Week 13 Story, The Giving Turkey

Once upon a time, there lived two turkey kings. One king turkey named Thanks ruled over many other turkeys within his region of the community. The other turkey king named Giving ruled over the other portion of the community. The kingdom was split between these two kings. However, both kings and their turkeys lived in peace.

Unfortunately, it came to that time of year when humans would come and hunt their people. The humans usually hunted in a pack of three. There were a father and two sons. The father was the leader of the group. However, he was becoming old and could not hunt for long. Therefore, the two sons decided to build a fence around the turkey community. Once the fence was built, their father could simply walk into the bound region and hunt the turkeys at ease. This went on for a couple of weeks. Many turkeys were lost. Therefore, Giving called for a meeting with Thanks.

"Hello, Thanks! It is great to see you even though we meet under unfortunate circumstances."

"Yes, Giving! It is great to see you! What is this meeting about?"

"As you can see, it has come to that time of year when the humans hunt us. However, this year, they have built a fence around our community. This has exponentially increased the numbers of our loss. I believe we should have our turkeys take a turn, sacrificing themselves. This will make the loss equal between our communities. What do you reckon?"

"Yes, Giving. I believe this is a good idea. Let us inform our turkeys."

Therefore, the kings informed their turkeys. This went on for a long time. The turkeys would go and lie down by the fence entrance. Therefore, when the humans decided to go hunt, they could just grab a turkey and be on their way. However, one day, a mother turkey had to sacrifice herself. She had a young turkey baby and she was a single mother. Therefore, she went to her king Thanks and pleaded for her life.

"Please King Thanks, allow this turn to be placed on another turkey. I want my son to know who I am. Please, let me raise him. Once he is old enough, I will gladly give my life."

"I am sorry miss, the turn has fallen upon you. You must give your life."

The mother turkey felt helpless. She was at a lost. She decided to go talk to King Giving."

"Please King Giving, allow this turn to be placed on another turkey. I want my son to know who I am. Please, let me raise him. Once he is old enough, I will gladly give my life."

The king felt sorry for the mother turkey. Therefore, he decided to give his life in place of the mother He went to the fence entrance and waited to be taken. When the hunters came for their prey, they saw that the king turkey was waiting to be taken.

The human said, "King Giving, why are you giving your life?"

"I am giving my life for a mother who wants to raise her son."

The humans did not want to kill a king turkey. They were also touched by the love the king turkey had for his people. Therefore, they decided not to take the king nor the mother turkey. The humans could settle for ham.

The pigs next door overheard the decision of the humans and prepared for war.

Turkey: Pixabay

Author's Note: 
For this story, I used the premise of the original story called The Banyan Deer by Ellen C. Babbitt. In this story, there are two deer kings that rule over their people. There is also a human king that enjoys hunting deer. Therefore, the human king's people build a fence around the deer to make hunting for the king easier. They hunted the deer for some time. The two deer kings deer decided to have their people take turns sacrificing their life. However, there came point when a mother deer needed to give her life. She went to her king and begged for her life, but the king told her she needed to give her life. Therefore, she went to the other king and told him her story. The other deer king decided to give his life in her place. Once the humans saw that the deer king was sacrificing himself, they decided not to kill the deer king nor the mother deer. They were touched by the king's love for his deer. In my story, I changed the characters to turkeys and I gave them names Thanks and Giving. I also changed the humans to a small family who hunts the turkeys. Otherwise, the premise of the story is the same.
       

Week 11 Story: The Brave Squirrel

Once upon a time, there was a squirrel named Thomas. Now, Thomas lived in a great big squirrel kingdom called The Lost City of Acornlantus. Thomas was the only child and did not have a wealthy family. His father passed away years ago due to a rare squirrel disease. This was unexpected for his family of three. Therefore, at a young age, Thomas was forced into finding food for him and his mother named Sam. Thomas typically used a bow as his weapon to hunt. After years of using the bow to acquire food, Thomas could hit an acorn from great distances. He became the best bowman in the Lost City.

Thomas always wanted to be in the kingdoms royal army (KRA). However, Thomas was much smaller and weaker compared to all the other squirrels, especially in the kingdom's royal army. Therefore, he had an idea. He would find the strongest and biggest squirrel to help sneak him into the KRA.

