Once upon a time, there was a family of tortoises: a mom, a dad, and their one and only child, Micky. When he was growing up, he was always full of self-esteem and never let any one put him down.
One day he was playing with the other tortoises and his team just happened to win. He went up to everyone and told him or her that he was the reason they won. All of his friend got mad at the way he was treating them and told Micky he couldn't play with them any longer. Micky responded with, "I don't need you guys any way." His mother annoyed by his actions said, "You are one egotistic tortoise, but remember this vanity is going to get you in trouble one day and now you don't even have any friends to help you."
Micky still mad that his friends wouldn't let play with him. He went over to pond where he could sit by himself and think. By the pond, the tortoise me a couple of ducks to whom he explained his problems to. The ducks eager to aid asked what they could do to help. Micky thought to himself and replied, "I have always wanted to fly and it would make me look cooler in front of my friends."
The ducks said, " Okay, but make sure not to talk or it could end bad." The ducks brought over a stick and told the tortoise to hold on to it with his mouth. Then, two ducks holding on to the stick took off and started flying.
One of Micky's friends looked up and said, " Look guys! I wonder what that is."
Micky tried to respond with, "It's me. The king of the tortoises." But, before he could finish he fell down to the ground, where he hurt himself on a huge rock.
Author's Note.
This story is based on the children's story "The tortoise and the duck" from The Aesop of Children. These sets of stories was written by Aesop, who was a great storyteller in ancient Greece. In this story, the tortoise is depressed because Jupiter had cursed the tortoise with a shell for being lazy. He was sad that he would never be able to explore the world because of the shell. One day he met two ducks to which he explained his problem. They happily agreed to help him by allowing him to travel while they flew with the stick and he held on to the stick with his mouth. Everything was going great, until a crow that was flying by was astonished and questioned it. The egotistic tortoise couldn't help himself and had to respond, but as he spoke he fell and killed himself. The moral of this story was that vanity and curiosity could get the best of you. This story does exactly that just with a little twist.
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| A duck and a tortoise. Source: Wikimedia Commons |
"The tortoise and the duck" by Aesop, from The Aesop for children (1919).
While reading through some of Aesop's Fables for my storybook, I came across this one and I thought it was a great story. I like the way you expanded on the character of the tortoise, and made him seem to be a child or a teenager learning a valuable lesson. In doing this, I like that you did not kill the tortoise at the end. If the tortoise would have died it might have seemed too harsh a punishment for a child learning about pride. I enjoyed reading your story!
ReplyDeleteHahah! I love the twist you put on this Neeral. Especially the introduction at the beginning where you talked about Micky being super cocky and taking all the credit for winning. I've actually never read this fable though, so it's cool that I now know a new fable. I also agree with Catherine ^ I thought you were going to end the story by saying that the turtle's huge ego led to his demise. But I'm really glad that this was not the case.
ReplyDeleteNeeral,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. Like the others that commented before me, I appreciated the way that you developed Micky's character. The moment that the ducks warned the turtle not to speak, I knew that he wouldn't be able to resist bragging to his friends. I also liked how the turtle survived in your story, though not without punishment for his arrogance. Good job!