Week 11 Story: A Start of Something Different

A nearby river was infamously known to be teeming with alligators of all sizes and ferocity. No one went near the dangerous river. Next to the river was a huge beautiful tree that held countless of monkeys. Despite the imminent danger that always lied below them, the monkeys stayed in that tree because of the spiritual fruit that it bore. For generations, the fruit sustained families of monkeys. The number one rule for the monkeys was to never lose their grip from the tree or else they would fall into the water. Alligators were always hiding right below the tree just in case any of the monkeys did make the mistake.

One day, an unlucky zebra came to the river to drink. The beautiful tree caught the zebra’s eye for a second and in that moment, an alligator bit the zebra’s neck pulling him under the water. Alligators tore the zebra apart causing a fiasco in the water. Some of the monkeys huddled together witnessing the chaos. A monkey named Suzu, who couldn’t watch, noticed a loner alligator. A piece of fruit fell from the tree which floated for a couple seconds until the alligator swam to it and ate it. 

“I thought alligators didn’t like fruit?” asked Suzu. The alligator looked left and right, then up. He was surprised to see that a monkey was talking to him. In a quiet but deep voice, the alligator said “most don’t, but for some reason I’ve always liked them.” 

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” asked the alligator. Suzu explained that she isn’t and that she’s always been a fearless monkey. “You guys usually do a good job of making sure none of the fruit falls into the river. It makes eating a little difficult” said the alligator. “Are you not carnivorous? asked Suzu. “Surprisingly no, I don’t like meat” said the alligator. 

“I never got your name” stated Suzu. “It’s Legosi” said the alligator. 

After that day, the two would talk every day. Suzu gave fruit to Legosi whenever he was hungry. The other monkeys and alligators noticed the forbidden friendship. 

Author’s Note 

Elements of this story came from multiple inspirations primarily the Jataka Tales. The first inspiration came from The Monkey Bridge. A tree that held hundreds of monkeys created incomparable fruit. The chief monkey told his children to never let a fruit drop into the river or else people will come looking for the tree. A fruit ends up in the river and reaching a nearby kingdom. A king ate the fruit and pursued to find the tree. 

My biggest inspiration came from an anime called Beastars. In the Beastars reality, there a divide between carnivores and herbivore animals. The story takes place at a high school where carnivorous and herbivorous animals live and interact together. A gray wolf named Legosi, meets a white dwarf rabbit named Haru, and ends up falling in love with her. Legosi is fully aware of the situation since he  is a wolf. 

I wanted to a similar story from Beastars while including elements from the Jataka Tales. I wanted a situation like the wolf and rabbit so I decided to do one with an alligator and monkey. There were many tales between the two. The friendship between Legosi and Suzu are very much in its early stages. I couldn’t write about their love just because it would’ve been a long story. A strong bond between takes time to develop. Beastars had twelve episodes so I didn’t want to rush my story. 

Bibliography
Noor Inayat, Twenty Jataka Tales, Source

       

Legosi

Source: Fandom

Haru 

Source: Fandom

Week 9 Story: The Three 5’ 2” Daughters of Pandavana

Pandavana gave birth to three daughters at the same time
At the time of delivery, the ones In the room with her was a midwife, a doctor, and her grandmother.
The only family she truly had was her grandmother, who raised her since she was a child.

The grandmother and Pandavana lived on the edge of town, primarily depending on the forest for their resources. When the two came back from the hospital, they had three new additions to the household: Bellatrix, Celina, and Maricela. 

The girls grew up without their father because he was too much of a horn dog. He ended up getting killed for sleeping with another man’s wife. Regardless of his absence, the girls never thought of him; they didn’t know any better.

From early on, Pandavana noticed the the three girls had a strong sense of wrong and right. Pandavana wanted to teach her girls everything and to protect them from making mistakes like she did growing up.

Being a skilled fighter herself, Pandavana taught her daughters the art of combat; she wanted to ensure that her daughters could defend for themselves if she wasn’t around. All the while, Pandavana also taught her girls to be head strong and compassionate towards themselves and others.

Pandavana was a strict instructor towards her daughters. Even though the training was rigorous, the girls quickly adapted and persevered. Initially, the girl’s desire to learn how to fight was fueled by their fear of rakshasas. At night, the grandmother would tell spooky stories about the rakshasas that lived in the nearby forest. Ever since, Bell Celia and Mari all wanted to be able to protect themselves.

The three girls grew up to be amazing and tough fighters. When the girls were children, they would do sneak attacks on their grandmother while she was “unaware.” Neither Bell, Celia, nor Mari knew that their grandmother was a master in fighting. Bell quietly jumped down from a nearby tree and aimed her leg at the grandmother. “I got her now!” thought Bell. When Bell thought she had her, the grandmother grabbed Bell’s foot and threw her to the ground. The grandma laughed out loud and asked “was that supposed to be a sneak attack? I could hear you guys from a mile away! Try again!”


While the three daughters were indeed beautiful, their most noticeable feature was their height. Compared to the town’s people, the Pandavana’s daughters were surprisingly short.

One day, the girls took a trip to the market to find a certain elixir. On their walk, a couple of annoying guys ran into the girls and tried to hit on them. Despite receiving rejection from all three, the men were persistent and soon they became aggressive. The men lunged at the girls thinking that they could over power them. However to the men’s surprise, the girls beat them all to a pulp which made them run away like a bunch cowards. One guy’s pride was completely tarnished that he swore to get his revenge.

Skip forward to when the girls finally became adults. Their mother, Pandavana grew very ill. No type of elixir or medicine could cure her. By the first week, she couldn’t stomach any type of food. By the second week, the mother lost a considerable amount of weight. By the third week, Pandavana couldn’t get out of bed or talk much. Watching their strong mother deteriorate, pierced the heart of the three daughters. Pandavana raised them all on her own as well as taught them everything they knew. None of the girls could stand watching such a strong and independent woman suffer.


Bibliography


Richard Wilson, The Five Tall Sons of Pandu, Reading

Author’s Note
My story is based off of the rendition of the Mahabharata, The Five Tall Sons of Pandu which explains the come up of the five sons of Pandu. The Pandava’s were a royal family so the sons were taught in the art of war and were extremely knowledgeable.

In my version of the story, I did a gender and height bender. Call me cheesy but I think it’s a good idea. After reading several Indian epics, I’ve noticed that its the sons who learn how to fight. To be honest, having the daughters learn how to fight came from my own desires. I’ve always wanted to learn how to fight because I thought it was something practical and impressive. A specific trait that I wanted to portray in my characters was strength and power. The theme for my portfolio is courage, wisdom, and power. For Pandavana, I wanted to show the strength that a mother has and always has to have. For the three girls, I wanted to show their power through their fighting and their strength through the downfall of their mother.

Lastly, I inserted a picture of an anime character named Michiko Malandro because she’s one of the most strongest anime women I know. Despite being irresponsible and obnoxious sometimes, Michiko can always defend herself and fight others off. While her story isn’t like Pandavana’s daughters, they all have power and strength within themselves.

Michiko Malandro 

Source: Michiko e Hatchin