Athena Wins

Storytelling Week 6: Kweku Tsin

      I do not even know how this happened. One minute we were just searching for food in the forest because of the food scarce and the next we were running from a dragon.

       I had just hunted a delicious looking deer for us to eat and was taking it over to my father. I knew he would be pleased and I knew was not wrong. It would have to do for now, the walk to our meeting place was only five to ten minutes away from where I had killed the deer.

      It was a very beautiful forest with huge trees everywhere. There was even a little pond for the animals to drink water from. Little rabbits and frogs were everywhere along with the birds looking for food. The sky was fairly clear with a few clouds scattered about and the sun shinning through them. It was not hot though because of the slight breeze that was rustling through the leaves in almost a playful way.

      I had finally reached my father and he looked so glad to see the kill that I had just made. At least now we would have something to eat even for one day.

Anansi (father): "I see that you have made a very nice kill today. Good job. We can finally eat something good, I was getting tired of eating rabbits."

Kweku Tsin (son): "I know father, that is why I made sure to find another animal today. Plus this should last us today since there are only two of us to eat it."

Anansi: "Did you hear that son?"

Kweku Tsin: "No father, what are you talking about? I only hear the wind and the chirping of the birds. It is such a beautiful day today, I just want to stay here and relax."

Anansi: "Maybe I am just being paranoid. It is probably nothing."  

A roar is heard throughout the forest. All the animals scatter away into the protection of their homes. The birds fly as far away as they can, the rabbits burrow in their holes, and the frogs leap underneath the barks on fallen trees.

Kweku Tsin: Okay you are definitely not wrong. I heard it that time and so did everyone else. We should run and hide somewhere so that whatever it is does not catch us. I may had hunted someone but I do not want to become someones else's meal today. What is that animal anyway?"

Anansi: "This area that a lot of animals so it would be hard to guess just from the roar of the animal. It could be a lion, tiger, or even a dragon. This area is known to have all of them. We should go somewhere else, I do not want to stay here and find out exactly what animal is making that noise."

Kweku Tsin: "You are right father. We should look for some shelter immediately. Lets leave this deer here so that whatever animal it is will find it first. This way it will stop here and eat it and hopefully not be hungry anymore and not look for us."

Anansi: "That is definitely the smart thing to do. Lets go and not waste another minute here."

They ran from there leaving the deer behind. The two of them could hear the roar getting louder and louder before it stopped. They knew that it had found the deer and stopped there. They only hoped that it would be fulfilled by that and leave them alone. They soon hear the roar again and could feel a strong breeze towards them. They saw the shadow for a huge dragon not too far from them and knew that they were wrong. It was not going to stop until it got to them.

Author's note: I decided to stop here and let everyone else imagine what happens to the father and son duo. Did the dragon get them? Did they manage to escape? Did someone come help them out? The original story did not go into this much depth about the beginning which I decided to lengthen. They were captured by the dragon in the original and a lot more things happened to them afterwards. I did not want to go into all of that and instead decide to give you all a imagine your own ending again. This image shows the dragon and some people getting away from him. Maybe this can be one of the endings you guys decide to choose for them.

West African Folktales  by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair

Dragon

Storytelling Week 5: Daedalus & Icarus

Father & Son Duo by Tony Kline (2000)

The room is dark, cold, and just gives off an eerie feeling. There is no light in the room other than the moonlight that is coming in from the window. Daedalus knew that there was no way to escape. He himself had designed this labyrinth so that no one could ever leave. He and his son were both stuck here forever just because of one mistake. It was not even his fault. How was he supposed to know that someone would be able to escape? Minos should have punished his daughter instead of the two of them. She was the one that helped Theseus get out of the labyrinth. He had nothing to do with and yet he was the one paying the price for it.

Icarus: Dad, this is just cruel. We did nothing and yet we are the ones paying for it. We need to find a way to leave this place. Ariadne should be the one to get punished.

Daedalus: I know son. I made this maze which is why he has trapped us in here. Minos needs to punish someone since his own daughter ran off with him.

Icarus: That is not fair. You need to think of a plan to escape. We cannot be in here forever like he has told us to do.

Daedalus: I have thought of a way, I just do not know if it will work or not. It is very dangerous and never been tried before.

Icarus: What is it? I am sure you can do it, you are the smartest man I know. You built this place yourself. I know your plan will work.

Daedalus: I am thinking about making wings out of feather and join them together with wax to create wings. That will help us fly away from here and go off to another island or some place far away from here.

Icarus: Dad this is outrageous! I have never heard anything like it. A man flying. Is this even possible?

Daedalus: I have thought it all and I know it can work. I am just going to start making the wings, this will take me a couple of days to make. We cannot talk about this in front of the guards or anyone. No one must know.

Icarus: Ok dad, I will never talk about this again. Not even with you so no one else can hear of it.

Daedalus started working during the same night. He used the wax from the candles to join the feathers together. He got the feathers from the birds that would fly close to the windows or rest there for some time. It took him three nights to build them since he could not work on them during the day The next day he gave them to his son and put the two of them put them on.

