Week 6 Story: Shantanu Meets a Girl

It was just your average day as a king. I'd do my ruling business, order some servants around, eat like a me, and then go down to the river for my daily walk. However, this specific day, I met a girl. She was beautiful, and was washing her clothes in the river that I walk by. I had to speak to her. "Come here often?," I say, immediately regretting my stupid pickup line. "Not really," she says "I just moved here." "Well why don't I give you the Hastinapura welcome? Let me invite you over for dinner." And she came to dinner. And she came back over the next few weeks. We would talk and laugh and I was beginning to fall in love with her. I proposed and she accepted.

However, there was a catch. Not a huge catch, I just couldn't question any of her actions. Seems normal. She'd wear a weird shirt, I wouldn't comment. Not too hard for the first few years. But then it escalated. When she got pregnant for the first time and had the kid, she immediately took it to the river. I didn't ask why, but when she came back without the baby, I was suspicious. "I drowned the baby," she said. I couldn't believe my ears. Drowned the baby?! Our baby?! I know I'm not supposed to ask, but how could she. Over the course of the next few years, she drowned the next 6 babies we had. At the 8th baby, I said enough was enough and she had to tell me why she was doing such an awful thing. "I told you not to ask," she said "but I guess you're gonna hear it." She proceeded to tell me that she, my WIFE, was the incarnation of the river Ganga and our sons that she drowned were the Vasus, who were reincarnated as babies to be punished for stealing Vashishtha's cow. After telling me this, she took the last baby and just disappeared. Gone. Didn't even say goodbye. Women, am I right?

Ganga drowns her son (Blogspot)

Mahabharata by Narayan

Author's Note: I wrote this about Shantanu and his relationship with Ganga and how she drowns their children in the river when they have the babies. I told it through the perspective of the king and how he would react and his thoughts about the crazy situation that he got himself into.



UPDATED STORY

Week 5 Story: Raymond's Crush

I was always jealous of Rob. He had it all. He was the star quarterback on the school's football team, class president, had the coolest best friend, Hayden, who was almost like a sidekick, and most importantly, he had Sara: the most beautiful girl in the world. I always admired her from afar. We had a few classes together and I'd be lucky if she even accidentally bumped into me in the hallway. My family could never associate with the likes of Rob and Sara. My sister, Sharon, tried to ask Rob to the prom freshman year, and Rob's brother, Lawrence, humiliated her in front of the whole school. I actually wouldn't have even seen Sara if it weren't for that moment.

I was so upset that Lawrence embarrassed Sharon that I had to find out who did it. When she pointed him out the next day, he was sitting at lunch with Rob, Hayden and Sara. While I was mad at Lawrence for what he did to my sister, I couldn't keep my eyes off of Sara. She was captivating. She came from a wealthy family too. Her dad, John Sutherland, is in charge of the city's workout gyms. Rob even had to bench press in front of him before he asked Sara out, just to prove to her dad that he was strong enough for his baby girl. 

But I'm rich too. Money isn't much though when you have no one to share it with. We have butlers and maids at my house, but it's just me, Sharon and my uncle Mark that live there. No one ever comes around. "Raymond why don't you ever bring a pretty girl home?," the maids tease. I tell them that I have a girlfriend, but she lives in a different town. When in reality, the only girl I'll ever love is in the arms of another man. I have to find a way to take her from him. 

(Pinterest) 

This story was based off of the Ramayana by Narayan. 

Authors Note: It takes a modern spin on the character of Ravana. I made him a teenager with a crush on the modern-day version of Sita. 

Raymond- Ravana
Sara- Sita

Rob- Rama

Hayden- Hanuman

Lawrence- Lakshmana

 Mark-  Maricha

Sharon- Shurpanakha

John Sutherland- King Janaka

Week 2 Story. The Crane: A Hunter

THE CRANE: A HUNTER

Father smacked me upside the head. It hurt. It usually hurts, but I'm used to it. I didn't bring enough food home and we were 3 fish shy of having the most in the village, which meant honor for our family. I wouldn't say my childhood was hard, it just had its ups and downs. Father was loving, in his own way, and mother was eaten by an alligator before I even hatched, so I never knew her. It's a thankless job, being a crane. Everyone blames us for depleting the lakes of fish, but how else are we supposed to survive. It's a crane-eat-fish world, and the only way to win is to play the game. Because I wasn't the fastest or biggest crane in the family, I resorted to different tactics in order to fill my stomach for the day and bring home enough food to honor my family. I began to talk to the fish, I gained their trust, and just when they think I'm not a threat, they're already in my mouth. I knew it wasn't the most "ethical" way to hunt, but it did its job and I don't go hungry. With this method of hunting, our village became the fattest and most powerful in the crane kingdom, and I was their star hunter. No matter how fast or big the other cranes were, they couldn't gain the fish' trust like I could. I was invincible. Until one fateful day... I was making my rounds around the local ponds and lakes and I came across a dried-up pool with many fish, barely submerged, dreaming of the nearby lake. I, like always, saw an easy way to satisfy my hunger without even making an effort. One by one I promised each fish a trip to the lake, only to devour them in my nearby eating tree. It was all going well until I got greedy and wanted something more: a crab. I had never eaten crab and was curious to see how the little shelled creature would taste. He seemed to be falling for my ruse, but held onto my neck as we traveled, rather than my mouth. I found it odd, but knew I'd get my meal soon. All of that changed when I felt a sharp pain in my neck and heard the words that chilled my spine: "If you try anything, I'll kill you, Crane." He knew. I had to choose my next moves very carefully or they could be my last. I gave him the waterworks. It was the last thing I had. He spared my life as I let him in the lake. I thought I was free, I thought I would go on to hunt and gather and live my life as I had been, but his claw to my neck cut all of it short...

Author note and bibliography: Story inspired by The Cunning Crane and Crab by W. H. D. Rouse

Crane eating a fish (Dina's Wildlife Adventures)