Thomas walked around Acornlantus for hours, looking for a great big squirrel that could help him. Then, when Thomas was about to give up looking, he saw a great big farmer squirrel digging holes. He went up to the squirrel and said, " Hello brethren! My name is Thomas, what is yours? The farming squirrel startled, replied " My goodness! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Thomas apologetically replied, "I am so sorry sir, what is your name?" "My name is Steve. What do you want?" "I see you are digging holes, why?" "Well, I am digging holes for my work. I need to work this tedious job to make money for food." Thomas replied, "How about I make you a deal. You are a big and mighty squirrel and I am small. However, I am a great Bowman and I want to be in the KRA. If you go to King Acorn and tell him you want to help the kingdom's royal army he will surely take you in. Therefore, you can tell him that I am your page and you need my assistance. This will get me in as well. I will perform any duty that the King gives you and we can split the profits. You will never have to dig a hole again."

Steve was intrigued by the idea. He was tired of digging holes and making minimal money. Therefore, he agreed to Thomas's plan and they both went to King Acorn. As they approached the King, they were frightened that they might be caught in their trickery. "Why are you two here today?" Steve replied, "I am here to join the KRA. I am mighty and strong. I will be of great use to you King." The King examined Steve and was impressed by his physicality. "Okay, Steve you can be in the KRA. However, who is this small squirrel with you?" "He is my page named Thomas, I need him to carry around my supplies. May he also join the KRA?" The King was silent for a moment. "Okay, he may join as well. However, I have never let such a small squirrel into my army." Thomas and Steve left the presence of the King and were ecstatic.

The King gave Steve his first assignment. He was to kill a cat that was wreaking havoc on his kingdom. "Please, Steve kill this cat. The cat has murdered many squirrels in my kingdom. I will reward you greatly." Steve agreed and went to Thomas and told him the assignment that King had given him. "Alright, Steve! This task should be a breeze. I will kill the cat with my bow. Once I do, you need to take the corpse to the King and claim our reward."

Thomas found the cat. He drew back his bow, took a deep breath and released the arrow. The arrow whizzed through the air and pierced the heart of the cat. The beast died instantly. Steve then took the corpse to the King and was rewarded greatly. However, he did not split the rewards with Thomas. He kept it all for himself. Thomas was distraught. Steve also had Thomas removed from the KRA. Thomas was depressed. He went back home and did not know what to do.

Several weeks later, a cat army was knocking at the gates of Acornlantus due to the death of one of their own. King Acorn prepared his army and had Steve placed at the front line. He was to lead the army. Steve was very scared and nervous. Though Steve was big, he was a coward. He typically had Thomas perform his duties. Therefore, when it came to battling the cats, Steve ran home and left the battle.

Thomas saw that the squirrels were needing help. Therefore, he packed up his bow and helped the King's army fight off all the cats! The King recognized his great bowmanship and valor and rewarded him greatly.

The Brave Squirrel: Wikipedia 

Author's note: 
I did a spin-off from the Jataka tale called The Brave Little Bowman. In this story, a man with a crooked back wants to join the army and is a great Bowman. Therefore, he recruits the help of a big strong man to get him in. However, the strong man becomes complacent and believe he no longer requires the bowman's assistance. Then when their kingdom goes to war, the strong man runs away from battle because he is afraid. However, the bowman leads the king's army to victory and is rewarded greatly. In my story, I changed the characters to squirrels and gave each vital character a name.

Week 9 Story: The Poor Family

There once lived a poor family in a Kingdom called Oklahoma. There was the father Dan, the daughter Emmy, and son Keegan. Though they were poor, they were happy because they had each other. They knew as long as they had the family, everything would be okay. Also, in the kingdom, lived a sage. Everyone in the kingdom was afraid of the sage because he had a very unapproachable countenance. Therefore, the majority of the kingdom avoided the sage at all cost. From the years of isolation, the sage grew angry. If he ever had the chance to encounter an individual, he would put a curse on them. This furthered the isolation of the sage.

One day, the poor family was out trying to find work. They had eaten all the food they had for the week. Therefore, it was a necessity to find work for food. Unfortunately, they were not too lucky. They searched all day for work but was turned away from everybody. Depressed, they made their way home. As they were walking toward their hut, the sage spotted them out. He made his way to them to put a curse on them. However, as he approached the family, he was shocked and confused to see that the family greeted him with a warm welcome. They were not afraid of the sage. They sat and talked with him. They described their predicament to him. The sage felt empathy for the family. He saw that the family was genuinely good. After all, they were the only ones who were nice to him out of the whole kingdom.