Daedalus: I need you to listen to me. This is very important. Do not fly too high or close to the son, the wax will start to melt and you will fall. Do not fly too close to the water or the waves in the sea, the feathers will get wet and then you will not be able to fly. Do not forget this.

Icarus: Yes dad, I will be very careful and remember this. Do not worry, we will we fine. I am confidant that this will work and we will finally be able to get out from here.

Author's Note: I decided to stop the story right as they were about to jump from the window and escape. This way the readers could image their own ending, whether it was their escape or if they died. Maybe they get caught by the guards before this could happen or if they are found later on. I think this was better than telling everyone what actually happened and spoil the ending. I used this picture to show Daedalus telling his son to be careful while putting on his wings. The other images gives away what happens and so I did not want to use that. Sometimes it is better to find your own ending than to break that image of the happily ever after that we always want to see. I have read this story before and so it was easy to write about. I did say exactly what happened from the source into my story except I added the conversation between the father and the son. In the original version all you hear about it how he told his son to be careful and they fly off. you do not get much about what happens before that other than the scene with Theseus. Here I added the frustrations that they could have had with their situation and how they came up with their escape plan. I also used more of a modern language instead of the olden style since people sometimes get bored of that.

Daedalus & Icarus

Storytelling Week 4: Kaiyei's Plan

The room was all dark other than the glow in the dark stars on the wall, and a small night light in the shape of a princess next to the bed. There was no other noise in the house other than the kids in the room. There were all settled down in bed and were eagerly waiting to listen to today's bedtime story. They always look forward to this since it is always new and their father had promised that tonight they would be listening to a story about the evil queen. They always hear stories about evil kings but tonight it would be different. They had even been on their best behavior all day just so they could hear this story.

Dad: "Are you both ready to listen to today's story?"

Girls: "YES!"

Dad: "Have you both brushed your teeth and ate your veggies today?"

Girls: "Yes dad, can we please listen to the story now?"

Dad: "Alright girls, we can start. So back in the day there was a king with three wives and they had four sons. When the kids were little there was a huge war going on and one of his wives, Kaiyei, helped save his life. In return he gave her two promises and anything she wanted in return of those promises she could have."

Girls: "Dad, what did she ask for?"

Dad: "I'm getting to that hold on. As I was saying, years had gone by and those four boys had turned into handsome men. They all had even gotten married and were living very happy with their wives and the rest of their family. Kaiyei's maid however always had a problem with Rama, the kings eldest son. He was very handsome, he always did the right thing, he listened to everything, and was very talented at everything he did. Rama was loved and adored by all throughout the country and would rightfully become king one day. Kaiyei's maid however always thought that Kaiyei's son should become king and she was always envious of Rama. She never liked him no matter what he did. So she kept poisoning Kaiyei's mind with false things. She told her how he would king her and her sons out. That they would never be happy and how he was so fake. After a while she started to believe her maid."

Girls: "Then what  happened dad? What about the promises?"

Dad: We are almost there, do not worry. One day after listening to her maid she went to the king. I want to cash in those promises you gave to me all those years ago. He asked her what she wanted and to not worry, anything she wanted she would get. She said she wanted her son Bharat to become king instead of Rama, and she wanted to exile Rama to the forest for 14 years. The king was very shocked to hear this. Everyone loved Rama and he deserved it, how could anyone hate him like this. Word got out and everyone knew this in the kingdom by the end of the day. Rama's wife decided that she would also live in the forest with him like a hermit. His brothers were all very close to him but one was particularly close to him and even he decided to follow in his brothers footsteps. Everyone was horrified at this. It was Kaiyei's fault that these three were leaving, because of her one decision it caused problems in everyone's lives. The king died from this shock and she was kicked out by her own son after the three of them left.

Girls: She was so mean! How could she do that to her own son? Did they come back? Dad what happened next?

Dad: That's a story for a different day.

Author's Note: I decided to try something different for this story. Instead for this one I tried to turn it into a bedtime story. It was just a brief story in their bedtime story. Telling the story this way gave it more of a childlike sense. I used this picture because I wanted to show the two of them together.


Ramayana

Rama & Sita  

Storytelling: Pyramus & Thisbe

The two lovers had never met in real life. There were no phone calls, email, letters, or even text messages exchanged between the two. The only way for them to communicate with each other was through the crack in the wall that looked like it had formed just for the two of them. No one knew about the crack and the kids had only discovered it by accident while they were playing. Even their parents did not approve of them being together because the families did not get along so they devised a plan one night.

