Storytelling Week 5: The Foolish Traveler

There once were two friends, Ganem and Salem, who were on a long journey through fruitless mountains. They were perpetually hungry, and their supply of drinking water was almost gone. While crossing one of these large mountains, the two stumbled across an inscription written in a large boulder. The words were: Dear traveler, we have prepared a great feast in your honor. Come to us, and you shall never want for anything more. You must first complete a daring task to earn your reward. If you are brave enough, crawl through the barren valley amidst the beasts and witches, never halting. You will find on the other side a statue of a great lion. Carry our beloved statue on your shoulders to the top of the next mountain. You must never take a break or falter in your step. Once you deliver our lion to us, you will receive great rewards.
Salem, the wiser of the two friends, kept walking in the direction they were already headed. Realizing that Ganem was not following, he turned to see his friend contemplating the message. “Come, now”, said Salem. “This is surely the silly gest of a trickster. There are no rewards awaiting you.”
Ganem, however, had already made up his mind. “I am going, friend. Why would anyone want to fool us in this way? Come with me, and we are ensured happiness! We can end this tiresome journey and worry no more!”
Salem was not about to be convinced by his often foolish friend. “If you are to go, Ganem, you must go alone. I am continuing on our original journey, for I surely know that I will be able to have a good rest once I get there, and there are no ambiguities.” Ganem decided to hug his friend goodbye, and began the instructions written on the stone.
Ganem was a strong man, yet he still struggled greatly to keep hold of the lion statue through the treacherous, beast-filled valley. Upon encountering an old hag he knew must be a witch, he painfully ran as fast as he could with his burden. He came across a number of ghouls and wild animals, yet still made it to the other side of the valley. Then, he began his climb to the top of the mountain where his reward awaited him.
When Ganem reached the top of the mountain, however, he was confronted by a great dragon. He swallowed his fear and waited for what the beast had to say, because he surely must have been the one to write the inscription on the stone. The dragon was delighted to see Ganem with the lion statue. “Ah, you have brought me my little toy”, said the monster. “It has been awhile since I kicked it down the mountain and the last human brought it back to me.”
Ganem did not know what to make of the dragon’s words. “I have brought you your treasure, sir. Now, if you please, where is my reward?”
The dragon smiled wryly. “Good man, that lion is nothing to me expect the means by which I attain my next meal. If only you had had a wiser friend than you to accompany you on your journey through these mountains.” So saying, the dragon breathed fire, scorching Ganem, and then ate him for dinner.
Dragon, Harry Potter, Fire, Sky, Amusement Park, Animal
Image on: Pixabay

Author’s note: I took the inspiration for this story from The Two Travelers, one of the Bidpai fables. The beginning of the tale is very similar to what I have written here. However, the ending is very different. In the original, when Ganem reaches the top of the mountain, he reaches the gates of a city. The people of the city rush to him, praising him for being brave enough to bring them their statue. They explained that their king had died, and that they choose a new one by crowning whoever brings the statue. The fable was praising bravery, but I thought that an ending praising wise Salem was more appropriate. So, in my tale, I make Salem the one who is smart enough to see through the trick of the inscription, and punish the foolish Ganem. You can access the story here: link.

“Bidpai.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidpai.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 1, 2017 at 10:33 PM

    Hey Bridget,

    I loved your twist at the end! It is really refreshing to read a custom story without the stereotypical "happy ending, lesson learned" conclusion. I could see in your Author's Notes that after you read the story, you saw through this. Your story was well written and was not bloated by useless details. My only suggestion for you is this: keep writing these stories with endings that tend to stray from the original message. As I said, it is refreshing to see it when writers can see through the usual, happy go-lucky message and be realistic sometimes.

    Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 1, 2017 at 10:48 PM

    Hey Bridget! I loved the way you retold this story. It was very well written. I was interested in it the whole time and could not wait for more. I love stories with tricksters in them because there is a plot twist around every corner and a new challenge that awaits. They are psychological. It is interesting to see what the characters choose to do.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introductory Post

Image
Personal image, Carlie and me Personal image, Yat Fan and me        Hello! My name is Bridget Clayton and I am a French major and Music minor at the University of Oklahoma. I am currently taking my last semester completely online, as I have already finished my French courses and gone through Capstone. I’m just finishing up some upper-division credits.        I was originally a Music major because I love playing clarinet. Throughout high school, clarinet was the most important part of my life. However, I went through a lot of personal and familial issues during my first two years at OU, and I was struggling in some key music courses, like music theory. French had been my minor, but I realized that I was doing exceptionally well in my language classes, and as I did not want to teach music, I switched my major and minor. My last semester was a big success. I was taking four French courses, including Capstone, and was in one of the bands a...
Read more

Week 10 Story: What Summer Thought of Being Taken from the Sky

Image
Image on  Flickr Once upon a time when the Earth was new, there was only one season, Winter. The people of Earth, whether of the plains, the mountains, or the oceanside, lived in fear of the North Wind. As the Earth was still so young, there was still plenty of magic in it. The North Wind possessed some of this magic and was so powerful that he could shapeshift into the form of a human. The waters of the Earth were always icy, if not completely frozen over. The ground was caked with snow and thus mostly infertile. Earth’s people made thick clothes and large fires to battle the North Wind’s blows, and they questioned why they were subjected to such harsh conditions. Perhaps you know the tale of the great O-jeeg who brought down the Summer from the heavens so that Earth’s peoples could enjoy its warmth. Brought down also were Spring and Autumn. These four seasons have since shared the responsibility of watching over the Earth. The North Wind was most di...
Read more