After a long night of talking and laughing, the family and sage had to part their ways. But before they departed, the sage gave the family a mantra and told them they could summon any god of their choice. The family was confused by the gift of the sage. Once the sage was gone, the family decided to test the gift. They looked out at their crummy field and shouted the mantra. Immediately, before them, stood the god of crops. The family was stunned that the mantra worked. They were so shocked, they could not even answer the god when asked why he was summoned. Before they knew it, the god took them up in a warm embrace and disappeared. The family then saw that their field was full of crops. There was enough vegetation to quench their hunger for years. They were happy!

Crops: Pixabay 

Authors Note:

For this weeks story, I did a retelling of the video that I watched. I watched the overview video Part B The Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by EpifiedTV (India). The story that I focused on, in particular, was called Son of the Son. In this story, a girl named Kunti is given a mantra by a sage. She says the mantra while looking a the sun, and the sun god appears. She is given the most beautiful baby boy she has ever seen. However, she has to give it up because having a baby while not being married will look bad. Therefore, she sets the boy in a basket and sets him off down a river. In my story, I changed the characters, and I ended with a happy note. 

Week 7 Story: The Riddled Journey

Once upon a time, there lived three twin brothers, Floaty, Arrow, and Freedom. The three brothers were in their teenage years. They were somewhat mature for their age. However, they were still naive to the true ways of the world. From a very early age, the brothers' mother Po tried to teach them the dangers that pigs can face. She explained to them how she lost her husband, their father to a terrible wolf. This wolf was notorious around the pig community. A couple times a year, the wolf would prey on the pigs, killing them and making a delicious meal from their remains. However, he justified this act by giving the pigs an opportunity to save their life. The wolf would give the pigs a riddle to solve. They would only receive three attempts to answer the riddle correctly or they would become his meal. The name of the wolf was Riddler.

One day the three brothers were asked by their mother to go visit their grandma Ruth. They all agreed to go and prepared for their journey.

"Now remember kids, be careful out there. Be on the lookout for the Riddler. He tends to come out this time of year. Do not cut through the woods and stay on the main roads to get to grandmas."

"Yes, mother. We will stay on the path (they replied in unison)."

As they made their way out the door, Po kissed each boy and saw them off on their journey.

The three brothers traveled for 45 minutes down the path towards grandma's house. As they stopped for a break, they realized they still had 2 more hours of travel left at the rate they were traveling.

"Freedom, Arrow, we still have 2 hours of hiking left before we can reach grandma Ruth's house. This is taking forever!"

"We understand that Floaty, but mom was clear with her instructions. We do not take shortcuts."

"Y'all are just afraid. We are young and wise. If we were to encounter any danger, we would be able to reason our way out of it. We would arrive much faster if we just cut through the woods; we could cut an hour and a half off of our journey."

"No Floaty. Arrow and I agree that we will stay on the path until we reach grandmas."

The brothers packed up their things and continued on their journey. However, unfortunately, as they were making their way, Arrow fell and knocked himself out.

"Freedom, we cannot continue on the path to reach grandmas and carry our brother! We still have an hour left of travel."

"Fine Floaty, you win. We will cut through the woods, but you will carry Arrow."

The two brothers began to cut through the woods. After 15 minutes of traveling, they reached a bridge. They could see the outline of their grandma's house. They were ecstatic. However, just before they crossed, the Riddler climbed upon the bridge preventing them from passing. The very sight of the Riddler scared Freedom and Floaty so much they released a loud high pitched scream! The scream was so loud, it woke Arrow!

"If you want to pass, you must answer my riddle. I will give you three attempts each, pigs!"

After calming themselves, the three pigs concluded that they could outwit the Riddler. They each took their turn at the wolf's riddle. Arrow and Floaty were not fortunate though. They attempted the wolf's riddle and failed to answer them correctly. The Riddler devoured them on the spot. Freedom was the last to go. He was distraught from losing his brothers. However, he was determined to live.

"Okay, Riddler. What do you have for me?"

"Oh, I am positive you will not answer this right! What letter of the alphabet has the most water?"

"C."

Riddler was dumbfounded. The pig was right! Never had a situation like this happen before.

"Well, I am a wolf of my word, pig. You may pass!"

Freedom made his way across the bridge. As he crossed, he seized an opportunity to revenge his lost brothers and pushed the wolf over the bridge. The Riddler fell to his death. Freedom finally arrived at his grandmother's house. He was sad because he had lost his brothers. However, he was proud that he rid the community of the terrible Riddler.