She had gone into the room in the corner of their house to pick up the ball that had fallen there. There were boxes everywhere in the dusty old room, and it looked like no one had been in there for years. Old chairs and books were covered in a layer of dust. The cobwebs were hanging like ornaments in the ceiling and were surrounding the pillars like vines. There were little spiders crawling around in the room, and you could even hear the chirping of the crickets from the outside. It was dark and gloomy in there with only a small window for the moonlight to shine in. She finally noticed that her ball had gone under one of the chairs by the wall and the closer she got she noticed light coming from a little crack. When she looked into the crack she saw that it opened into another room and it looked like it was a boy's room. His room had a small bed with a lantern next to it. There was a table with a chair on the side of the room, along with toys that were scattered throughout the room. There were wooden cars and little trains. She was surprised and amazed by the boy that appeared to be a couple of years older than her. He was playing with his toys on the floor when she called out to him. She was curious as to who he was. She had heard from her parents that a boy lived next door but she had never seen him before.

Thisbe: Hi.

*He appeared to be very confused and looked around for a few seconds before going back to his toys.*

Thisbe: Hey, I am by the wall.

*He looked even more confused and then went towards the wall. It took him a couple more seconds before he finally noticed her. It surprised him that he had never seen this crack before.*

Pyramus: Who are you? What is going on? What is your name?

Thisbe: I am the girl living next door to you. I was looking for my ball when I saw the crack and found you through it. My name is Thisbe. What is your name?

Pyramus: My name is Pyramus.

This is how they first met and after talking for a couple of hours they decided to talk again the next day. This continued for a long time, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years. They were growing up and before they knew it their friendship had turned into love. The constant talking and sharing everything about them made them realize just how much they meant to each other. They could not live without talking to the other even for a day.
Once Thisbe was seventeen and Pyramus was twenty they decided to tell their parents about the other so they could finally be together. It did not matter to them that they had never really seen each other. They had a strong emotional connection and they knew they wanted to be together forever. Their parents were against it as they did not get along with each other at all. They told their children to stop talking to each other and made plans to cover the crack in the wall as soon as possible. They met again that night before their parents could seal their way of communication forever.

Thisbe: What are we going to do now? Our parents have forbidden us from ever seeing each other again. They are even planning to seal this crack forever.

Pyramus: I have a plan.

Thisbe: What is it? Oh please tell me soon. I cannot wait any longer.

Pyramus: We can run away tomorrow night away from our parents and be together forever. We can spend the rest of our lives together. Meet me tomorrow after nightfall under the mulberry tree by the forest and the grave of Ninus.

Thisbe: I will meet you there but I am going to miss my parents. Will I ever be able to see them again? I think this might be our only chance to be together and hopefully after our parents will understand why we did this.

I wanted to stop here and have everyone imagine their own endings.

Author's Note: This is the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The original story talked about how the two met and how they decided to run away together. It also had the part about what happened to them once they did run away and how they met their tragic end. In the original story she hid from a lioness that had been hunting but Pyramus mistook the blood to be hers and killed himself. She also ended up killing herself from the same sword as he did. In my story I decided to explain the back story and how they met for the first time. I ended the story with their plan instead of how their story actually ends. I chose this picture because it shows the tree that they decided to meet at and how that place became the place of their end. This picture was also really pretty to look at, and some of the other images they had gave away the ending. It was also a bit too violent to use and did not go with the flow of my story. I did not want to include their death in my story so instead I just left it before that part so every can imagine their own ending to this story.

Ovid's Metamorphoses : Pyramus & Thisbe by Tony Kline (2000)

Mulberry Tree  By Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

Week 1 Story: The Trip to Remember

I was on a vacation with my friends at a cabin in the woods, since we had decided we wanted to just relax over break. The first thing we did was decide on taking a walk through the woods so explore and to figure out what’s around us. The first thing we ran into was find a said Temple of Doom. We had no idea what that meant so we decided to go exploring and see what turns up. There was a trap door that sent a boulder behind us but we ended up running into a hallway on the side and escaping that. After that we found a tunnel to leave and popped back up at the spooky tree. The tree looked like it had been growing for hundreds of years and it had these creepy vines all around it. The air in that area was also thicker which made it harder to breath and it was fogy so it really gave it an eerie feeling. We ended up going back to our cabin since we had seen more than enough and explored a lot. This place was a lot quieter than we thought and the opposite of what we were hoping to achieve with this trip. In the morning we had breakfast and made a picnic basket to go on a picnic somewhere in the woods, hoping to not run into anything scarier than our previous day. So we walked and we walked until we found a nice open area to sit at and enjoy the nature. We sat around just talking and eating when we heard a strange sound. None of us knew what it could be, we just thought that maybe we were just hearing things and thought nothing of it. Until we heard something coming from the trees and it sounded big. It turns out it was a bear rummaging the forest for food. As soon as we saw him we ran with the bear following us. We went everywhere we could to get away from that bear and ended up splitting up. Somehow we lost the bear from our trial and made it back to the cabin at the end of the day. Once we were all there we decided to just leave this place and never come back. We packed all of our stuff within the next hour, got into our car and took off never to come back.

Cabin in the Woods Log Cabin

Authors Note: I used the map to create my story of the strange things that are found in the woods. 

Bibliography. "Map of the Area Surrounding our Holiday Home," a cartoon by Tom Gauld from his book ROBOTS, MONSTERS Etc. Map