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| Image Source Desert scene. |
Long ago, a group of animals from the safari desert were gathered around the sand
dune.
“We have to find a way to find some water or all of the
animals could suffer.” said the camel.
“Okay, then how about we send the snake up that sand dune to
see if he can see any water holes” the fox said.
The snake took off for the large sand dune and scanned the
desert looking for a water hole. He squinted and saw what looked to be an area
of trees indicating water was near them. He reported back that he indeed saw
a water hole, but he would go individually to make sure he was correct. He
slithered over to the trees and saw a gleaming pool of water. As he got closer
to the bank, he heard a voice call out to him.
The voice demanded to the snake, “Answer my question, and
you will be able to drink from my waterhole.”
The snake was too thirsty to listen to the voice so he
ignored it and began to drink it anyway. The snake took one sip then rolled
over dead.
The sand cat wondered what was taking the snake so long, so
he sprinted over to the area abundant with trees to investigate. He saw the
water and felt his mouth begin to dry up. The voice called out to him just as
it did for the snake. The sand car ignored the voice and raced over to the
water to take a large gulp. He too passed away by the water hole.
The camel was curious if the two animals had found the
waterhole yet, so slowly but surely, he made his way over to the trees. He saw
the two animals dead by the waterhole and sorrowed over them. The voice called
out, “Answer my question and you shall drink from my waterhole! Ignore me and
pay for the consequences!”
“Who goes there? Reveal yourself or else,” the camel said
angrily. He drew his sword and scanned the pond for the voice. As he was
looking at the pond he could not resist the way it sparkled in the sunlight and went over to take a sip. He immediately fell to the ground and was killed
just as the other animals were.
The fox, being the last one standing behind the sand dune was
worried that the other animals were drinking water without him. He sneakily
sprinted over to the area with the trees and saw all of his animals fallen over
dead. Full of anger he called out “WHO DID THIS?”
The voice called out “It is me! Your friends did not listen
to me before. All they had to do was answer my question and then they could
freely drink from my water hole.”
The fox called back, “What question do you want to be
answered?”
The voice giddy that someone is finally is going to answer
his question stated, “Ahh glad you asked. My one question is….what is black and
white and red all over? You get the one answer, so think hard!”
The fox, being sneaky had always been sneaky and loved
tricking his friends with riddles. He had heard this one a handful of times so
he confidently answered with “A newspaper!”
The voice screamed with excitement. “You got it right! You
got it right! No one has ever gotten it right before. Since you are the first I
will bring back your friends for being correct.”
The animals around the water hole began to rise back to life
and they all happily drank from the mysterious waterhole.
Author's Note:
For this story, I was inspired by the "Riddles at the Lake" story in the Mahabharata. The story originally began by a group of men who were in the forest searching for water and each one failed to listen to the voice and were killed. Finally, the wise man answered all of the questions and was granted access to the pond as well as bringing back his brethren. I did the same storyline but thought it would be interesting to do this with animals. I finally had the sneaky fox be the one who could trick the voice and save them all.
Bibliography:
Author: Donald A. Mackenzie
Title: Riddles at the Lake
Link: Link to story
Hey Adrienne! This is a good story! I like how you transformed the story from the Mahabharata to have animals as the main characters instead of people. I also think that you having the setting in the desert is a good explanation for why the characters drank water without listening to the voice. The only thing I noticed that seemed off was that you said "safari desert" and I think you might mean "Sahara desert". I make typos like that all the time, and it's hard to notice it when you're the one who typed it.
ReplyDeleteHi Adrienne, I enjoyed your version of this story. I agree that the change of setting from a forest to a desert gives the characters a more credible reason for ignoring the voice! My biggest problem with the original story was that the brothers ignored an obvious god when they're so respectful other times! At one point you say "sand car" instead of "sand cat", but otherwise I thought the story did an excellent job of following the traditional style of writing. Overall it was a good and traditional retelling!
ReplyDeleteHi Adrienne!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really clever that the fox was the one to answer the riddle correctly because he is a sly fox and tricks his friends with riddles. I also like that the mysterious voice in your story is more playful than the one in the original story in the Mahabharata. The picture you used does a really good job of illustrating the setting too.
Hi Adrienne!
ReplyDeleteI really like the look of your blog. I also like that all the tabs are at the top. If I want to look for something specific, it’s all right there! Kind of wish I had used Blogspot instead.
At first, I thought your story was the one about the crane taking the fish to the other watering hole. But about halfway through, I realized it was the story about the Riddles at the Lake. (Author’s note confirmed this).
I think it was a great retelling of the story. It was simple but had enough detail that you could picture it in your head what was happening.
There is one typo that I found and I’m sure that spellcheck didn’t pick it up. The paragraph about the sand cat. The second to last sentence says, “sand car”.
Other than that, I really enjoyed your story. Great job!
Hi Adrienne!
ReplyDeleteI also chose to write a story about this tale. I thought you did a great job re-telling the story using animals. I thought it was funny that you used that riddle in the end instead of the many questions that were asked in the story. It was a great twist that added comedy and simplicity to the ending.