Freedom, Arrow, and Floaty: Wikimedia 

Authors Note: 
For my story, I did a spin-off from the Riddles by The Lake by Donald A. Mackenzie. In my story, I completely changed all the characters to pigs and a wolf. They had to travel to grandma's house similar to the Red Riding Hood story. In the original story, a Yaksha, which is a celestial being, lives in a river. After a long hunt, the Pandava brethren are tired and thirsty. Therefore, they stop at this river which begins to talk to them saying "answer the question that I present to you before you take a drink from this river." However, Nakula, Sahadeva, and Arjuna overtook by thirst do not head the voice in the river. They take a drink from the water before answering any riddles and they die.
Yudhishthira, the wiser of the brethren, was able to control his temptations and listened to the voice in the river. He asked, "Who are you?" The voice in the river begins to tell him that he is a yaksha and his people died from not heading his counsel. Yudhishthira then listens to the yaksha and answers all the riddles that the yaksha had for him. At the end of all the riddles, the yaksha reveals himself in the form of Dharma, the god of wisdom and justice.

Week 5 Story: Thor Finds Abigail

Thor eventually realized that Abigail had been kidnapped and was living with a decoy for about a month! Distraught and furious, he focused his anger towards the decoy that played him. Thor interrogated the "fake Abigail" for a couple of days until finally, Loki's handmaiden told him the location of his wife. Graciously Thor released the handmaiden. Eventually, Thor mustered up a plan and made his way to the location of his wife called Lanka. As Thor approached the city, he saw that Loki was equipped with a massive army of demons. However, the mighty Thor was unafraid! Fueled with rage, he battled for three days, slaying wave after wave of demons. Hela, the general of the army was growing anxious because she was losing all her troops. Fearfully she made her way to Loki to discuss a plan.

"Loki Thor has slaughtered over 75% of our troops! We need you to help us on the battleground. Or you can just give up Abigail and we can flee?!"

"I will never give her up Hela! She is mine! I will fight Thor this very day and have his lifeless corpse by the next!"

Hela was very afraid of Thor. Therefore, she abandoned Loki and fled. 

Loki made his way to Thor with what remained of his soldiers.

"Loki where is Abigail? Bring her to me and I will leave you with your life!"

"She remains in my palace Thor! However, if you want her back you will have to go through me!"

Therefore Thor and Loki fought a mighty battle. Thor used his lightning to zap Loki. However, Loki, being the god of deception shapeshifted hundreds of himself to fool Thor. Thor was unable to identify who the true Loki was. Each time he zapped one Loki away, another appeared. This went on for some time until Thor's friend Brahma came to aid him. Brahma gave Thor his weapon the Brahmashirsha Astra to use on Loki. Thor shot Brahma's weapon into the air and as he watched, it made its way to the true Loki and pierced him through his heart. The battle finally ended. This day, Thor got back Abigail. However, unfortunately, he lost a brother. 

Thor: DeviantArt

Authors note: For this weeks story, I did a null of the stories The battle of Rama and Ravana and Ravana's Death by Donald A. Mackenzie. For my story, I changed my characters to Thor, Loki, Hela, and Abigail. However, I still kept some characteristics from the Ramayana such as Rama fighting the demons at Lanka, and using the weapon of Brahma to defeat Ravana and ultimately win back Sita. 

Week 3 Story: Abigail's Kidnapping

It was a beautiful day across the galaxy. Every person, animal, and other strange mutant creatures were excited to finally see who would wed the gorgeous Abigail. Abigail was the daughter of the oldest, fiercest, and most powerful celestial beings that have ever inhabited the galaxy (Corbus). After many years of never finding a companion of her own, Corbus let known to all that there will be a challenge for the hand of his daughter. Now, this was not a simple challenge. A worthy adversary had to be able to withstand the full blast of a neutron star in order to demonstrate his strength and resilience.

The crowd roared and cheered as they watched the hundreds of thousands of champions fail at Corbus's dwelling. It finally seemed as though no one would be able to live up to his challenge and wed his daughter. However, here arrived a prince by the name of Thor.

"I am Thor, son of Oden and Prince of Asgard! I will complete your challenged and wed your daughter!"

The mighty Corbus chuckled at Thors Confidence. However, he was somewhat intrigued by it. Therefore, he let Thor proceed with the challenge and to a great surprise, Thor withstood the full blast of the neutron star. On this very day, Thor and Abigail were wedded and would be remembered in history forever.

Unfortunately, Thor's brother (Loki) was angry because he was unable to wed the beautiful Abigail and sought to kill Thor and take her as his own. He planned with Hela (the goddess of death), which happened to be Thor's sister, on how to destroy Thor.

