Week 11 Story: The Bear and the Bees

The Bear and the Bees

One day a bear is walking through the woods looking for honey.  He travels long and far looking all through his usual forest but can't find any bee hives until he sees one at the top of a hill.  He approaches the hive and doesn't hear any buzzing.  Hoping they are either dead or sleeping, he sneaks up to the hive.

When he gets there, a bee flies out and shouts, "Halt!"

The bear replies, "Look, I am sure you have some honey to spare.  Can you please give me some?  I have traveled long and far looking for my fill today."

The bee shakes his head.  "You will not be getting any honey here.  If you try taking our honey you will surely die."

The bear laughs, "HA!  You say I will be the one dead?  Look how tiny and weak you are!  Look how big I am!  Surely if anyone dies here it will be you."

Suddenly, lightening strikes the tree and the smoke knocks out all the bees in the hive.  Although shaken up, the bear regains his senses, cracks open the hive, and takes all the honey.

The bear retires to his lair with his honey and eats until he is fat.  As he tastes the sweet nectar, he laughs about the bee's threats toward the bear's life.

"You think you can kill me for stealing your honey?  HA!  Look at the outcome now!  The gods have spoken and knocked your entire hive unconscious for me to take your honey.  Look who is laughing now!"

The bear, after stuffing himself with honey and getting it all over his face, falls into a deep sleep.

While asleep, the fleet of bees detect the smell of the honey coming from the bear's lair.  They gather one by one outside of his home and wait until thousands of bees surround it.  The bees all rush in at the same time and sting the bear hundreds of times.  Other bees grab hold of the honey on his face and bring it back to their hive.  The bear, after being attacked, lies dead in his lair.  The bee wasn't lying when he said he would die.

Bear getting stung by bees sourced via Wikipedia

Author's note:

In the original story, a coyote comes across the path of a snake.  Both refuse to go around the other and the snake warns the coyote that if he steps across his path he will die.  The coyote does it anyways and gets bit but doesn't feel it.  He mocks the snake, goes to a lake, feels tired and dies.  While I wanted to challenge myself to making a more short but sweet story like this one, I couldn't help myself but spice it up a bit.  I loved the idea of making the characters a bear and bees and thought it would fit the theme of the story really well.  I also found writing the ignorant dialogue for the bear very entertaining and fun!

Bibliography:

Great Plains: Coyote and Snake by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 11 Reading Extra Credit: Releasing the Buffalo

Long ago, people were playing games at their camp when a raven comes.  They all watch him closely because they plan to follow where he goes for food.  However he flies super high and only few can see him at all.  They eventually find the raven again and he distributes meat to all of them.  They ask him about the buffalo but he gives no answer.  They change an Apache into a puppy and hide him in a bush.  The ravens children get the puppy and don't want to let go of it.  They decide to keep it believing it is just a puppy and not an Apache.  The raven then goes to get some meat from the buffalo he has locked up and the puppy goes with.  In the middle of the night, the puppy lets all the buffalo out to be free.  The Raven notices and tries finding where the man is but he hides behind one of the old and slow buffalo that he doesn't pay attention to.  The man goes back to his tribe and tells them he let the buffalo loose and they rejoice and feast.  The raven and its children were left to eat the gross remains of dead buffalo.

Raven eating dead remains sourced via Wikipedia

I loved this story because it is filled with Indian culture and also really shows how they told stories about things such as why Ravens eat gross things.  It is amazing the amount of detail put into a story that really just goes to explain something like that, but it is incredibly entertaining.  If I were to make a story off of this I would put this one into a modern context but make it an explanation for something more modern and make it a little more exciting and obviously easier to read.

Bibliography:

Releasing the Buffalo by Pliny Earle Goddard

Week 11 Reading Notes Part B: The Coyote and the Snake

A coyote is walking through a field in a straight line when he comes to a snake that tells him to stop and go around him so that he won't step on him.  They get into an argument and the snake tells him that if he steps on him he will kill him.  The coyote does it anyways and he gets bit but doesn't feel it.  After mocking the snake and calling him a liar because he hadn't died yet, he comes upon a lake and looks in the water and sees that he is fat which is surprising to him.  He then realizes he is really tired and falls asleep and never wakes up.  The snake wasn't lying.

Snake biting Coyote sourced via Flickr

Once again, this story really interested me because of its style.  I imagine stories like these being ones that are told to children to teach them lessons about life.  They are really simple and have a very specific point to them.  I think I will try making a new story by writing something that is very geared toward teaching a child a lesson.  And also make something more simple than I usually do because my stories are typically very complex.

Bibliography:

Great Plains: Coyote and Snake by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 11 Reading Notes Part A: The Eagle's Revenge

A hunter hears a noise and checks to see what it is.  He finds an eagle eating a deer he shot so he shoots the eagle.  The Chief orders for there to be an eagle dance because of the dead eagle and a person who seems to be from another tribe comes to the dance.  There are rattlers at the dance and the person who seemed to be from another tribe starts telling stories.  After each story, he would yell out, "hi," and one of the rattlers would die.  This happens until all the rattlers are dead and everyone is very scared.  The strange person disappears and people later find out that he was the brother of the eagle that was killed.

Eagle sourced via Wikipedia

I thought this story really showed a unique style of story telling.  I really liked how different it was and I would love to retell it.  I think it would be really challenging to match the style because I have never written a story like this before, but if I could pull it off it would feel very rewarding and I feel like it would greatly enhance my writing abilities!

Bibliography:

Great Plains: The Eagle's Revenge by Katharine Berry Judson