Week 13 Storytelling: The Nut Factory

You can now find the new version of this story at my portfolio, just click on the link


Once upon a time there was a family of squirrels that lived in a large oak tree. Everyday the father squirrel would go to the nut factory a couple of trees down. The nut factory employed all the squirrels that lived on the east side of the forest. The squirrels would work during the summer and fall months to collect as many nuts as possible. At the end of the day the squirrels would load up there nuts into the nut factory. Then when winter came the nut factory would distribute the nuts to all of the squirrel families. This way of working as a community ensured that no squirrel would starve during the time of no nuts.

The father squirrel had a son, who had the most beautiful fur coat that camouflaged him perfectly.

The father squirrel said to himself, “ I will take my son to work with me so that he can learn how to collect nuts in a safe and efficient manner, for I’m no longer young and strong.”

The son joined his father at work and watched and learned. However, the son had a special talent. Because of his beautiful fur coat he was able to collect nuts that would normally be too dangerous to recover because his coat camouflaged him. With this special skill the son excelled at the nut factory.

The father squirrel would say to his son, “When you work hard you will get rewarded.”

The son squirrel replied, “What will be my reward?”

The father smiled and said, “you will understand the value of working hard, as well as all the nuts you could ever eat.”

After a couple of weeks the son became very good at his job, and he soon took over his father’s position at the nut factory. The son squirrel happily did his job season to season. And as time went on he finally realized the value of working hard, and he realized he wasn’t working hard for just himself
but he was working hard for his family and to better the squirrel community.

Squirrel collecting nuts.

Authors Note:

I kept the same theme as the original story. I also stayed close to the story line of the original story with just some minor changes. Instead of having human and animal characters in my story I only had animal characters. Further, instead of having elephants as my characters I used squirrels. Also in the original story the elephant and his son helped the humans collect lumber and in exchange they would feed the elephants. However in my story I had my characters work at a squirrel factor were they collected nuts instead of lumber and the nuts where there food.



Bibliography: The Kings White Elephant from: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Link to Reading.

Week 3 Story: Jungle Love

This story can be found at my Portfolio. Here is a link to the story: Jungle Love.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful kingdom in the remote jungle of India. This kingdom was surrounded by all types of vegetation from huge canopies composed of the different trees of the jungle to waterfalls that emptied into enchanted pools of water. These watering holes were visited by so much life, such as the elephants who would come to cool off during the hot summer days and the macaque monkeys who indulged in a refreshing drink after a full morning of swinging around the jungle. The watering hole was not just loved by the animals of the jungle, but also by the princess of the kingdom, Princess Sita.

Princess Sita was unmistakably beautiful, kind and strong willed. She was always so curious about the world and what all was in it. She dreamed of embarking out on her own to explore all the wonders of the world. This worried her father, King Dasharatha, for he knew of the dangers and evil that lurks in the darkness of the world. King Dasharatha thought that if Sita would become married she would calm down and put all of her childish wants to bed and stay within the kingdom. Princess Sita on the other hand had no interest in settling down to start a family; she was just getting started exploring the far ends of the kingdom.

One day Princess Sita went to her favorite watering hole in the jungle where she swam and played with the baby elephant and various other little critters of the jungle. When suddenly she saw a boy at the other end of the pool. He was just staring at her as if he was in shock and had never seen another person before.

Sita playful said, “Its not polite to just stare without introducing yourself first.”

The boy quickly became aware of his surroundings and said, “My name is Rama and I live here in the jungle, which is no place for a princess.”

Princess Sita became angry and shouted, “Well since I am the princess of the kingdom you know that I own this jungle and I can go anywhere I please!”

Rama smiled and said, “I did not mean to offend you, princess Sita, I was just surprised to see someone royal outside of the palace walls let alone swimming in a waterhole in the jungle. How about we start this again. Hi my name is Rama, whats yours?”

“My name is Sita,” the princess said while trying not to smile.

Rama responded “Well its great to meet you Sita. Do you wanna see something really cool?”

Sita nodded her head and watched as Rama climbed up a tree that was right on the edge of the water. He stood up on one of the branches and reached for a vine. Once he tugged at the vine a little he gave Sita a big smile and then jumped off the branch with both hands hanging on to the vine. Then at the right moment when he was out over the water he let go and splashed into the water. Sita was ecstatic by this new innovation and before Rama could come up to the surface Sita was eagerly climbing up to the branch that Rama had only a few moments earlier jumped off of. For the rest of the day Rama and Sita played by the watering hole just laughing and enjoying each other’s company.

The next few weeks Rama and Sita were inseperatable and know doubt falling in love with each other. Sita was so happy that she found someone who shared her adventurous nature and also loved her for it. Which Rama did love every aspect of her with his whole heart. At the end of the summer Rama and Sita got married which her father was pleased with, however It did not do the job of calming his adventuress daughter down which he hoped for. But, King Dasharatha was at ease for he knew Rama would protect his daughter at all costs. After their wedding, Rama and Sita left the kingdom to explore the world. Sita’s dream was finally coming true she was about to set off on an adventure to explore the world but her reality was much better then her dream she thought, for now she had someone to share all of her experiences with.

The End.


                                 

The watering hole in the jungle of India. 

Authors Note:
The story Sita from The Divine Archer by F. J. Gould is a love story. The two main characters are Rama, and Princess Sita. Rama and Sita know they are meant to be together when they make eye contact in the Kings garden. From that point on Rama and Sita are madly in love. In my own story I kept the same main plot of Rama and Sita falling in love with just a few changes. First, I wanted Rama and Sita’s falling in love to seem more real than it did in the original story. Because of this I had their first interaction be somewhat of a negative one and then turned it around with them getting to know each other and then falling in love as time went bye. I also had most of my story take place in a jungle by a watering hole because I felt like it made for a more interesting back drop for my story. 

Bibliography: "Sita" from The Divine Archer by F. J. Gould. Link to Reading.