Loki entered Hela's dwelling in Hell and planned.

"Loki how shall we proceed?"

"I have a great plan Hela! I will turn into a golden bear and make myself seen by Abigail. She loves bears and will want Thor to capture me. As Thor leaves to capture me, you can then disguise yourself as a priest and convince Abigail to follow you. Once she is with you, use your spells to put her to sleep and bring her here."

"Loki this plan seems sounds, but what will we do with Thor? he will come looking for her?!"

"Yes this may be true, but I am the god of deception. Therefore, I will shapeshift my handmaiden into what seems to be Abigail and Thor will never know!"

"That sounds great! let us carry through with the plan."

Thor was eventually convinced by Abigail to catch the golden bear. As he left for his hunt, Hela made her way to Abigail and kidnapped her, while also leaving behind the decoy. Thor made his way back home disappointed because he had lost the golden bear. However, things did not seem right at home. To Thor, Abigail seemed a little different.

Authors Note: I did a spin-off from the stories The Chase, Ravana & Sita, and Rama Wins Sita by Donald A. Mackenzie from this week's readings. I completely changed the characters to Thor, Loki, and Hela from the Marvel comic books. I also changed the challenge in which the warriors had to complete in order to win the girl. Originally, the champions had to break a bow to win the game. However, in my story, the champions had to withstand the blast of a neutron star. I also changed the animal that was used to deceive the main character. Originally it was a golden dear, but I changed mine to a golden bear. Also, the main character in my story did not end up killing his adversary as he did in the original story. 

Picture of Thor: Pixabay 

Week 2 Story: The Mice and Cats

The most up to date version of this story is in my portfolio
https://sites.google.com/view/cclsportfolio/home

Once upon a time in a moderately sized house, there lived a mass community of mice. The mice were not the only ones who lived in the home, there also lived a family of humans. Due to what seemed like an unfortunate infestation, the humans bought two cats (Bell and Duke) to rid them of their "mice problems." Ever since this day, a great war between the cats and mice has been dwelling.

Now, the cats were very malicious and cunning. They were able to trick the mice very easily. Especially towards the end of the "Great War." From the prolonged attacks, the mice had to be very sneaky. This inevitably depleted the mice's food resources and habitable spaces. The mice were therefore stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The cats were very aware of the mice's predicament. So, they planned together.

"Bell! This is our time to strike! We must finally rid our masters of their infestation!

"Yes, I agree! However, we must proceed in an intelligent manner. The mice are currently struggling, we could potentially prey on their emotions and hardship and empathize with them in a fibbing manner?"

"Okay, and how could this be carried out?"

"Well, let us initiate a treaty and offer to take them to the home next door in our mouths! We can tell them that there is plenty of space, food, and most importantly, the humans do not mind mice!"

"That sounds perfect! Let us proceed!"

After planning their final attack, the cats made their way to the small hole in the kitchen, which was the entrance to the mice community. They called out to the head mice (General Cheese) and informed him of their peace treaty. Now General cheese had been fighting this war for a long time. Never had he known a time where cats and mice had gotten along. After the meeting, General Cheese went back to his community and divulged the proposal that the cats had made to him. He was very hesitant and believe the cats were up to no good, warning the others not to believe them. However, the rest of the community was tired, hungry and beaten down from the long war and unfortunately, they blindly believed the cats.

"We believe the cats general! we are going to leave this wretched place and find a better one for our kids!"

The general watched as his people were taken to the supposed home. Unfortunately, none of them made it, the entire community had been eaten by the cats.

After some time, the general became very lonely. He eventually believed the cats and asked them to take him to the neighboring home. The cats were joyous! Finally, they had the opportunity to kill the last mouse. As they crossed the lawn the general saw the bones of his people. He knew he had been fooled.

"Any last words vermin?"

"Just make it quick you scoundrels!"

Right then the general fell from Duke's mouth unscathed and unconscious. As he woke he saw the bodies of Duke and Bell lie lifelessly next to him. As he looked up, he saw Waldo, the neighborhood dog.

"A dog has saved me? How can this be?"

"You may be confused vermin. However, there exists a long rivalry between dogs and cats. You can say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Go General Cheese and live your life freely."

Authors notes: This story is based on the story The Cunning Crane and The Crab,  from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. In my story, I changed the characters to cats and mice. I also added a surprise character in the end that helped the mice, a dog. I also included names to the main characters which I believe did not occur in the original story.

A cat holding a mouse: Cunning Cats